I just dropped by our local craft store and found supplies that let me make a few unique sorority gifts fast. These are for Delta Zeta and since turtles are pretty easy to draw and paint, I was able to turn these sorority gifts out very quickly.
First, I bought a foam coosie for 50 cents or a dollar (I can't remember which). First I drew the turtle design on paper. From that point, I have several choices: (1) Draw the turtle free hand on the coosie, (2)cut out the turtle from the paper and trace around it with a pencil, or (3)use a sheet of graphite paper behind the paper pattern to transfer the design to the coosie - this is easy and gives you the most detail, but you need to have graphite paper. I usually use the graphite paper way.
After I have my turtle design, I add color with paint. Using my acrylic paints - olive green, white, and black, I painted my little turtle. The easiest way to add the BLACK detail is with a Sharpie pen. That is what I used for the turtle outline, turtle eyeballs, and the "Delta Zeta" at the top of the coosie.
The acrylic paints dry so fast that I was finished in no time. Actually, I painted the foam star stickers at the same time, while I had my paints out and brushes already in the paint. The foam stars (foam comes in so many shapes and colors) have a peel off backing that can be removed when you are ready to sticky the star onto something. The tiny turtles were painted "free hand" and have very little detail since they are so small. Again, I used my fine Sharpie to write "Delta Zeta" in an arc over the turtle. Now that is done, too.
My last handmade sorority gift is actually a hand painted wooden box. You have seen these in the craft stores. They are round and come in graduated sizes. Sometimes they are sold in sets of 3 different sizes that nest inside of each other. I was able to buy a single box. I painted the top with olive green acrylic paint. After that was completely dry, I used the pattern method mentioned above for the coosie to get my turtle design on the box. Instead of PAINTING the turtle's shell, I cut the pattern out of pink and white striped fabric. I glued the fabric onto the box with Tacky glue, being careful to put it on just the write place.
Take a Beanie Baby lion, a piece of ribbon, a pink foam star , some white acrylic paint and TA DAAAA-----------------personalize to make your own Phi Mu lion wearing a personalized necklace with the Phi Mu Greek letters.
This is so easy and takes next to no time.
Plush lions are not so hard to find. I have come acoss all kinds in stores. This Beanie Baby is one of my favorites. Buying a lion and personalizing it with a necklace gives it that hands-on personal touch that makes it one-of-a kind. When you make it yourself, yours is unique. I love that!
Are you a regular at crafts stores or art departments. Go down the children's craft aisle and you will find all sizes and shapes of foam. If you don't like to paint, you can write the letters with a paint pen. I did need a hole puncher to make a hole for the ribbon to slide through. Last thing, was to tie the ribbon around the lion's neck. I love the way he turned out.
You can read my detailed directions if you click: Sorority Mascot Crafts -Necklace Directions.
The Chatter Tree in Statesboro, GA
I am going to share with you a little history of the beginnings of the sorority gift ideas that are offered on this website. We have to reminisce a little into the past.
If you remember when Georgia Southern University was just Georgia Southern College, then you might remember The Chatter Tree, the gift and craft shop that was housed in an enormous old Victorian house in downtown Statesboro in the 1980's and a while after that.
Sorority gifts made in the early 1980's
It was there that I met the sorority girls from Georgia Southern, which at that time only included KD, DZ, AD Pi, ZTA, Phi Mu, and Chi O. Later AKA and Sigma Delta Theta came along.
The Chatter Tree had a small hallway at the very back of the store that was the sorority room. This was where I displayed all the handmade sorority gifts that I had painted and sewed. The brown jugs which are shown (partially completed) in the picture never lasted long. They were made from large recycled bottles from the local drug store and were finished with a great big colorful bow tied around the neck of the bottle. They sold for $5.95. The handpainted plaques like the ones shown sold for $1 - $4 depending on size and intricacy of the design.
Everyday, girls stopped by to talk to me about what they wanted personalized. I took many orders every week to make one-of-a-kind sorority gift items or awards according to what the girls desired.
I painted so many turtles, frogs, butterflies, owls, lions, and lady bugs that I had the designs all in my head and didn't rely on patterns anymore for most of them. I only took a few pictures of some of the sorority gifts that I made.
One of the favorites of the sorority gifts was study boards. I painted so many study boards. They were made of smoothly sanded plywood cut in a retangular shape with a half circle cut out on the bottom edge.
The boards were almost always special orders to be painted a particular color- with the mascot on one corner and a little sister's name on the other corner. It would be so neat to hear from somebody who used to have one of these handpainted study boards. There might still be some that have survived. (I have one that I painted for my husband from that time period, but it is stained instead of painted and has a mallard duck on it instead of an owl or a turtle.)
