I’ve made up a couple of these and they come together quickly. The tricky part for me, was trying to find all the little toys and trinkets to put inside. So, rather than posting a full tutorial on how to make one, I thought I’d tell you about where to look for the little trinkets.

If you came here hoping for a tutorial, then here is a link to one on Homemade by Jill (pictured above). It even has a handy pocket on the back to keep the search card in.

Not into sewing? Then simply fill an empty plastic bottle or clear tennis ball tube with your goodies and some rice or clear plastic beans and glue the lid closed.

The smaller your plastic window and the trinkets, the harder they are to find. Also, using coloured beads or rice makes the toys harder to find. This makes them good fun for older kids too.

Now, if you’re all set to make one of these, but can’t figure out what to put inside, here are some ideas.

1. Pieces from board games– Scrabble letters, Chess pieces, Monopoly pieces, dice. Find cheap board games at thrift stores at garage sales. 

2. Craft supplies – Googly eyes, plain or novelty buttons, beads, mini spools of thread (those useless ones that come in repair kits are good), scrapbooking buttons (these come in all sorts of cool shapes), fake jewels, mini pegs, little bells, sequins, pom poms.

3. Stationery supplies – erasers, mini pencils, paper clips, bulldog clips.

4. Toys – marbles, lego pieces, party favours, trinkets from inside Kinder Surprise toys or old Happy Meal toys, Barbie shoes or hairbrushes or other little accessories.

5. Other – beer caps, sea shells, those tiny useless padlocks that come on your luggage, the key to the rubbish padlock, coloured pasta, coins, the terrible trinkets from Christmas crackers.

Great places to look are discount/variety/dollar stores, newsagents, fabric shops, craft supplies stores, office supplies stores, toy shops, the supermarket, thrift stores, garage sales or your kids current toy box. If you are making them for your own children, then they may want to pick some of their own little toys to put inside.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to use anything with sharp edges that might pierce the bag. You may be able to file the sharp edges away with an emery board. You might also need to glue things to keep them secure, such as the thread on a spool so that it doesn’t unravel.

If you have any other suggestions, please leave a comment!