Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I am pretty relaxed when it comes to my crafts and projects. But there is ONE thing that I can be pretty hardcore about. GIFT WRAP. I LOVE beautifully wrapped gifts – I always have. My family has come to expect my yearly themed wrapping paper, ribbon, and coordinating tags. In fact, they even put up with my request to only wrap gifts in the approved papers, ribbons and tags. And because I really love the act of wrapping a gift, I like to wrap for most of the family.
This year, I decided to go with my sprayed kraft tags (with bits of bling), glittered wrapping paper *, and double faced satin ribbon in hot pink.
Some of my gift wrapping tips…
- Have a central location with all the supplies close at hand.
- Some of my wrapping must haves include the scotch wrapping paper cutter and pre-cut tape strips. I usually dont like little specialized gadgets, but the this cutter really is a time saver. And for specialty wrapping like foils, glitter, and f locking – it makes clean cuts every time.
- Create tags ahead of time. This year I had variations on each tag – some had names, others initials, snowflakes, ornaments etc.
- Stickers are awesome – to mix things up, you can also forgo the tag all together and use letter stickers to spell out your recipients name directly on the package!
A word about glittered paper
When I saw this glittered paper at the store, I instantly fell in love. So I picked up bunch of rolls and happily brought them home to adorn this years bounty. Well, when I started wrapping the gifts, I realized that this was some ADVANCED wrapping paper. Because the entire surface is glittered, regular tape, even packing tape does not stick to it! Each roll came with a few pieces of heavy duty double stick tape. (it was crap and didn’t do the job) What finally worked was my Super Tape. So to keep my kids from going crazy trying to use this “advanced wrapping paper”, I also picked up a couple rolls of beautiful but much easier to use regular wrap.
WINNERS CIRCLE
Lets pick our first German Glass glitter winner shall we?
send your mailing address and phone number to ana@anacabrera.net to claim your prize! The winner of the 2nd glass glitter assortment will be announced Monday. Leave a comment for another entry to win!
Our little house tour and giant candy tutorial has to be pushed to later this week, but I promise to post it this weekend. In the meantime – enjoy one of my favorite homemade ornaments to create!
supplies
- chipboard bird blank (this is from maya road)
- paint
- glitter (german glass glitter)
- glue
- bits of ribbon, old book pages, jewels
1. begin by painting the chipboard and allow to dry. you can also start with cardstock, but be sure to layer a couple sheets together to make it more sturdy.
2. brush on glue and glitter the bird’s crest and and beak.
3. add jewels or more glitter to the tail, and cut a simple wing from book paper or ribbon.
NOTE: For these birds I love to use the true german glass glitter. As the birds age the glitter gets a beautiful patina. And when hung in your tree, the surrounding lights will shimmer beautifully!
GIVEAWAY ALERT
EVEN MORE genuine german glass glitter is up for grabs! Leave a comment and you will be entered to win one of TWO samplers. Winners announced this weekend.
This is Sedona.
She is the youngest of my three totally amazing daughters. Tonight, she showed me what the holidays are all about. I was sitting on the couch in the living room admiring the Christmas Tree and enjoying the neighborhood lights. In walks my little one. She plops herself next to me, and with out any hesitation asks me to sing with her.
So sing we did. Christmas tune after Christmas tune… laughing all along the way. Joking the way only Sedona can. Lea and Xander joined us. The Xman added his own special brand of dancing – complete with kick ball change, marching, and even a little break dancing. Sierra and Savannah joined in adding more love and laughter. And ending our little “program” with our own rendition of the 12 days of Christmas - ”and a pickle in a white plastic tree”. All the glitter, tinsel, and lights are the outward expression of what this season is about. LOVE.
Thanks Sedona, you rock.
Along with my giant snowflakes, I figured I needed some smaller snowflake cousins to fill in the little spaces here and there. So here are two more simple snowflakes. I used my Silhouette to cut out the snowflakes, however, you could use the pattern from the giant snowflake tuturial and just shrink it down to suit the size you need.
First up is a simple silver jeweled snowflake. I cut the snowflakes from white cardstock and spayed them silver. This is was very easy and much more cost effective than using silver paper. And although the photo doesn’t do it justice, they are really shiny and sparkly. I added little accent jewels in a nice blue as well. For this project I just used the acrylic sticky back jewels since they are thinner weight than the foam core and have a greater chance of now making it to next year.
And of course, I had to do more glittered snowflakes! These are once again cut from white cardstock and glittered with really light pink Martha Stewart glitter. Since these are made from cardstock - I suggest using spray adhesive rather than liquid glue to ensure the paper did not warp and wrinkle. It also make glittering all these snowflakes a really quick and easy job.
GIVEAWAY ALERT
Don’t forget to leave a comment for another chance to win a german glass glitter prize package worth over $50! The winner will be announced Thursday when I give my holiday house tour! Be sure to come back tomorrow to learn how to make some fun candy inspired ornaments and decor that even Dr. Seuss would love.
As I mentioned in my most recent spot on Paperclipping Roundtable, I have been working on some ginormous deco pieces that even Elf himself would be proud of! Here is the first in that series. These giant snowflakes are really simple to make. The whole project only took about 20 min. from start to finish. {I will share a photo of his in place next week when I post my Holiday tour of my home!} And don’t miss the details of the latest GIVEAWAY at the end of this post!
supplies
- foam core (got mine at Walmart for under $3)
- pattern
- sharp craft knife
- spray adhesive [Scotch Super 77 or other brand]
- glitter* [for this project I used German glass glitter since I know that I will be keeping it from year to year]
[click to continue…]
I heard somewhere that MONEY ISSUES are one of the top causes of arguments in a marriage. Well, being a single mom, money is still a hotbed subject for sure. Being in “transition” as far as work is right now… just adds to the stress of the season. Don’t get me wrong, I am blessed. VERY blessed and count my blessings every day. But I have to admit that lately, I have really been feeling the full weight of my responsibility to my daughters. At moments like this, it would be nice to have someone who I could vent to. Someone who would share this burden with me. (note: this is not to say that I don’t have any help, I sure do. But I am talking about the kind of support that only a true partner can give you) It would be nice to have someone who would share the weight of finding solutions to my problems right now.
And being without full time work around the holidays, ugh. I just need to get it out there. Off my chest so I can do what I gotta do… and concentrate on what I do have. Three wonderful daughters who I am trying with all my might to shield from the stress that I feel right now. I just want them to always feel safe and secure.
And to top everything off, I have to admit feeling guilty for even feeling the way I do and being so stressed. After all, I am very blessed, have support and help in other forms, and well… I am certainly not the worst off there is. Today I need a partner, but will settle with a friend.
