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!*

I may be getting TOO confident...

Am I getting overconfident?  The herb garden jars were so nice, and I loved the green and turquoise together so much, and it matched where we're going with decor for the main floor so well, that I couldn't help it.  I got sucked in.  Sucked right in... to succulent mania.

As I've mentioned, I have a black thumb.  As is evidenced by the very brown, very dead, large shrubbery outside my front door - I don't even know HOW that happened.  I was pretty sure that kind of EVERGREEN bush thing was called such because it was EVER GREEN.  I didn't think it COULD die.  But I digress...

I just heard so many great things about succulents... about how easy they are to care for.  How easy they are to plant.  How easy they are to manage.  How easy they are to KEEP ALIVE.  It sounded like my kind of plant.

Because, you know, generally speaking things that can't scream at me to feed them don't fare well around here.

So because these guys are professed to add greenery by being very difficult to kill, I decided to try my hand at them.  But I needed something clever and whimsical to sport these cute little plants.

It just so happened that I had some wooden birdhouses in my craft stash where they sat for about 3 years waiting for the kids and I to paint them and hang them in some darling little decor vignette.  Perfect. 

Want to make some succulent birdhouses??  Here's how!

It's a piece of cake.

1. First, tape off all the areas you want to remain raw wood.  (I am loving the touches of raw wood combined with paint in decor lately, though I don't think I could do it in large furniture pieces.)
2. Break out the spray paint and spray, spray, spray.
3. Do multiple thin coats.  Since it's raw wood it'll soak up the paint, so working with a primer/paint in one is a good idea.

4. Hook your saw bit into your drill. 
I used three different methods, since the birdhouses were all different shapes:
5. For the steep peaked roof, I sawed a large hole into both sides of the roof at the top,
6. so the holes met at the peak and created one large hole that dipped down on the sides.
7. The tiny house was so little, sawing into the roof was too much for it.  I ended up taking the whole roof off with the drill, a pliers and a screw driver.  Even though it wasn't my original plan, it was the best choice, since a hole in a house that small wouldn't have allowed any room for a plant.
8. For the pagoda style house I drilled three holes in the roof, then one hole in the inner "ceiling" - it wasn't QUITE as large as I wanted, so I enlarged it with the help of pliers and sand paper, as you'll see in the following photos.

** Once the holes are all drilled, take some medium grit sand paper and sand all drilled/cut/pried edges to make them nice and smooth.  I think this gives a more organic look instead of "manmade."

9. Cut some parchment paper to approximate size of the birdhouse.
10. Round the edges of the parchment paper to make it easier to work with.
11. Stuff the parchment paper inside the birdhouse, with the edges meeting the top of the hole.  It will overlap and layer, that's ok.  Just make sure you're covering the wood inside the house.
12. Staple around the top edge of the parchment paper.  (My pergola shaped one was such a weird shape I had to staple from the outside in.  I'm ok with that.  It's not super obvious.)

** The parchment paper serves two purposes.  First, it covers the little bird hole in the front so that soil doesn't go spilling out all over.  Second, it keeps the water from soaking into the birdhouse, thus rotting the wood in no time flat.  In a few of the DIY succulent planter tutorials I read, this was the method used, so I'm trusting to the experts.
Succulents don't take much water so usually I just wet the soil with a spray bottle.  Works great.

13. Now put in your potting soil.  Fill 'er up.

14. Place your succulents.  You may need to fill in with a bit more soil, or but some rocks around.

 And that's it!  You're done!

 Ah, what whimsical little planters you have there!

That little one in on the side is planted in a tuna fish can I had painted for something else.  I think the succulent I used may be a bit to big for it, and I'm not sure it'll survive since Zoe picked it out of it's little pot and brushed all of the "gross hairs" off of it, then cleaned it thoroughly and proceeded to give it rides in the tricycle and sing to it before I noticed that anything was amiss.  Soooo, it's basically hanging by a thread.

