Christmas Quick Fixes

Just a few tibits today - I hope they might make the next week a little easier on you, or at least inspire you to be creative with supplies you already have in your stash!

I find that when I'm rushing around getting ready for the holidays it's beneficial to have a few tricks up my sleeves (quick fixes!) for holiday wrapping, sending and gifting.  There's never enough time in the day to squeeze in EVERYTHING you originally intended - so sometimes you need to work with what you have in order to get things done!

Quick Fix 1:  Scrappy Gift Tags

I always, ALWAYS forget about gift tags!  I don't make them, I don't buy them, I just completely forget about them!  When I was a little girl my Mum used to save all of last years cards and cut around the pictures to make large gift tags.  With a little inspiration from my friend Meg Herr (Hi, Meg!) I revisited her tradition with a twist this year...

All you need are some old Christmas cards, some fun punches, and ribbon from your stash.  Just punch out shapes from your cards (they don't even have to be centered, or entire images - I think they look best when they are a little off kilter!), punch a hole in top, thread ribbon through and you're done!

Quick Fix 2:  Sprucing up Christmas letters

One thing that I love about the Holidays is receiving Christmas letters from friends and family.  I also really enjoy writing ours - just because it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the past year.

In the past I've bought store bought pretty (EXPENSIVE!) holiday paper from the office supply store to run through my printer.  This year I had aspirations of getting some cream paper and doing some stamping and embossing on the letters.  On fifty five letters?!  Who was I kidding?!

Well my Stampin' Around Jumbo from Stampin' Up! came in INCREDIBLY useful.  I left enough space on the bottom to roll an image.  I used Christmas Chatter stamp and real red ink.  It hardly took any time at all to roll the bottom of each letter.  Maybe because of my helpful stamping buddy Oliver, shown above!

Quick Fix 3:  Origami Boxes

I had a couple of very small things to wrap - and of course the store was all out of small boxes when I purchased the gifts.  I just took some scrapbook paper (I used the Merry Moments Designer Series paper from Stampin' Up!) and put together a couple of origami boxes.  They are super quick and easy to fold - you can see my tutorial on these HERE.  Some ribbon from your stash ties the boxes up and you're good to go!

Thanks for popping by today - despite the rush of the holidays!  What are some of your quick and crafty fixes for the holidays?  Share with us in a comment below!

Happy Friday!

Baskets and a CHALLENGE - Ain't No Foolin!

Here's one of the latest in the Easter Basket series. I've worked only in paper so far (isn't it amazing how versatile a single sheet of paper or cardstock can be?!) but will be moving on to other materials next week. I used two colors of cardstock on this one and weaved it - elementary school style! - to form the basket base.



Yesterday I was reading Dot's post at Dabbled - and not unusually - was inspired! Dot has set herself a challenge to create something in some way every day for the month of April - and she's inviting us to play along! And well, you know how much I like playing : ) Sooo... I'm doing it too! I'm going to try my hardest to...

Now, do I truly believe I'll be able to do something EVERY SINGLE day? Nah... but it's the concept that I love. I just need that little push to spend a little "me-time" each day and be creative. In fact, I truly believe that doing so will make me better and more productive in the other daily areas of my life.

In light of this challenge, I took the time last night to use some of Lolly's wonderful free templates to make another variation on the Basket on a Budget - can you tell I'm liking that basket? Anyhow - Lollychops is fabulous, and so are her templates and so was her Big Time Bunny Week - and I've been meaning to make use of her templates for awhile now. I really like the way this turned out...

Joanne at Craftpassion - who I just did a fabric swap with (project coming soon - thanks, Joanne!) used those same templates to make BEAUTIFUL appliques for some baby PJ's. I'm in awe. So talented! Check them out HERE.

Phew! That's it for now! I encourage you all to be creative this month - even if it's not every day - and feel free to share your project ideas with all of us here!

Happy Thursday! : )

Basket on a Budget - Variation One

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Hope y'all had a great weekend! (Ooh look I'm talking Texan now -- haha, it was a fun trip by the way!)

In my ongoing quest to create some inexpensive Easter Basket alternatives, I spent some time tooling around with the "Basket on a Budget" template:


I used a smaller rectangle this time, of cardstock, and scalloped the long edges of the rectangle. I also added a different color liner and some 3D paper flowers. I guess it looks a little more Springy rather than Easter, huh?

