all wrapped up. In something pretty. With a bow on top.

I super love me some pretty gift wrap.  I've got a whole pinterest board devoted to it!  So I wanted to share some ideas for fun wrap during our gift series.  What's a gift without some awesome outer dressing?

So here are 50 great gift wrap ideas, along with 6 super sources for gift wrap needs!

1. Map Wrap - Country Living

2. Pom Pom Box - The Sarcastic Ashtray

3. Colored Hole Punch - Baba Souk

4. Paper Bags and Yellow Embellishments - Decor8

5. Printable Fruit Wrap - Paper Crave

6. Fringe Wrap - Willowday

7. DIY Sharpie paper - Walk in love.

8. Mouse Giftwrap - Handmade Charlotte

9. Paper Doll Gift Wrap - Brooklyn Bride

10. Buttons, Twine, Ruffles and Glitter - Cosmo Cricket

11. Eraser Wrap - Oh Happy Day

12. Sweater Wrap - Boxwood Clippings

1. No-Mess Polka Dot Wrap - Hobzy

2. Post-It Note Gift Wrap - Handmade Creative Boutique

3. Hand Stamped Fabric - Unruly Things

4. Roller Stamp Wrap - Misi

5. White Paint Pen Feathers - Odessa May Society

6. Lace-stamped Paper - Dailyfix

7. Hello Envelope - Blitsy Blog

1. Color Me Wrapping - Lines Across

2. Wooden Heart Tags - Spalvotas Dryzuotas

3. Easter Bunny Ribbon Wrap - Passos do Pedagogo

4. Rosemary Sprig Giftwrap - Love That Party

5. Monster Gift Wrap - Housing a Forest

6. Mod Paper Feathers - Facil y Sencillo

7. Pinwheel Toppers - Style Me Pretty

8. Car and Road Wrapping - Lines Across

9. Forest Topper - The House That Lars Built

10. Cones and Butterflies - Joyzz

11. Delicate Floral and Lace - Facil y Sencillo

12. Tie Boxes - Good Housekeeping

1. Punched and Embellished Brown Bags - Creative Bag

2. Agate Boxes - Krafty Kathe

3. Paint Chip Box - Do It and How

 4. Cookie Skewer Bags with Printable - Spoon, Fork, Bacon

5. Sweet Little Treat Bags - Lia Griffith

6. Hugs and Kisses Boxes - Make and Tell

7. Painted Animal Gift Boxes - Hank and Hunt

1. Silhouette Tags - Mod Podge Rocks

2. Everyday Gift Tags - Birds Party Blog

3. Felt and Yarn Gift Tags - bhg

4. Watercolor Tags - Eat Drink Chic

5. Clay and Wood Tags - Two Shades of Pink

6. Chalkboard Thank You Tags - The Elli Blog

7. Printable Made With Love Tags - She Wears Many Hats

8. Modern Christmas Tags - Almost Make Perfect

9. Wooden Stars and Beads - Ambrosia Creative

10. Hand Drawn Gift Tags - Hey Look

11. Birthday Gift Tags - Crazy Little Projects

12. Photo Tags - Bloom Designs

1. Paper Crave - check out the "weekly wrap" archives for some serious inspiration and sources.  Links to wraps/boxes/tags to purchase, as well as printable wraps you can download and tons of other great wrapping ideas.

2. Simply Southern - a one stop shop for all things... well, all things!  Bags, boxes, containers, glasses, jars, stamps, burlap, jute, twine, tags... awesomeness!

3. Purlsoho.com - Such pretty handmade cards, paper, tags, ribbons... great stuff for gifts.

4. NormansPrintery - an etsy shop with TONS, and I mean tons, of unique wrapping stuff.  Beautifully designed and printed by the shop.  There are so many themes and prints to choose from - floral, butterflies, stamps, newsprint, vintage baseball, galaxies, watercolor, plaid, nautical, the list goes on and on!

5. Spiral Sage - Sooo many awesome things.  Tons of options for bags and envelopes, twist ties and twine... there's washi tape, clips and tags.  Also, boxes - kraft boxes and clear boxes of all shapes and sizes.  There are straws, cupcake liners and lots of wooden stuff (scoops, spoons, tags, spools, pins, etc.)

6. Wild Ink Press - here's a cute etsy shop with fun items - there's shop designed and printed paper (which is really cute, by the way) and other stationery items.  Letterpress cards, printed cards, personal stationery, boxed sets.

