Creative Gifts & Packaging!

Becca here with some great last minute gift & packaging ideas that are perfect for teachers, neighbors, postal & UPS workers, and anyone else you would like to give a little something to.

For my childrens' AWANA & Sunday School teachers, we used this great DIY kit (no affiliation, we've just used their products several times & love them!) to make all natural lip balms, something I thought everyone can always use another of, especially in the dry cold months.  For the packaging, since I wanted it to be entirely self-contained so they could hand it out themselves, and also ble to fit into their bags they take to church with them, we cut the flat middle section out of a brown paper bag ($6 for 500 at Sam's Club, the same kind we use for Perfect Popcorn) and the kids each wrote "Thank You" on it.  Then we inserted a lip balm, and quickly stitched around the edges using a 4.0 size stitch on my sewing machine, with festive red thread.  To make it really simple for them to hand out, I even stitched our Christmas Card diagonally across the corner to attach it, so it's really all-in-one.

We made 12 of these, and total time for everything, including making labels for the lip balm, trimming the bags, the kids writing on them, stuffing them, and sewing them up was about thirty minutes.  An hour counting making the lip balm.

We also used the same packaging for itunes giftcards for teenage family members at our extended family gift exchange where we draw names (and celebrate early, we've already had it this year), and they thought the gift card sewed up inside was pretty cool. 

Add one of these Homemade 'Cookie Cutter' Perler Bead Ornaments or Gift Tags for an extra cheery gift package!

You could use the same idea for a variety of yummy food gifts too, placing them into a zip top bag first, and then enclosing the whole thing in the brown paper bag packaging, including some of my favorites such as:

Roasted Sugared Almonds

Dark Hot Chocolate Mix

DIY Mocha Mix

Sweet Homemade Cornbread (I premix the dry ingredients in batches for myself to save time when I make it, including that and a copy of the recipe would make a great gift I know I'd appreciate!)

Using a slightly larger bag, you could still stitch the edges up and fill it with these yummy baked goods:

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Lime Meltaway Cookies

Amazing Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

Granola - Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Grain Free (and Yummy!!)

Whole Grain Pumpkin Muffins

And, for a few other fun gift suggestions:

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Recycled Christmas Card Puzzles for Kids

Your Kids 'in' a Bottle of Soap (one of my favorites!!)

Super Easy DIY Perler Bead Dishes

Hanging Dish Towel Tutorial