The nice thing about this project is that a change in colors or embellishments would completely change the look of the basket.

More Easter Basket ideas coming soon. Enjoy!

Basket on a Budget

Good Morning! I'm in the midst of packing and finishing up some work projects before I leave for my trip to Austin, Texas... but wanted to get a quick post in before I leave. Things have been so hectic lately I've not had much time for crafting, and my craft room is a MESS! I'm serious folks, check out the table...


Yikes! Now that's a project in itself for when I return!

I won't be posting while I'm away (I'll be far too busy exploring Austin and celebrating my brother's birthday with some of my favorite people in all the world!) but I issue a challenge to you, readers. If I'm up to 30 followers when I return -- I'll post my VERY FIRST giveaway! Yes, you heard it here folks! For all of you non-followers out there who check in with my blog regularly, don't be shy! Add as a follower so that I can tell you "hi!" and we'll do a super fun giveaway next week. Sound good? Excellent. Let the following begin...

And now to the Basket on a Budget! (Sometimes I get a little off-subject, eh?) I LOVE holidays - just love them - and Easter is no exception. I'll be putting together an Easter basket for the hubby and some close friends - and truly cannot WAIT for the time in my life when I'll be making Easter baskets for my own children -- aaaaah, so much crafty fun! Anyhow - I'm experimenting with some handmade basket ideas, and will share a series of them with you as I go along. Today's basket is using origami folds, and takes less than five minutes - seriously. Perfect for some candies, cookies, etc.



I used two sheets of 12x12 scrapbook paper back to back for my baskets, although the folds are so simple that I think you could use lightweight cardstock for a little more stability. The tutorial for these cuties can be found HERE. Whaddaya think?

Until next week... Happy Crafting! Don't forget to add yourself as a follower and get ready for a GIVEAWAY and lots of Easter basketing next week! : )

Project Updates

The favor boxes for Alison's Shower are coming along - I have just over half of them done. This is good considering the shower is THIS SUNDAY! : )





I needed to whip up a quick tag for them, so I printed text on lightweight cardstock, then stamped over the top of it and used a circle punch to punch them out. Simple, quick, and cute!

I was out looking for some fabric yesterday for a SECRET PROJECT I'm working on... and found this.



I was originally looking for something in the purple family but there wasn't anything I loved. This, I think, is beautiful. I'll be posting about it's accompanying project next week.

It's funny really - considering my mother is a costumer and seamstress - that I'm just now discovering fabric and sewing. As a child I had little to no interest in it whatsoever. Now my mind is filled with all of the fabric creations ahead of me! Good thing I have Mum to help out!

Shower Favors

I started working on some origami boxes (40 of them!) to be used as favor containers at Alison's Bridal Shower this coming weekend. I found paper in three modern floral prints that each incorporate her wedding colors (raspberry and lime) and made up a sample in each.

I still need to work on creating a tag of some description to attach to each of them, but here are the samples thus far...



To see the pattern that I based these boxes on, click HERE.

Origami Heart Bookmarks

Here's a cute idea from Origami Club which would be a sweet little valentines gift.


I used regular 6x6 inch origami paper. Each piece makes two bookmarks. I experimented with different bold color combinations and made a "set."


These are the perfect size for novel-sized paperbacks. To enlarge the bookmark, just use larger squares of paper.


I love how they save your page by sitting over the edge - not as easy for the bookmark to fall out! I played around with some double-printed cardstock I had - but the prints are too large in my opinion.


These would look great made with double printed paper featuring tiny prints. I will have to mess around with the more when I get a chance.

I'm thinking of including one or more of these bookmarks in Mariah's Get Better Box.

Origami Valentines Boxes

I love to make origami boxes, they are the perfect way to package little gifts, cookies, or candy. When I made these particular boxes over the weekend, I used plain colored lightweight cardstock and stamped designs on it. You'll need two squares of paper/cardstock, one slightly smaller than the other. Unfortunately, I stuffed these boxes a little TOO full of Valentines goodies, so they ended up a little mis-shapen. But hey, they work.


Here are a couple of photos of the boxes done WELL - when I made them for my good friend Heather's baby shower last year. We used little candles in the boxes for favors:



I'd love to provide step-by-step text how-to on the folds, but I'll have to add that at a later time (it will take a while) so hopefully the pictures are relatively self-explanatory for now. Don't hesitate to ask if you have specific questions.