DIY Gothic tea bags

I was online last night and I realized something- I can MAKE my own Gothic tea bags! 

As a girl who likes to personalize everything, this will be a useful little tool. I have some loose leaf teas just sitting around because I don't like my tea ball. Not anymore! You will need: a coffee filter, scissors, a stapler, and the tea in question. 

 Optional: embroidery floss or a small bit of ribbon, and cut out designs of Gothic stuff.

First, cut the filter into a rectangle shape. Just trim the frilly outer portion of the filter, like this.

Next, scoop your tea in the middle of the filter. Divide it into two piles with some space in between them, like this.

Now, fold over the sides of the filter onto your tea. Try to make the sides overlap so, when your tea bag expands in the water, tea doesn't spill out everywhere.

Using the space between the tea piles as a guide, flip the filter up so it looks like this.

 Using your fingers as a guide, cut the filter above your fingers. Leave some room, you want your tea to be able to breathe a little. And as always, it's best to OVER cut than to UNDER cut and ruin the whole bag.

With those snippets cut off, fold the top of the tea bag down. First do one side like this, then the other side so you have a pointed tip at the end.

Using your stapler, staple this little fold down in place. Voila! Your own tea bag! You can just pop this in some hot water and fish it out with your spoon when it's done. OR, you can follow these extra steps to personalize them.

 Remember those tools I posted earlier, the optional ones? Yeah, you're gonna need those now. Use embroidery thread because it's thicker and can "take the heat" as it won't slip out of the staple. I usually have a few extra ends of ribbon like this red piece here, so I decided to use that.

Remember that fold we made in the tea bag just before we stapled it? Tuck your thread/ribbon underneath that fold and pull it over. Staple it down. This way, it is stapled both underneath and over the top of the tea bag.

Taking your other end of string/ribbon, staple whatever design you choose to it. A bat, a coffin, a heart, a cupcake, whatever. Just cut it out of paper (I chose a magazine cover, glossy and sturdy) and staple it down to the other side of the string.

 And there you have it, your very own personalized Gothic tea bags! They're hot!

I hope you guys enjoyed this little tutorial, it's time for tea! <3!