It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - in other people's homes anyway

Morning.  For some reason I can not seem to get into the Christmas spirit yet.  I haven't put up any holiday decorations and if I look closely, I may find that I  have a pumpkin or two still out.  If any decorating elves want to make their way to my house, feel free to come on over!

I am going to write about a group that I have mentioned in the past.  It is Brighter Birthdays, a group in Rome, GA whose mission is to celebrate birthdays for school kids. They do incredible work but need help making cards as well as zip bag toppers.  Each birthday child gets a backpack filled with goodies.  Inside the backpack, one of the "happies" is a zip lock bag filled with the smaller items, candy, balloons, lip balm - whatever they are putting in the backpack that month.  They like to put a colorful kid-friendly topper on the bag to make it festive.  Something like this...

 I find these so easy and theraputic to make.  They use up a lot of my extras and scraps.  If you would like to participate in helping this awesome group celebrate kids' special days and bring joy to many hearts, here are instructions on how I make them.  The basic info regarding size is below, but use your imagination to decorate them.

Begin with a 11 x 8.5 piece of cardstock - I use the 65 lb. from either a craft store or an office supply company.  They do not have to be the heavy duty cardstock that we use for card bases.  Cut 1/2" off the bottom:

Cut the 10.5" x 8" piece in half length wise:

Fold each 10.5" x 4.25" piece length wise: (I use my score pad to do this step)

And now you have a zip bag topper ready to decorate.  Sometimes I use washi tape, or stamps, or stickers, or whatever - just be sure they are gender neutral, cheerful, colorful and kid friendly.  You only decorate one side and I recently learned they use double sided tape to adhere them to the bags (which they provide).  Multiples of each design are perfectly OK.  They use so many throughout their district that multiples do not cause any problems.

I would love to see what you come up with.  Please send me pictures of your toppers and I will do a follow-up blog showing off your creations.  Send them to justjill48@gmail.com

If you would like to make these toppers, please mail them to:

                                                                                     

                                                               Brighter Birthdays

                                                            3 Central Plaza  # 383

                                                                Rome, GA   30161

Tip of the day:  If you need images for these toppers, go to Google Free Clip Art and there are lots of images you can use.  I copy them onto photo paper which gives them a nice shine.  Then I either use my cool cutting out machine, or I fussy cut them by hand.  You can just cut the images into circle shape - or whatever.  I hope you try these and have fun doing them.  I find them so addictive and a pleasant diversion from cards.

                                                          Thank you for stopping by.

                                                                        Hugs - Jill