1980's Handmade Sorority Gifts
Well, now I paint crowns for ZTA, lions for Phi Mu, and bears for KD, but 30 years ago it was butterflies, ladybugs, and frogs. I wonder if those sororities at Georgia Southern have continued with butterflies, ladybugs, and frogs.
Do any of you have handmade sorority gifts that are vintage like these? We'd love to see them.
Easter eggs decorated with sorority or fraternity Greek letters ready to fill with candy and other goodies. Eggs are about 2 1/2 inches across. These eggs can be customized with names or universities. These sell in sets of 6. Order deadline for delivery before Easter is April 11th. Shipping for up to 24 eggs for is $10.00! For orders of more than 1 set, send a message to the artist so that she can send you an invoice to complete your purchase.
Check out this Etsy shop for details: GreektoMe
So you would like to save money and make your own Greek Easter eggs? I didn't make these, but I think you can make some similar Easter eggs with good results. These are approximate directions for this sorority gift:
1. Buy some plastic easter eggs. The come in various sizes. The standard size would work well or the large eggs.
2. Practice your Greek Letter design on paper first. Draw until you are happy with the drawing.
3. Using your drawing to look at, use paint pens to paint a similar design on your egg.
The letters in the picture example have a white background painted first and then the letters painted on top of the white and then outlined with black (I would use a Sharpie marker for the outline)
4. Optional: spray the eggs with Krylon Crystal Clear (a spray varnish) or any other spray varnish brand.
Need some inexpensive sorority big sister gifts or little sister surprises?
For more ideas for sorority gifts that you can make yourself, click this sorority crafts link.
I have made sorority tote bags with out sewing them. The trick is to buy a pre-made off white canvas tote bag from Hobby Lobby or another craft store that offers them. I have even found the canvas bags on sale for half price several times, which saves a lot.
I included a picture of a Delta Zeta tote that I painted to show you and example of what you can do.
You know, I always start with a simple drawing on paper for my pattern, in this case a turtle. When painting on fabric, very often, you can just put the pattern behind the fabric (after going over the lines with a black marker to emphasize them) and you can see the line through the fabric. Unfortunately, canvas is too thick to do this. So to get my turtle pattern onto the bag, I trace my pattern onto a piece of cardboard or card stock and cut it out. This makes a template of the outer lines of the turtle. With a pencil, I lightly trace around the turtle template onto the canvas. That gives me the basic line and then I can free hand the inner lines of the pattern. Getting the pattern penciled onto the canvas is probably the hard part.
Once you have your pattern drawn on the canvas, then you get out your pink and green paint, or go to the store and buy some if you don't have any. I keep a supply of most colors of acrylic paint and I also keep so good quality paint brushes on hand always for projects like this.
I had some nice pink rick rack so I sewed that along the top edge of the bag. There is fabric glue available if you don't sew. Last, I tied a puffy pink bow around the handle of the tote for a nice touch.
(the cardboard DZ patterns shown above are not the right pattern, but I am showing you what I mean by a cardboard template to trace around.)
Sorority Totes are available almost any store that sells sorority merchandise and gifts. I found this Delta Gamma tote bag on eBay selling for $18.99. It is an attractive bag and that is probably a fair price, but a sorority tote is another item that we, here at Sorority Sisters website, think you may want to consider making for yourself or as a gift. After all tote bags are pretty easy to sew.
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Sorority rubber stamps offer a quick and easy way to make sorority gifts without having to worry about artwork since the stamps are ready to go and easy to use. It is usually hard to find sorority stamps and I am sorry to say that I only know of Alpha Omicron Pi and Delta Delta Delta sets that are available at the time of this post. The good thing is that they are on sale for 20% off right now The picture shows a Kappa Delta set, but it wasn't available at Greek Gear today. You can check out the sorority stamp sets to see what is available today.
Stamp Your Support is the only supplier of these creative rubber stamp kits for sororities. Each kit come with 3 rubber stamps that represent the greek letters for that sorority, the full sorority name, and a sorority symbol stamp. The kit comes with igment ink pads in the official colors of the sorority.
I love to make my own stationery since it is an easy craft. Making sorority stationery is easy with a sorority stamp set like this.
(If you read this post later- it is possible the sale is discontinued, but it is also possible that more sorority stamps sets will be available. Just check it out).
While living in GA in the 80s, I was asked to make dozens of special order sorority gifts for Georgia Southern sorority sisters thorough the Chatter Tree shop. We were always coming up with new sorority gift items, awards, paddles, banners, pillows, & brown jugs. Now I am sharing many of these ideas on this website, Sorority Sisters.net. We have a face book page for Sorority Gift Ideas;you can LIKE & post your pictures of handmade sorority gifts to share with others. This is a great opportunity to inspire one another to be creative in giving the gift of love in one-of-a-kind sorority gift making.
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