Homemade Tea Bag Gifts
- Show some love with these sewn heart-shaped tea bags. You need scissors, paper, a needle and white thread, cotton muslin, and loose tea. Draw a heart about 2.5-by-2.5 inches on a piece of paper. Cut out the heart and use it as a template to cut out two identical heart shapes from the muslin. Hold the muslin hearts face to face, and sew the edges together, leaving about a 1/4-inch leeway. When you have sewn about ¾ of the heart perimeter, fill the muslin pouch with loose tea. Finish sewing the remainder of the heart and snip the loose thread. Make a stack of these tea bags and present them in a pretty teapot for a wonderful gift.
- Remove boring tea tags and replace them with your own creative labels. To make heart tea tags, you need paper, scissors, red card stock, a hole punch and cotton string. Draw a heart about 1-by-1 inches on a piece of paper. Cut out the heart and use it as a template to cut out several identical heart shapes from the red card stock or other good quality paper. Punch a small hole through each heart and insert a piece of cotton string through it and make a knot. You can tie the other end to any store-bought or homemade tea bag. Write little notes on the heart tag about the tea. This project makes an inexpensive, but pretty wedding or party favor.
- A fun and humorous way to really personalize a tea tag alternative is to replace the tag with someone's face. To make these face tags, find photos or pictures and size them to about 1-by-1 inches. Cut out just the outline of the face from the photograph. Lay the face on a piece of paper and trace. Cut out the face shape. For store-bought teas with pre-made tags, glue the face photograph on one side of the tag. Then glue the paper face shape to the other side of the tag. Write a personal note or label on the paper side of the face. These make fun party favors or prizes for tea parties.
- If you're squeamish around needles, make this simple no-sew teabag alternative. You need several muslin fabric squares, roughly 5-by-5 inches, loose tea and pieces of cotton string. Pour about 1 to 2 tbsp. tea in the center of the muslin square. Carefully roll the fabric like a cigarette, but keep the tea remains in the center. Fold the tube in half and push all the tea to the bottom of the bag. Squeeze the tube ends together, securing them with a piece of string. Tie the string and knot. Trim the muslin, so each pouch has about ½ inch of fabric above the string. Fill an oversized teacup with several of these pouches and tie with a ribbon.