Our mission for the holiday Teaswap was simple: "Be as attentive to your packaging as to the tea(s) you select."

For those of you unfamiliar with the Teaswap, it is a small but growing international group of women what I belong to; we exchange teas several times a year thanks to our tireless moderator, Stef.

For the holiday swap, I crafted packets from several festive colors of felt, and stuffed each with two teabags of Harney and Sons' Holiday Tea. I zigzag-stitched all of the packets in the same wine-colored thread, and cut the edges of the flaps decoratively with pinking shears. I really wanted to make the packets completely reusable by sewing on some pearly buttons I scored on eBay, but time was short, it being the High Holy Days of Craft around here. So instead, I simply tied each packet with a belt of this vintage velvet ribbon that I found, "new" and unused, at a thrift store last year. I thought the gold and olive ribbon complemented the felt colors so well that I didn't feel so bad about flaking on my button idea. And to my delight, a couple of Teaswapettes have complimented the packaging and said they plan to reuse the packets for toting tea in their handbags, to work or wherever.