Get wrapping!

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

Brown Paper Packages. Because we all love them.

Now that you've started your holiday gift-making, I figured you may need some ideas for wrapping!  If you follow me on pinterest, you've probably already guessed that my favorite way to wrap is with kraft paper.  It's just so versatile!    So today, I've got:

for you.

So, for this gift wrap, here are the materials you'll need:

NOT PICTURED: Exacto knife.
The first idea is a much more involved, but still very easy to do.  For the second idea, you'll only need tape, wrapping paper, kraft paper and scissors.  (and glue, optionally)

This is a really straightforward idea that probably needs no explanation, especially with the photos:

Measure out and cut your kraft paper to fit around your present.
Trace your cookie cutter or stencils on the kraft paper.  I used stars, but you can use any symmetrical shape - a flower, a Christmas tree, etc.
Only trace HALF of the shape.
Use your exacto knife to cut the lines.
Erase any pencil marks you can still see.
Turn the paper so the shapes will be centered on top of the package when finished wrapping.
Wrap the present in fun paper.
Place the present on the kraft paper so the stars are positioned on top where you want them to be.
Wrap as normal.
Use washi tape to add some decorative flair.  I always use clear tape to hold the wrapping paper and washi tape just as a decorative element.  I've had too many presents come unwrapped when wrapped only with washi tape.
Turn your present over.
Pull the shape flaps back.

 voila!

Next up:

Easy!!

Cut a piece of Kraft paper.
Fold it accordion style.
Fold the accordion in half, like a fan.
Cut it into thirds.
Cut each piece of accordion/fan along the non-folded edge.  Just cut little slits close together, like fringe.
Open the accordion/fan up.
Start at one edge and roll it up.
Tape the bottom, non-cut portion up to secure the roll.
Add more cut fringe by simply rolling it on, if you want to make your pom-pom larger.

 And stick it on your wrapped package!  Ta-da!

(Here's where I admit to you that I used hot glue to put it on the present.  You might be able to get away with glue dots or even some nice, strong clear tape.)

And there you have it!  
How do you make your packages pretty??

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

A simple craft for little hands.

The other day, mini came inside with a bunch of dandelions and asked me to make her a "hat".  Well, I totally took her hat, and raised her one full blown princess crown.  And by her reaction, I totally KILLED that request - you'd think I'd magically called some gold and jewels out of thin air or something - and I was pleasantly surprised at how a 5 minute "project" for me could result in something so fun, endlessly entertaining and cherished (we still can't throw it away) for her.

Once bug saw mini's awesome crown, he had to have one, too.  Hence our "nature crowns" were born.

I realized the potential to make this something super meaningful, though at the time it was just a simple, thrown together, very quick craft for us to do together.  I let both mini and bug "design" their crowns, collect the "ingredients" themselves, and help me pull it together.

 They couldn't stop collecting things, even after their nature crowns were complete!

The tutorial here is specifically for the Dandelion Princess Crown, but it's obviously very easily altered.

You need scissors, dandelions (buckets and buckets of dandelions), skinny elastic, ribbon and matching washi tape.

Also, and most importantly so I'm not sure how it managed to elude the list up there, you need a large piece of poster board.

Now, I can't, unfortunately, give you specific dimensions or anything, mostly since I didn't measure, but also because every kids head is going to be a little different.  So take these general instructions and run with them.

1. Start with your poster board laid out flat and begin your cut near one of the bottom corners.

2. Continue cutting up so that you have a half circle that's a little over 3/4 of the width of the poster board.

3. With the flat side facing you, a) bring the corners of the half circle towards the middle and b) then overlap the one corner and continue pulling it until the point of the crown is well-established and the bottom of the hat is fairly flat around.

4. Let go of the outer corner a bit, put on a lot of hot glue and

5. Curl it back up onto the cone and press down hard.

6. Pull the inner corner down away from the inside of the cone and

7. put on a bunch of hot glue, then

8. Push it back up against the cone and hold it for a few seconds.

9. Now your cone, or crown, is glued together.

10. It may be totally uneven or lopsided.  Just trim around the bottom to make it level.

11. Cut some elastic to fit snuggly but not too tight under your kids chin.

12. Dab some hot glue (which is really hard to see) on the inside of the crown at the side and

13. Press one end of your elastic onto it.

14. Then dab some more hot glue directly across from the first and press the other end of the elastic onto it.  Make sure your elastic isn't twisted before you glue.

