Tuesday Tutorial: Tea Wallet

The Christmas season, and with it the gift-giving season, will soon be here! :-) For today's tutorial I have a nifty little gift item that you can make to share a little holiday cheer with some of your friends and loved ones: a tea wallet.

A. Materials
Here's what you'll need to get started:

(1) 8&1/2 x 10&3/4-inch piece of cardstock for the wallet
(1) 2&1/2 x 7&15/16-inch piece of cardstock for the bellyband
1/4-inch-wide WonderTape or other very strong double-sided adhesive tape
Scoring tool
Paper cutter
Scissors
Your choice of Clear Dollar digis or stamps, designer papers, and embellishments to decorate with
(6) sealed tea bags (the kind that have a paper wrapper around them) in flavors of your choice

B. Score and Fold the Wallet
First, we will score and fold the wallet piece. When finished, this piece will house the tea bags.

1. Score the 8&1/2 x 10&3/4-inch piece of cardstock along the short side (the 8 1/2-inch side) at these locations: 1&1/4 inches; 7&1/4 inches.

2. Score the 8&1/2 x 10&3/4-inch piece of cardstock along the long side (the 10&3/4-inch side) at these locations: 1/2 inch; 3&1/2 inches; 4 inches; 7 inches; 7&1/2 inches; 10&1/2 inches.

3. Fold the cardstock along all of the scored lines you just created.

4. Turn the cardstock so that one of the long sides (the 10&3/4-inch side) is the bottom edge.

5. Place 1-inch pieces of WonderTape or similarly strong double-sided tape in each of the eight small rectangles designated by the arrows here:

6. Remove the tape backing from the small rectangles along the bottom edge of the cardstock.

7. Fold one of the long sides upward/inward, along the score line, aligning the small rectangles with the areas of the same shape above, then press to seal the adhesive on the small rectangles.

8. Turn the paper so that the other long side is along the bottom edge, and then fold it upward/inward, along the score line, aligning the small rectangles with the areas of the same shape above, then press to seal the adhesive on the small rectangles.

You should now have six small pockets, which will be what your tea bags will fit in later.

C. Decorate the Pockets of the Wallet

1. From your designer papers, cut six 2&7/8 x 1&1/8 rectangles. These will decorate the pockets on the inside of the wallet.

2. Adhere the rectangles of paper to the pockets on the inside of the wallet.

D. Score and Fold the Bellyband

Now it's time to create the bellyband -- the piece that will slide over the closed wallet to hold it closed.

1. Score the 2&1/2 x 7&15/16-inch piece of cardstock along the long side at these positions: 1&1/4 inches; 4&7/8 inches.

2. Rotate the cardstock 180 degrees, so that the other long side is now the bottom edge of the piece, and then score at these positions: 3&5/8 inches; 7&1/4 inches.

3. You should now have four score marks on the bellyband piece. Fold the bellyband along all of the score lines you just created, and lay the piece flat long-wise, so that the peaks of the folds are on the underside of the piece.

4. Locate the 1/2-inch wide section at one end of the bellyband, and fold it inward.

5. Apply WonderTape or similarly strong double-sided tape to the upward-facing surface of this tabbed section. (I usually apply two strips to completely fill the space and ensure the seal will hold.)

6. Remove the backing from the tape.

7. Fold the opposite end of the bellyband piece inward and over the taped tabbed piece. Align the edges so that when pressed closed, you will have a box shape.

8. Press to seal the tape.

E. Decorate the Bellyband

1. Using papers and digis/stamps of your choice, decorate the front of the bellyband. For my sample, I used paper scraps from my stash along with the gingerbread man from the "Christmas Cuties Color" digi set.

F. Finish the Wallet

1. Tuck one teabag into each of the six pockets inside the wallet.

2. Fold the wallet closed. In doing so, you will notice that the flap on one side of the wallet is just a bit narrower than the one on the other side of the wallet. Be sure to fold the narrower flap in first, so that the wider flap is the outermost on the folded/closed wallet.

