DIY a perfect holiday gift pack for a TEA-aholic person (Free printable, tea bag holder & much more)

Well, I am not a tea loving person but I drink chai tea at times for breakfast during weekends along with Pan cakes.(We love that combination :P) When we(Me and my husband) went for a cruise last summer, one of our cruise mate was talking a lot about the flavored tea and she also suggested that we should try it at least once. After trying it , we started liking it a lot. And I also know many friends around me who are also tea lovers and some are tea addicts too. When I have friends like that , you also may have many friends like that . So I came up with this idea of putting together a gift pack for Tea-aholic friends. Even if you don't have a tea-aholic friend this would be a perfect gift for your office colleagues. Let us see how.

1) Rudolph Tea bag holder

Materials Required :

Ceramic mug
Polymer clay in brown ,grey,black ,white and red (I used Premo Sculpey)
knife

Step 1: You will only need a very small amount of clay in each color. Take the needed colors and soften the clay by rolling and kneading in hand. Divide the brown clay into two parts. One for the body and tail & another one for the head and ears. The size of the clay for body part should be a bigger than the head and ears.Take the bigger part of brown clay and make it as a rectangle with half inch thickness.Shape it with your hands by pinching the corners in such a way that each corner of the rectangle has a leg.

Step 2: Fold the body part in half around the mug so that two legs should be inside and two legs outside.

Step 3: With another part of brown clay, take two small balls , flatten it and pinch one side to make the tear drop shape for ears..With the remaining clay make a ball and pinch one side to sharpen it to look as a tear drop for face.

Step 4: Make a relatively small ears in grey colour and mold it with brown ears.Attach the ears to the head.Also roll a small amount of black clay into a snake form and cut it into two for two small black horns to go in the middle of two ears.

Step 5:Take grey ball of clay flatten it in a round shape and cut it in half for the mouth part. Attach the mouth part and take the knife to create the mouth by making a slit below the attached grey mouth piece.Take a small ball of red clay and attach it for the nose.

Step 6: Take two very small balls of white clay , roll it into a ball shape , flatten it and pinch on one side to make it in tear drop shape . In same way make a relatively smaller size in black clay and place it above the white tear drop.

Step 7: Make small scratches with knife in the head and body part for good hold of clay together. Make a small round in brown clay and attach it for tail.Bake in the oven as per manufacturer's instruction.(Mine was 275F for 30 min).You are done ! You now have a cute Rudolph tea bag holder.

 2) Sharpie Mug

 Materials Required :

 Sharpie oil paint
 Ceramic mug
 Rubbing alcohol
 Cotton

Step 1: Wipe the mug with  cotton and rubbing alcohol to remove any oils, dirt or dust.
Step 2: Free hand the design you want on the mug. I chose gold color as I felt it goes well with black but it is your choice. If you go wrong anywhere you can use cotton swab and rubbing alcohol to erase the design.
Step 3: Once your design is done . Keep the cup in the oven and then preheat it to 350F and bake it for 30 minute and let the cup cool down in the oven itself. This helps in preventing some cracks in the mug. That is it ! You are done with the sharpie mug.

This is not something new I am sharing with you.It is the most common technique followed for personalized ceramic mugs. You would have seen a lot of pins regarding this in Pinterest. As many tutorials suggests, use oil paint sharpie for long lasting result and do not put these in dishwasher or use scrubber. Only hand-wash is recommended. Telling you from my personal experience. I tested three kinds of sharpie but oil paint sharpie gives good look and also best result.
       

 3) Free Printable

 I designed a printable to cover the tea packets that go inside the mugs. I thought this will add some personal touch to the gift rather than just adding some random packets into the mug.If you feel like me I am sharing the printable with you and you can absolutely use it.  Print two copies in a A4 sheet and cut it separately and cover the packets with double sided tape.

If you want to surprise your recipient with different flavors you can also remove the covers and personalize the ends of the tea bag with this printable. You have to just print them in smaller size and cover the ends with already existing end.Or you can personalize them with scrap fabrics like I did for this tea cup below. Cut the area you want and sandwich them between shipping tape. It is so easy to do. Agree? This was the scrap fabric from the ipad cover tutorial.

To put everything together, add the tea packets in the mug along with some sugar packets and a spoon. Add the cute tea bag holder in the mug and wrap everything in a clear plastic sheet and tie a ribbon. Add a personal note on it and you have a beautiful gift pack ready for your TEA-aholic friend. Like it ?

I also wanted to share another news with you. Do you like to save some money using coupons? Then you will also like this. Have you heard about "Raise"? It is an new online marketplace where you can buy gift cards to your favorite store at discounted price and also you can sell your unwanted gift cards for cash ! How Cool ! If you are hosting a party or have some gifts on the list that are yet to be purchased check this out before getting the supplies.You can save some money ! Who doesn't like to save money? Tell me !And the most coolest thing is they also have Michael's , A.C.Moore and JoAnn cards. ;) (My husband will be happy I guess.;) )So, make sure to check them and save some money this holiday season !

Image Source


Here are the links to buy and sell gift cards,
https://www.raise.com/buy-gift-cards
https://www.raise.com/sell-gift-cards 

The End. What do you think about the gift pack for TEA-aholics ? Are you one among them ? If so, would you like to get a gift pack like this ? What is your favorite tea ? Mine is Orange spiced tea from Bigelow :) Feel free to share your comments below or write to vikalpah@gmail.com if you have any doubts. I will be happy to hear from you.