A while back when a young family member was having surgery, I found an idea for a "box of sunshine." This box included yellow items such as food, stickers, or other small items. It was fun to shop for yellow items that would fit in the box.
Since then I've gifted yellow items other times for different reasons.
As the school year comes to a close, all the feelings are there. Kids are ramping up for summer, there are many end of year things to do, and teachers are tired. One new teacher has been counting down her first year of school and it seems like it's been a particularly stressful year. I thought she could use some sunshine.
Once again, I hunted down each aisle for yellow items. Some staples I've found each time included lemon flavored drinks, peanut m&ms, Juicy Fruit gum and Nilla Wafers.
I figured we had a small paper bag at home, but unfortunately we must be out. I knew I could make a simple fabric bag which I have made before. I googled first to see if there was an even simpler idea to try. I basically followed this simple gift bag.
First I looked for yellow fabric and chose which had enough fabric for the pile of items I wanted to include. Then I cut it just bigger then my pile. Next I loosely followed the ideas of turning down the top edge, creating a casing (fold down edges and topstitch, then tuck under the top and bottom long edge and sew down to the bag) for the outside (I made one for the front and one for the back), and finally sewing the sides right sides together, then serging and boxing the corners. Because I had created two casings with openings on both sides, I could run two rows of ribbon to cinch it together.
Everything fit well into the bag and I think it's pretty cute.
Afterwards I had another teacher I wanted to bring some sunshine to. I created a mini tote with the leftover lemon fabric and added handles out of ribbon. That went together very quickly. Once again I used the serger and boxed the corners.
