Gifting

Hello, Summer!

Howdy, crafty friends! Thanks for allowing me a little break as we wrapped up the school year and wound down over the holiday weekend.

The kiddo said ADIOS to 8th grade and will be headed off to high school next year. *gulp* Not quite sure how time went by so quickly! This weekend we just enjoyed some down time, and it was nice to get a little breather and enjoy time unhurried as a family.

This week will be a busy one as I fast & furiously work to finish up product and prep for a craft fair this coming weekend. My mom will be joining me again, and we’re looking forward to our first summer event. We typically stick to fall events. So we’re interested to see if we’ve managed to put together a good selection of product based on a different season. What would you be looking for at a summer craft fair?

One of the new products I’ll be offering is the cute little Fun in the Sun gift bag that includes some sunscreen, hydration packets, and some SPF lip balm — a perfect hostess gift for those summer poolside get-togethers! The Notes & Totes die set makes the perfect little bag to hold all of the goodies. I’ve made an assortment of these little gift bags and have pulled all of my favorite (retired) summer-inspired patterns to create the bags. For this bag, I’ve used the retired Bloom Impressions paper and accented with Crumb Cake. For a good hold, I chose narrow tear-and-tape to assemble.

Is this not the cutest? I really hope these sell. What do you think — yay or nay on the idea?

Products used in today’s project:
Crumb Cake cardstock
Bloom Impressions DSP (retired)
Notes & Totes dies
Stuffings: hydration packets, sunscreen, lip balm

Valentines

Happy PALentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody! So glad you stopped by today. I’ve been so tired when I got home from the office on Thursday and Friday that I pretty much had dinner, did the usual family thing, and then went straight to bed! It’s a super busy time of year with the kiddo’s various activities, church activities picking up as we head into Lent, and just life stuff. Do you ever have weeks where you’re just done when you get home? I feel like I’m having a string of them.

Despite being pretty wiped out from the work day, I did actually play in the crafty goodies the last two days in preparation from Valentine’s Day. So today, I’m going to be bringing you two posts to show you what I pulled together from the crafty stash to make some folks feel a little love this week. I have oodles of Valentine-themed goodies in the retired Stampin’ Up! stash and that’s where I turned for my projects. I like to swipe holiday-themed things when they go on the sale rack in the store to prep for the next year. For anyone who likes to make things for craft fairs or just likes to make things to give away, this is a perfect way to give gifts from the heart on a budget! So we’re pulling out last year’s beautiful Most Adored foiled paper, Celebrate Love ephemera, and Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon, along with some gift bags I bought on clearance a Christmas or two ago.

I like to make little gifties for my co-workers, and with some clearance chocolates in-hand, I just needed to whip up some cute packaging. I had a package of pre-scored, pre-assembled SU! gift bags in my stash and they were just the perfect size to fill with the assortment of chocolates I purchased — Hershey Kisses, Hershey Nuggets, and some Lindor truffles. I cut some smaller pieces of metallic tissue paper from my wrapping stash to stuff in each bag. And then I set about making the custom gift tags. I chose a red plaid pattern from the Most Adored paper pack and cut tags using the Heartfelt Hexagon punch. I punched a small hole in the top of each one and thread a loop of red & white baker’s twine to affix the tag to each bag. I made a bow of the Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon and then placed a sentiment from the Celebrate Love ephemera pack on top using dimensionals. I tied the tag to the bag and voila — gift complete.

Sometimes it’s just a simple touch that really elevates a gift. And all we needed here to dress up the cute SU! gift bag was a tag. If you drop back by a little later today, I’m going to show you how I dressed up the little gifties I got for my boys for Valentine’s Day.

Products used:
Most Adored DSP, Celebrate Love ephemera, Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon (retired)
Heartfelt Hexagon punch
Red & white baker’s twine
Dimensionals

Christmas · Gifting

Custom Gift Bags

Welcome back, friends. I’ve been under the weather the last several days, which is really cutting into my crafting time. Because quite frankly, I don’t feel like crafting. *gasp* I know — I can’t even believe I said it either.

Luckily I had made some fairly decent progress on office gifties and I’ve been able to share those projects with you. I’ll be giving my coworkers gift bags filled with handmade goodies. And today you’re getting a look at the gift bag shell. Why just a shell? Because I’ll be putting all the finishing touches on once all of the giftie goodies are tucked inside.

I learned how to make an assortment of gift bag sizes from my upline Patty Bennett. This particular bag uses 2 sheets of 12×12 patterned paper. I happened to pull from some of my favorite retired paper packs to make my gift bags. These come together quickly and easily and I love being able to coordinate all of the items in the bag! I’ll show you the finished product once I get all of them finished. Hopefully I’ll be well enough to finish them before our office party on Thursday!

Tune in tomorrow as I show you a super cute gift set in a handmade box!