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Personalised Photo Teabags

Personalised Photo Tea Bags

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.

 tips for taking photos

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.

Personalised TeaBags Instructions taking photographs

 

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.

Personalised TeaBags Instructions

 

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!}

Personalised TeaBags Instructions

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.

Personalised Photo Tea Bags - Instructions

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.

Personalised Photo Tea Bag - gift idea

Personalised Photo Tea Bag - gift idea

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

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13 Comments

  • Reply
    Bonnie
    May 25, 2011 at 7:29 am

    LOVE THIS xo

  • Reply
    Sannah
    May 25, 2011 at 10:39 am

    What a gorgeous idea! They look fantastic, and would make a great gift idea for grandparents! Thanks for sharing!

  • Reply
    Glowless
    May 31, 2011 at 9:34 am

    Fab! I second that they’d make a great gift for the grandparents 🙂

  • Reply
    Father’s Day Craft Ideas for Kids to Make
    August 26, 2011 at 8:03 am

    […] Personalised photo tea bags is a fun idea for a Grandpa. To find out how to make them, read my instructions on this post: Personalised Photo Tea Bags. […]

  • Reply
    Fee @ Oh Gorgeous Baby
    December 15, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    OMG my Mum would totally jump up and down if we made these for her! An avid tea drink she would so love them. Thanks for sharing.

    • Reply
      Kelly Be A Fun Mum
      December 15, 2011 at 11:06 pm

      I’m sure she will LOVE IT then. My grandmother almost cried when I gave it to her, she loved them that much!

      • Reply
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        April 3, 2016 at 8:15 pm

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  • Reply
    Rhianon
    December 21, 2011 at 10:32 am

    Attempting this today! We don’t have a printer, but Kmart do a collage print, and I’ll just do it that way! Hope that works! 😀

    • Reply
      Kelly
      December 21, 2011 at 10:34 am

      Should work. All that matters is they are smaller than a tea cup/mug so they hang. Enjoy!

  • Reply
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    […] year, the children and I made photo tea bags for the grandparents for Mother’s Day.  This year, we turned glass tumblers and glass juice […]

  • Reply
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    May 7, 2013 at 10:38 pm

    […] couple of years ago, I made personalised tea bags using photos of the kids. The reaction from my grandparents was priceless! They LOVED it.  Using […]

  • Reply
    Penny
    April 29, 2014 at 4:39 pm

    Frikken Brilliant!

  • Reply
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