Tray Tuesday....on a Thursday

Hey, how about a Tray Tuesday post on a Thursday?  Today I'm sharing a few Christmas thank you cards.  I always like to get a few of these finished ahead of time so that we can have them ready to send out shortly after the holiday.  

 The cards were easy to put together.  I used scraps of patterned paper, some ledger paper, some Gossamer Blue Themed Add-on Kit items and my Paperclip Flag Kit from the shop.

 For the little flags, I trimmed the first off so that it fit onto my card front nicely.  I added a glittery snowflake and an enamel dot.

 On my second card I notched the ends of the flag for something a little different.  I typed my sentiment, punched it out and added a few more enamel dots.

Here's the entire kit, complete with two paperclip fabric flags, tags, vintage labels, doilies, envelopes and more.  This kit and all of my Noel Notions items are on sale right now in the shop.  I'll ship out within 24 hours of orders placed so that you can still use the items this holiday season. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to check out the new aprons in my shop also.  They'd be adorable gifts for the baker or chef in your life.

Tray Tuesday.....Spiced Tea Mix

Hey there, I'm back today with a fun Tray Tuesday share.  I've been making this Spiced Tea Mix ever since I can remember.  I use my mom's recipe and it was always my job to mix the tea and store it in the Tupperware container.  I love this stuff and I'm not sure now if it's the actual tea or the memories it evokes that I love so much.  Recently I packaged some up in a gift basket I made for a friend to give to her apartment tenant.  The renter texted my friend and told her how much it reminded him of his mom and that he loved it.  Then our little friend Brayden came over with his brother while I was making a new batch.  He was curious so I made him a cup.  He loved it too.  So I sent him home with a little batch of his own.  Good stuff and good memories happen with this stuff, I tell ya. 

 Sooo...what better gift to give than a little jar of my Spiced Tea Mix.  I reached for a Modern Wrappings Kit from my shop to create my packaging.  I also carry a Vintage Wrappings Kit which uses all vintage fabrics.  I took one of the strips of fabric and ran it through my sewing machine, creating folds as I fed the material through the foot feed.  I left about 4" on both ends plain.

 I wrapped the fabric strip around my jar that is filled with Spiced Tea Mix and some cinnamon red hots.  I added a red sprig from the kit and a Gold Glitter Clothespin for embellishments.

 The ruffled strip of fabric looks fun and festive wrapped around the jar.  I like to leave the lid free of embellishments so it can be screwed on and off with the wrappings left in tact. This way it looks cute sitting out during the holiday season.

 I like these gingham lids from my stash.  They add an instant holiday feel to my jar gift.

 I tied a few candy canes up with a white tag from the kit and some Candy Cane Baker's Twine. I sat the jar on a white doily from the kit. I sat all the goodies on a pretty, vintage tray.  Just the perfect gift for a teacher or friend who comes over to visit.

Here's the entire Modern Wrappings Kit from my shop.  You can see my previous posts for some additional wrappings ideas.

The Gold Glitter Clothespins come in a set of ten here.

 You can find 5 yards of the Candy Cane Baker's Twine here.

I love to give handmade gifts and wrap them up with unique wrappings.  This year though I'm all about keeping it simple.  This little gift jar took about 10 minutes or less to assemble, including sewing time.  Here's to a handmade Christmas.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Holiday shop is open today..

My holiday shop is opening at 10am Central Time today!  It's full of my annual Noel Notions and so much more!  Happy shopping.  

Here's just a sampling of the offerings.....vintage trays and Santa mugs. 

 Vintage holiday ornaments and tin.

 Tags made from vintage ribbons.

 Jolly Jingle Bells...always a favorite.

 My personal favorite this year....Candy Cane Clothespins.

 A woodland themed wrappings kit...

 A vintage mix of sequins.

 Cute wrappings for mason jars and more.

I've got a little something for everyone.  Here's a sampling of how I used some of the wrappings kits.  

I truly believe a handmade holiday is best.  I get so much enjoyment from creating handmade gifts.  I hope you find something you like too.  Enjoy!

Tray Tuesday....annual holiday notebook supplies

Well Halloween came and went & November just snuck right up on us.  Now that all the pretty leaves have blown away and the temperatures get cooler, I tend to go into hibernation mode.  I'm not one to decorate my home for the holidays until after Thanksgiving but as a crafter and little shop owner, I do like to get a head start on the holidays. I've been collecting items for my annual Noel Notions that will be trickling into the shop soon and then there's my annual holiday notebooks.  I like to create them every year for my lady friends.  They're a fun little pre-holiday gift that I give out in November, just in time to start making those little shopping and gifts lists + maybe some holiday menus or crafts to make.  You can click on the "notebooks" label at the end of this post to scroll through lots of my notebook posts.  

Today I'm sharing a fun bundle of goodies for Tray Tuesday.  Tis the season for gathering up the holiday supplies. I grabbed this old, wire office basket which is perfect for holiday all my items. 

When I start a project, I tend to gather and collect.  I like to shop my stash of crafty supplies and sometimes I like to order something brand spankin' new.  Each year I like to order a few supplies that are selected specifically for my holiday notebooks.  This year I chose the Webster's Pages Gingerbread Village line by Adrienne Looman.  It's a whimsical little collection with the most delightful holiday colors and patterns.  

 Some of my staple shop items always make it into my supply basket.  Here I chose Small Clothespins, Small White Tags, Small Manila Tags, Medium Manila Tags, White Dainty Doilies and Gold Foil Doilies.  It's good to always tuck a few of these in because they're just good old stand bys for me.

