sweet & a little hot...

Edit: The jelly in my jar is Cranberry Jalapeno Jelly. If you do a google search you'll get tons of recipes. I keep my jelly recipes under cover so that they remain a well sought after gift around here. :)

Today I have another sample project that uses doo dads and a tag from my Mish-Matched Valentine Kit that I recently had for sale in my Etsy shop. To get started with my project, I did a little prep work first. Have you ever noticed Melissa Phillips' signature tea stained twill that she uses on so many of her projects? It's so sweet and vintage looking. A really simple way to achieve that look is to stain Papertrey twill with the Vintage Tea Dye inks. Simply choose the white or cream twill...I'm using cream today.......and run the ink cube down the length of the twill. Voila, that's it. Instant vintage twill. You can even stamp words on the twill if you like, I love that look. Note: the ink cubes that I used are pretty dry so be sure to test out a little snippet of the twill with your ink cubes first. Next up, I used a $1 alphabet that I purchased at my local scrapbook store to spell out some words on my tag. When using the individual letter stamps, I like to spell out my words as much as possible, leaving blank spaces where the letters repeat. Using these types of stamps takes just a little bit more time but the results are so homemade and sweet looking.

Next up, I wanted a wax paper looking wrapping for my project. I reached for a Papertrey large glassine sack, wadded it all up so it was crinkly looking and then cut a square piece for my project using pinking shears.

I tied this square of glassine paper to my jelly jar that I'm using for a Valentine gift this year. Doesn't it look all crafty kitchen-y and cool? I'll be using that idea lots more for foodie gifts. I then tied my newly vintage twill around the jar, tying in a little sprig of glittery goodness that was leftover from some Christmas projects. Next up, I wanted to tie on my completed tag using red and white striped baker's twine from Martha Stewart (from Michael's). An easy way to attach tags using baker's twine is to thread the twine through a large needle...then work the needle under the layer of twill. It makes easy work of it.

And here's my darling little jelly jar, complete with embellished tag.

The tag and heart doo dad pieces were part of the kit. You can really fancy up plain white shipping tags with stamping, glitter and embellishments. For my tag, I stamped it using the Vintage Tea Dye inks and hearts from Background Basics: Hearts. I love using the little cubes for actual stamped images, not just distressing the edges of projects. To the edges of my tag, I used a glue pen and added some Martha Stewart vintage gold glitter. Yummo! The stamped words on my tag tie in with my jelly....sweet & a little hot.....perfect sentiment for Valentine's Day, don't you think? I used two doo dads from the kit contents to make a layered heart that I distressed with the Vintage Tea Dye ink cubes.

Such a sweet little gift. It reminds me of something you'd pick up in a quaint little boutique on the corner. And there's no reason at all that you can't create the same look for your projects. It just takes a little creativity and some great crafting supplies.......and maybe a few hours in the kitchen. I think I need to make some more of these little sweetie pie gifts.......jelly jars, a block of cream cheese and a favorite box of crackers. Ohhhhh yes!