Christmas Gift Wrap on the Cheap

So I am sometimes impressed with myself. In a "wow- that turned out waaay cooler than I thought" sort of way. My Christmas gift wrapping this year is one of those things so I thought I'd share. I had some leftover fabric, some leftover brown paper, and some odds and ends that go with gift wrapping like pieces of tissue paper, and tape and all. I also had some brown paper bags I had bought for my Christmas sales that I had added a little bird cut out to. That looked cute, the fabric I had matched, so I went with it.

I also carved a Christmas candy stamp (like the one's I showed you how to make here before). Then I stamped my white tissue paper with the stamp and used it on my brown paper too. The brown paper is cheap- I got a huge roll of it in the painting section of the hardware store for less than $10. The fabric, you can buy at a quilt shop, it's Moda so not super cheap but you wouldn't have to buy lots. Really all of it I had on hand (yup more evidence of my Moda obsession). I love how you can take the same idea/materials and extend it to your mailers, your larger boxed presents, your smaller gifts, etc. They make my gifts all match and I think give all my gifts this year a really distinctive look that's very very me. :)

The tags were easy and fun to do so I thought I'd throw together a quick little how-to for you, I hope it sparks some handmade fun in your day too.

Brown Paper Christmas Tags How-To
Tools and Materials
Brown paper (you can use grocery bags) cut into tag shapes
Torn bits of vintage paper (from an old book or sheet music looks nice)
Scrap pieces of fabric cut into a strip roughly the same length as your tags
A glue stick
Scissors
Crop-a-dile with eyelet


Step One: Using your glue stick, layer your torn pieces of paper and your fabric piece on top of the brown paper tag and adhere. If you want you can use a marker or pen to doodle around the edge of your tag first.
Step Two: Use your crop- a- dile to punch a hole at the end of your tag and then add an eyelet using the crimping feature on the crop-a-dile.
Step Three: Cut another small bit of the brown paper and add to top of your layers, then write your "to: ?" info for all to see.
Step Four: Cut a thin strip of your fabric and use to tie your tag to your gift. Super easy and super cute!

I'm off to do more packing and shipping and shopping and wrapping but wanted to wish you a Happy Merry Almost Christmas! Hope your day goes well too!

Gratefulness

Today I'm feeling so grateful for so many reasons. This weekend I worked on getting my book's pre-orders packed up and shipped out. I got a little carried away on the wrapping and goodies. There weren't a ton and I was feeling so very very grateful I threw in a scribble heart for everyone as well. Of course, that made the boxes heavier and I came very very close to losing money on these once I'd shipped them (so there are no longer any pre-order specials on this blog). :) I had lots of fun putting them together though and can't wait for them all to get their packages. It's exciting to anticipate.

Back to making stuff- before I was so joyously interrupted by the Fed ex guy on Friday, I was working on a little how to for a bulletin board I'm working on for my son's classroom. My idea was to make cornstalks and then on each corn cob write something each student was thankful to God for. They're kindergartners so their answers are pretty cute. I'm off in a few minutes to go cut the letters on one of those cricut machines so I'll post pics of it all finished later today or tomorrow. The techniques I used to make the cornstalks was fun so I'll give you the step by steps on those tomorrow. I'm sure you could find other uses for it- such as a Thanksgiving themed table runner, or to make a patchwork garland, or placemats, among other things :)

One more gratefulness: I want to say thank you to all of you who have been so supportive of me as I worked through the process of creating and then introducing this book. It's been a huge journey of faith and friendship for me and I am so Grateful. Thank you.