It's A Wrap...

Every year at Christmas time, I cruise the web admiring all the different gift-wrap ideas.  I bookmark them, (this year) I "pin" them to my private board, I paste them into my idea book on my hard drive, and admire them all, thinking "this year...".  But when I start to wrap my gifts, I realize I've purchased the oddest collection of sizes and shapes to try to wrap...and away goes my dream of having a wonderful tree surrounded with packages wrapped with the same papers, all topped with beautiful bows and decorations. And I console myself with the idea that the wrappings will likely just be tossed in the trash bag in the frenzy of Christmas morning anyway, and merrily go on with my life. LOL

But the crafter in me just won't surrender completely...so I handcraft gift tags each year.  And it wasn't until last year that I learned that many of the people I gift to at Christmas actually save the handmade gift tags in addition to the holiday cards I send.  What a wonderful acknowledgement that is to a crafter!

This year, I chose to make chipboard ornament gift tags. And the best part? I can make them as lumpy as I want, since I don't have to be concerned with "flatness" for mailing.  I used Spellbinders' 2011 Heirloom Ornaments die as the base, cutting one from chipboard, and two from patterned paper (front and back) for each tag.  I used glitter sticks at the top of the tags instead of ribbon or twine...makes attaching them to gifts and removing them later so much easier.

Here's a selection of some of the tags. First up, a few of the "flowery" tags, decidedly for the ladies...

You may have noticed that some have a little "to: from:" tag at the top, and some don't.  If the ornament had a light-colored, subtle patterned paper on the back, I used a different "to: from:" stamp on the back of the ornament itself, as done here with the tag above:

Flowers just won't do for the gents' gifts, and for couples' gifts I wanted something a little less gender specific, so for those I used snowflakes and stars...

And because I always seem to leave a name or two (or three) off my list when I'm planning the number of tags I need to make, I made some that could work for either a man's, woman's, or couple's gift.  So here's a couple of those...

Thanks so much for peeking in for a visit. I hope you're having a great week, and having fun with your holiday preparations.  I still have a few more cards to make and mail...and a few more gifts to buy and wrap...and a few more decorations to put out...and a couple more visits with friends to enjoy...and, well, you get the idea. LOL

The One That Started the Rest...

I just realized that I posted the gift bag sets that were inspired by one I made for myself...and forgot to post the one that started it all...oops!

So a quick post today to show off the original set-this time in blue. As with the others, I used Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Rectangle dies for the large "frame" for the clipart, Martha Stewart Infinite Loops Trim punch for the paper lace around the center of the bag, and Spellbinders Classic Scallop Edgeabilities for the bottom edge of the tag card.

 

Additional Supplies:

Gift Bag:

Floral Clipart: The Vintage Workshop blog, and Dover Publications

Sheer ribbon & button: local craft store      Hug Snug Seam Binding      Pearl/crystal flourish: Prima

Tag Card:

Floral Clipart: The Vintage Workshop blog, Dover Publications

Patterned Paper: MyMindsEye A Beautiful Life collection      Hug Snug seam binding

Lace "doily": cut from lace yardage from LittleRedCottage on Etsy

Felt rose: My Favorite Things Mini Rolled Roses die      Wool felt: local craft store      Pearl: Recollections

It was a slower crafting week than normal in the Korner last week, but I still have some new project photos to share, so I'll be back soon.  Thanks for visiting!

    

Little Rose Twins, Take 2

Using more clipart images from Karen at The Graphics Fairy,  I made a couple more ATC-sized chips to adorn a new set of "rose twins"...mini 3-1/2" x 5" all occasion cards.  I guess you've noticed by now that I gravitate to the floral and vintage images...the colors just seem to attract me the most.  :)

So without further adieu, here are the newest little cuties...

