Friday, December 17, 2010

Pretty Presents & Giveaway Announcement

Hi! I wasn't in my office to create a blog post yesterday as we had a snow day here in North Carolina! Unfortunately it wasn't the kind of snow day you could go out and play in...it was mostly sleet and freezing rain! Brrr! So Christopher and I stayed in and finished a 1000 piece puzzle he had been working on and then we made a gingerbread village. It was fun to spend time together, drinking hot chocolate and playing!


Here's our little gingerbread village.


Every year I hold out hope that our gingerbread project will resemble the picture on the box a little more than the previous years, but each year they look like this...walls caving in, icing smeared everywhere with sticky pieces of candy attached at random! ;) This village kit was purchased at Target if any of you are interested in making one with your kiddos.


I've also been working on wrapping presents and would like to share some with you. Don't you just love some of the pretty packages people wrap for Christmas? I never put much effort into our gift wrap because I'm concerned about the environmental impact of using so much paper, tags, bows, etc. But then I realized I could dress up the boxes and bags we use year after year!



These two presents are packaged in beautiful, reusable boxes from Nordstroms. I used the Wizard die cut machine with some Spellbinder's dies to create tags for these boxes. The stamped images are from Papertrey Ink. I colored my tags with Copic markers and used little office supply tags to print the to/from names. This entire piece slides right off the box so you don't even have to undo the bow! The box, ribbon and tag can all be used again next year because there's nothing to throw away! I can even remove the little to/from name tags because they are connected with tiny safety pins!


Several years ago, we purchased a set of nesting boxes from Target that are printed in holiday themes so you can use them again and again. I created this snowflake tag that can also be reused by replacing the to/from tag. If I ever get tired of the same old and tags, I can remove them since I attached them with re-positional tape. I could then use the tags to make a pretty cards!



I do use some wrapping paper for our son Christopher. It's fun when you are a kid to be able to rip open some presents! When I buy wrapping paper I look for those made from recycled paper with the highest amount of post consumer content. For this present of Christopher's, I made a fancy tag with bow so that part of the wrap can be reused.


Did you enjoy the free vintage download from my last post? I had a few folks send pictures of cards they made with it! Thank you! I had a chance to make this card for one of Christopher's teachers.


I created a lovely golden frame with a Spellbinders die, added some hand glittered touches and the rhinestone snowflake in the lower left hand corner. I think this image is just the sweetest! If you would like to create something with this it, click here.

For my last share I'd like to tell you about a giveaway on a fabulous blog I follow.


The blog is called Pretties and Posies and they are giving away all the lovely things photographed above! All you have to do is leave a comment on their post! The post also tells you about these gorgeous items and who they are made by.


Well, I've been going on long enough...lots of fun to share with you! I hope you all are enjoying these final days before Christmas. When I go blog hopping I get to see so many great projects, baked goods and decorations! It's been a lot of fun to see what you all are up to! Make it a great day! Kathy:)

20 comments:

Jodi Collins said...

LOVE all of your tags Kathy!!!

Becky Carafa said...

Your tags are beautiful!!! Love them.

Lin said...

Beautiful tags, Kathy, and thanks for the link to that lovely website!

Virginia L. said...

SO inpsiring you are, Kathy--love the way you recycle and all the beautiful wrapping with tags! The gingerbread houses look so very fantastic!

Diane Jaquay said...

Wow Kathy, a whole gingerbread VILLAGE!! You certainly are ambitious ;) It looks wonderful, and so do all your tags :)

Unknown said...

Love the Tags. Those gingerbread houses turned out great. We got the Train one for Ryan.

cnelson said...

Love the gingerbread village...ours always has one or two cave ins as well...haha..part of the fun I guess! Your tags could not be more fabulous! Thank you for the giveaway info!

Sherry Wright said...

Gorgeous Kathy, you made the presents with the tags!!

BabyBokChoy said...

Beautiful tags, wow, they are delightful, I'm ready to get whatever it is you are using to make these embossed tags! awesome.

Donna Baker said...

I love your gift packaging - those tags are so fun! I especially LOVE the deer one, so cute!!

Alice said...

your gingerbread village is so cute! and i love all of your pretty tags! wow!

Suzanne said...

Your gift wrapping, and tags are simply gorgeous!!!!! Our gingerbread houses never do resemble the ones on the box either!!! Lol
Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!

Tara Bilbao said...

Your tags are all just adorable and I love the gingerbread village. What great holiday projects!

Jeni Glee said...

Oh my...I just can't take my eyes off the beauty of everything here! I am in awe!!!!

Love, Glee

Audrey Pettit said...

Your packages look beautiful, Kathy! Those tags are adorable, and a great way to dress up your boxes. Love that you've used the tiny safety pin so that everything could be removed. Great idea, and oh, so pretty.

Unknown said...

such beautiful projects! I absolutely love your reusable gift wrap!

(-: Heidi

Aphra Bolyer said...

LOVE your village and your tags. Our village did not turn out nearly as well. In fact, my three year old tore it up and licked up all the icing before we could even take a picture. Ha ha!!!

Shelley said...

Your tags are WONDERFUL!!! I sure meant to play with the download. Maybe I'll find the time, I need another card or two!

Marisa said...

Your tags are adorable!! Love the gingerbread town too :) I have so many PTI things on my wish list, hopefully Christmas will knock a few off :)

Suzanne C said...

Lovely tags! Our gingerbread houses always have an artistic flair from the kids thrown in. Wonderful re-usable tags idea!

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