Teacher Valentine Gifts

I wanted to share with you what I made for each of the kids' teachers for Valentine's Day this year. This picture isn't the best--it is a bit dark and was quickly taken before we all headed out the door to preschool--you can see Isaac's Valentines in the baggy all ready to go to school and my planner. Anyway, this is such a fun gift bag to make and I have recreated it many times--I love how you can make TWO from just one sheet of beautiful patterned paper. This particular bag is "busier" than others I've made since I decided to use another patterned paper for the trim, but you could always choose a solid or a more subtle print. This "bag in a box" is inspired by Lisa Stenz's club kit from Nov 2010--be sure to check it out. I have also seen templates and tutorials online. Basically, the bag is constructed by making a square cardstock tray (1" high) and then wrapping a piece of 6x12" patterned paper around it to make sort of a funnel shaped bag. For this particular project, I used CTMH's Sweetheart paper pack (retired) and their Love Ya stamp set (retired) for the gift tag, using black and Regal Rose (SU!) ink. You'll want to use cardstock to make the bag base, but for the rest, the lighter weight patterned paper is fine. I've also found that the best adhesive to use for the actual bag is red-lined sticky tape--you can get it from SU or Michaels. You also may notice that I stamp in coordinating colors quite a bit, but if I don't have a particular ink color to match, like the pink in this case, I do not sweat it--you'll be amazed when you stamp with a similar shade how you can "trick" your eye into thinking that they match. At any rate, there is plenty of room on the back of the tag to write "to" and "from"--since the pattern of the tag is busy, I simply adhered a white sticky address label on the back to write on. Then, I used some black ribbon I had in my stash to tie up the bag after stuffing it with Valentine candies. I hope the teachers liked them!