I do hope I don't kill them immediately.  They now live on my piano.  Which, since none of us actually play right now, currently serves as a birdhouse succulent planter holder.

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

Jar-ring gifts...

I love mason jars.  It's ridiculous to even mention, since I know that's like, DUH.  Doesn't every crafter?  But yes, seriously, I do.  I have a whole pinterest board devoted to them.  I love putting gifts in them.  Making them pretty.  There's so much potential...

And as I looked through my "gifts for all occasions" board on pinterest, I realized a lot of them involved jars.  And my FAVORITE FAVORITE gifts nearly always involve some kind of fun, unique "packaging" - like mason jars.  Or mugs.  Or travel cups.  Or buckets.  Or different kinds of tote bags.  In any case, I thought it only appropriate to smoosh all of these great ideas together into a fabulous round up:

50 gift ideas that come in super handy, cute, and creative packaging.

1. Housewarming in a Yarn Wrapped Jar (a plant!) - She Finds

2. Mint Fudge Brownie Parfaits - Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

3. What I Love About You - the DIY girl

4. Apron in a Jar - Pleasant Home

5. Homemade Bath Salts - The White Gown

6. Alphabet Flower Jars for teacher - Little Pumpkin Grace

7. Housewarming Gift in a Jar (treat jar) - This Little Life of Mine

8. Personalized Christmas Jars (a jar catered to each family member) - Paper Blog 

9. "Doggone" Teacher Gift - Smashed Peas and Carrots

10. Drop off Salad - JackOLyn Murphy

11. Coupon Jar - Catch My Party

12. Love in a Jar - Inspired to Share for BRIKA

13. Spa in a jar - The Gunny Sack

14. Housewarming Jar (handy house items) - Oh Happy Day

15. Sewing Kit in a Jar - Under the Sycamore

1. Fun in the Sun Gift (in a large drink dispenser) - The Family Historian

2. Christmas Mug Gift - kiki and Company

3. Baker's Cup Succulents - Paper and Stitch

4. Travel Cup Teacher Gift - Lisa Storms

5. Cupcake in a cup - Bird on a Cake

6. Snickers and Joy Teacher Gift (um... it's a MASON JAR CUP) - Li'l Luna

1. Tape Gift Bags - DIY Cray

2. Apple for Teacher Gift - Dixie Delights

3. Puppet Kit - Childhood 101

4. Summer Relaxation Kit - The Lovely Cupboard

5. Paper Bags and Pom Poms - The French Import

6. Jack-O-Lantern Juice - Whipperberry

7. Bright Future Teacher Gift - Landee See Landee Do

8. Snappy Bags - The Crafting Chicks for I Heart Naptime

9. Reusable Fabric Gift Bags - I'm Feeling Crafty

1. Car Wash Kit - Inner Child Fun

2. Arts and Crafts Bucket - Li'l Blue Boo

3. Bucket of Luck - Maybe I will...

4. BBQ Bucket - Cheryl Style

5. Gardening Bucket - I Heart Naptime

6. Kitchen in a Bucket - The Girl Creative

1. Orange You Glad Teacher Appreciation (berry basket) - Shaken Together

2. Sharpie Teacher Appreciation (Crystal Light Container) - Design. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

3. Christmas Candle Gift - Kerry's Craft Blog.

4. New Mom Kit (clear drawstring bag from bath items) - Get Snazzy

5. Wine Bags (sweater sleeves) - Create My Event

6. Cereal Boxes and More - Michele Made Me

7. "Mint" to be gift (Crystal Light Container) - It's So Stinking Cute

8. Gardening Hose Gift Basket (think housewarming presents) - Apartment Therapy

1. Votive Holders and Cupcake Liners - bhg

2. Lego Money Holder - A Girl and a Glue Gun

3. Photo Envelope Liner (for giving cards, gift cards, etc.) - cake. 

4. Balloon Money Holder - The Gold Jellybean

5. Folded Paper Gift Box - Cosmo Cricket

6. CD Envelope and Yarn - TomKat Studio

Yep, there's more tomorrow!  Just wait and see!

