Mother's Day and End of Year Teacher Gift idea

 With eight children and over 100 grandchildren and great grandchildren (plus one great great), my mother often gently mentions that she doesn't need "stuff" from us for the holidays.  Usually we order flowers for her and my mother-in-law.  This year we were a little tight in the budget department so I came up with a way to still send flowers but with a more personal touch...and we saved tons of money!

I took some bamboo skewers and painted them green.  I  used a Sharpie marker but any craft paint would work well.  I also took some 12x12 scrapbook paper and cut them into strips 1 1/2 inches wide by 12 inches long.

I had each child write a special message to grandma.

 (I had to translate for the baby)

 I took a piece of tape and taped the end of the strips to the tops of each bamboo skewer.

 Then I started rolling up, nice and tight.

Once it's rolled and you let go, it will loosen up but will hold it's shape. 

 I took two short Pringles cans and covered them with paper... just taped it on.

I took the lids and used my eyelet punch and a hammer to punch holes in the top.  I tried to be lazy and not use the punch, instead cutting little Xs (like the straw hole in a soda lid), but it caused the skewers to tip more than I wanted.  However, if you were to put candy in the can, then that would probably help stabalize the skewers.  Once the holes are made, put the lid on the can and stick the skewers into the can.  I took a few skewers out and cut them shorter so that they weren't all the same length.  I added green paper leaves just by folding and cutting leaf shapes then gluing them onto the skewers.

I packed the flowers into shoe boxes and surrounded them with tissue paper and mailed them off, just in time for Mother's Day.

We made another one for my son's kindergarten teacher.  He wrote some of his favorite memories from the year.  We added some chocolate candy to the can for an extra special treat.

Not too long after sending them, I got a phone call from my mom.  She was crying and my heart stopped because I thought she was calling with bad news from home.  Gratefully, they were tears of joy.  She LOVED the flowers!