Valentine's Day Teacher Goody Bags!
This Valentine's Day I decided to get crafty and make some goody bags for all of the wonderful teachers and volunteers at my sister's community center. They had a big Valentine's Day dance on Friday afternoon, so I stopped by to deliver my creations and ended up staying the entire party taking photos of all the dancing couples - asking them to pose for the "Love Cam." There was so much love and happiness at this party, I had an awesome time!
I don't go on Pinterest much anymore, but I happened to be browsing on there about a week ago and got really inspired by some clever Valentine's Day crafts. Mainly, it was the various play-on-words phrases that caught my eye. Soooo, I made a list of ideas and materials that I would need, and took off to the Dollar Tree to scavenge! The dollar store is a magical place, there are always lots of seasonal goodies to be found, not to mention cool stuff year-round. While I was there, I raided the Valentine's section and then roamed the rest of the store with my Terminator vision set on anything that could be used in the Valentine's Day theme goody bags. My sharp eye brought me grrrreat success, some ladies behind me in line were asking me where I found various things. Okay, and others were looking at me miserably because I had so many.
I took photos throughout my brainstorming, a.k.a. the creative chaotic mess that exploded all over the dining room table! I'll let the photos do most of the talking, there are more than enough to show my creative process and the evolution of my gift bag designs. When the mood strikes, I go to town... Enjoy!
Catherine
xoxo
Valentine's Day posts of the past:
First off, here is a shot of my haul from the Dollar Store, with a few materials (mostly stickers and scrapbooking paper) that I already had mixed in...
I found some glossy white mini buckets ("favor set") from the wedding decor section, sweet little ladybug and bumble bee tupperware containers from the baby section (to hold candy), plastic candy bags and cardboard box totes for cupcakes, ribbon, tissue paper, foam stickers and felt adornments...
In the food isle I found a pack of 12 individually wrapped fortune cookies and various red candies...
Paper heart doilies in various colors and sizes, tissue paper, heart garland, pink raffia, you name it… There was an abundance of potential in that dollar store and I snatched it all up! By the way, the candles and potpourri were for me… ;)
Once I spread out everything I had to work with, I started fiddling around and putting together items for the bags…
I found a giant pack of these heart containers, I filled them all with Sweethearts candy hearts and cinnamon and mint candies found int he candy isle. I decorated each one with foam heart stickers, mainly to kept the plastic container's from spilling open in the bags.
I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was really cute, I decided to make thee mustache lollipops to coordinate with one of my bag designs!
I jazzed up those little white metal buckets from the wedding section (in packs of three), I wrapped their handles with some pink raffia, added layered heart stickers, then stuffed them with brown crinkled box.bag shred and candy…
Eventually, I started to play around with ideas for the actual bag design. I used generic brown paper lunch bags from the grocery store, I thought it made a nice neutral and organic canvas to build on...
I used glittery heart cutouts, matches...
Last year I made a whimsical little Valentine favor from a matchbox, but I missed the opportunity for a funny play on words (perhaps, Come On Baby Light My Fire!). So, this year I made sure to keep that in mind. After some Pinterest browsing, I had plenty of inspiration for a few different bag designs...
Can you guess what the play on words will be…? ;)
…I used googly eyes too...
…and fake furry mustaches!
…and glittery pink sticker letters...
After a while I had set up a nice array of different bag designs with their basic foundations, then I started to add the details...
I grabbed the decorative stickers and paper doilies to start brainstorming and laying out different possibilities...
Things came together nicely and I got the idea to use the paper heart doilies to adorn the top and bottom of the bag, like this….
Then, once I had all the bags decorated, I let them dry overnight and began preparing the various goody bag items...
A look inside one of the bags and the contents….
Then I got more ideas and started working on some clips to close the bags with a pack of clothing pins from the dollar store and felt hearts...
Boom! There they are all ready to load up full of stuff...
I mustache you to be mine!!
I only have eyes for you!
Little bags of Chex Mix and Cheerio Puppy Chow with chocolate, peanut butter, powdered sugar and Valentine M&M's. I made them for the students...
A Match Made in Heaven!! ;)
I ended up using the clips to pin the mustache lollipops to the back of the bags...
All set and ready for delivery!
My sister loves to color and she loves the Little Mermaid, so I put together a little Valentine's gift for her...
Done and delivered!
I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! Never forget...
Valentine's Day posts of the past:
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