Teacher Gift Basket

This is what I decided to do for the

school teachers this year -

Here's a little background info on these

particular gift baskets:

 I wanted to give each teacher something

homemade, and I love giving lots of little things

in a bin or a basket.  I enjoy putting them

together and painting something fun on the

container, and I imagine it's fun for

the teachers to pull things out one by one.

Like a clown car, so to speak.

I  bought food-safe jars at Hobby Lobby

to hold the spiced tea mix I made.

(Recipe to follow)

Then, I purchased a cute mug for each

basket; I found mugs at TJ Maxx, but I know

the dollar stores carry them, also.

I bought a tin of shortbread cookies for

each basket, and a bag of Ghirardelli chocolates

to split among my baskets.

Because I made EIGHT baskets this year,

I purchased two four-packs of shortbread

cookie tins from the warehouse store.

I found my red and green bins at Target in the

dollar aisle ... $2.50 per bucket.  Wow!

I thought that was a great deal.

Here's how to make the personalized bin.

First, I wrote the alphabet in capital letters on

a sheet of notebook paper.

Then, I enlarged them 200% and used

tracing paper to make a pattern for

each teacher's name.

I cut each pattern apart so the letters would

curve around the bin.

Use transfer paper and a stylus to apply

the name to each bin.

Use a flat brush dipped in black acrylic paint

to go over each letter.

Once the names were dry, I used a liner brush

and thinned white paint to outline the letters.

I had planned to leave the bins painted

with just a name, so that the teachers could

use these all year.

But my Christmas spirit got the better of me!

I had to add a sprig of holly to the

top of each bin.

First, I used a fat stencil brush to pounce

green paint onto the bin in the general

shape of the holly sprigs,

to give the design a little opacity.

Next, I outlined the holly leaves

and painted them in with green paint.

I used a grayer shade of green to outline

one side of each holly leaf.

Next, I used a bright green paint to

outline the opposite side of each leaf,

and the center of each leaf.

Use the handle of a paintbrush to add

a cluster of bright red holly berries.

The berries show up a  little better on

the green bins ...

I added some Extreme Glitter hologram

to each holly leaf; then I used

a stylus to add white dip dots to each

berry, and gold dip dots to the edges of

the leaves.

I filled my jars with Spiced Tea mix,

and used Marvy Uchida punches to make

little double-layer tags for each one.

I wrote the instructions

for a cup of tea on the tags:

Now, to fill the baskets.

Please note, filling baskets is NOT 

my specialty.  Nor is tying bows.

Which is why I didn't tie ANY bows on

this project; but I couldn't avoid

actually filling the baskets.

So I did.

I filled em.

But it ain't pretty.

Stuff in the tissue paper.

Then add mix, mug, cookies,

a few Ghirardelli squares,

and an ornament or two.

(The snowflake ornament came from

Target - a pkg of 4 for $1)

A better person than me

(I'm speaking about Crafty Girlfriend here)

could have made these bins look

like *WOW* !!!

But, it was just me, so they

look like ... wow.

Merry Christmas!

Peace and Gift Baskets

SPICE TEA MIX

3 C Orange Breakfast Drink Mix

2 C Granulated Sugar

1/3 C Instant Tea (I used Decaf)

1 t Ground Cinnamon

1 t Ground Cloves

Combine all ingredients.

Store in an airtight container.

Stir 1 1/2T into 1 C hot water.