College Survival Kit

For Kenedy's open house I wanted to give her a gift instead of just handing her money, but obviously it needed to be something as useful and necessary as money haha...I have made these before for my nieces going off to college so decided to make one for Kenedy too. It's a very easy gift to put together and the kids seem to really like it - I found this double-sided case at Hobby Lobby but usually I use one of the clear plastic holders like the kind that were originally meant for organizing embroidery thread and has customizable dividers. Then hit up the dollar store, grocery store, drug store, or even look around your house for (unused!) things that a college kid might need (and not even know they are going to need!).

Here's what I included - make it personal and tailor the kit for your recipient:

• gift cards for ('emergency') fast food - pizza, subs, Taco Bell, Starbucks
• cotton balls and q-tips
• small sewing kit with pre-threaded needles in basic colors, couple buttons, safety pins
• tiny stapler, paper clips, rubber bands, sticky notes, tape, krazy glue, a sharpie pen
• phone cord
• tylenol, airborne, throat lozenges, rolaids, neosporin, bandaids, chapstick
• lysol, tide stick
• hair ties, nail clippers, tweezers, nail file
• tiny toothpaste, mouthwash, floss sticks
• batteries, matches and a tea light
• gum, package of fruit snacks, package of almonds

There might be more things in there but now I can't remember ;). Just wing it - it's fun to put together!

I found the "college survival kit" printable here and taped one on each side. Just 'cuz it's cute.

I wrapped it in tissue paper and made one of my favorite tissue flower bows for the top (click here to see how to make them!)

Tissue Paper Flowers

I love to make tissue paper flowers to put on top of gifts instead of bows - since it's October and almost Halloween I used black, orange and black/white patterned tissue papers to decorate the top of my niece Macey's birthday present. I wrapped her present in zebra so it's a little hard to see where the bottom of the flower starts tho!

For this one I cut tissue paper into 10"x20" sheets (2 patterned, 4 black, 4 orange) and stacked them. In this picture the flower that is done was stacked 4 black on the bottom, then 2 patterned, and 4 orange on top. For the flower that is on the present above I did 2 patterned, then alternated 2 black, 2 orange, 2 black, 2 orange. Fold the stack in about 1" pleats  back and forth like making a fan, tie something tight around the middle, and either round the edges or cut them into points.

Then carefully separate the layers (do one side at a time) and gently pull them up to shape into a "flower".  In this picture I've separated one side but the other is still in the fan stage.

You can make them any size you want (up to the size of your sheet of tissue paper of course). These are also nice if you are mailing a gift, the tissue paper still looks good if it gets a little crumpled.