Posts Tagged ‘gifts’
Designing gift tags and Chinese New Year cards
Color, pattern, texture, shine…So simple and brilliant. It’s my favorite design rule, and I’m still learning (since I’m not even close to having studied art design). The best part is it works for putting together an outfit, a room, a gift tag?! Actually, it didn’t start out that way, but when I looked at the final products it sort of jumped out at me: red, lots of patterns that give off lots of texture and the tag is shiny. Last week, I was scribbling and working on the last of this series of five when I accidentally spilled my tea on them. Ugh. After some quick blots and a night sandwiched in paper towel and phone book pages, they survived with little water scarring. Sharpies are awesome.
These tags were meant to be maybe a first offering on Etsy… maybe…with Valentine’s Day and all. But, with the slight water damage, I wouldn’t feel right about selling them. So, I started on some other ones. The third from the left isn’t quite done. Then I tried one with the new Copic Multiliners; that one smudged.
Scribble art turned gift tags
Shiny paper and Copic markers don't work as well
While I took a small break from putting away Christmas decorations, I started thinking about Chinese New Year, the next holiday we’ll be celebrating in this house. (I have Holiday A.D.D.) There are these Chinese zodiac rubber stamps and a variety of Asian themed stamps I want to use.
Let’s see how this pans out over the next week or so. I should have some time to work on them with the big snowstorm and freezing temperatures coming our way.
Tags: cards, crafting, doodles, gifts, scribble art
Recycled Cardboard Box Notebooks
This is too much fun and too easy. I love making little gifts for little friends. These recycled cereal box (snack box, pasta box) notebook is just too cute. They’re all drying right now in my kitchen because my basement crafting table is completely cluttered with other projects in progress. (This is why I think I have crafting A.D.D. but that’s for another time.)
So… I was cutting and breaking down all these boxes and saving them in a container (not cluttered). I’m sure my husband thought I was nuts, becoming a hoarder. (See honey, I’m using them!!) I took all the scrap paper I was using for computer printer paper (like backs of school notes, school homework, junk mail with blank sides, etc.) and cut them down to the sizes I needed. I tried to stay with either half sheets (5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″) or quarter-size (4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″).
My dilemma was figuring out how I wanted to bind the books. I actually tried handsewing one book. There are tons of how-to’s online (like here or here), but in the end, it just didn’t look the way I wanted it to. I could have (COULD HAVE) just gone to the office copy place to have them bind the books with a comb, but I really wanted to stick with an all-recycled type of project and, dare I say, I’m frugal. Here’s how I chose to bind.
Just pick your covers, take your sheets of paper and clamp together. I kept these to 25-30 sheets each so clothespins are perfect. White glue is an amazing thing. Just squeeze some down the side you want as a spine, let dry a little, and then do a second application. The book is practically done at this point, and that’s where I am in the picture. What I have left to do is to make a nice, skinny spine cover with solid colored paper like craft paper or maybe even brown paper bag? We’ll see what I have in my paper bin.
Happy recycling.
Tags: crafting, fun, gifts, kids, recycled, recycling, tutorials
Crafting Last Week
It was a great turnout at the Craft Social last Friday night! Special thanks to the Craft Social team! Lots of great women came by and doodled with me: Katie, Lindy, Jen, Susan, Karen, Sarah, Susie, Simone, Krissy… wish I had a sign-in sheet so I could remember everyone’s name. Well, there were at least 26 people at the table because I came home with only four handouts. These crafty colleagues were so fun to talk and brainstorm with. My head was spinning when I got home. Good thing I had yoga on Saturday morning. It helped calm me down. I think the future might hold some special projects – I’m checking into the possibilities and will report on them.
