What Can you Put in a Tin Part 1--Teacher's Emergency Sewing Kit

We started carrying these square tins in our store a while back. We all know you can use them as party favors with candy inside. Add a bow or embellishments for a quick and easy favor. But, beyond holding candies, what else are these good for? I've been thinking about this for a while and I have a few ideas, which I will post here in a series of tutorials.


I gathered together a bunch of things a teacher might need for him or herself. I made this more on the simple side since my son's 3rd grade teacher is a man. I didn't think he would be as excited about scallops as I am!! All images are from Gina K's Whimsical Autumn. I used 5/8" red and 1/4" Christmas green grosgrain around the center of the tin. The sentiment is computer generated. At the end of my tutorial series, I will post a document with all of the templates. I cut the ovals with my Nestabilities and embossed the top layer. The tiny apples are cut out with SU!'s 1/2" punch and the larger circles are a 3/4" punch.

I used black, white, blue, and pink thread. I thought these would be the most commonly used in a school. I didn't have time to get to a store or I would have looked for a small pair of folding scissors to put in the tin. The buttons are from our button collections and are threaded on a piece of our 1/8" organdy.


Here is a closeup of two of the components of the sewing kit. Both cards are 1 1/2" x 2 1/2". To make the thread card, I marked along the edges starting 3/8" from the bottom and then every 3/8" along the side, making 4 marks in all. I marked both the right and left hand sides of the card. Using my 1/4" square punch I nipped just a bit of cardstock out at each marking. This is not a full 1/2 square. To make the needle holder, I used my paper piercing template and paper piercer to poke several holes along the card in 3 columns to accommodate different needle lengths. To make the card toppers I stamped the basket of apples from Gina K's set and colored using Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I used Creative Memories 1" punch to punch out just a portion of the basket and a 1 1/4" punch to punch out the green and red circles.

This tin was made using the 8 oz. (large) tin.

Happy stamping!