Tea Bag/Candy Holders

The other day, Lydia, over at Understand Blue, posted this very cool project. They can hold tea bags or candy. She made hers for Halloween, but I thought I'd try to make some with a Thanksgiving theme. And since I am doing two craft shows in November, I have a shot at maybe even selling one or two of them. Going with the Thanksgiving/Autumn theme, I thought I'd put some spiced tea in the little pockets. But I am getting ahead of myself! Let's start out by making the tea bag holders, shall we?

I am going to cop out and not show the first two steps: making the holder base and the tube of DSP for the inside. This post is all about the making of the stamped piece for the front of my holders. I used Creamy Caramel, Really Rust and Old Olive textured card stock for the holders, so I wanted to make something for the fronts that would work for all of them - I did not want to make any more decisions. I AM ON VACATION, HERE!

I wanted to use one of the leaf stamps from Autumn Splendor, but the thought of coloring and cutting 24 of them made me feel faint. So I went to Plan B:

I took a piece of Creamy Caramel card stock (a color I tend to ignore in favor of Kraft, but not today), then I brayered both Really Rust and Old Olive ink randomly over the card stock. It looked really messy, then I thought it looked 'distressed', which is what I was going for.

I cut the piece into 2 3/4" squares, which turned out to be PERFECT, not only for the front of the holder, but in paper usage efficiency.

This is ALL I had left from cutting 12 squares from one piece of card stock. YAY!

I then stamped the leaf image on each square with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. Each square is a little different color-wise, but they all go with all three colors. This is what they look like stuck to the front of the holder.

Here is a peek at the inside of one of the holders. I ran the ribbon through two slits I cut in the spine of the holder, and it wraps around the outside to tie it shut. The leaf piece above secures the ribbon on the front.

This is what it looks like tied.

Now about that ribbon. It is a 100-yard roll from my stash that I got during my Ribbon Outlet trip a loooong time ago. I will never use it all. I thought it was Cream or Vanilla, but by the time I got to card 20 of 23, I realized it might be pale yellow. Oh, well.

23? Yes, that is a weird number, but we had a few fatalities in the card stock preparation area today.

I actually started with this one Saturday night. I have had this piece of snowman paper for a few years, and I thought I could use it on the front of some Christmas-themed holders. It JUST fits!

This is the inside of one of the snowman ones I made - a piece of paper from The Stash.

I thought about adding a tea poem to the inside on the flaps, but I am not sure it is necessary. I also thought about adding a sentiment on the front, stuck on over the leaf, but I am not sure about that one, either. Still pondering. These are already close to the cost of a card from just the materials standpoint, so I need to be careful of adding too much and making them too expensive to sell. I thought that as they are, they could be used at a Thanksgiving table place setting as a little something extra. Maybe.

So this is how I spent my first full day of vacation, a Sunday. I made 23 of the leaf ones, contemplated going to the store to buy spiced teabags or maybe candy for them, then sat down on the couch and stayed there. What a slug. I think I 'get' this vacation thing. :-)

Monday I WILL go to the store and get a few things that resemble food to sustain me through the next week or so. I have much physical labor to endure. I think I'll begin with painting. Yeah, painting the rest of the wall(s) in The Other Room so I can get started organizing. I'll report back as the day progresses to see if *I* have made any progress. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by!