Brown Bag 2 - the small bag

I love, love, love these small brown bags I got on Etsy last year. (Sadly, the seller is no longer selling) I use them for small gifts because they are quick and easy to make pretty!

This one I just stenciled with the Stars stencil from Studio Calico  that I picked up last month at my local stamp store. I'm so glad I got it because I can't find it anywhere now. I used the Festive Berries Distress Ink and some stickers from a Girls Paperie Christmas set. (Also, not in business anymore) 

I used the same stars and stickers for the tag.

I think my Secret Santa partner is really going to like his gift. 

Bonus: there's a set of 6 Star stenciled bags and gift tags in my shop! At $4.00 for 6 you can't miss out on giving a few gifts in super cute bags. 

Brown Bags at Christmas - bag one

I am not a fan of those generic looking Christmas gift bags, paper or plastic. They're usually not very cute (or the cute ones are super pricey) and while they can be reused, they just don't like them. Since I'm giving a few crocheted blankets as gifts this year I gave some serious thought as to how to give them. I decided to go with brown grocery bags, that I picked up at my grocery store. 

I carefully flattened it out, creasing it along the inside bottom fold so that it would lie flat while I worked on it. (Clips came in handy for this!)

I gave it a layer of white acrylic paint and then a layer, while it was still wet, of some red Martha Stewart glitter paint. It's a very delicate layer of glitter, which is what I love about her glitter paints. I just kind of...did whatever. Sounds lazy, doesn't it? I didn't want to put a lot of thought into it because when I do that it turns into a big production and this is meant to be a quick project. I took some markers and doodled some lines. I layered a few paper strips, half a doily. Some foam and glitter snowflakes. Deciding it was too plain, I stenciled some mini stars in Festive Berries Distress Ink all over and topped it off with some silver letters. For this one I'll probably just leave it open at the top and add a hanging gift tag. 

A gift of music

Download my 2010 Christmas mix here!

ornaments!

Don't be jealous (!) : as of 740 p.m. this evening I finished ALL of my Christmas cards for the upcoming holiday season. The tags in the first picture had been my first idea. I scrapped the tags and went ahead with the rosettes on cards. I'm going to go ahead and use these for gift tags.



I won't show my cards off until I get them in the mail next month but I will give a sneak peak at the color scheme:


Rosettes made with the Tim Holtz Rosette die, which just makes the job so, so much easier!

It's that time of year again

Time to start thinking about Christmas! And Christmas cards!


Above: Abril Lamarque, a Cuban-American artist, created this set of six nesting envelopes and small holiday card in 1930.

Below: Holiday tag made by Tim Holtz.

A collection of matchboxes ready to be packed and shipped for this swap!

...joy...

And last but not least...

The very last gift I had to make!

twins!

For my little friend Lillie. Pattern from here. (Super easy too!)

Look at what I got!

Fab ornaments from Anna!







Yes, there is a tree. After having to go to 5 different Lowe's for one, one was finally purchased. It's still in it's wrapping in my dining room, but I assure you in the next few days these ornaments will grace it's branches!

Teeny tiny JOY

Oh, I am in love with it. So much so I might keep it for myself.

We 3 Trees of Orient Are?

These trees have been sitting and waiting for something to be done with them and finally, inspired by some other trees I saw, this happened. I'm really loving the red and white one!

chimney worthy

More ornaments. And a stocking

Mini stocking for a swap over at Swap-Bot. Filled with scrapbooking stuff as that's what my partner is into and it wasn't a stretch to fill it with supplies I had around. I love this fabric and wish I'd gotten more than a 1/2 yard; too bad Hobby Lobby was out when I went back to get more.





More ornaments...this time little wooden snowflakes painted pink and blue, then coated with clear micro-beads, then glued together back to back to make a little hanging snowflake.

Snowflakes from this Etsy shop. Microbeads from here (and they come in so many fab colors!)

ahead of the game

A sampling of the 25 cards I made for my personal Christmas card giving: (click to enlarge!)



Materials:

Coffee sleeve and the embossed token they have on their gift sets from Starbucks. (the wish medallion and the cardboard piece in the first picture) (I really love their whole "wish" holiday campaign this year.)

Paper and embellishments: Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses and Cosmo Crickett's Jolly By Golly sets.
(pretty much every embellishment each set has. They were too cute to resist!)

And we're off...

The first few gifts for Christmas have been made...(And everything I've needed to buy has been purchased...last week.) (I know, I know.)

The farm wall hanging. It's a Martha Stewart craft kit I got on clearance at Micheal's awhile ago. (And wow, they really marked it down. I picked up for $3.99 because the box was smashed.) Took all of 5 minutes to put together.




I saw these the other day Chez Beeper Bebe and bookmarked them because they were too cute to not save.



It's a huge set of 12, so I split them into two groups and made a little Velcro carry bag. One for a boy, one for a girl. I just printed on regular weight card stock and to make them a little sturdier, I just covered one side with clear contact paper. I substituted string for regular yarn because I had it on hand and gave one end a plastic bead to serve as an anchor.

I've also boxed up a few of the ornaments and have them ready to be sent off...but still have more to make. I see that as today's low-key project.

More JOY

It's beginning to look a lot like...ornaments

From the bookmark folder labeled "Christmas Ornaments". These are for a swap I will not name so it'll keep the element of surprise.

This one I did from this tutorial over at Zakka Life. Degree of difficulty? None. In total it took about 5 minutes to whip up once I cut all the circles out. This one is a 4 inch circle; she recommends not going smaller than that but I'm curious to see how a smaller circle will come out.


LOVE. This one. Love. I used the pattern from Make it Do. (I used the pattern she links from Kaboodle.) Absolutely simple and stunning.


Lark and Lola had this up last week and that was when I made these. I used antique dictionary pages as I'm short on sheet music. Centers were a little difficult to come by as I just couldn't decide. All this Christmas scrapbook stuff stockpiled and I couldn't find the right thing. So I went with whimsical and simple.



These are going off to my swap partner tomorrow. As to which one is going to be the "official" ornament of 2010 (made in bulk and shipped to friends and family for their trees) is yet to be determined...

Swaps!

Swaps where you can find me this holiday season:

The Brooklyn Bride's Card Swap

Free People Ornament Swap

I do believe there is time to join these except for the one at Pampering Becki if you want to join. Also, if you want to exchange ornaments or cards with me one-on-one just leave me a comment with your email and we'll set it up!