On another front, from my sewing table:
This baby blanket was shipped to my long time friend, Jen, and her husband. They had a new addition to the family, and I was finally able to sit down and sew this. It was my first time working with the cuddly, soft, “bumpy” fabric. Not too bad, but I did have a little trouble with it bunching every so often. The ribbon tabs are a fun add-on for babies, and not that difficult to do. I think choosing the ribbons was harder. At the time of this picture, I hadn’t finished the topstitching around the border, but you get the idea. Abby felt like trying it out for a minute before I washed it the final time.
My little guy kept himself preoccupied with this puzzle while I finished up. I’m so proud of him.
Should I Use These for Grocery Bags?
You know when your family or relatives go on vacation and they bring back a little something as a momento from their trip? It’s a nice gesture, right? I think it is. Normally. But why these designs? Seriously, is my sense of style that hard to read that my relatives purchase these very, uh, unique totes?
It’s not that I don’t appreciate my family’s thinking of me while away on their tours. The tote on the far left is beaded, crazy beaded. Where would I use this? And the tote with the woman came with it’s own makeup/satellite bag. My daughter thought that bag was slightly creepy. And, the one on the bottom is newly acquired, even though the date on it is the year 2000. Note to family: if you feel like you want to buy something, really, just spend it on my kids. They LOVE it when you come with small treasures from abroad. They have stories to tell their friends like, “My grandparents got this for me in Paris.”
So, do I take these totes to the grocery and use them until they fall apart? I suppose they could be good dress-up material for the kids. Library book bags? Ooh, white elephant gift!
Tags: bags, gifts, grocery, purses, recycled, strange gifts, tote bags
More (teacher) gift ideas
…and maybe something for you? Read on.
June just went by like a blur, and as the end of the school year approached, I was giving myself headaches thinking of small, thoughtful gifts for Abby to give to her teachers. As my husband so nicely pointed out, “We don’t have to give everyone a gift, you know?” I know, but at the same time, I think Abby really enjoyed every one of her teachers, the classes and everything she learned. And, I felt it was appropriate to give a little (let’s stress little) something.
For the reader, reading teacher, librarian – a handmade book wedgie. Sounds a bit nicer than book THONG. Haha. Abby picked out the beads and the charm at the bottom says, “Inspire”.
For her main homeroom teacher, (along with this) we compiled a cookbook with favorite recipes shared and handwritten by the students. A couple of parents and I did all the scrapbooking layouts, and it took a few hours. Each page is different and the recipes range from “chocolate milk (pour syrup until your mom says stop)” to “Greek lentil soup (you don’t have to be Greek to eat this)”. This page was my daughter’s. She picked shrimp de jonge. Surprised?
Abby would tell me about her art teacher and how he taught her class that a little glue goes a long, long way. “A dot is a lot, that’s what he says, Mom.” So for the art teacher, a custom print that my husband and friend did, and stationery to match (printed at home). I just printed the picture at home on photo paper. It’s intentionally made to look like those motivational business posters or the funny de-motivational posters.
I cannot take the credit for the card layout. My cyber-acquaintance, author and designer, Amy Karol at angrychicken made these great cards with sayings. Please, check it out!
So, this might be fun. Would you like to share your teacher gift ideas or end-of-school-year traditions? If you do, we’d like to share some craftiness with you! We’ll randomly select a someone on Saturday, July 11 to receive an Abby-Julie book wedgie or custom 8-pack of stationery with your own quote. Leave your comment between now and Friday night (7/10, 11:59 CST) with an e-mail or some way so I can contact you. Many thanks, friends!
UPDATE: As of 7/12/09, no comments on this post.
Tags: cards, crafting, gifts, giveaways, kids, paper, teacher gift
Gifts from the East
My sister-in-law and her fiance went on a wonderful Philippines and Southeast Asia trip and came back with goodies for us. We love her to bits!
Fabric from Singapore picked out by my husband’s cousin… the possibilities are endless.
This is a tiled mirror from Bali. I think they haggled with a street vendor for it. Love the turtle-shell tiles!
I’ll have to look up some Balinese recipes to use the curry powders… hot, hotter and on fire!
Thanks for the gifts!
