winnie & walter :: february leading lady, part 1 :: from the card to a gift

I have the honor of being Winnie & Walter's Leading Lady this month--which actually means I have a standing date every Saturday in February to guest star on their blog!  I'll have 4 fun posts using W&W products and I'm even hosting a giveaway one of those days.  You'll have to tune each week to find out more about that, though ;)  

I started out in the papercrafting industry making cards and while I still make them, I've become obsessed with wrapping gifts and packaging.  So when I was trying to decide what to do for my first Leading Lady project, I thought I'd take a W&W cutaway item and show you how to take it from a card to a gift.

I'll start with the card...The stamp and cutaway set I focused on was Sketchy Thoughts.  The reason I chose it was because the large word bubble cutaways were the perfect size for a tag on a smallish package.  Plus, I knew I'd have no trouble using them on a card.  (I'm loving everything about this stamp set from the Jan/Feb Release!)

By papercraft nature, I'm a layerer and clusterer.  I'll admit that I prefer to make a big fat card with lots of girth and texture!  So my projects might be a bit untraditional in the stamping sense, but I hope you'll get a few ideas from things I show you.  True to form, I used a few cutaways to trim some shapes like tags and tabs from glitter and patterned scrapbook paper.  Then I made sure to cut out my Sketchy Thoughts bubble (the more circular one in this case).  I adhered two tabs from the Essentials: Katharine Cutaways set, then glued down some pale pink tulle in a ruffled manner--for depth--before adhering the glitter tag on top of it.

After that, I embellished the tag with a black sticker, small tag cut from the new Essentials: Lana Cutaways in the same Maggie Holmes dotted yellow paper, a wooden heart, and a purple fringe bow.  For the card sentiment, I chose 'lots of love' from Sending You with Evelin T. Designs with a close crop and a glitter tape matte.  Then I cut out the Sketchy Thoughts bubble from a sheet of Hazelwood patterned paper (1Canoe2).  I love that shade of pale pink and wanted the single bunch of flowers to be partly visible behind the sentiment.  Adding a few foam adhesive dots to prop it up and add dimension, I stuck it onto my card as the finishing touch.

To complement the card, I wrapped up a small personalized ring dish for a friend. Small packages like this one are so fun and easy to wrap.  Truth be told, I hate pulling out huge rolls of gift wrap so whenever possible, I love to use scrapbook paper or my own stamped wrap on simple copy paper instead.

In this case, I wrapped the box with more of the pink floral Hazelwood paper and used the yellow Maggie Holmes paper for my word bubble tag.  I wanted to keep the packaging somewhat consistent with the card (but not exactly the same) so after dressing up the package with some leafy black fabric and lace, I tied on the smaller Essentials: Katharine Cutaways tag (in gold glitter) and a purple embroidery floss tassel (instead of a bow).  I also swapped out the tulle with a strip of lace.

When it came to the word bubble, I used the square-ish one and a sentiment from the Sketchy Thoughts stamp set because I wanted something a bit bigger than I had used on the card.  Instead of glitter tape as a matte, I used lace.  I tied it to the fabric with a length of metallic thread because the thread gives it kind of a wispy, delicate feel.

This little box is ready to send off to my friend.  It's a 'just because' gift and I like the idea of the little sketch bubble used as a tag.  It's almost as if I'm actually saying "Hello!" from far away!  I have 4 of these little dishes to send to friends across the country and because I made the tags myself from the stamps and cutaways, I can easily replicate all the packaging.  The same goes for the matching card.

I have to mention the cute little ring dishes...they're handmade from Az and Airalee and they are just too sweet--and make the best photo props!  Check out their website if you have a chance.  And, of course, head over to Winnie & Walter and pick yourself up a few stamp and die sets (I'm completely in love with Sketchy Thoughts)!  I can't wait to share a few more W&W projects in the coming weeks!

the valentine's day gift wrap kit is here!

Hello, friends!  It's here, it's here!  If you love Valentine's Day, I think you will also love this kit!  I was just saying today on Instagram that I'm always hesitant to design for Valentine's Day.  I'm not sure why that is, but it happens every year.  This year, however, I decided (kind of at the last minute) that I would create a gift wrap kit.  And once I started coming up with the ideas, I ended up making so many things that I had to break it into TWO kits!

Dividing it up pushed me back a bit, though, so I'm sharing the first one here, and I hope to release the second one over the weekend.

When designing a themed kit, especially one that is holiday-specific, I still like to keep it somewhat versatile.  There are a few Valentine-centric items in here, but really, the rest can be used for just about anything, and during any time of the year.  We all love blush pink and gold, and while red is sometimes a more difficult color to incorporate into projects (at least for me) outside of Valentine's Day, patriotic holidays, and Christmas, I tried to use it as more of an accent here than the star of the show.  And for something a little different, I added a few hints of lavender and peach. 

