Christmas Gift Tags

 After making christmas cards this weekend, i thought i would make some tags.  They might end up attached to cards.  They might end up on gifts.  They might end up hanging from a tree or even a banner. They are so fun and fast and easy to make!  For these i used an assortment of vintage themed scrapbook paper and some lovely Florentine inspired prints.  I cut the birds out of a scrapbook paper and the dragon fly and moth are two dimensional stickers with vellum wings from Joann's dollar selection.

These cute little tags were copied from my friend who had the idea to cut out these ornament shapes from a sheet of scrapbook paper and attach them to tags.  I just loved the colours - a nice variation from traditional green and red.

I used background paper that was already sort of patchwork-y or added my own blocks and stripes.  I glued down the "string" of the ornament to the tag, and placed a foam glue dot underneath to lift it up.  Then comes the fun part of selecting assorted ribbons and fibres to tie through the hole.

Click on photo to enlarge to see the sparkley details!

The Perfect Sunday

After a perfectly icky rainy Saturday, Sunday dawned dry and warmer. A group of co-workers met at my place around 10am for a day of shopping and crafting. (My two favorite pastimes that don’t include my husband…!)

First we went to the Rose Bowl Flea market. Let me tell you – if you want bargains, go to the flea market the day after a blinding rain storm, with the risk of rain the day of the sale. I can only assume that is what kept people away. It was deadsville. The paid parking lots were empty. Or maybe it is just the time of year – most people were at the mall or toys r us. Vendors were begging for sales. Right off the bat they would say everything is 50% off. You would have been SO much better off at the flea market.

I picked up a bunch of hand written letters and envelopes from the 30’s for $2 bucks.

And some modern postcards with vintage images - 3 for a buck. This guy was giving stuff away. I could have bought so much more.

Another booth had piles of ephemera for a buck. I got these old contact sheets of family photos.

I just love this sentiment - apparently Ruth will "stir up memories of bygone days"!

The autograph book, plus this 1935 yearbook from a LA association filled with cool old photos and advertising – all for $10.

I picked up two packs of interesting buttons for a dollar.

This heavenly 3" ballet pink satin ribbon was only $4.

And finally a vintage silver Christmas tree stand like this one, but not shiny. I just love the design, it was $10.

– all for $28. So what am I missing? Oh yeah – I picked up a mahjong tile for a dollar. That adds up to $28.

After exhausting ourselves at the market, we had a nice pot luck lunch of empanadas, orzo salad, broccoli quiche and a green salad with cranberries and almonds. I made cookies with a recipe that uses a cake mix and leftover Halloween candy. I used Butterfingers. So sweet – but good.

The group I had over is very creative and not intimidated to dive into my supplies and get started. We did mostly collage gift tags that could be used as ornaments, which we dipped in melted beeswax.

For these tags I used bird patterned napkins over script printed paper. The beeswax makes the napkin translucent, adding depth.

Here are the backs - just wrapping paper.

Here is a promotional CD folder that i covered with striped paper and coated with beeswax. I just gesso'd the CD. Once i decide what to do with it - i'll decorate the CD. It could make a cute card.

Here's the front.

Then I started these larger collages on sheet music as a base. I used female models from a fashion brochure. I plan to add more stuff to these – especially to make them more interesting clothes – maybe in fabric, or decorative papers or fibers. But I only had out all my Christmas themed stuff to work with.

It was a fun day and my first craft gathering here in So-cal. I hope to have many more. My white wall to wall carpeting survived thanks to heavy duty plastic drop cloths. See here to read why that is significant. Who puts white carpeting in a dining room?

Crafts for kids: altered shipping tags

I have been doing volunteer work at a couple of local elementary schools while i continue looking for a job. At one school i do once a week with some older girls. We have been doing altered books. It took a while to get them into it - but i think they are hooked. Next week they asked for something with a theme of cupcakes and sweets! I'll have to put my thinking cap on for that one. On Tuesday we did a spread with red, black and marbled grey paper as a background for flaps made out of playing cards. Sorry no pics - we leave the books at school.Today i worked with the younger kids. Last week we did ATC's along with an accordion folder to take them home. Today we did altered shipping tags with a library book style envelope.
Here are the steps for the envie: i precut heavy handmade paper into 10" by 6" rectangles

using a template i outlined the areas for the kids to cut away and then round over the top portion

fold in the flaps at the top and bottom

staple the sides closed
For the tags i had each child select three pieces from the coordinating papers i had assembled - in a green, yellow and red pallette. We tore three strips about 2" by 6" from the paper.
We worked with plain shipping tags - but you could just as easily cut cardstock into a tag shape. Next we applied glue to one side of the tag and attached the strips.
They applied glue to the back and folded the paper over. Trimmed away the excess with scissors. And re-punched the tag hole.

Each child chose a wooden bug to attach to their card.And a ribbon or fun fibre. Then they could go crazy with stickers. I keep trying to get them to use restraint with the stickers, but I guess 7 and 8 year olds are not clear on the "less is more" theory of design! Finally they could slip their tag into the envelope and take it home to surprise mom and dad!

Since i have been looking at these little wooden bugs, i think a ladybug would just be the perfect addition to the wall art quote i did earlier this week!