Business is slow for the Tooth Fairy

Last night, Lily (Daughter The Elder) lost a tooth. She's ten, so in and of itself, this is not big news. It was a big deal for us, however, because her teeth have been coming out at a snail's pace. It had been over a year since the last lost tooth. She will be eleven in May and this was only tooth number 9 to fall out, so it's clearly not a common occurrence. Since Tooth Fairy business is such a rare thing around here, I really don't have a set routine for when it happens.
 I am a frequent visitor to Pinterest, and there are plenty of ideas on there for how to handle dental transactions, but since it had been so long, I had not bothered to try any of them. Last night presented the perfect opportunity to pull together a few of those ideas and come up with something quick and easy, but still fun enough to use again. Hopefully, when Ivy (Daughter The Younger) begins losing teeth in the next year or so, this will be our "Molar M.O."

 Here's how it went down:
First, we never have cash on hand, so we are never prepared for tooth fairy business. Seriously, this was tooth number nine and the ninth time we did NOT have cash to give her. You'd think we'd have learned by now, but no. What we did have on hand was a Barnes and Noble gift card with ten dollars remaining on it. Guess the Tooth Fairy wants the kids to read.
My husband suggested I write a quick note from the TF explaining that she was out of cash or some jazz. Both of my girls know my handwriting, so that would have been a dead giveaway. Besides, I have a degree in graphic design, so there was no way I was going to half-ass this. (Even if it was after 10 PM on a school night.)
One of the ideas I found on Pinterest was a receipt from the TF, so I decided to work around that.

I used Microsoft Publisher's gift certificate template, and downloaded a few handwriting style fonts from DaFont dot com. I ultimately ended up going with one called Never Let Go - it's nice and bold and looks pretty legit when printed out. Since I was in a rush last night, I grabbed a cute tooth fairy graphic from Google image search. I replaced it today with an seal from the Fairyland Department of Tooth Collection that I put together. I printed out the receipt, smeared a little superfine glitter on it, and threw it in an envelope with the gift card. Lily was quite pleased with the end result and wasn't even mad about the BN card, even though she is a reluctant reader.

I went ahead and made two new versions of the receipt - one pink, one blue - and saved them as jpgs for anyone who wants a version they can print and fill in by hand. Just click to open the full size image, right click and save. :-)

 

My husband and I also came up with a solution to the never-having-cash-isssue. From now on, we're going to keep a stockpile of $5 gift cards on hand - more Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, the local frozen yogurt place, etc. We can use them as gifts for those last minute birthday parties the girls are always getting invited to as well, so it's a win-win. :-)