Personalised Photo Teabags

I never — ever — dreamed I would see my children hanging from  teabags…but it’s actually a really great place to put them! The Personalised Photo Tea Bag is an ingenious idea from Valerie of the Frugal Family Fun Blog, a fantstic space filled with fun ideas of things to do with kids.  Last week, I made Photo Paper Dolls which were a hit at our place, and while I was taking photos of the kids, I decided to give personalised tea bags a go. Below is step by step instructions on how we made them, including how I photographed them in a way that made it easy for cutting and display.

Materials

• Camera
• A4 Photo Paper
• Tea Bags
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Stanley/Craft Knife
• Board

1. Taking the Photographs

Taking photographs for this project is fun. Below are some tips:

a) Keep in proportion

Hold the camera held directly in front of the subject so the body is in proportion.  This means you will probably have to crouch down quite low.

 

b) Hands/Feet

Keep in mind you’ll need to cut around the hands and feet.

c) Poses

A great way to start is to simply set the scene. I said to the children, “Show me what you would do if you were hanging off a rope.”  It was interesting to see the children interpret the scene in their own way.  To assist in posing, have the children lean on a wall or chair to give the illusion of movement. 

For more great tips on setting up a photo shoot read Katherine’s fantastic guest post: Photographing Kids — Setting up a Photo Shoot.

 

2. Format & Printing

a) Once you’ve captured the photographs, use a photo editing program to crop the pictures around the body. 

b) Then, insert the photos into Microsoft Word/Publisher (or equivalent) and adjust the size so there is three rows of photos. You don’t want the figures to be too big because they will be too large for the tea bag.  They should be smaller than the height of a mug (about 1/2 the size to 3/4 is great).   This step doesn’t have to be perfect as they will be cut out anyway. 

c) Print the document using A4 Photo Paper.

 

3. Cut

This is the most time consuming part of the project. You can work with small scissors but I recommend using a craft or Stanley knife on a board.  Carefully cut around the subject’s body.

4. Attach Photo to Tea Bag

{Don’t worry: I didn’t really staple my daughter!}

a) Cut the label off the teabag, leaving a 5 mm section at the top. Plug here for Madura Tea: my favourite.  Or you can simply staple over the top of the full tag.

b) Staple the top of the photograph to the paper.

5. Gifting Ideas

a) Place the tea bag/s in a mini zip lock bag and staple to the inside of a card.

b) Wind the string around each bag (so it doesn’t get tangled), arrange a row together and hold in place with a rubber-band. Place in a sandwich sized zip-lock bag with  a “Who’s on the Tea Cup?” cover, as showed below.

c) Lay tea bags back in the original box.

Gift Idea

A reader, Bec, sent me her pics of the tea bags she made for her parents and grandparents for Christmas. She says:

“The tea bags were so well received by the grandparents at Christmas time. They were shared along the table at tea time and everyone got a good laugh. My parents especially enjoyed them, it was such a fun, novelty gift. They keep several “twin bags” on show in their kitchen still today.

A simple and cheap gift idea filled with love and fun.

Links

Photo Paper Dolls

Photographing Kids — Setting up a Photo Shoot

Frugal Family Fun Blog