Before I left Virginia, I sent a little care-package to a friend. The package contained (starting in the back row, moving clockwise) lip balm, book store gift card, lotion, tea bags, chocolate bar, and more chocolate (in the tin).

I had fun creating all the little holders. The lip balm holder was made by following this template, but I would suggest using the slit punch to make the top and bottom ledges – sorry I couldn’t find a template, just found them in the SCS gallery (wish I had found them before I tried to make the other, lol). The tea bag holder was made by following this template (scroll to the end of the post) that I found at the Scrap Bitz blog.

This is the first ensemble that I’ve put together where I decorated everything. I chose to use snowflake paper from the old Stampin’Up! Holiday Thyme DSP pack. I think I’ve always shied away from doing coordinated gifts because I was afraid it would use all my paper. ALL of these were done with 1 piece of 12×12 DSP and a couple pieces of 8.5 x11 cardstock.

Today’s post is another Lunch Box gift ensemble for a teacher back home. Mrs. A is a wonderful teacher (first grade) and a wonderful person. Because she is such a star, I went with the ’star’ theme. She also loves rainbows (no wonder I like her so much ). I didn’t have the paper I wanted to use, so it took me a few days to mourn that and move on. I ended up choosing a favorite paper of mine from Stampin’Up! – Cutie Pie – it is so bright and cheery…just makes me smile! I don’t have the new teacher set from PTI yet, so the sentiment for the box was done on the computer and cut out using a Spellbinder’s Label 2 die. The star stamps are from Verve and they fit wonderfully in the punches from SU!

For this gift ensemble I even got the cards to match, hee hee. I wanted the cards to be mailable in case she didn’t want to just use them for school, so I did a very simple design with no ribbon knots. Did I mention the Verve stars fit into the SU punches? {I love that!} To do the sentiment I used a couple different PTI sets to get just the words I wanted – and since they are clear stamps, lining it all up was a breeze.

Finally, the gifties for inside the lunch box. I did a acrylic Post-it Note holder and a bag of cookies (her favorite). I used the same paper so it would match the lunch box. Putting them together is pretty straight forward.

I normally don’t do big Christmas gifts for teachers, I prefer to spoil them during Teacher Appreciation week. But this year I knew we wouldn’t be around during that time and we had such awesome teachers that I *had* to do something at Christmas time. We miss them something bad right now! *sniff*

On to the projects. I’ll post in two pieces – some today, some tomorrow. First up is Mrs. B (third grade). She likes school/office stuff, so I made an altered Lunch Box using some old Stampin’Up! Notations paper. I too love office stuff, so making this box was pure fun for me As soon as I saw the paper, I knew I had to use the ‘ruler’ part around the center. The ticket (from the Stamp of Authority set) was added because tickets are a big deal in Mrs. B’s class – you earn them and then can use them for fun stuff – like sitting at the teacher’s desk!

Inside the lunchbox I included a matching post-it note holder, made from an acrylic frame, and a matching beaded pen. Of course for the pen I used the “number” paper….forgetting that once you bead it you can’t read the numbers any more…oh well! I also created a tea-bag book. For the tea-bag book, I used a template by CookieStamper that I found on SCS. The tea cup is from a BlockHead Stamps set.

Finally, I also included a set of note cards. I knew I wanted to use the doggie image – my daughter says Mrs. B. loves her dog. My attempt to make the cards (sorta) match the rest of the ensemble, I added the notepaper background. The dog is colored with Stampin’Up! markers, if you work fast enough, you can get it done without the marker lines.

My girls started school on Tuesday. They came home and told me that they saw TONS of other girls with their very same backpacks! Each of my daughters even has another girl in her class with the same (even same color) backpack and lunchbox. So I decided I needed to help. So I pulled out my stamps, Xyron laminator, and wire and created zipper pulls. Now there should be no more confusion!

The zipper pulls for the backpack are the same for the lunchbox – but one side has an image and the other side their initials.