Welcome INKy friends! Who is getting excited for Christmas? I know I am and this year I am SUPER organised as you will read shorty, last year I was far from organised to the point I had no tree up and no gifts bought three days before Christmas and I HATED it! All year long I have be planning to correct the wrong of last year. I hate to brag but pretty much all my Christmas shopping is done for my family, I still have a few friends to buy for but 90% is done and wrapped. I even have my tree on display, I hear that you should not have it up before December but I could not help myself!
Wrapping of gifts is as important to me as the gift I am giving, I decide on the colours I am using and the items I am wrapping my gifts with like the ribbons and twine, the buttons and other embellishments, then like to gather them all together. I am a BIG fan of My Digital Studio {as some of you know} and the last few years I have used MDS to design a lot of my bulk projects as it allows me to create in large quality’s quite fast.
Above you can see a small selection of what I am using this year to embellish my gifts, this year I am using lots of Kraft with Glimmer creating fabulous contrast and pops of Cherry Cobbler and Real Red. Stars and Buttons with Holly and Chalk Board Tags I created using MDS.
Lets talk tags!
I have created these in My Digital Studio {MDS}, if you do not have MDS you can get a free 30 trail to play around HERE and the download I used for the tags is called “To You From Me” it is 6 tag images in the download, they come as digital stamps and digital embellishment with the black board look which I have used. They are very easy to use, I have simply selected the design then clicked and dragged the selected image to my page, as you can see the this image below:
Then I adjusted the tag to the size I desired and copied the image to fill my page: see below.
I printed the sheets of tags on my home laser printer on Whisper White Cardstock and trimmed them on my cutter.
Now lets get wrapping!
The first gift wrapping idea I have for you today is using the Box Punch board, a new product in the Holiday Catalogue. My favourite new crafting toy at the moment and it will be well used this Christmas.
Here is a video from Stampin’ Up! Show how to use this Gift Box Punch Board, it makes 15 sizes boxes and I will admit before I watched this video I was a little overwhelmed that it was “too” hard to use, by it is TOTALLY easy and I have made SO many boxes already.
The box idea uses the Take Out Box from the Holiday Catalogue, the come pre cut and scored in a pack of 6 and I think the are SUPER cute if giving baked treats this holiday season.
The printed paper I have used to make the top box and the belly band around this box is the Under The Tree range and it is a heavy weight cardstock more then a “paper” and here is a video with a little more info about the paper:
We are moving away from boxes but sticking with paper, wrapping paper! YES Stampin’ Up! have released their own wrapping paper this year:
I was super impressed with the paper I must say, it is thicker then the normal wrapping paper I normally buy , meaning to was easier to wrap with and the finished product looks much nicer. Here is a video about the paper rolls:
Buttons and Bows
I am not sure why but I LOVE buttons, they are totally sweet! This year I am using a mix of Cherry Cobbler, Gold Metal, Very Vanilla and the Vintage Faceted Buttons. Ribbon is kind of my “thing” so no surprise I have a few different options, the Cherry Cobbler Seem Blinding is lovely and soft and creates a wonderful bow, the thicker Cherry Cobbler is new in the Holiday Catalogue, it is a Sheer Linen and is a little stiffer then the Seem Blinding and holds well.
When the wrapping, the tags and the embellishments come together they look pretty special under the tree.
The Holly was also created in MDS using Berry Christmas Download, I use this on my larger items that would use half a roll of ribbon to wrap around. Like I did with the tags I dragged the image over, as it was a stamp I coloured it and also cropped the image to just have the Holly, and repeated the image over my sheet before printing.
I dont just use MDS for tags, I use it for Christmas postcards and photos. I still love making Christmas cards with all stamping, you know the normal way but for my sister I make up post cards for her to send out to friends and family, we have a fun afternoon taking photos of her family then I design her a Christmas package. Below you can see a stack of the post cards with her and my two nieces.
This year I have also created a few different Polaroid style tags, above you can see part of one with just Ebony my youngest niece and below you can see it is the same photo as the postcard but I have used a digital Polaroid frame over the photo and added a message.
Here I have created one in a photo booth style, that I have just slipped under the bow, this makes the gift really personal and I must say I have this shot below with Ebony’s Santa hat falling down over her eyes! The download I have used for the photo strip is “Tea For Two Calendar”
Well I hope you found this post helpful and will look at going hybrid with My Digital Studio! This post is part of the Artisan Blog Hop, pleas take the time to hop around to all the Artisan and even leave us a little comment love, we so enjoy hearing from you all. Next stop is Vicky Hayes of the UK.
Links to items I have used in this project!
These are amazing…I always love your MDS work!!! Thanks for the inspiration!
Teneale, you are so amazing! And so deserving of the ADT! I’ve followed you for years 🙂
Wow Love love love your wrapping Teneale. Your Amazing! JUST SAYING!!!
so many things to say –
#1 – I want that tray! just sitting in my office so I can stare at the beauty of it all!!
#2 – beautiful projects
#3 – you have a chirstmas tree up??? I know when these projects were due! so the question is – when did you put a tree up!
way to go! so much amazing work!
Just beautiful & I would like the tray and those wooden cotton reels – where did u find those?
What a phenomenal talent. I enjoyed looking at your projects.
Its’ all so beautifully done & creative. I admire your talent.
I hope I can yield a fraction of those amazing results.
Keep creating. You have a tremendous gift.