3. Slide the bellyband over the folded wallet.

And voila! A thoughtful but simple, handmade gift to share! One last thought here for you before I close: if your loved ones aren't tea drinkers, consider other items you could place in the wallet pockets, such as scented sachets or small notecards or even balloons (not blown up, of course). I've found that a gift card will also fit into one of these pockets, so you could build a gift around that, too.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, please be sure to leave a comment on this post, along with your email address if you would like a direct reply. :-)

Clearly Inspired Challenges #63 (CIC63)

Oh my goodness, you all brought the talent this last month!  Wowza, I've been blown away not only by your creativity, but by the number of participants!  We had a whopping 134 total participants, which means we have some prizes to give away!  Here are our random winners :D

$10 gift code winners

chris olsen

Lawren F.

Judy Rozema

October Featured digi

Lorraine A.

Alipeeps

Lisa Watkins

Sweetroses

Jenn - Jax Bean Stalks

Jackie Rakoski

Congratulations to our winners, and a great big thanks to all who took the time to play along.  If you see your name up above please contact Cassie (cassandratrask@yahoo.com) to claim your prize!

Onto our next challenge!  How about an easy one:

Critters

We want to see some critters on your projects!  Before you submit, please check out our CHALLENGE GUIDELINES.

How about a peek at the sweet featured digi to get you inspired?  This darling set called MEOWS was designed by the uber talented, Lisa Lara!

Now for a little DT inspiration:

Linda Anderson --  featured digi MEOWS

Barb Gmitro-Best -- featured digi MEOWS

Lisa Lara -- featured digi MEOWS

Vickie O'Dell -- featured digi MEOWS

Deonna Bemish -- featured digi MEOWS

Cassie Trask -- featured digi MEOWS

Homemade notepad for the Refrigerator

Good Morning!

Today I'm going to show you how to make your own notepad for your refrigerator! With the new Rainbow Notes Digital Image that came out last month this is a super easy project that would be cute to give as a gift.
It would make a great gift for teachers or stocking stuffers.... or co-workers!

How to in Word:

Step 1: Click on the tab that says "INSERT". Pick the file you want to use. I used the green rectangle jpeg image.

Step 2: Repeat above and this time pick the PNG line notes file

Step 3: Keep the line notes file highlighted. Click on the tab that says "TEXT WRAPPING". A bar drops down and click on "IN FRONT OF TEXT"

Step 4: Right click on line notes and drag on top of notepad image.

**To fit another one on the page I made my margins smaller. Then I clicked on the notepad image and right click to hit "COPY". Then hit "PASTE" next to the image you have. Repeat for the line notes.

Step 5: Print on cardstock. I printed 8.

How to in Photoshop:

Step 1: Open the files you want to use. I opened the yellow JPEG notepad image and the PNG line notes.

Step 2: Click on the line notes so it is selected. Hit Ctrl A (select all). Hit Ctrl C (copy)
Step 3: Click on notepad image so it is selected. Hit Ctrl V (paste). The line should appear in the white box. If it doesn't then select the move tool and place it where you want it.
Step 4: Print as many copies as you want. I printed one on one side. Then turned the paper and ran it back through to get two to a page.

How to put it together into a Magnetic Note Pad:

Step 1: When the images are printed out it is time to cut them.

Step 2: Leave a 1/2 inch on the top. That is where you will put the adhesive.

Step 3: I perforated right on the green where my 1/2 border is. This way I can easily tear them off. If you don't have a tool to do that you could score it and that should give it a place to tear when you want to rip it off.

Step 4: Place 1/4 inch scor-tape along the edge where you perforated. I did it on the backside. Do this on each piece of notepaper.

Step 5: Peel off the scor-tape and stick each piece of paper together to make a pad of paper!

Step 6: Cut a piece of cardboard or mat board the same size as the notepad. Put 1/2 inch scor-tape on the last sheet of paper. Stick on cardboard.

Step 7: Add a magnet to the cardboard.

Step 8: Stick on fridge and enjoy! Now I have a pretty notepad that matches my kitchen!
You could also add ribbon to the top and make it look a little fancy!

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and have a fun crafty day!

We have a Winner for the Sunday Blog Hop!

Here is our October blog hop winner!

Congratulations Patty from Hap Scrappy, you are our winner. Your name was chosen from Vickie's blog, HEARTful Stamper.  Please contact Cassie at cassandratrask@yahoo.com to claim your prize!!!