Star Wars Gift in a Bag (DIY) Gift

Hi everyone! Today I'd like to share a quick gift tutorial from this past Easter that I made for my brother: a Star Wars 'Gift in a Bag'. Usually you see 'gift in a box', 'gift in a jar' and such, but I was in a situation where I had to use what I had, and I didn't have jars, baskets, or good boxes, but I had paper bags. This can, of course, be adapted into a jar gift, gift box or gift basket. Although this was made for Easter, this would make a great birthday gift, and could even be turned into a Christmas 'Star Wars in a Stocking' gift. This is super easy to out together. I literally ended up creating all of my gifts on Easter morning, using what I had. 

Basically, to create this you need a collection of Star Wars items you know the recipient will enjoy. These could be bought or handmade. If you have Easter eggs, you can put items inside them and create character faces with them. I made Yoda, C3PO, and Darth Vader. I hot-glued tissue paper on my eggs, added cardboard for the ears on Yoda and a cardboard helmet piece on Darth Vader with hot-glue, and painted them with layers of acrylic paint. I also used markers on top of the paint when it dried for details I think (I may have also painted those, though, I really don't remember), and used a metallic silver on Darth Vader. What you include in your gift depends, but if you are making the gift for somebody who enjoys art, you could include art supplies. I filled the eggs with homemade clay, and the sack in the photos below held acrylic paint tubes. I hand-painted a baby Yoda tee-shirt as well, but if you make this gift for somebody older clothes can be tricky and I tend to avoid clothing gifts. I actually don't know if the shirt would fit in a paper bag, although I think it would, because mine was still drying when I presented it. Like I said, it was very last minute. I would have liked to include more, but I was using what I had and didn't order online in advance. Some ideas might be Star Wars books (stories, parodies, puzzles, tutorial books and so on), accessories or socks, candy molds that you could use to make either treats or crayons with, notebooks, cooking gadgets, and countless other items. When you have all of your items, the last step is to create a label by printing out the Star Wars logo (which is easy to find on Google), glue it on a folded or cutout piece of card-stock with hot glue or a glue-stick, and write "Gift in a ____" ("Gift in a Bag" in my case), and attach the label on (I stapled mine onto the bag, but in a gift basket it would be tucked in, and in a jar it would be tied around the jar or glued onto the lid). That's all there is to it! If you create a similar gift, I encourage you to get creative and turn things you know that the recipient would love into Star-Wars-themed items. Remember, make everything cohesive and stick to a simple color palette.

I hope you enjoyed! I am not sure when I will be able to post in the coming few weeks due to my school workload, but I hope to continue posting weekly. I can't guarantee that, though. Thank you for visiting!

-Lauryn

"Bag of Sunshine" DIY Gift + Free Printable Sunshine Banner

Good morning, everyone! Today I'd like to share a recent gift I made with a tutorial for you, as well as a free printable sunshine banner (becuase who doesn't need some metaphorical sunshine right now?). This gift may be hard to put together at the moment with most stores closed and everyone staying in, but this may come in handy after quarentine is over and some of the items you should be able to make at home regardless. I got lucky and happened to have these things already in my house. First of all, here is a list of what I included in my "Bag of Sunshine" gift:
-Sanatizer (from Bath and Body Works that reads 'Stay Pawsitive')
-Stickers (mine were from a pad of Happy Planner stickers I cut out and got on sale at Michaels)
-The free printable banner below
-Sunshine-themed sheet music that I watercolored yellow (found free online)
-A clay sunshine I made with Polymer clay and painted with acrylic paint and clear nail polish
-Some yellow pens I found in my art supplies
-A bag of yellow balloons
-Confetti (handmade)
-A watercolor quote picture (handmade)
-A car air-freshener that looks like a yellow-ish candle (from Dollar Tree)

Now, you could make your own clay with flour and salt to substitute the Polymer clay, and you could use any art media to make a picture or share a quote. I made the confetti with two hole punchers I got on sale at Hobby Lobby a long time back that were star-shaped and heart-shaped, but you could hand-cut the confetti instead if you don't have any hole punchers. I just used plain construction paper (the only kind of paper I had in yellow). Provided you have ink, paper and a printer, you can print the banner below and sheet music. For the banner, you will of course also need string, scissors, and a hot glue gun with hot glue or tape to cut out the sunshines on the printable and attatch them on a string. For packaging, I just used printer paper, a black marker to write the calligraphy with, construction paper, those Happy Planner stickers I mentioned, and I might've used a little scrapbook paper I had although if I did I didn't use much because, like I mentioned before, I didn't have yellow.  As for the other objects I included, these could be substituted for nearly anything yellow. Most of the 'Box of Sunshine' gifts on Pinterest use yellow foods, too, I just try to avoid food gifts generally. I think that about covers everything. Happy crafting!

Here is the printable:

I printed mine on cardstock. I hope this brightens your day!

-Lauryn