Wellness Gift Bags I

What? Early November and I'm already falling behind on all of my Christmas projects! To date, I've identified gifts for all six of the critter and critter-ettes teachers, two SIL's, and the MIL. Actually, the MIL gift is just something she asked me to do that I've let fall through the cracks - does that still count? Thank goodness for SMS's Handmade Holiday Guide! You must check it out - I challenge you to not find the perfect gift.

I've decided to go with a Wellness/Relaxation theme for the teachers (god knows they deserve it), using the "Rice Heat Therapy Bag" tutorial. Not only is it super cute, its a great way to use up all of your leftover scraps. The printable tags are a really nice extra touch!

So far, I've made two of the larger, hot packs and two of the smaller, cold packs. For the filling, I lugged home a 25lb bag of rice but am still on the hunt for bulk quantities of flax or buckwheat and essential oils. If I can't find any I'll just substitute rice. The tutorial is for the hot pack only so I've been winging the pattern on the cold pack. So far, mine look more like pencil cases - but I still love them! I'm up in the air about the mask. Not sure if I'm willing to make the time investment to fashion removable buckwheat inserts (did I really just type that). We'll see where I am time- and scrap-wise once the packs are completed. The plan is to put everything into really cute bags with maybe a few froo-froo things (candle, loofah, etc) from Aveda.