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. 

stencils!

i went into michael's today to pick up yarn (red heart super savers are 2 for 5!) and noticed that they finally had the martha stewart paints in. not all of the michael's here in town have had the line; i've been hoarding my glitter paints from it until they started offering it closer by.

(i can hoard no more!) (if you haven't tried the martha glitter paint, i highly suggest it)

i ended up getting a stencil set - 8.99 and I used my coupon, always a plus. i was a little leery about buying them because they aren't really meant for paper but i'm so, so pleased with how they worked out.

i bought the fair isle dots set. i've marked each image with what i used so that you can see the difference in product. i just used basic manilla tags. i love that these stencils are adhesive back and they didn't seem to stick to the paper when i was ready to pull them up. they wiped down easily with a baby wipe and did not lose any stickiness when i put them back on their storage sheet.

i used 3 of the border stencils and the tattered angels rudolph glimmer mist (that was a seasonal thing)


for this one, i just laid out a few random stencils and used the festive berries distress pad (also another limited edition but still available) i used the foam for this tag and am quite pleased with the detail.

this one is the broken china distress stain. to be honest, i just assumed that the stain would run under the stencil, but that sticky back is really great and there was no mess. even the detail is clear. not as crisp as the ink, but still pretty clear for a stain.

i am in love with the jenni bowlin dabber line -- this one is weather vane. this is also my favorite stencil in the set and i've already got a few ideas what to do with it.

i also used a random assortment of them in my art journal for today's page and i had the same results: crisp, clear images done with paint dabbers and no issues peeling the stencils off the paper.

{note: this isn't any kind of paid advertisement or review. i just happened upon the stencils while shopping and thought i'd share my results with others. i know i have a hard time spending money on new products if i don't see how they work before hand.}

Kinda like Martha

After an exhaustive search for wooden blocks (not really. It was just hot and I wanted to go home), I finally found a bag of six at Hobby Lobby. The last bag of six. I was assured, though, that they would be getting more in stock this week should I require anymore. That's great news, because after this project, I know I'm going to need more.


(Note. I could just order them online and be done with it.)


I gave the unfinished blocks a light sanding then painted them with the Golden Glazes. I was going to go the acrylic paint route, but decided I wanted a softer look. So Glazes it was.

The paper just came from my scrap bin and the stickers were some letter set I'd picked up who knows when. I did screw up my idea though: I wanted to do an A-B-C and an X-Y-Z. I was distracted and went A-B-C all the way through, but you know what, it works.


The key, I've found, to Martha Stewart projects is you can't expect yours to turn out as PERFECTLY as hers. You just can't. If you do, then you'll hate your end results and chuck your project in the trash when you are done. In fact, that's how I live my crafting life: I have to know that my projects are not always going to look like what they do in the pictures. Or even in my head, sometimes. It really takes the pressure off my creativity level.

I love these blocks. These are going to my 2 year old cousin Sullivan as a late birthday present. They're also going to be baby gifts for Christmas. I'm even considering making a set for adults; I can think of a few that would enjoy a set of blocks to have on their desk to play with.