Tis the Season to Be Jolly....

More Crafty Christmas-ness form me.  This time I wanted to show off my gift tags and wrapping.  When I was in high school and just after my first attempt at college I worked retail. And the thing I took away from working the holidays in a mall (other then feet that still hurt) is wanting to wrap a present so it looks like it's from a TV show or a store display.

This year I had a lot of help from my handy dandy Cricut.  I recently purchased the Creative Memories "Holiday Tags & More" cartridge and the digital 3D bows package for my Craft Room. (Some time I will have to talk about what a great tool Cricut's Craft Room really is.)  And I used these combined with some of this years beautiful holiday pattern paper to finish off my gift wrapping perfectly.

 First off the gift tags.  I picked 3 or 4 of my favorite tags off the "Holiday Tags" cart and set them up to cut out all the layers on different pattern papers I thought co-ordinated. I then glued them together in various combinations.  Since I did a snowflake theme this year I choose tags and paper that reflected that.  Here you can see them on my desk drying after I added some glitter glue in sparkling shades from Viva and Stickles.

For my wrapping paper I found this gorgeous hand printed on recycled cotton  paper at the Container Store. (OMG they always have the best papers!) It has these concentric circles with a glitter circle in the center. I also have some snowflake and Cjhristmas tree prints in golds and blues.I used the 3D bows in my craft room to make theses cute little bows from card stock and pattern paper. There are 4 basic bow shapes, the single bow, the double bow, a long loopy strip bow and the "rosette" type bow that looks sort of like the ones you would buy in a bag with a square of sticky stapled to the bottom. (You will need brads to assemble the last 2 types.) Each type then has some different styles of edges and layers, like scallops or lacy.  I used alot of the single bow with either a single scallop edge or straight.  I thought they looked clean and pretty. Like the cream and gold card stock one above.

Here you can see a few of my wrapped gifts all ready for giving. As you can see I tried all the different bow shapes out.  I try to mix up my wrapping a bit, with some ribbons and traditional bows as well as adding Cricut cut snowflakes.

 

Here is an example of a "rosette" type bow.  I thought they were really cute all tiny like this one on a jewelry box.  But make sure to get a brad with a long "stem" when you assemble it. (And isn't the candy cane pattern on it so sweet?)


I am all excited to start giving out my gifts now that they are wrapped and ready!
Hope your Christmas in Merry and Bright and that your New Year's is Rockin'!!!!!

Decking the halls

Continuing with my Crafty Christmas theme, I have been making some paper flowers and turning them into wreaths and bouquets for decorations and gifts.

I learned how to make the flowers at Perfect Day Scrapbooking's all day black Friday crop from a very nice lady.  This you tube video shows how to make a similar flower.  I used 4 inch squares of paper and instead of folding the two side triangles down with the "back pattern" showing, I just folded it the opposite way.  Also I used a low temp hot glue gun not the tombow multi glue.I also used from heavy to thin weights of paper, a medium weight seems to work best.
  

A bag of folded "petals" ready to be glued together

 

Some of the flowers in bouquets.  I used faux pearls and colored beads in the centers and glitter glue along the edges of the petals.  Ranger's stickles and Viva Decor glitter liner worked best.

 The wreath I made for our apartment. Snowflakes are my decorating theme this year.  The following are wreaths I made as gifts.  I was really happy with how they looked.

I will post later about how I am doing my gift wrapping and cards.  Hope your holidays are merry!

P.S. If you want written directions I have a pdf I can email, just drop me a note at laurel.and.maggie@gmail.com.

The Holidays start with....a Wizard of Oz Mini Album

So I decided that this year is a crafting Christmas.  I have been busy making gifts and decorations.  For my step sister I picked up a Pinecone Press kit to make a mini ablum using the Graphic 45 "Magic of Oz" line.

First of all I love love love this paper.  I know my step sister will too, because she likes vintage and the Wizard of Oz.  I picked up a kit mainly to save time.  But also because I had bought several of the Pinecone Press album bases, like the interactive album in this kit, during Shop Hop and it was nice to learn how to put the pieces together.

I did not follow the instructions to the letter, the measurements left a bit more of the kraft colored chipboard showing than I like.  I think I will use the blank chipboard albums for more projects now that I have put one together.  I recommend the Pinecone kits, they use some pretty cool papers (lots of Graphic 45 yay! among others) and some unusual shapes and sizes for their custom album blanks. Visit their site here.