FYI: The 2nd kit is all about the peach and the lavender and the gold--and a hint of the blush pink.  Because I started off making only one kit, everything in the second kit complements this one so well!  You can expect to see a special discounted price if you purchase them both ;)

There are so many lovely things here...I made tassels, I made tags, I made yarn pom-poms.  I put a fringe bow on a muslin bag. I ruffled crepe paper on tags.  I made you an envelope of confetti.  I wound soft fuzzy yarn around paper tags.  I glittered wood tags and clothespins.

It's funny that a kit I had reservations about creating is one I can't wait to use!  You can bet I'll be making all kinds of pretty valentines with it.  And not just valentines--whatever I have left after February 14th will definitely find a spot on non-valentine packages.  Pink, peach, gold, lavender...they'll work just fine for everything Easter and spring!

A good packaging kit should have a decent amount of packages, don't you agree?  That's why I've included the muslin bags, as well as some decorative glassine bags.  Also, if you've never owned one of my kits, you should know that items are packaged in even more glassine bags and envelopes!  Not to mention that these kits are contained in a 6" x 8" muslin bag that comes to you like a gift: it's packaged with tags and trims and is ready to keep for yourself or you can give it away (it's basically already wrapped!).

If you have any questions at all about the contents of the kit, please don't hesitate to ask!  You can find it here in my Etsy shop.  They are ready to ship so go get yours now!

And when you get yours, I ALWAYS, ALWAYS love to see what you get up to with it, so be sure to share!

XOXO

winnie & walter premiere day 2 :: endearments + love

Hi friends!  Is it really February already?!  Are you ready for Valentine's Day?!  (FYI: There's a kit for that ;)  OR you can grab some super-sweet stamp sets from my dear friends over at Winnie & Walter and make your own valentines.  They have a big release happening all week.  I've seen everything and if you love stamp sets and dies, you will want to check in over there every day to see what's new.

Today is Premiere Day 2 and I'm sharing some valentines I made with a couple of their new sets, Sentimental: Endearments and Sentimental: Love.

These are my favorite kinds of sets.  My favorite things to stamp on are little Avery white strung tags and they come in multiple sizes, but they're all fairly small.  So small sentiments are the best and these sets by W&W have tons of options and phrases, as well as gorgeous typography.

I mainly use my stamped tags on packaging, like what you're seeing here.  My go-to is generally a layered number--a doily, maybe some lace and/or tulle, a pop or two of bold color, some stacked tags, and most often a glittery clothespin to hold the lot together and attach it to a bag or some trim tied around a gift box.

I chose whatever sentiments were Valentine's Day related from the sets and then chose a peach, lavender, red, and gold color palette.  (I guess that combination is my official 2017 Valentine scheme!)

I love this packaging set and while the sentiment 'truly madly deeply' is actually all one line and much too long to fit on one of these white tags, I was able to stamp only one word at a time, masking the others with tape.  The large glitter heart was made from American Crafts glitter paper and the W&W True Multifaceted Heart Cutaways.  The smaller glitter heart is coming up in Thursday's W&W release!

I applied the same idea of the "stacked" tags on the other, smaller valentines, as well.  The little red stamped heart in this photo is from another set that is debuting today, called Sending You with Evelin T. Designs.

Be sure to check out the Winnie & Walter blog for a full look at these stamp sets, and of course, there is always loads of inspiration from The Talent over there!  (You've got a chance to win a whole lot of goodies from this release, too--details on their blog.  Good luck!)

As always, thanks for stopping by today!

~Rebecca xo

etsy shop update :: valentine's day, pt 1

Love is in the air...

Hello, blog friends! I'm popping in with a few Valentine's Day items that are available in the Etsy Shop.  It's always a strange transition going from the Christmas holiday right into Valentine's Day, but here we are!

Gorgeous glittery clothespins come in red or blush-pink.  Use them in your home decor--hang up your hearts or photos of your loves.  Use them on gifts, treats or party favors--clip your bags closed or attach a tag.  Anything goes!

There are also a couple of pink-themed gift wrap / embellishment / paper kits with which I think you'll be smitten.  Choose from the main Pink & Gold kit or the add-on Pink + Gold + Beet (purple).  (Or get both! They play so nicely together :)

While they are not Valentine's Day specific, they offer enough sweetness to get the job done.  Both feature lots of tags, trims, and embellishments like tassels, bows, doilies, feathers, and cupcake liners.

Glitter + pink + bows + hearts + gold = LOVE!

But if you are really set on Valentine-specific, check back on Wednesday, January 25th.  I'll be releasing a Limited Edition Valentine's Day kit and you'll be able to see the entire rundown right here!

