Thursday, May 23, 2013

Homemade Paper Pouches for Teacher Gifts, Party Favors

Thank you Sarah of Sheek Shindigs for sharing this idea on Pinterest.

If you know me, you know this mother loved spending her Mother's Day watching my children safely roam through a pesticide-free strawberry field at Grantville, GA's Lone Oak Farms. To turn our harvest into end-of-year teacher gifts, we just needed to create containers for the berries before they lost their freshness. These paper pouches were quick and fun to create.

I used scrapbook paper and parchment paper, but later in the week our kids in Ecology Club reused paper grocery bags for popcorn pouches. You could also reuse gift wrapping paper, gift bag paper or newspaper. The parchment paper is not necessary, just a bonus if you are using the pouches for something damp like fruit.

Here's how simple:

Step One:  Fold your paper over to create a triangle, long side about the length of a ruler, fine to eyeball it. If you are using parchment paper or another liner for effect, fold over and cut out slightly smaller triangle.
Step Two (Optional): Fully insert and center parchment paper or whatever you are using a a liner inside larger paper triangle.
Step Three:  Fold bottom right corner up and across, touching midpoint of opposite edge, crease.

 Step Four: Repeat by bringing opposite bottom left corner across, crease.

 
Step Five: Fold one side of the paper and parchment liner down, crease.
Step Six:  Flip piece over and fold down remaining tips, crease. Then press pouch open.

  Step Seven:  Flatten bottom by pushing up, and bending up bottom corners.
Et voilĂ ! Fruit paper pouches, popcorn pouches, pouches for collecting treasures or making festive party favors. We added a sticker to ours that said, "If we could have chosen who would take care of our kids at school this year, we would have picked you!" Haha.

I like the idea of making these from reused materials rather than making a trip to the dollar store when you need a small container or gift bag. One more way to alter the ending of our nation's Story of Stuff.

No comments:

Post a Comment