Now, we decorate!

1. Wrap washi tape from top to bottom at an angle.

2. Continue wrapping pieces of washi tape bottom to top at angles and overlapping until you like the pattern.

3. Take the stem off of the dandelions.

4. Put hot glue on the back of the dandelion head.

5. Press the dandelions heads all around the bottom of the crown!

Now, I don't have pictures of this, but take your ribbon and cut it in three pieces.  Use your hot glue to glue one end of each piece into the inside of the point of the crown.  Hot glue another large dandelion over the point.

And now, you are The Dandelion Princess!  (make THAT into a movie, Disney...)

 I couldn't stop taking pictures of her smelling dandelions.  She was so funny!

When bug wanted in on the action, I charged him with the task of collecting items he might want on a prince crown.  He chose several long pieces of grass, some dandelion STEMS, some rocks, and a few leaves.  And I looked at the assortment and went, uh... (the dandelion one was pretty straight forward...)

 Ignoring the fact that he plucked leaves off of my hostas... It was kind of fun working with bug to come up with the perfect "plan" for his crown.  I made a cone like mini's and glued on the elastic.  Then I wrapped some green and white washi tape around it.
I started by gluing the 3 rocks in the front, like jewels.  Then I figured the leaves could nicely wrap around the bottom of the crown - and I like how the kind of curl together.  I glued some long grass and some dandelion stems into the inside of the point and then wrapped two dandelions stems around the point.  Voila!  A boy version!

He called it his "Crazy hat" - which I think is a compliment.

 And now, you are the Prince of Pebbles and Leaves!  Or something...

 What I think is great about this project, is how customizable it is.

1. Go for a "nature scavenger hunt" with specific items in mind.  Then use those items to create your Nature Crown!
2. Go on a walk around the park or neighborhood and see what items jump out at you.  There might be some really interesting things you never would have thought of that you find along the way!
3. Collect items when you are on a special trip - when you take a break to stretch your legs on a road trip, when you're picnicking somewhere special, when you take a day trip to a special place, when you go camping or bike riding or to the beach!  Use your natural "souvenirs" to make your crown!

Don't forget to stop and pick some dandelions along the way.

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

2 years slipped by unnoticed...

You know how bad I am at posting the kids' birthdays up here?  Like two years late kind of bad?  Well, it appears I've decided not to reserve that for birthday posts anymore.  Ha.

See, a long while ago, I decided I needed a little something like a "kitchen command center" to keep us on track during the day, record our chores and our weekly to-do's, sort our mail and hold our "family binder", maybe a little storage, that kind of thing.  But there were some issues.

I have only one wall in the kitchen/dining area.  One.  And it's like a quarter of a wall because it's between the counter/cupboards and the patio door.  Also, I didn't want to spend any money on it because I wasn't entirely certain it would stay there (and not just because I knew we were going to be painting these walls.) Also, I really want hardwood floors through my dining/kitchen/living room, but I'm stuck with these ucky grayish brownish tiles that look like their perpetually stained even when I clean them with a toothbrush - but that's neither here nor there.  This photo just reminded me of that, since you can see it in the corner.

So, anyway, I had to brainstorm.  I wanted this to be something that was easy to change, that the kids would like, that they'd be able to handle on their own if they wanted to, that kind of thing.  After looking on pinterest and thinking a whole lot, I finally came up with:

(Yep, ok.  I see the date there.  Here's the deal.  I was waiting to post this until I finished the WHOLE kitchen command center.  I got partway through.  And then it just sat.  It never fully got finished.  And then I changed it to something totally different anyway.  And finally I saw these photos waiting to be posted and I figured I should do that before like, TWO WHOLE YEARS had past.  And then I edited these photos and realized, whoa.  Has it really been two whole years??  And apparently, yes, it has.  So now you know the whole story.  And we shall not mention my procrastination problem for the rest of this post, agreed?  Thank you.)

Here's a close up in case you missed the date on which this was completed.

To make this daily schedule chart, you'll need:
the printables at the end of the post
clear contact paper laminate
velcro tape
hot glue gun
clipboard
something to stick it all to the wall
something to store your parts in

First, let me address the contact paper thing.  I would LOVE a laminator.  Love it.  Alas I don't have one.  So I use contact paper when I want something to last.  Usually.  Sometimes I ask my mom to laminate.  Anyway, this time I used the Contact paper that was clear LAMINATE.  Not just clear.  I didn't know if there would be a difference, but after I used it I was pretty sure it worked much better.  I don't know.  You tell me.  Onward!

