Day 9 of Christmas Prep. @ thepapersac

Hi Everyone
What a stormy day we had yesterday - we had a very windy and wet night too ! Now, it seems quite calm. Beautiful sky - low sunshine and high thin clouds.

Today is Day 9 of my Christmas Prep. and I'm preparing a GIFT VOUCHER. I find myself needing gift vouchers often as the kids get older. With small children - present giving for me was a relatively easy decision. Time was needed but the decisions were straightforward. With teenagers - present giving is very different ! So, my solution is a voucher of some sort. I could just give money but I think the voucher thing is a bit more 'present' like.
I have a template that Ive used before for business vouchers and I altered this template to make my Christmas voucher. It looks like a bit like a formal cheque. I will write down something special on the piece of paper to reflect my present idea eg it could be x£ for books or some other item. My usual problem is choosing the exact brand or colour or book or whatever ? (only ever known to teenagers).
Other members of my family will also get a voucher this year, for things that I prefer them to choose themselves ie. to get the exact right thing. My idea is to make the voucher look like a special item which has taken some time and effort to create.
Here is the printed template as it comes off the printer :






Ive also developed some Christmas message plates to decorate a voucher envelope and tag.

Here is the trimmed voucher, with some notes to illustrate my thinking.







I will probably need quite a pile of these things. Although, it's an easy thing to produce, I do put lots of time into thinking what I will write for the gift idea.

Hope you are inspired to creat your own vouchers.

Bye for today.

Day 8 of Christmas Prep. @ thepapersac

Hi Everyone
The weather is 'extreme' today - very strong winds and quite wet. I always find strong winds rather unnerving - not sure if I will go out today ? Let's hope this weather front moves on quickly.

It's Day 8 of Christmas prep. and I'm preparing LABELS for my home made sweet mincemeat.




I always make a few jars for family mince pie making on Christmas Eve - we have done this every year since the kids arrived. We have wonderful photos of the boys 'making' mince pies AND lots of mess over the years. We bring them out occasionally for the ultimate in embarrassing childhood photos !

Ive made the mincemeat and its in the jars - now ready for making pretty. I have a jar spare, so I will turn it into a gift. I'm keeping things simple but have followed the core decoration theme of reds, purples and snowflakes. The labels make a few recycled jars look great. I love to use things which are decorated - generally, I feel it adds to the experience. Here are a few photos of how I decorated my jars :


Here are the filled, recycled plain jars.


I printed some labels using the same font and surface design from Day 6 Card.





I personalised the labels with our name and a date.


Here are the tools and embellishments I used. All the snowflakes shapes are the same as I have used for the previous days projects. Using common embellishments, colours, labels etc does make 'decorating life' simple. I think it adds to an overall pretty 'effect' when all the Christmas decorated items come together either as a display or simply scattered around my 'Christmas' house. I don't want a contrived/designer look (just as well !) but I think my eclectic house style is enhanced.
Here are the prepared jars :



Here are the labelled jars. The recycled jars have quite nice lids but I have added to the jar with the brown paper 'hat' - to give as a gift (I will personalise this later).


The decorated 'cap' top is not necessary for us and will just go in the bin but I feel the need to have some little embellishment. This is my solution :



Hope you are inspired to decorate a jar or two.

Bye for today.

Day 7 of Christmas Prep.

Hi Everyone
It's a lovely sunny morning - very bright sunshine. Love this sort of 'warm look' in winter.

Day 7 of my Christmas Prep. is here too. Today, I'm dealing with TAGS. I'm taking a slightly different approach this year. Ive got my usual thick tag for favourite/special people in co ordinated surface patterns. I'm linking the whole theme to a simple snowflake thing which is going on throughout. This is partly for an 'up fussy' look in the house but also because when Ive developed lots of embellishments snowflakes from a batch of the same colours and materials it's so much easier to tie everything together and be creative 'on the hoof'. My standard thick tags will look like these tags :
























Ive developed several sizes and will probably make about 20. The tag shapes are cut from a Sizzix traditional red tag die. I often use this die for tags. I covered thick card with the colours and embellishments you see (common to the whole theme of my prep. Days).

My other idea this year is to adapt and personalise some very, very cheap tags from a large supermarket. I got loads for about £2.






