Make sparkling apple tote bags for great teachers

When my oldest daughter started Grade 3 way back in September, she wasn't exactly keen. She enjoyed summer and wanted nothing to do with the whole back-to-school routine. That first morning she grumped and grudgingly dragged herself off to school.

When she trotted home that afternoon, she was all smiles and LOVING being a third grader ... and the reason behind the sudden change of attitude? Her amazing teacher, Mme. Lee. By mid-year, my daughter was still so thrilled with school that she complained about having to stay home during a long holiday weekend!

Both my girls have wonderful teachers who not only cover the course material, but go way above and beyond what their job requires. As another school year comes to an end, I want to say thank you to Mme. Lee and to Mrs. Knappe for all of the care, guidance and learning they've imparted.

If you'd like to thank your children's teachers, here's a simple craft that the kids can make for them.

What you need

Teachers 'thank you' totes

Collecting your materials: With the push to go green and reduce plastic bag use, there are all kinds of great tote bags to be found. Choose any durable fabric bag. I picked up canvas bags with fun lime green straps. You'll need dimensional fabric paint in red or light green (depending on what colour of apple you want to make), and in a darker green for the leaf, plus gold glitter or brown for the stem. Pick up some extra-fine glitter in either red or green (to match the dimensional paint you chose). Cardboard from a recycled cereal box will do the trick to keep paint from bleeding through the fabric, and you'll want to have a pencil handy to draw the apple onto the bag, a paintbrush and a tray of some sort to squeeze paint onto. A sheet of paper will catch excess glitter.

Step One: Lay the bag flat on your work table (or outside in the sunshine). Slip a sheet of thin cardboard inside the bag where you will be painting.

Step Two: With a pencil, lightly draw an apple onto the bag. It's simple to draw ? a rough circle, with a stem and leaf at the top. Squeeze a small amount of red or light green dimensional fabric paint onto your paint tray and paint the body of the apple red or green. Use enough paint that the glitter will have something to stick to.

Step Three: When the apple is painted, sprinkle red or green (depending on the colour of paint you used) extra-fine glitter on top. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. 

Step Four: Shake the excess glitter onto a sheet of paper, tapping the bag gently to remove the glitter. Use the paper to funnel the glitter back into its container for another craft.

Step Five: Squeeze a very small amount of dark green dimensional fabric paint onto the paint tray. Paint in the leaf. For the stem, you can brush on or squeeze the gold glitter or brown paint right onto the bag

Step Six: Let the paint dry for 24 hours.

For an extra special gift, have the children make a thank you card. Drop this, and any other goodies you might like to add, into the bag.