Carrot Treat Bags

With all the Easter and Spring time projects around at the moment I've seen a couple of carrot shaped treat boxes & bags, they reminded me of these little cardboard treat bags that I remember making when I was little. I have no idea if this idea is from a book or magazine (it can't be the internet as I was little long before then) but here is my version from memory (and a few trial runs!)
You will need:
Thin orange card - I guess thick paper would work too
Green wool & a length of green ribbon
Hole punch, glue (I used Pritt stick), ruler, pencil and compass

Using the compass. mark two 1/4 circles in the corner of the card, one 14cm and one 13cm. I've done two here in the photo, one in each bottom corner.

Cut out along the outer line.

Mark 1.5cm in from the right hand side and cut a slither off the shape so it's a little less than a 1/4 circle now.

Along the compass line, mark dots at 1.5cm intervals, starting 1cm in from the edge. You should end up with 12 dots in all, evenly along the line.

Using a hole punch upside down (and with the base removed if it's not see through like mine) punch a hole where each dot is. Line the dot up in the middle of the hole carefully or the holes won't be straight and it will look a bit rubbish (guess what happened in my first attempt!)

Roll the paper shape up a bit to start it curling - this will make the glueing bit much easier.

Apply a little glue just along the edge then roll up and glue the edges together. The two edge holes will overlap and line up and you will only have 11 holes round your carrot top.

Press the seam firmly, I used a pencil to press down inside the carrot as far in as I could, then I added a teeny tiny bit of sellotape at the bottom on the outside to make sure it holds. 

Now you need to cut 11 30cm lengths of green wool.

Fold each length in half and poke through the hole just a little way, poke the ends through the loop you've made then pull gently to secure. 

Do this for all the holes, then fill with sweets, treats, whatever you like. I've used mini Easter eggs.

Finish off by drawing all the strands of wool together and tying with green ribbon. Trim the ends of the wool to level them off and Ta - dah, you're finished!

You can use more wool instead of ribbon like I did in this photo but then I was thinking it looks like it would be difficult to find the right end to undo the bow and get to the treats! So on reflection I'm thinking ribbon is better. 

You could even add a little gift tag if you wanted to.

You might also be interested in:

Personalised Wedding Picture

Spring Easter Wreath

Washi Tape Berry Boxes

Easter Decoupage Book Bunny

I'll be linking up this project at all these lovely link parties, pop over for a look at loads of projects from other blogs

A little tribute to Ellen

28th March was my paternal grandma Ellen's birthday, and as she is one of the people whose stories I am the sum of, today I'm sharing something she made for me when I was little.

This is an epic photo of me in about 1974/75 on the beach in Cornwall wearing a towelling beach robe my Nan made for me. My brother had one too, but I can't remember what colour his was and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any photographic evidence of it.

The idea was that we would come out of the sea, freezing cold and we could pop on our beach robes to warm up!

My Nan made a lot of clothes and often visited us with a suitcase of not quite finished things that we would then try on so she could get the fit right. Sometimes they were full of pins and we used to moan a lot as kids. Now of course I really appreciate how lovely and totally unique the items she made for us really were.

I think we can all agree I am rocking this beach look - I don't think I said it enough at the time, thanks Nan x

You might also be interested in:

A little tribute to Jenny

My Nan's Shortbread Biscuits

Mini Minion, Tiny Ted & Beautiful Bows

A little tribute to Pearl

Washi Tape Berry Boxes

Easter isn't too far away now so in a spirit of preparation and not leaving everything to the last minute I have been thinking about Easter gift ideas.

I discovered a very simple tutorial for making super cute little Berry Boxes by Claire on her lovely blog Fellow Fellow. You know when you find a blog that is just so pretty and full of lovely things and you want to stay all day? That's Fellow Fellow (you should definitely check it out - once you've finished here of course!)
Be warned - once you start making these cute little boxes it gets pretty addictive!
I followed Claire's instructions, with just a few adjustments (I'm sorry I just can't help myself) and made this cute little box. 

Then I started to play and replaced the top paper band with Washi Tape. I also made my boxes slightly shorter. Seriously, once I started I just couldn't stop, they only take about 10 minutes each!

 

This is what I did:

Using a pencil & ruler I marked out my grid on card, cut it out and scored, then folded up the sides

I took my Washi tape and carefully started sticking it to the top edge. 

At the corner I left a little gap and then carried on

Once I got back to the beginning I just did a little overlap, shame the pattern doesn't match better, but it's not too bad

Now the only tricky bit, I applied Washi Tape to the inside too. The trick is to go slow and not unwind masses of tape too soon. The tape is pretty good at letting you unpeel and have another go if it puckers though.

And that's it! Now make loads more!

I also had a go with ribbon, I just applied some of that roll-on double sided tape. It looks good but was more fiddly than Washi tape as it kept sticking to itself.

There must be a million uses for cute little boxes like this. To turn them into Easter gift baskets for our numerous nieces & nephews I made some little matching gift tags (made from the square corner offcuts and a little more tape) 

A bit of tissue paper and some mini eggs to finish off.

They are teeny (5cmx5cm) and hold about 8 mini eggs. We do have a lot of nieces and nephews, if I made bigger boxes it would cost a fortune to fill them all! I have got a few more to do now but they are quick and fun so don't feel too sorry for me!

You might also be interested in:

Patchwork Gift Box

Using Sketches for Card Making

Personalised Wedding Picture

Simple Speech Bubble Cards

I'll be linking up this project at all these lovely link parties, pop over for a look at loads of projects from other blogs