Hello Sunflower State of Mind readers, I’m Brittany and I blog about my family’s life at Just Another Day in Paradise – I’m excited to be guest blogging for Vanessa today!! She is one of my best friends in real life and I love her blog, her family/kids (almost the exact same age as mine), her decorating style and party planning and most of all- that she’s back in Kansas City and we are neighbors. I can’t wait for our kids to grow up together and seriously cannot believe how stinking cute baby Nash is and how fast he’s growing!!!
If you are anything like me…the week before Christmas rolls around and I’m going through my list for the last minute gifts and stocking stuffers I still need to buy and it always hits me- TEACHER GIFTS!! And then I ask myself how I could forget AGAIN! You would think after 3 years of being responsible for these I would get my act together.
Well never fear my friends- I have an easy DIY way to package the favorite teacher gift of all- a gift card!!! Follow along and then give it a try – a personalized (and homemade- you will get some extra bonus points there) apple ornament gift card holder.
It’s not too hard to make, easy to modify and I like it because it personalized the gift card a bit but doesn’t give them another cup or mug (my parents are both in education and it amazes me all the cups and mugs they get!). You just need a few supplies to get started.
Supplies:
Red, green and brown felt (Walmart sells felt in 8.5×11 pieces if you want a quick pick up)
Needles and red thread
Glue gun & glue
Hemp or any type of ribbon/string
Easy step by step:
1. Print off a template for an apple shape or free hand your own (I’m not much of an artist- I used this template from Pinterest and just used one of the big apples)
2. Fold over your red felt, or put 2 red pieces together and trace the apple shape and then cut – you should have 2 apple pieces now!
3. Cut one of the apples about 1/4 of the way down from the top- this is your little pocket on the back that the gift card will sit in.
4. String your needle with the red thread and do some long stitches (nothing fancy here folks) and make sure you tie a knot or loop the first stitch so it stays. What I did was just tie a knot at the end of my cut thread, thread the needle through and right before I got to the knot, I put the needle through the 2 strings and it made a little knot. See below if you are confused!
5. Stitch away. I made mine long and kind of loose because it’s faster and I think looks better!
6. cut out a leaf and longer stem from your green and brown felt.
7. Cut a piece of your hemp/strong/ribbon you are using- this was about 8 inches long because this is how the ornament will hang on the tree.
8. Get out your hot glue gun and glue your lead first, then your ornament hanger string and then the brown stem (add some more glue on top of the string).
9. Personalize as you wish! I just added my kid’s teacher’s names on the front with the “Ms” and then wrote a simple note and the year on the back .
10. Stick your gift card in and deliver to the well deserving teachers!
Believe it or not- I finished nine of these babies in just under an hour, so it does go fast when making in bulk. The most time consuming part is for sure the stitching around the apple- which if you are on a time crunch, skip that and just hot glue that too. I really only used the string to make it look pretty. I threw these in a little bag with some Christmas themed popcorn and called it a day! Since these really aren’t Christmas themed (except for the fact they are an ornament), you could use these for back to school, teacher appreciation, whatever the case.
Hope this gives you a last minute, easy idea for teacher gifts. I have done lots of different ones over the years for the holidays and teacher appreciation day- but I love these that are personal small gifts but they can get what they really want with a gift card!!
Happy crafting friends and an early Merry Christmas!!
well these are just the cutest little holders!!