9 DIY Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Show your appreciation for all your teacher’s hard work with these handmade gifts for teachers.

I have three kids and I’m completely drained after watching all three of them for even a couple of hours. I have no idea how my teacher each a classroom full of kids day after day. I know the holidays are usually when most parents gift a little something to their favorite teacher but I think it’s really important to show your appreciation all year round.

My kids spend the majority of their waking hours with this person. I figured a little homemade teacher appreciation gift can’t hurt once in a while just to say thank you in a personalized way.

I made these super simple handmade gifts with this in mind. My older son can write the note himself. I help my younger kids with the writing part and they just sign it.

Inexpensive teacher gift ideas

It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to say thank you. I make most of my custom card using my Cricut cutting machine.

From banners to thank you cards, I can whip out small gesture of appreciation in no time.

Buy them a coffee! Free teacher fuel SVG for my fellow Cricut crafters

Check out my tutorial for making a custom coffee cup gift card holder (with free templates). You never know when they might need a little pick me up in the day.

Materials for DIY teacher gifts

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Cardstock– I used the Neenah Collections Assorted set which also happens to be my favorite brand of cardstock. They cut really well and have colored cores so you can’t see white frayed edges.

Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
Cricut Joy Insert Card Packs – You don’t have to use these with the Cricut Joy, they are nice material kids for cardmaking.
Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte-colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
Poptone Assorted Variety Pack – This is the perfect peppy assortment of colors of heavy cardstock. It’s a heavy cardstock assortment with colors I actually use frequently for cardmaking.
Seasonal Assorted Variety Pack – This is a slight variation on the Poptone assortment and has a quite few neutrals that complement almost any accent color.
Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go-to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.

Glue Dots – My favorite is the Scotch Glue Dot Roller. It rolled well and makes these paper projects go sooo much faster! I’ll be honest though, I ran out right before this project and had to use Tacky Glue which is fine but it warps the paper just a little.

Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.

Templates – All of these templates for Cricut teacher gifts and other handmade DIY teacher gifts featured in this article are available in both SVG and Printable PDF formats for FREE in my resource library.

Tips for homemade teacher appreciation gifts

Speaking of hard work, I’ve made my fair share of banners and I think I’ve finally optimized the design and assembly process so it doesn’t take an entire day to make.

There’s a couple of key tricks to getting these banners done in time for the event without going crazy in the process.

The first rule is: ALWAYS make the letter separate from the base.

There’s a couple of reasons for this. When you cut all the letters together, they take up less space and you don’t have to shuffle through so many mats.

None of this trying to cut the letter into the top layer, or having it be tied to the base sheet… you’re just giving yourself more headache trying to line up everything up on the Cricut mat and in the assembly process.

The key to fast banner making is to minimize the number of mat changes.

This means minimizing the number of colors used in your design. In this particular Crayon Thank you Banner, I used an assorted pack and a black pack of cardstock. I cut the letters separate from the base so I can make the base reusable for other occasions but you can theoretically make each piece with just 2 pieces of color. (I know, I just told you not to do this but I find some people love to do what they are told not to do. haha)

Try to use an older green mat. I say older green mat because a fresh one is probably too much for cardstock.

This design has medium levels of cut but a fresh blue mat works too.

As I mentioned earlier, I like to reuse my base banner for different occasions. I also make it interchangeable so I can customize the teacher’s names.

When stringing the banner pieces, if I have a matching color, I will have more of it show. Otherwise, I interweave it to minimal string is covering the banner base.

If you making a custom card, I recommend using a fresh light grip cutting mat for these projects. There are a lot of scrap piece involved with these customized cards and it is just easier to clean up with light grip mat.