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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Homemade gift giving: Library bags

I try to make at least a few of my kids' presents for Christmas every year (in 2009 I made almost everything).

Tempe and Helena love checking out books by themself. Love, love, love. Every week when we go to the library, they beg me to let them use my card by themselves while I stay in the children's section with Juno. They are very polite, and since we go to the library almost every single Wednesday, the librarians all know them and think they are the cutest girls ever.

So this year one of their Christmas presents is personalized library bags and their very own library cards.

{Tempe's is the purple moose and Helena's is the blue Disneyland castle.}

I bought the canvas bags at Walmart (3 for $6) and did freezer paper stencils on them. I used the new Martha Stewart line of paint at Michaels in the glittery finish. The paint is so awesome. It is pure glitter and sparkle and you can use it on any surface!

Now, some of you might be thinking I am crazy for giving my 3 year old and 5 year old their own library cards. We have some strict library card usage rules in this house.

1) The card is tied to the library bag. It remains tied to the bag at all times so that it doesn't get lost.

2) The cards each have a limit of only 10 books, and only books from the children's section. I can adjust the settings as they grow.

3) Even though there is a 10 book limit, my personal rule is we only check out books that can fit in the library bag. If the bag is full, then that's it: no more books this week.

4) At home, we keep library books in the library bag and the library bag on the bottom shelf of our gigantic bookshelves. That we way always know where books are. I estimate this has saved me approximately $10000000000 in library fines over the years.
What are you making for Christmas gifts this year?

8 comments:

Jen said...

Those are so cute. I love 'em!!

Claire said...

Love this! I made my sister-in-law some hand scrub and reversible head bands but I can't post them yet because she hasn't opened them ;) Luckily your girls don't read your blog!

Abby@AppMtn said...

These are so lovely! Would you ever sell them in your shop?

Katie Allen said...

This is a gift that will keep on giving and helps to teach responsibility! I think this is a Great idea!!

Jamie said...

I love this idea! I was told that Courtney had to be 5 years old in order to get a library card, so I may steal this idea for part of her 5th birthday gift :)

Stephens Family said...

Love it!

Lisa said...

Why didn't I think of that when you were little? I'm sure we spent a small fortune on lost/late library books!
Very cute.

Kate said...

Thanks for the sweet comments! The bags and cards were a big hit. We used them a few days ago and all the librarians were excited to see the girls with their own cards!
@Abby, I don't think I would list them in my shop, only because it's such a custom product and they're so easy to make--I bought the bags and just did a stencil.