Print out the printables.  Use a scissors or a circle punch to punch out the activities and a scissors to cut out the months and days.

1. Cover the chart with contact paper.  When working with contact paper I've found it's easiest to go from top corner diagonally to bottom corner, moving slowly and pressing down with one hand as you go.
2. Place the circle pieces and small rectangles on the contact paper, cover them and cut them out.
3. Hot glue long pieces of velcro - two pieces vertically next to the times and one piece horizontally under the title.
4. Hot glue small pieces of the opposite side of velcro to the back of the circles and rectangles.
5. Figure out how to put it on the wall.  I wanted something non permanent, but not a command strip since those things always fall off.
6. And put it up!

I used jars to store the pieces.  I found this awesome metal milk bottle holder thingy in great shape at the thrift store.  I fell in love.  The end.

It's a super simple fix and the kids love pulling the pieces off and figuring out where to put all of them.  

The printables are below.  I made one with the times on it and one that's blank so you can fill in your own times (since I doubt your schedule is identical to this one).
The picture activities are pretty self-explanatory.  The cleaning supplies are for chores, the food items for going grocery shopping.  The pen and pencil are for "school work" which we practice at home.  There's two with books - one with the kids reading and one for me to read to them.  I found a picture of a car like mine and that's for "field trips" or outings.  The swing set is for playing in the backyard, not to be confused with the park picture.  The kid with the microphone is singing time, because they love it when we all sing together.  And the gold star is "free choice time."  They're all free clipart. 

(and though they look gray, they're actually white.)

Hopefully this will help you arrange your summer days!

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

Wishful Thinking.

One of my favorite wreaths that I've made to date is the Farewell to Summer Wreath.  I just can't get over the nod to sunny days and the meticulously crafted roses.

Though I have been trying hard not to complain, this winter has been wretched.  The never-ending winter is hard on the soul and I miss the sun.  Which is likely why I just couldn't get this idea for an updated version out of my head.

Farewell winter - this time, even with all of your frigid beauty and quiet cold mornings, you will NOT be missed.  (The unfortunate and ironic point being that it snowed yesterday, and will likely snow again before winter is TRULY over here.)

You remember the first version?

I made the rosettes in exactly the same manner.  You'll excuse me, then, if I refer to the previous tutorial for the sake of time and non-repititiousness.  The photos are not so awesome, but that's mostly due to being in the dungeon craft room:

First, cut a bunch of tissue paper into strips the long way, about two inches wide or so.

Take your strips, one at a time, and twist them up,

then spread mod podge all along them.

Starting at the end, roll them up while twisting them - rolled rose style, like these.

Basically, you roll the middle, then fold the tail up, turn the rose 1/4, fold the tail up, turn the rose 1/4, fold the tail up again and so on until you run out of strip.  So you are turning and folding, pressing in gently to make it stick, but being careful not to squish the rose because you want it to stay somewhat fluffy.

When you get to the end, just smooth it down, it’ll look seamless with all the podge on there.

Now do this a bazillion more times.

You will probably need to make a few smaller ones, but you will want them to be the same thickness and fluffiness as the big ones, so don’t twist them any tighter or cut them any skinnier.  Just rip a little tissue paper off the ends of some of the strips you’ve already cut - maybe four inches or so - and construct them the same way as the big ones.

Yep, you're going to get mod podge all the heck over everything.  Prepare for that.
I made a few changes this time around - obviously using a normal wreath form instead of a floral foam circle.  I also used two different colors for the roses - or rather, two shades of the same color.  Below are some tips for the new sunny wreath:

I made the bow by simply creating loops of ribbon and hot gluing them around each other.  I then used a piece of skinny ribbon the same color to attach it to the looped ribbon the wreath hangs from.

I have to admit, I love the two-tone better.  The tissue paper rosettes might be a little time consuming to make at first, but after you do a few, they'll start flying by.  It's a great project to do in front of old office episodes or Zoolander.  Or Mean Girls.  Or Pitch Perfect.

Also, I have instructions for another project using these rosettes in my book (on sale on Amazon!).  It's a cute little topiary, you should check it out!

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!