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

Wrapping it up - with Shannon

You know my next guest from such classics as "the picnic collection,"  and the great "Yarn it all!" series of 2012, and over on her own blog, googiemomma, Shannon will wow you with her amazing room redo's, sewing INCREDIBLENESS, crochet prowess, and quilting insanity.  And she's got some stellar wrapping ideas for you today - because, after all, what's a great handmade present without some unique and creative outer skin??


hey boys and girls! i’m shannon, head writer and chief spam collector over at googiemomma, and i’m thrilled to be a part of kim’s gift it good! series.

when kim invited me to contribute something i immediately started brain-storming different gifts i’ve given or received in the past searching for ideas. then i stumbled across the idea of different ways to wrap gifts. because, obviously, once you've created all these awesome gifts from this gift it all series, you’re going to need appropriately awesome wrapping for them, right?

but there’s an issue. on one hand, my artistic hand, mind you (which is obviously my left hand) i love love love a nicely wrapped gift. i go bonkers for crisp corners and hidden tape, whimsical paper and coordinating bows. i’m drooling a little bit thinking about it now.

but on the other hand—my cheap penny-pinching right hand—i just can’t justify the extra money on PAPER! it’s going to be ripped off and thrown away! what’s the average life span of a wrapping paper—from coming off the cardboard tube to getting thrown in the trash? couple hours, maybe?

ugh! what’s a girl to do??? yes, yes…#firstworldproblems. i know.
fortunately there’s a happy middle--cool ideas for wrapping gifts that won’t break the bank and will still have people giving a split second pause—oooh look how pretty it’s wrapped—and then tearing it to shreds. and don’t even bring up dollar store gift bags. no. i just..no. i can’t even….
::cleansing breath::

(note: all photos are clickable and linked to their source, or my pinterest board if i couldn't find the original source)
so the first and probably most obvious: butcher paper. you can pick up a 140’ roll for about $11 at home depot (it's called brown builder's paper). 140 FEET. that's a lot, in case you need it broken down. and brown butcher paper? it’s like the ultimate hipster blank canvas.
add yarn:




or maybe a paper bow:

(this link for this pic on pinterest took me to a really iffy site, so i deleted it from my pinboard. if anyone knows the real source, please let me know!)

or if funds are really tight just go outside and grab some nature:



i’ve also seen it stamped, painted, stickers applied…really the possibilities for personalization are endless.

next up: the age old newspaper. it’s the poor (or unprepared) man’s timeless gift wrap. the key here is to really own it—if you’re wrapping your gift in newsprint, really commit to the paper 150%.
newspaper roses, anyone?



or maybe a big fluffy newspaper bow?



you can’t really deny that these take the newspaper wrapped gift to a higher plane.
along the same lines as the paper is this map-wrapped gift.



with everyone basically carrying a gps in their pocket these days, i think the paper map is becoming a thing of the past. so next time you have a gift to wrap go rifle around in your glove compartment. bingo.

how about fabric scraps? i may coughcough have a little bit of fabric laying around my place (shifty eyes). fat quarters go on sale for 99 cents all the time, and that kind of wrapping can be reused instead of tossed. or, if they don’t sew…maybe you can just ask for it back? and if you don’t sew…send it to me?



if you reallllly want to get fancy with fabric, would it surprise you at all to find out the japanese have an entire system of fabric wrapping for gifts? yeah, i didn’t think so. it’s called furoshiki, and seriously, how gorgeous is this?




finally, i’ve saved my favorite for last. a roll of simple black art paper and a white marker makes for an awesome wrapping paper.



a 2’ x 60’ roll of black paper will run you about $5 at a teachers’ supply store. add a white chalk marker and a roll of twine and you’re set for quite a while, and for any occasion! the “chalkboard” thing is all the rage, and this puts a clever spin on it.

thanks again, kim, for having me here!

