Heating Pads

This year Kevin and I decided to make all of our Christmas gifts in an effort to reduce our footprint on the environment, tap into our creative sides, save some money, and teach some very valuable lessons to our little ones. We've been working for a few months now and we're enjoying every minute of it! I'm sure I'll be posting some more of our creations, but today I'm focusing on heating pads.
While brainstorming gift ideas for some of the men in our lives, I stumbled upon heating pads. The more I thought about it and starting working on them, the more I realized what a wonderful gift idea this is! So I'm making several this year, including one for each of the kids. When gifting these, you can make them personal with different fabric and for kids you could even make them in the form of teddy bears and such. I know my kids are going to enjoy theirs very much. I can just see them on cold nights, curling up with their heating pads, or when they have belly aches, etc. And it's a very manly gift that will come in useful after a hard days work.
So here's how I made mine:
I cut a piece of fabric 8'x14". With right sides together, stitch along the long side and the bottom. Make sure you reinforce the seams! Then, turn it right side out. Cut 2 pieces of muslin 2"x4". No need to turn right sides together or worry about pretty seams. Just stitch the two sides and the bottom together. Then, funnel in about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon clove. Sew your muslin pouch closed. Now, fill your heating pad about 1/2 full of rice, drop in your muslin pouch, and fill another quarter way up with rice. Leave about 4" at the top empty. Fold your fabric at the opening under about 1/2" and stitched it closed. Again, reinforce seams. Then you're done! I will be adding a ribbon with instructions to heat for 1-2 minutes with mine, otherwise I fear my gift recipients may think I've made them a very large, oddly shaped hacky sack!