Thursday's Tip: Monster Clips and Teacher Gifts

The school year is coming to an end. Have you thought about how to show your appreciation to those impressive educators in your life?  When I asked my son what he wanted to get his teacher, he thought really hard then said, "How about a box of marshmallows?" Then I said, "Well she might not like marshmallows as much as you, but we can get her a box of something." So we set to work.

Materials:
Animal Boxes and Bags SVGs 
Monster-licious Cupcake Toppers or other LD graphics
Card stock
Brads
Twine
Paper Clips
Sewology Cover Buttons
Candy or other various items to put in your boxes

Monster Clips:
They don't actually doesn't have to be monsters, there is a lot of cute graphics you could use as well, I just love these images, and felt it best represented my son. I began by downloading and opening up each of the Monster-licious Cupcake Toppers in Photoshop or like program. I got the 3/4" sized buttons, so I sized down the toppers to 3/4" so that I know that the whole of the image would show on the button top. I then created a 75 pixel stroke around each circle so that I have enough color to wrap around the edge of the button.

 

To stroke each layer, double click on the layer you want to stroke in the layer menu. When the layer style box pops up, click on stroke on the bottom left hand side. You will see the options in the middle change, now adjust the size to about 75 pixels. Then go down to the bottom center of the layer style menu and click on the color swatch box. A color box will pop open and you will automatically get a little dropper tool that will enable you to select a color from the image you are working on. I went ahead and selected the base color of each topper to extend each one.

 

Once each layer is stroked, go ahead and print the sheet then cut out the images. The nice thing about using these cover buttons is that they don't have to be cut out perfectly. In fact I just cut each image into a square. To ensure I got the button where I wanted it, I made an impression of the button around the edge of the image. Like this:

 

Then you place your image face side down and the button on the back and insert it into the button shield mold. Hold securely and tuck the edges of the paper around the back of the button. Position the back of the button and use the pusher to press down until you hear it snap into place.

 

Then use a hot glue gun to glue the paper clip to the back of the button.

Multi-Gift Box:

Begin by cutting out four of the boxes from the Animal Boxes and Bags SVGs. I first sized them down so that they would be about 2 inches square each. Assemble each box:

 

 Once you have all four assembled, then use your hot glue gun to glue them all together.

 

I made fasterners on each of the boxes by using a small paper punch to punch holes through the top of the lid and attached my twine, making a loose loop, then inserted a brad into the bottom half of the box.

 

Then go ahead and fill your box, with goodies, teacher supplies or whatever else you can think of. Add a little tag, and you have a fun little and unique gift!