Available later today...This gorgeous set of layered tags!

Make that TWO gorgeous sets of layered tags!

There are a few more Happy Heart's Day items coming by the end of next week, like the aforementioned Valentine's Day kit.  I'd love to meet you back here on Wednesday, the 25th for the reveal of those.  Join me?

As always, thanks for stopping by the blog!  Have a wonderful Wednesday, friends!

Rebecca xo

pti :: moments inked :: get clean! get organized!

Happy New Year, blog friends!  It's that time when the urge to purge, declutter, deep clean, and reorganize hits many of us. For me, the feeling came on fairly strong after Christmas and 2 weeks later, I've still got the bug.  It's so bad, in fact, that I developed an entire cleaning/organization schedule to stay on top of it all (because normally, housekeeping isn't my greatest endeavor).  In my post today, I'll share how I've used a few supplies from the Papertrey Ink Moments Inked Planner System to help me stay on task.

First off, I made a decision not to make many plans or jump back into work this January.  I've spent the last 3 or 4 years running head first into design team work and my Etsy shop business, and that leaves little time for massive organizational efforts.  What I've experienced is just the opposite of orderly and the entire year becomes cluttered and disorganized and I'm always two or three steps behind the game.  (It's usually due to the fact that my studio space is never decluttered enough so it ends up spilling over into other areas of our house, thus there is always a pile of something somewhere (and more often than not it's five or six piles) and I never know where anything is.

So this year I opted out of doing that and instead, I'm overhauling every room in the house.  We did the kids' room over the holiday break, along with their playroom.  Now it's time to tackle the master bedroom and the studio, followed by the kitchen and living area. Things will get thrown out, donated or sold if there is not a space for them, and 2017 will be the year of order, not disorder.

And while I'm at it, I decided to make a cleaning schedule so that (ideally) we don't have this much chaos in the future.  Lest you think we're just a bunch of dirty animals, I'll say that I don't really mind cleaning; finding the time to do it is the most difficult aspect of it. There is always something else that needs to be done--work, kids' activities, cooking...The cleaning is just the thing that gets put off the most because something more pressing needs attention.  But I've realized that the more often you clean, the less time it takes!  Duh, right??  I'm sure you already knew that.  Giving things a quick wipe down every week takes 20 minutes, as opposed to the 60-90 minute sessions that take place if I go 3-4 weeks between big cleans.  Twenty minutes is much easier to find than 90 in a busy schedule so this makes much more sense--and, bonus, the house will be clean!

With this in mind, I set out to create a working schedule.  As I mentioned above, my Moments Inked Planner System has all the tools I need for this.  I grabbed the Everyday Symbols stamp set, True Black Ink pad, Planner Banner die, and some White Adhesive Sheets.  Oh, and my planner, of course!

I cut 80 little banners from the adhesive paper; 80 should last several weeks and then it'll be time for another round of cutting.  My fingers are crossed that I'm still adhering to this cleaning schedule 4 months from now!

Next, I stamped different rooms on each banner.  In my case, I needed kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom.  (Living room, dining room, attic, and garage stamps can also be found in the stamp set.)  Our living room is part of our dining and kitchen area so I will be cleaning those when I do the kitchen.

There are 2 rooms I need to clean that do not have stamps, the playroom and the office.  Instead, I simply stamped clean and initialed 'O' for office and 'PR' for playroom.

The banners have the sticky backs so they're easy to attach to the planner pages.  I devised a workable schedule and placed the banner die cuts where I wanted them.  I've designated Wednesdays and weekends for the cleaning, and decided that each bathroom and the kitchen would get done every week, while the rest of the rooms will be tidied up every other week.  A quick wipe down or vacuum each week can be included as needed, but I didn't feel it was necessary to include those.

I also chose to adhere the banners on the month-at-a-glance page instead of on the weekly layout because I can get a better idea of the entire schedule this way.

Being that I've already made so much more progress on getting this crazy house in order than ever before, I'm confident I'll be able to continue on the path to get (and stay!) clean and get (and stay!) organized.  Even my planner pages look neat and tidy with this system--which oddly helps me find motivation!

**And if you have any tips or easy recipes for your favorite natural cleaning supplies, I'd love it if you shared them with me in the comments :)  Let's get off to a great start in 2017!**

Supplies used:

Papertrey Ink:

Moments Inked Planner Binder

Moments Inked Binder Pages 2017

White Adhesive Sheets

Skinny Washi Tape

Stamps:

Everyday Symbols

Dies:

Planner Banner

Ink:

True Black

The entire line of Moments Inked Planner System products can be found here.

Sign up for the Moments Inked Newsletter here and fresh ideas for using the MI Planner System will magically appear in your inbox every Monday!