My son has 3 teachers, a bus driver, a bus aide and 2 therapists. There are probably at least 6-8 others who interact with him at school regularly, but I had to draw a line somewhere (the joys of special ed!) My daughter is actually in an integrated pre-K classroom, so they have an extra teacher, bringing it to 3. Ten handmade, not too expensive gifts needed to be thrown together in <4 days.
So I decided on $5 Starbucks gift cards and thought it would be cute to whip up a little pouch for each of the gift cards. I also picked up some handmade beeswax lip balms from a local farm at the Dunwoody Green Market and added some chocolates to fill the pouches. I couldnt find a pattern that met my needs, so I did a little trial and error and came up with something workable, that I will share, but just so you know...I am not a pattern maker! Mine are all different sizes and shapes and I do a lot by eyeballing. So follow if you dare....
In the end, they were super quick and a great stash buster! It took approx 10 mins to make the pouch and maybe another 5 for the drawstring and 5 for weaving in the 2 ends and assembly. The kids enjoyed decorating the cards and picking the color combinations for each recipient. 
And if I was smart...I would get started on Christmas presents yesterday, but I am not. So expect a frantic blog post of a similar nature in 6.5 months.
The Easy-Peasy Gift Card Pouch
Hook: H
Yarn: Peaches and Creme cotton
Ch 9
SC in 2nd ch from hook and the 7 more times. (8sc)
2 sc in last ch.
working around other side, SC 8
join with first sc and from here, work in the round.
18 HDC around for 9 rows.
1 sc, 1 slip stitch
Ch 4 (equals 1 DC + 1 ch)
sk 1 stich, DC (reapeat around and slip stich to 3rd ch of first ch 4)
Then ch 60 or so for the drawstring. Weave drawstring into the top row between DCs and weave in ends.