Supplies:

Pink Landscape Card:

Patterned Papers: Echo Park Victoria Gardens collection (damask), Making Memories Sabrina (pink mini dot)

Lace: LittleRedCottage on Etsy, & local craft store      Hug Snug seam binding      Pearls: Prima

Clipart: The Graphics Fairy (pink roses, label, postmark, frame); Dover Publications (butterfly)

Red Portrait Card:

Patterned Papers: Basic Grey Curio collection      Hug Snug seam binding      Pearls: Prima

Clipart: The Graphics Fairy (French label and red rose)      Laces: LittleRedCottage on Etsy, & local craft store

Here's another of the gift bag/matching tag sets that I made up...this one with pink, red, and lavender colored flowers on the red base.  The fun part of making these three sets was finding artwork and embellishments that all worked with the red bags...and even more fun was finding out how many actually did!  This time, the large floral and butterfly clipart images are from Dover Publications.

Once again, I used Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Rectangles die for the background, and Martha Stewart's Infinite Loops Trim punch for the paper lace trim around the center of the entire bag...

Other Supplies for the gift bag:

Pearl/Crystal flourish: Prima      Hug Snug Seam binding

Button & sheer ribbons: stash

The bottom edge of the tag is scalloped with Spellbinders Classic Scallop Edgeabilities, and EK Success Abstract Flower punch was used on the pink mini dotted strip across the front of the tag...

Other Supplies:

Patterned Papers: Echo Park Victoria Gardens collection (damask), Making Memories Sabrina (pink mini dot)

Cotton lace: local craft store    Hug Snug seam binding   Paper leaves: Handmade

Lace doily: made with yardage of cotton lace from local craft store      Pearl: Recollections

Felt Rose: My Favorite Things Mini Rolled Roses die

Thanks for visiting!



For Any Reason or No Reason at All...

During the past couple weeks, I took some time off from working with paper to working on my computer for a bit, playing with some new-to-me techniques. I'm not a digital scrapbooker or cardmaker, because I can't give up the fun of playing with papers and dimensional embellishments. But I decided it was high time I catch up and learn a little bit more...which then led to using some of that newly found knowledge to create some new embellishments for cards...which finally led to reorganizing and backing up files on my hard drives...and before I knew it, a week had gone by and I hadn't pushed a piece of paper around once!

But mid-week, I got busy with the papers again, and now I have some more goodies to share with you.

To start, here's an all occasion card - no sentiment, just a card for any reason, or no reason at all. :)

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: Sassafras Sweetly Smitten collection (floral); K&Co Ancestry collection (green)

Background paper, label text, flower urn clipart on embellishment chip:  The Graphics Fairy

Laces: LittleRedCottage on Etsy & local craft store      Pink pearl flourishes: Prima

Spellbinders Labels 8 dies      Hug Snug seam binding

Handcrafted stick pin      Button and twine: stash

Next up for today, something a little different. Using an 8x10 paper gift bag, I embellished the bag and a matching gift tag card.  I decided to make the tag in a card format so the recipient could easily reuse the bag and tag by cutting off the back of the card tag at the top fold (where I would write my to/from message) and still have a useable tag with a blank back for them to use a second time to a new recipient. (hope that makes sense! :) )  The tag is approximately 3"W x 5"H.  The first set turned out so well I made two more to put in the Etsy shop.

Here's how the purple set turned out:

Supplies-Tag Card:

Floral clipart: The Graphics Fairy      Patterned Paper (tag): Basic Grey Oh Baby! collection

Lace "doily": cut from lace yardage from Little Red Cottage on Etsy      Pearl: Recollections

Felt rose: My Favorite Things Mini Rolled Roses die      Hug Snug seam binding

Spellbinders Classic Scallop Edgeabilities       EK Success Abstract Flower edge punch

Supplies-Gift Bag:

Floral clipart: The Graphics Fairy      Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Rectangle die

Looped paper trim: Martha Stewart Infinite Loops Trim punch 

Sheer ribbon and button: local craft store      Hug Snug seam binding     Pearl/lace flourishes: Prima