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M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I am kind of in denial that Christmas is so close already– it totally snuck up on me this year! Confession: We just got our tree last night and it isn’t even decorated yet. #bloggerfail But while our tree may not be ready, I did find some time to put together these cute little milk bottle teacher gifts (which could really be anyone gifts 🙂 ).

Here’s what I used to make them:

This post contains affiliate links. My favorable opinion of and borderline obsession with all things Silhouette is 100% my own. 🙂 For more information, see my disclosures here.

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com
  • Adhesive Vinyl* (White, Red, Black, Gold)
  • Milk Bottles (Found in the Target Dollar Spot)
  • 2 12 oz. Bags of Green & Red M&Ms
  • Silhouette CAMEO* (If you don’t have one, you can enter to WIN one at the end of this post!)
  • Baker’s Twine
  • Cutting Mat
  • Silhouette Sketch Pens* (Black, Green, Gold)
  • White Card Stock

Ever since I first saw these cute little milk bottles in the Target dollar bins, I knew I had to do something with them, and I thought a little Christmas gift would be just the thing! So the first thing I did was split the bags of M&Ms into red and green and fill up the milk bottles, one in each color.

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

My idea was to turn the green bottle into a tree and the red bottle into Santa– keep in mind that we’re going for impressionism rather than realism here. 😉 I used my CAMEO to cut the pieces I needed:

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Gold: Santa’s belt buckle and some little circles that would become “ornaments” on my “tree;” I also used a regular old manual star punch to punch a star out of some scrap vinyl, but this cut could be made with the Silhouette too.

White: the “trim” from Santa’s hat (this file in the Silhouette Design Store) and some more ornaments.

Red: the main part of Santa’s hat, ornaments

Black: Santa’s belt (aka one long rectangle), ornaments

Once I had all the pieces I needed, it was time to put everything together. SO easy–

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

To make my “Santa,” I just wrapped the long, black rectangular piece of vinyl around the milk bottle (1), stuck the “belt buckle” piece on the front (2), and placed the hat on the lid of the bottle, putting down the red layer first followed by the white pieces (3). I didn’t use any fancy transfer techniques or anything– just my fingers.

And the tree was even easier!

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I just placed the small circles in a random pattern all the way around the jar (1) and put the star on the lid (2). Simple!

Once the vinyl part was done, it was time to add my tags. I used my Silhouette and sketch pens to do this, but you could also just print the tags on a printer. I will provide both files below.

I created the tags in the Silhouette Studio software. In order to be able to use several colors on each tag, I had to tell the machine which pieces to draw at what time. So for example, I loaded my black sketch pen first, placing it where the blade would normally be.

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Then I went into my design and navigated to the Cut Style Window by clicking the little scissors icon at the top.

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I made sure that the circle that I wanted to be black on my tag was selected and that “Cut” was highlighted in the Cut Style Window on the right side of the screen. For the rest of my design– the other circles and the words– I made sure that the Cut Style Window was showing “No Cut.”

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I was then ready to draw my circle. In the Silhouette Cut Settings window, I chose Cardstock, which gave me a speed of 3 and thickness of 33. I also made sure to choose the “Sketch Pen” option, rather than “Blade.”

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I pressed “Cut,” and the Silhouette drew my circles for me.

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

At this point I DID NOT unload my cutting mat. I changed my sketch pen to the green one, went back into my Silhouette Studio software and chose the pieces that I wanted to be green (the dashed circle) and made sure they were set to “Cut” and all other pieces were set to “No Cut.”

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I kept the same settings in the Silhouette Cut Settings window, pushed “Cut,” and the Silhouette drew my green dashed circles for me with the sketch pen.

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

I repeated the same process using the gold sketch pen for the wording. Then finally, I made sure everything except the very outer circle was set to “No Cut,” put the blade back in the Silhouette, and it cut out my tags for me!

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

{If you’re interested in using the Silhouette cut file I used for the tags, you can download it here. Or snag your free printable tags here. 🙂 }

Then I just had to attach my tags with the baker’s twine, and my little gifts were done!

M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com
M&M Milk Bottle Teacher Gift | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com
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This post contains affiliate links, denoted by asterisks. My favorable opinion of and borderline obsession with all things Silhouette is 100% my own. 🙂 For more information, see my disclosures here.

10 Comments

  1. Those turned out super cute! What a great gift idea!

  2. I LOVE these! And what a fun way to use the sketch pens!

  3. The silhouette would be amazing to use for my upcoming wedding!! Fingers Crossed!!

  4. Pam - GetSilvered says:

    These are great – Love the idea! I admire your patience separating out the colours of the M & Ms 🙂

  5. Helen Gullett says:

    Super cute and pervect for gifts! Thanks for sharing the insporation 🙂

  6. Yasmina / Mina and Her BLog says:

    Such a great idea for teachers, this gives me an idea for my little one birthday party! Thanks for that!

  7. Lauren @ The Thinking Closet says:

    You really know how to shop those Dollar Spot bins at Target! And I just love how you dressed ’em up. Seasonal candy looks SO CUTE when packaged right, and you hit the nail on the head here. Way to go, Abby! Thanks so much for joining in on the December Silhouette Challenge and Giveaway, and adding so much creativity into the mix.

  8. What a creative idea! Everyone loves M&Ms. 🙂

  9. My newfound obsession with all things Silhouette would be totally appeased with owning my own! <3 BTW- Lovely blog! I love your color combo! 😀

  10. Emily @ Two Purple Couches says:

    Oh my goodness, these are adorable! I just made some similar gifts using mason jars, but I love how your milk bottles look!

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