I love making homemade teacher gifts every year. Although true to my style, I left this one to the last minute! This makes this Smarties gift the perfect simple teacher appreciation gift to just throw together.
I made these jars as an end-of-school-year Christmas gift for my son's teachers (you'll see the Christmassy decor in the pics!). One of my kids had a male teacher so I needed to come up with a gift suitable for both male and female teachers.
An easy homemade teacher gift, you can purchase the customisable files from my shop or you can download a free version from the Printables Library! Just a quick note – in the images, you will notice I have blurred some information on the tags out. They are not designed this way, I have simply blurred them intentionally for my children's privacy.
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Supplies
As this was all very last minute, I didn't have time to order anything and just came up with it on the spot whilst I was at the shops. I will link to the item/s I purchased as well as similar items. I know not all of you have access to the same supplies and stores that I do!
- Bamboo lid glass canister – 500mL / Similar 18.6oz canisters
- Bags of Smarties (I used 6x 350g bags for 5 canisters)
- Ribbon of your choice (I used 50mm/2″ organza in various colours)
- Thanks for Making Me a Smartie printable label/tag (links below)
When selecting your canisters keep in mind the amount of Smarties that you will need. This can get expensive quickly if you have a few gifts to make and super large jars. I could only find 350g bags of Smarties and found that I needed just a little bit more than this to fill one 500mL container.
Smartie gift label tags run-down
You can buy the editable “Thanks for Making Me a Smartie Pants” label tags from my shop, or you can download the free graphic version. It's important to note that neither of these PDF printables is preformatted to suit any specific pre-cut sticker labels/software. Keep reading for a couple of workarounds with sticker label options though!
Free Printable Graphic Smartie Pants Label Tags
The free graphic Smartie Pants version comes as an 8.5×11″ (US Letter) PDF. The labels measure 3″ round. You can still print on A4 paper also! For true-to-size printing ensure the printer's dialogue box is set to “actual size” or scale at 100%.
Although the label tags are 3″ you can also shrink them down with your printer settings. Rather than scaling at 100%, try 75% or smaller. This may require some playing around to get the size that you desire.
Customizable Smartie Pants Label Tags
The editable version of these labels is available to download as PDF, PNG or JPG files. You can select from four paper sizes for PDF downloads, including 8.5×11″ and A4. The designs come in both 2″ and 3″ round label sizes. You can add bleed to change the distancing between your label tags which will also determine how many tags you can print per page.
I will drop a demo link of the editable Smarties gift label tags so you can see what it will look like for yourself. This design is completely and totally editable – you can change the text to say whatever you would like; change the colour and style; add more text; remove text and more. You can also remove or create more “smartie” circles to correspond with the amount of arc text you have.
The design is completely customizable however, it is just a little more complex than most printables that I create. For many people, this won't be a problem as it's easy to edit once you find the function you need! The custom text on the arc creates a little more tweaking when editing, compared to a standard text box. But it's certainly not difficult. The amount of text you insert here will determine how your arc sits and the letter spacing. The reason I also provide a demo link (above) is so that you can play around with the design to see how it works for you and what you like. If you find that you need some help, please don't hesitate to reach out to me via the platform you purchased from. I am happy to give you guidance!
Printing to sticker labels
Many brands of pre-cut sticker labels will allow you to upload an image file (JPG or PNG) to use with their templates. You can download these types of image files with the editable label tags from my shop. However, you will need to check that you can use these with your chosen template/label software prior to purchase as I am unable to guarantee this with third-party software.
As I am unable to provide image files with the free printables, the above option won't work for sticker labels. However, if you're super keen on using sticker labels for your homemade teacher gift tags, I have another idea for you below! This method works with PDFs (both the paid and the free Smartie Pants labels). It can also save you money on future projects without having to buy specific pre-cut sizes.
My initial thinking was that I would print my label tags to a full-page sticker sheet (as these would be easier to source) and then cut them out. This is totally what you can do with PDF files. On this occasion, I ran out of time to use the label sticker sheets. I didn’t have any, I was in a pinch and it would mean going for a 45 min round trip to get some. So I decided to save my time and money and just use what I had. Which was good old-fashioned paper (okay, it was a nice paper though!).
Making your homemade teacher gift jars
I have to admit that I wasn’t really too keen on cutting the circles by hand, I always like to use a paper punch for a perfect circle. Given these tags are larger in size and I don’t have a paper punch big enough, this was not an option this time around. You could possibly try using a protractor if you really like. As you can see from the images, cutting them by hand actually wasn't bad at all and I think they turned out really well.
I printed these labels at home on a cheap inkjet printer, using smooth 200gsm paper. You could even use lighter paper or a card and they'd print out nicely.
After cutting the label tags out, I used double-sided tape to attach them to my canister lids. As I mentioned above, it took a little over 350 grams of Smarties to fill my 500 mL containers. Then I simply tied a ribbon around the canister. These really are a simple handmade teacher gift. Which is often all you need. There's enough thought put into them without it being an elaborate craft that you need to make for all of the teachers, assistants and therapists.
DIY Smarties gift jars conclusion
I had great feedback from the kid's teachers on their candy gift canisters. They're a simple but great idea when you have multiple teachers to give gifts to and need to keep costs down.
The printable Smarties gift label tags are also great to use as cookie tags, cupcake toppers or gift tags. As I mentioned above, you can shrink their size simply by adjusting the settings on your printer and lowering the scale setting.
I'd love to see the ways in which you could use these labels for your homemade teacher gifts! Comment below and let me know.
Other Resources You May Like:
FREE PRINTABLE: Womens Affirmation Cards
FREE PRINTABLE: Printable Happy Birthday Coloring Mat
ARTICLE: Loveable Kindness Cards Printable Craft
ARTICLE: Personalized Water Bottle DIY Christmas Gift for Teachers
FROM MY SHOP: Thanks for Making Me a Smartie Pants Tags
