Teacher Gifts

As I mentioned in the previous post, the dt at Punky Sprouts got to work with Pink Paislee this month.  I received the Indigo Bleu and Prairie Hill lines.  I am saving the Prairie Hill line for a mini album in June.  With the end of the year coming up I knew I needed some gifts and this Indigo Bleu line was the perfect combination!  I wasn't sure what I wanted to make so I went to my stash of alterable stuff (Yes, I have a stash!) and found some big clothespins and some regular clothespins.  I had given the preschool teachers the large clothespins 4 years ago when my son was in preschool so I decided to make them some clothespin magnets and make the large one for his 2nd grade teacher along with some matching magnets.

For the large clothespin I mod podged the papers on and then tied a Denim Lil' Stem around it to give it some texture.  I also mod podged over the top to keep it from peeling.

The little clothespins have the paper mod podged on and then I embellished just a few with the Indigo Bleu die cuts and some Lil' Twiney.

For the cards I decided to keep it simple with the same design for all 3 teachers.  To make them just a little different, I made 3 different flowers using a Denim Stem, small Parchment Blossoms and medium Parchment Blossoms.  

Hope you are inspired to make something for someone in your life today! :)

Punky Sprouts Products: Lil' DenimTwiney, Lil' Denim Stem, Small Parchment Blossom, Medium Parchment Blossom
Pink Paislee Products: Indigo Bleu: patterned paper, die cuts, alpha stickers
Other Products, large clothespin, clothespins, Mod Podge

Fancy Gift Bag

Hey everybody!  I want to show you an easy way to dress up a plain old brown paper lunch bag and make it into a gift bag!  I have made these before but for this one, I added in a Lil' Stem ruffle along with some Lil' Bloom embellishments from Punky Sprouts.


Here is what you need:
*Paper Lunch Bag
*2 Pieces of Patterned Paper
*Glue
*Lil'Stem
*Lil' Blossoms
*Small Square of Velcro

1. Cut the top off your bag so that it is 6" tall. Mine is 5" wide...check yours and adjust the measurements I give here!

2. Cut the pp you want for the front of your bag to 5" (width) x 6".
Cut your other pp to 5" (width) x 8.5". This will be the back and front flap of the bag.
Cut a 5' (width) x 2.5" piece for under the front flap to hide the pleats.

3. Now you are going to fold the bottom flap of the lunch bag down. Like this:

 

 
4. Glue the front onto your bag...this goes on the side without the flap. You want to line up the bottom edge with the bottom edge of the bag...you can always trim at the top if you need to.


5. Grab your piece of pp that is the back and score (or fold) it at 6".

 

6.Take your Lil' Stem and pleat it.  I glue mine as I go to hold it all in place.  This doesn't have to be perfect (as you can see!).

7. Glue this pleated strip to the underside of the flap...this is the piece that you scored.

 

8. Now glue the 2.5" piece to sandwich the canvas in between the 2 pieces of paper.

9. Glue the back on. Line up the scored flap with the top of the bag. There WILL be a lip at the bottom...you want that! It will make your bag stand straight when we're done. 

9. Add a piece of velcro on the flap to hold it down. Your bag is finished unless you want to add some decorations!  I added a few different sizes of Lil' Blooms.  I chose to leave all my canvas natural but you could also mist them for some color!

 Here are a couple shots of the finished bag:

Easy Valentine Gift Bag and Flower Tutorial

 I did this tutorial for the February Scrapdango Newsletter and thought I'd share here too!  Let me know if anything doesn't make sense and if you make one I'd love to see it...link it up!  I'm linking to 30 Days' Pity Party for the first time today!


Supplies:
*Paper lunch bag
*Patterned paper (1 or 2)
*12" ribbon
*Pages from a book
*Scalloped circle punch (mine is about 2")
*Velcro
*Mist

1. Cut the top off your bag so that it is 6" tall. Mine is 5" wide...check yours and adjust the measurements I give here!

2. Cut the pp you want for the front of your bag to 5" (width) x 6".
Cut your other pp to 5" (width) x 8.5". This will be the back and front flap of the bag.

3. Now you are going to fold the bottom flap of the lunch bag down. Like this:


4. Glue the front onto your bag...this goes on the side without the flap. You want to line up the bottom edge with the bottom edge of the bag...you can always trim at the top if you need to.


5. Grab your piece of pp that is the back and score (or fold) it at 6". Then punch 2 little holes on that score line.


6. Feed your ribbon through these holes, tying knots on the inside to keep them in place.

7. If you have a border punch, now is the time to punch the top flap.


8. Glue the back on. Line up the scored flap with the top of the bag. There WILL be a lip at the bottom...you want that! It will make your bag stand straight when we're done. You can tuck the ribbon under the pp if you want.


9. Add a piece of velcro on the flap to hold it down. Your bag is finished unless you want to add some decorations!


Let's make a flower to embellish the bag!
1. Punch out 6 scalloped circles...non-scalloped work too. So do hand-cut circles that aren't perfect! My circles are about 2" across.


2. Spray all of the circles with the mist...you want them pretty covered and wet! I have found that Glimmer Mist works better than the Smooch for this. The Smooch dries a little to fast but it will work. If it dries too fast, you can just mist with some water! The Smooch does give a richer color too! I used Smooch here. (from the Spice kit!)


3. Now, stack them all up (yes, they're wet and yes, you're going to get messy!) and attach with a brad. I usually just poke it through without punching a hole.


4. Scrunch up each circle, one by one, like this:


Until it looks like this:


5. Now just sort of fluff out the circles until you are happy with how it looks.


6. Cut some leaves (I used a coffee sleeve) and mist if desired.


7. Attach your leaves and flower to the bag flap! And there you have a wonderful treat bag...perfect for Valentine's Day treats!

Happy Easter!

Thought I'd do an early Easter post as I have time right now and am not sure if I will again before Easter! I made these cute little chocolate bunnies using Hershey Nuggets, the patterned paper from the April AWDML Kit, and a little bunny head stamp that my friend Amanda let me use! She also had a tail stamp but the thought of cutting out so many little tails was not my idea of fun! So we ran over to JoAnn's and bought some bunny tails! :) Isaac had a great time putting these bunnies together for his teachers and classmates!

April Fool's Day...Preschool Style!

I just thought this was the cutest thing! Today for snack, Miss Katie told the kids they were going to have brownies. Then she proceeded to hand out these large "brown e's"! She also put a drop of food coloring in the bottom of their cups without them knowing so that when they poured their milk, it turned color! Isaac thought this was about the best holiday ever! :)And here are the projects I made with the AWDML April kit: "Shrooms and Buds". The little buckets are the containers from American Craft felt flowers!

April Sneak Peeks

It's almost time for the April Kit from A Walk Down Memory Lane. Here are just a few sneak peeks of what I've done so far! And wait until you see who the featured manufacturer for April is! It's a good one! And it will all be on sale! Check back in April to find out who it is!