Here's a variation of something I saw on Pinterest using water bottles for Easter candy holders. I took those aqua pod bottles because of their roundness and put Easter grass in them. I then put in some Easter egg candy for the basket look. I decorated them with pom pom noses/tails, fun foam ears/beaks, cupcake liner hats/tail feathers, ribbon, construction paper whiskers and googly eyes. It's a lot less expensive for my students than filling them to the brim with candy, and the grass gives them the color. I'm happy with the result.

Christmas Card Gift Bags

Christmas is over and what do you do with all of those cards? I hate throwing them away, but I don't have room for all of the stuff in my life, so I decided to make mini gift bags out of them. Now I know that I will have to store them until next Christmas, but that's okay. I will have lots of little mini bags for gifts such as candy, cookies, bracelets, ornaments, perfume, etc... The way you assemble each card is dependent upon the layout of the card. I find the wide cards work best, but both types can be used. I first cut the front and back of the card apart. Then, I scored the cards about an inch on the sides, and an inch and a half at the bottom. I cut out 2 tabs out of one as shown in the picture. Put the front and back together and punch the holes for the handles, then assemble and glued the card. For interest, sometimes I put the card message on the outside of the bag. Afterwards, tie some ribbon for the handles and fill as desired.

Poinsettia Gift Bag

This gift bag is made from ordinary lunch bags. It was a brainstorm from years ago that I make with my students every year. It can be adapted for other flowers by changing the colors. The 2nd photo shows how to cut the bags. I didn't use a template. I just folded in half and cut it from the middle to the edges in an S shape. Then I folded the 2nd bag in half and cut it from the edges to the middle in a U shape. The 3rd photo show how I painted the inside of the bags down past the cut lines. After the bags dry, you put the 4 petal bag inside the bag with the sepals. Place gift inside, then gather around below the petals and tie off with a ribbon. Shape the the leaves/petals. I finish it off by cutting a yellow piece of construction paper that I've fringed with the scissors. I then roll it in a cylinder shape and stick it down into the space in the top of the bag and gently tap down on it.

K-Cup Bouquet

There was no design with these, but a lot of playing around. Some of the k-cups have plastic rings inside, so I spray painted them yellow and brown and hot glued them as the center of my flowers. For the chrysanthemum, I layered several k-cups together after cutting thin petals around the side of the cup. If I wanted certain colored flowers, I would spray paint the cup before assembling the flower. I used a styrofoam semisphere I painted green and attached to the bottom of the flower. I then put a floral stick in the foam and made some leaves out of additional k-cups, but using silk leaf scraps from other projects seems to look better. Anyway, have fun with it and see what flowers you can make. This project will really use the k-cups!

K-Cup Snowflakes

These were super easy to do. You just cut out 5 or 6 "arms". Then, you bend them out. I then used shaped hole punches I purchased at a craft store for $1 each and punched patterns in them. They look really pretty in a window.

K-Cup Star & Bells

This was a little more complicated, but basically, I made a star out of one k-cup by evenly spacing 5 dots around the bottom of the cup. I then put 5 dots on the lip of the cup that I eye-balled as being between the dots I put at the top. I then cut out the bottom of the cup carefully, and cut out from the top dots to the bottom dots in a zigzag pattern. I then folded back the triangles to reveal a star pattern. I painted the star and 3 k-cups brown, then used some natural string to put them together, hanging jingle bells in the "bell" cups. I decorated the star with stuff I had around to make it look festive.