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. 

Easy Goes It this Halloween!

I used to love Halloween as a kid, getting dressed up and knocking on doors for the night getting a pillow case full of candy. Now that I'm older and wiser, I like Halloween for the decorations and fun treats people come up with for parties. However, this year I kept it simple...after working all weekend I was content to sit and watch Halloween movies instead. The effort I did make, was quite easy. For my lil' visitors who were hanging around I made sugar cookies and confetti cupcakes, iced in my favorite Halloween colors: orange, purple and green. With a knife and a piping bag...I made a fun, easy array of sweet treats for the ghouls and ghost haunting around the house. 

You can tie them in a knot, you can tie them in a bow...

this evening, i had the great pleasure of meeting some of the ladies of my local city garden club. as a part of their annual ribbon sale during christmas, they host a bow-making get together to make the bows. this year, i was invited to do a presentation on how to make different types of bows. i went through a variety of bow designs, with the help of my display boards and sample wrapped packages, i demonstrated the various techniques used to make a rose bow, double loop bow and the full bow.