 I also added in some holiday colored Washi tapes, gold scalloped tape and some vintage ribbons from my stash.

The papers will steal the show this year.  Just look how cute and whimsical these are.  You can google the line and various online shops pop up that carry these supplies.

Can't wait to get started on these little gems as they are always fun to package and hand out to the ladies.  Have you started on any holiday projects?  I'd love to hear what's on your list this holiday season.

In other crafty news, the Gossamer Blue 2014 December Memories Kit is now available.  It's jam packed full of holiday crafty items + there is a 6 x 8 album that goes with the kit.  We just added a December Memories 2014 section to the forum so we'd love to chat it up this season with you.

We teamed up with Elle's Studio to bring my sketches to life for the stamp set for the kit this year.  I can't wait to start working on my album.  I'll have posts of my process in the near future.

Also, I'll be joining in on the Winged Blog Tour this week with Bonnie Christine.  She designed this wonderful fabric line for Art Gallery Fabrics and has invited me to share some creations with you.  Check back this week for my post.  You can follow along the blog hop each day for 31 full days right here.  Lots and lots of good inspiration here.

Here's a little peek at the fabrics I'll be working with:

Sooooo....lots of good stuff to come.  I hope you'll pop back in often.  Also, I post a lot more photos on Instagram.  You can follow me on the left hand side bar.  :)  See ya back here soon.

Tray Tuesday....holiday cards with embossing + watercolor

It's Tray Tuesday and today I'm sharing the watercoloring process I used on these cards over on the Gossamer Blue blog.  In my tray, which is a vintage wooden utensil tray, I have the Get Happy holiday collection from Gossamer Blue.  

Get Happy is wonderful holiday collection of patterned papers, embellishments and stamps.  There's the traditional red and green plus a lot of fun colors and patterns mixed it.  Just what I like in a scrapbooking collection. 

So these are the holiday cards I created with the Get Happy collection.  I mixed in my own cardstock bases, ledger paper, twine and sentiments. 

All of the focal images on the cards are images from the Get Happy stamp set.  I used journaling cards for easy bases and embossed all the images with gold embossing powder.  Next I got out my watercolor set and mixed up a nice holiday green that coordinated with the patterned papers from Get Happy.  I first painted over and around my embossed images with clean water.  Then I dipped my brush into the green paint and let it bleed into the water soaked paper.  

The paint soaked into the wet areas, creating a wonderful organic look.  I especially love it looks with the embossed wreaths.  I also dipped my brush in paint and flicked more paint onto my journaling cards.

You can see the shiny look of the embossing against the watercolor really well in the photo below.  I colored in the snowflakes too which gave the appearance of stained glass.  I had my gold leaf pen handy so I ran that along the edge of all my painted pieces.

Lots of paper layer and some red stitching for a fun, homespun look. 

I finished my cards with lots of wood veneer pieces, hand cut flags, paper clips, typed sentiments and gold baker's twine. 

The gold embossing and all the little gold finishing touches really make the cards sparkle and shine. 

Add in some woodgrain paper and wood accents and you a little woodland look to holiday projects. 

Six holiday cards in my stash. That's a good thing. 

It's early in the season so you could definitely break the steps down into separate crafting sessions.  Maybe do the embossing one day and the watercoloring another day.  Maybe the rest of your items could be organized and ready to go in a fun tray.  You know I love that idea.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I haven't forgotten about Halloween this week...or Thanksgiving...but it's always good to see samples and have a plan, right?  While we're talking about the Christmas holiday....the December Memories kit is coming right along.  Final products are making their way to Lori and we'll be seeing more sneaks hopefully soon.  So stay tuned.  :)

Tray Tuesday....Halloween treats

I'm back today for Tray Tuesday.  It's time for a some cute Halloween treat sack packaging and I've got just the right little goodies.  My tray today is an old chalkboard with a vintage dish that has some pretty orange flowers on it.  Sometimes the best way to create little vignettes is to just shop your house and cupboards.  This little mixy matchy method really shows off your creativity.  

My favorite candies to put in treat sacks are the candy corn M & M's and Reese's peanut butter pumpkins.  You just can't go wrong. 

 For my packaging today I'm using a Halloween Gift Sack Kit from my shop for the main packaging (now on sale). I grabbed a few Medium Glassine Sacks to package up the loose candy.  I just punched a few holes and added some Halloween twine to secure the sack.

 I assembled my treat sack just as my sample shows in the product listing.  I added a stamped name to the metal rimmed tag + I added in a few Halloween themed items from my stash to spruce up the packaging.  You could easily add a stamped image, stickers or die cuts too.

 Then it was time to package up the treats.  My glassine sack and pumpkin treat will fit inside the Halloween treat sack perfectly.

 Yum is right.  Who doesn't love to receive a little something special now and then?  This little treat is for Miss Becky, our school secretary.  She's the most pleasant, upbeat gal and she does her job very well.  It's always a treat to be greeted by her when you enter the high school.

So have you planned some special treats for those special someones?  There's just a handful of my kits left in the shop.  I'll be shipping them out lickety split so you'll have plenty of time to prepare them before Halloween.  If you're needing some more generic gift packaging take a look at my Pretty Paint & Paperclip Kit or my Darling Dear Kit that is perfect for Fall.  New to the shop recently, my Fall Leaf Kits would be so pretty at the Thanksgiving table.  Happy packaging and thanks so much for stopping by today!