These few tags certainly look and feel like pretty additions to my wrapping things. I'm tying them in with my theme by adding embellishments from the core theme ie the snowflakes and name/message plates etc. Lots of ideas are possible and each one can be slightly different making a brilliant look for very little effort (once the snowflakes are produced). Printing and ink costs as well as time taken in cutting etc make this style of mass tag development 'do-able'.




Here are a few more of my initial efforts. I think using the common colours and font styles bring the whole collection of together.





I hope to develop about 10 each day and use these for my wider present wrapping. When we have our tree up and all the gifts are wrapped etc I will take more photos to show the collective impact. I'm optimistic they will look great.

Hope you are inspired to make personalised and individual tags of your own.

Bye for today.

Day 6 of Christmas Prep. @ thepapersac

Hi Everyone
The weather today is rather damp and overcast. However, I'm feeling lots better today (minor virus for a week or so). So onwards and up with my 'to do' lists.
Ive got lots of jewellery to go in the shop and I need to prepare for Christmas too. Ive also got loads of wacky ideas about new jewellery designs. I'm not sure how practical their 'wearing' will be ? I'm going ahead anyway !!!

Back to today .... My Day 6 prep. is another card. This time the card is more of a 'special' persons card with more work and a personalised element. I'm making this sample for one of my brothers (I'm sure he's not a regular reader - so I should be OK).




I'm using a photoshopped background of an original mini painting as my starting point. Ive printed the artwork onto an A4 piece of thick paper in the same way that I did for my earlier simple card (Day 3).
Ive also printed some messages inside and on the cover and folded the card in a similar way. Look back to Day 3 for detailed instructions.

I wanted this version to be a slightly larger item and have lots more detail. Here are a few photos to show the process.


I wanted to give the card a special look with a snowflake border made from a single Tim Holtz Sizzix border die and a few smaller range of snowflakes - all used on my prep board from
Day 1.


I added a pair of die cut bracket marks to frame a label for the back of the card.


I trimmed the white border on the left of the photo and kept the border on the right for the snowflake collection mount. Once the snowflakes were in position, I trimmed the top and bottom.



I added a ribbon on the front of the card and because it's for a man I thought a black colour would make the card masculine. My alternative to the ribbon was a black large snowflake. I think either would be OK. My personalising bit comes with my brothers name. I made the letters from a Sizzix alphabet die. You could make a label on a word processed or write it on the card.
Here is the card with a few extra bits - the ribbon, name, extra snowflakes and a little bit of bling (tiny sticky back stones) in the middle of the small snowflakes.









Hope this inspires you to personalise a Christmas card for a special person.

Bye for today.

Day 5 of Christmas Prep. @ thepapersac

Hi from thepapersac
I'm a bit late on posting today - we are all suffering from a virus ! everyone has been knocked out by this one over a series of days. Ive been soldiering on but am now on the edge of taking to my bed. As a consequence Im operating even more slowly than usual !

However, it's a bit dull outside but it's also Day 5 of our Christmas Prep. - and no matter what 'the show must go on' !

Today, I'm taking inspiration from a decoration I bought a few weeks ago. It's a Christmas BAUBLE .Here is it.




I will re do it in some musical note paper, red and purple to match my colour theme this year. When it's done I will share the final display. Here is the inspiration decoration - it's a large, card bauble.




Here is what I did. I started with 6 pieces of a little note stack. Each paper is 9cmx9cm. The thickness of the paper is important. If the paper is too thin it will fold over at the edges too much and just 'flop' later. I guess it's trial and error, my paper came from Paperchase.



I folded each note in half.


I made a pencil line of the outline of the shape of my bauble - any shape would do. Just remember you need to cut out six and if the shape is too tricky to cut precisely, the end result, may look lopsided.





Next, make 3 holes - top, middle and bottom of the shape.


Sew a simple sewing thread through the holes and tie neatly, make the tie quite loose on the spine. Add another piece of hanging thread in the centre of the top thread, open up the bauble first to do this. I used red embroidery floss. Finally, tease out the 'flaps of the bauble and display.



This is my prototype - I will make lots more and add to the larger musical paper versions.
This project took me only a few mins to make, so I'm up for making a few more. You could make any style or add lots of different embellishments to match your Christmas themes.

Hope you are inspired.

Bye for today.