Handprint Butterfly Gift for Teachers

Yesterday was the last day of school for me and my daughter. I mentioned in my last post that my center was changing ownership at the end of the month. It's getting a new name with all new staff. It was quite an emotional day, to say the least. I wanted to give each and every one of my coworkers a little something to say thank you. I came up with this:

There's actually a little treat hidden inside, which I will get to later. I used glitter watercolor paint that is thicker than most watercolors. (I bought them on Amazon.) My original plan was to make one butterfly at a time on white paper. But after my first trial run, I realized that wouldn't work.

I had missing fingers or too many fingers or globs of paint in weird places. So then I decided to just have my daughter make a bunch of handprints that I would later cut out.

We made about 20 the first day and probably over 30 the next day. I had a few extras, but that's what I wanted so I could pick and choose the best ones. After cutting them out, I glued them to a piece of cardstock. For the body of the butterfly, I rolled up a pack of Rolos in colored paper and used double-stick tape to keep it closed. I did not tape the paper to the pack of Rolos.

Then I used double-stick tape to attach the roll to the middle of the butterfly, covering up the bottom thumbprints.

The top thumbprints became the butterfly's antennae. In one corner I wrote the teacher's name, in another corner I wrote my daughter's name and the year, and in another corner I wrote, "Thank you for teaching me to spread my wings and fly!"

The pack of Rolos easily slides out, and the butterfly body remains intact.

I scrunched the paper at the end of the body just a bit to hold the Rolos inside when the paper is held upright.

And after the teachers eat the treats, they still have a little keepsake from my daughter. I worked with a wonderful bunch of women and I will miss them greatly! They were not just coworkers, they are, and will always be, my family.