Awesome!  I can't resist a beautiful on the outside gift, myself.  Wait.  Why would you resist ANY gift?  Well, you know what I mean.  

Be sure to check out our first guest post from Lisa, if you missed it.  And stay tuned for more awesomeness tomorrow!

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

Who doesn't love a good Ombre Monster?

I was determined to DIY a baby shower gift for a shower I went to (months ago...).  It was the first time I did so, as I usually just use the registry to be on the safe side.  I figured, if I could DIY a wedding gift, I could screw up my courage and make something for a baby.  And I did.

 Now, I'm fully aware that there's nothing new about freezer paper stenciling.  If you want a full tutorial, and a good one at that, you can go to I Am Momma.  Perfect explanation.  For my purposes, I figured I'd give you a brief rundown and share my painting technique.

I started with blank white onesies, which you can get just about anywhere.  I got 3 onesies in 3-6 months and 3 onesies in 6-9 months.  I figured everyone gets the newborn ones and then the baby is only in those for about a month before they grow out of them... The baby I was making these for was due around Halloween and happened to be a BOY.  That determined the theme I went with...

I found some cute overlays on picmonkey (obviously before picmonkey started charging, but you can maybe still use their overlays for free?  Or google clipart images.  Or try the overlays on ipiccy).  I used monsters for the 3 month onesies and monograms and stars for the 6 month onesies.  
So.  I just saved them to my computer, resized them the way I wanted, and then printed them on normal computer paper.  I lay a piece of freezer paper, waxy side down, on top and traced the image.  Then I used an exacto knife to cut out the image, saving the negative space pieces where I needed it to be white (i.e. the mouth and eye shapes).

Then, you just iron it onto the shirt.  No steam.

This little product is your best friend when freezer paper stenciling.  Turn any paint color into fabric paint!  Yea!  You know if you try to paint on fabric with normal paint it will get hard and crusty and likely fade, right?  Not that I've tried that...

So, you just follow the directions on the bottle and mix a bit with your paint choices, and then start painting the space inside the freezer paper.
To get an ombre look, I started with the lightest color, then added the darker color to the lighter color with the fabric medium a little at a time until I was just using the darker color alone.  
See what I mean?  For this fun "G" (love this font) I started at the top of the stencil with a light green, then slowly mixed in a bit of dark green and painted my way down.  The bottom of the g is only dark green with no light.

For this one, I started with the outer ring and painted it gray.  The I added a bit of black and painted the inner ring, then used just black for the G. ("G" for their last name, by the way)

This one I used a stipple brush to make it look faded and worn.

 I ombre-d the monsters too.  My favorite is the one in the middle.  I don't know exactly what they are eating (I added that myself, it wasn't in the original images) but I think it's cocoa puff cereal.

The little star onesie has a surprise on the bum.  I just couldn't resist.

Then, for more funsies, I threw in some hats I made from t-shirts, using my easy hat tutorial.

As you can see, some are slightly bigger than others to allow for growth. (I love that one with multiple knotted strands out the top).

Then I found a box just the right size, matched each hat to the onesie it went best with, rolled them up together and placed them all in.

I made little labels and named each "collection".  The labels were hand painted by bug.  The little gray things under the first label are baby mittens I made out of part of a sweater.

And that's that!  They were a hit at the shower!  I have requests to do a personal tutorial for a few friends from church!

I didn't save all the images I used, but here is the star arrangement from the all-star onesie if you'd like to use it to pattern your own.

Want more freezer paper stencil ideas?  Check out my "B is for Book" Bag, Lucky Dog T, or the other baby gift I made.  But be warned, two of those posts were before I started caring about my photos.

I had so much fun, I wanted to make my own.  But my kids are a bit old.

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