Fun, Creative Gifts by Monika W.!

Today, I'm going to share with you a DIY tutorial that will show you cleverly inexpensive ways to use your paper and cardboard/chipboard scraps.

I used the Sweet Blooms line from Colorbok for this gift set.

My second-grader has a male teacher this year and she is thrilled to be in his class...he likes science and so does she. Yeah, makes teacher gifts a little more challenging for me. And, no, that flowered gift set isn't for him, it's for the female teaching assistant!

I began by finding some sturdy cardboard to use for the notepad cover. I then cut it to size, slathered it in glue and burnished the paper to the cardboard.

I find it easier to burnish a larger piece of patterned paper or cardstock to the cardboard/chipboard and then trimming the paper to fit the cardboard. There's no worrying about lining up edges. I tried it both ways on this project and it worked best for me to trim the patterned paper to fit the cardboard after I glued and burnished.

I used my 1/16" hole punch on this chipboard letter and threaded through a small wire from a key tag. I began tying the knot, added the wire and then completed the knot. The Fiskars threading water border punch is a favorite of mine, I use it quite a lot.

And here's a peek at the inside {I blurred the name on the notepad for privacy}. I chose to wrap the ribbon around the outside of the paper. Another option would be to wrap the ribbon before adhering the patterned paper to the back of your cardboard cover. If you are choosing this option, I would definitely use a heavyweight cardstock and not a patterned paper.

Just a note: I found the notepads for these projects at Vista Print. They often have offers of free product, to include notepads, magnets, sticky notes, pens, hat, mouse pads...you get the idea! All you pay is the shipping and taxes. If you combine several free offers, the shipping is not too terrible. BTW-I'm not getting paid for saying this.

Here I used paper from Scrap Within Reach, which I won on the blog ISLY for this project.

For the teacher, he gets the same gift, except in more manly tones. I reversed the positioning of the border punched paper strip and used a different monogram, but it's just as nice. The notecard was made from scraps. After adhering the patterned paper to the front of the card, I punched two holes to thread my paper "ribbon" through and then added a punched circle with a pop dot.

Can you see that somewhat rough spot at the edge of the P, where there might have been a leg to make it an R? I cut off the leg that made this P an R and {ta da} I have the letter I needed! Never underestimate the power of a crafty mama!

And now for the bonus portion of our show...hand sanitizer! What teacher these days makes it through the day without spritzing this a million times? Just cut your patterned paper to cover the advertising, adhere in the back and wrap either baker's twine or ribbon around the bottle and you now have a matching gift set.

These ideas are not new, we all know, but I wanted to share with you what a little creative packaging can do for a free notepad and some hand sanitizer.

I'd love to see what you've made for teacher's gifts this year, I'm always on the prowl for new ideas. Leave me a link in the comments so that I can stop by and take a look at what's been keeping you busy.

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