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: