Go Big or Go Home

with this gift i used a beautiful chartreuse wrap, knowing that a patterned wrap would take away from the gorgeous
green iridescent ribbon and glitter olive green poinsettia .  i sat the poinsettia right in the middle of the bow, so i made sure to make the loops of my bow larger so they could be seen around the edges of the flower. the theme for this gift was greens, browns and hints of gold. 

i just love this paper. this was my second year using it. the theme to this gift was silver, brown with hints of turquoise.  i used some ribbon i had not worked with year but it turned out to be quite easy to use. i liked making the wrap work with the silver sheer ribbon and very glittery pine cone package topper. 

for this gift, i used the chartreuse gift wrap again, knowing again, that the ribbon would be my center piece of the gift. the theme of this gift was chartreuse, light blue and turquoise. the ribbon was glittery with a filigree pattern and i was able to find a matching blue snowflake as a package topper.

i had to go red and white on this gift...she's a badgers fan...it was pretty much a give in! i found the ribbon first, then had to find the wrap. i went back and forth between a couple different wraps, it was finally my sister who said, 'your nuts, pick the polka dots.' i attached two large, light bulb package toppers. the theme for this gift was red, white with hints of silver and brown. 

Sometimes I just over do it....

it finally happened...my brain was so overloaded with creative ideas...i made something ugly. i had what i thought was a brilliant idea, then when it was putting it together....it looked just awful. it was like having writers block, without having to write a thing. this happens sometimes, i have so many projects that require my creative part of my brain that after a while it just stops. when this happens, i have to walk away. i'm not saying i don't think about because it frustrates me to not be able to keep creating without a break or pause. 
then after trying to forget about it, i walked into a store and wandered around...my mind still was like 'what the hell are you thinking sarah?!' then as i'm leaving the store, i had an enlightening moment and in five minutes figured out what i was going to do. 
the project was a center piece of the dining room. i wanted to emulate the napkins we got that had soft colors and pretty ornaments on them. i wanted to work with ornaments in someway. after many failed attempts, i went with what i knew...a wreath. the colors of the christmas china and such are silver and blues. i had been working with blues and greens in my original idea but i should have stuck with what i knew. so after a mad dash of shopping i knew exactly what i wanted to do.
i found frosted blue, large poinsettias, silver glitter pine picks and pearl colored ornaments...i went to work and this is what i came up with...i even added a candle we already had around the house to add more color. 

it sits on a charger to prevent it from scratching the surface of the dining table

I've started wrapping

this is by far one of the favorites i have wrapped this holiday season. i found wrap, ribbon and a topper that matched
beautifully. i wrapped this for someone who likes owls. i noticed owl things are huge this year. i love the colors
in this gift and it looks great under the tree.

lots of glitter for this one, but it turned out great. i used a mint green kraft wrapping paper. i then came across this cream and gold poinsettia wired ribbon. then by some miracle of my wrapping imagination i found a gold poinsettia to attach to the top of the gift. i did not do a bow on this gift, made four tails coming out from under the poinsettia. the poinsettia being the center piece of the gift rather than a huge glittery bow.

this year i bought a lot of red and white wrap. i used the red and white stripes to turn this into a candy
themed present. i used satin ribbon in a double bow. i like to use satin double bows on some gifts because they are easier to undo and if the gift is for someone who i know i appreciate my wrapping but not the time it takes to just remove a bow, this style works a whole lot better. 

Taking it apart and making it new...

i found another wreath that took me quite a while to figure out what to do with....finally i made the decision, it needed to have everything taken off of it (dull berries and pine cones). my mom wanted to keep the pine cones, but if she wanted a nice wreath, they had to go. spent a good hour removing all the pine cones (the wreath pine needles had a hard coating which beat my hands up a lot). we decided to make the colors match the colors of some of the rooms in the house, gold and cranberry. i had the gold magnolia's from a previous wreath and used some cranberry colored ribbon to add a touch of color. this wreath stays inside because it would probably end up ruined if it was hung outside. 

Red, Chartreuse and Glitter

our christmas wreaths were starting to look a little sad...so it was time for an upgrade. after looking at all the colors and sizes available, my mom and i loved the combination of red and chartreuse green. we mixed different sizes and shapes of ornaments, making sure I got some that would sparkle in the sun. we also chose some 'picks'...berries for the smaller wreath, red glitter poinsettias for the large wreaths. i made three red and chartreuse wreaths, two large and one small, which took 3 and half hours...if you include the shopping around, they took just over five hours to conceptualize and make. i was very happy with the results and so was my mom!

Christmas Candies

i wrapped my first christmas gift this week! i've been looking at wrap with stripes and polka dots, preferably in red and white. i found some great candy themed ribbon and a cute, sparkly candy package topper. 

To top it off...I'm starting to get ready for Christmas!

I knew it was coming....Christmas. I love this holiday and this is the holiday when I get to go all out with my wrapping. I start brain storming wrapping ideas the moment I see Christmas stuff being put out in stores. I usually do an inventory of when I have left over from last year, particularly ribbon and package toppers. I've completed my inventory and now it's time to keep my eyes open. I plan my wrapping projects based on the personalities of family and friends, who I buy gifts for. It takes me forever to think of what to get people and how I'm going to wrap. I always...always...always make sure I can put it in a box. Nothing is more frustrating then wrapping something that doesn't have nice clean edges. I know it's not very green to want to use more stuff to wrap but I like clean, neat corners. I like using conventional colors, unconventional colors. The color I'm seeing a lot of for Christmas wrap and ribbon is turquoise and purple, which I haven't used so far...I'm in the middle of trying to figure out how I can used this jewel tone colors.