Getting creative

I was in charge of prizes for my cousin's fiancée's bridal shower this weekend. I thought I'd get a little creative with the wrapping of the prizes, plus I haven't done anything arty in awhile.

Here is a book wrapped in tissue paper with heart ribbon on top. The box I covered all the seams with washi tape (I'm trying to use more of it, I have 25 rolls). I also added some flower stickers.

 Here I had two gift bags that were kinda plain. The pink one I added some satin ribbon and then a strip of ribbon with white roses on top. The second one was a brown bag, I added some washi tape to the top, some vintage lace and then some green wired ribbon and a burlapish flower sticker to the top. I love how this bag turned out so much that it inspired something else.

 I also made a card for the shower and a graduation card for my cousin's kid (different cousin).
For the bride's card, I used dictionary paper with the word bride on it as background, some vintage lace and some pearlized buttons on top.
For the graduation card, I used dictionary paper with the word graduation on it for background, layered some paper and added stickers spelling out "Congratulations" on it.

I joined Kimberly's My Own Style ATC swap a few weeks ago (mostly because I needed to do some art), and I had the hardest time figuring out my style. This morning, I sat down with my supplies and was thinking how much I loved the gift bag above, so I basically re-created it on ATC's.

I used dictionary paper with the word artist as the background (I made three for the swap, and one for me), added the green wired ribbon with the burlapish flower sticker on top. I used some vintage trim and a paper measuring tape for the bottom.

 Liz at Lululiz in Lalaland kinda inspired me to make pockets for them, she always does for her cards, and I thought it might be fun to start doing that with my cards. So, I used the leftover page of the dictionary. I folded it over and added some washi tape. I plan to match each card to its page when I send them out.

I still have to write up what my style is. I'm not entirely sure, I was always going to start with dictionary paper and then go from there. I like that I combined vintage, fabric, and paper.
I love these cards so much that I really want to keep them and make something else, but I'm not going to. I know I've done something great to give away when I want to keep it.

Altered Tins

I've started altering Altoid Tins for gifts, here's a few I've been working on.

This one was for a friend for Valentine's Day:

 I glued burlap ribbon to the front, added a charm I got in a swap and a jewel on top.
This is the inside of the box:

 There's vintage blue paper as the background, with a strip of ribbon roses on the inside of the lid, I added a tag to the bottom with some more ribbon flowers.
This is the back of the tin:

 We both work at a library, so I thought it was fitting to put "A nation of readers", and "Learning never ends" stamps. I also added a saying from a Dove chocolate.

This next one is a birthday present for a friend who likes birds and blue.
 The front of the tin:

I have decided one of my new signature things is to use dictionary paper as backgrounds, I also added a shiny bird to it.
The inside:

 I glued a few birds on the lid, and a bird and nest to the bottom.
Here's the back:

 A cute kingfisher stamp.

This one is a birthday present for a friend who likes purple:

 

 I added a butterfly and some flowers to the lid, I also added some ribbon and faux pearls to the edge.
This is the inside:

I painted a metal pendant from a necklace for the bottom, and added some dogwood flower stickers with puff paint accentuating them. I added purple flowers to the inside of the lid with a couple butterfly stickers.
And here's the back:

 I added a butterfly sticker to it.

These next two are for the Pay It Forward project that I signed up with Kathy at Kluless and Cathy at Ma Vie Trouvee. So, ladies if you're reading, stop.
This one's for Kathy:

I added burlap with a strip of canvas to the front of it and some vintage buttons. I also added lace to the edges of it.
Here it is opened:

I filled it with buttons because I know she collects buttons, I also added some vintage trim to the lid.
Here's the back:

I added a nice vintage looking picture.

 

And this one's for Cathy:

I added a piece of silver paper and a very colorful motif. I painted the edges green. I believe she likes bright colors, so I tried to use some for her.
She was talking about this being the year of the Ram for the Chinese New Year, so I went with that theme:

I used some stamps in this too. A little back story on that, this summer my parents sold their house and a we were cleaning out, we found my brothers stamp collection, so I have a ton of stamps now, I plan to use some in my artwork, but if anyone's interested in some stamps.
Anyway, the one on the lib is very bright, and I added a ribbon that I printed The year of the Ram on, on the bottom I added some green paper and three ram stamps.
Here's the back:

I thought this was a cute little ram stamp as well.
I also gathered up some handmade beads for Cathy, because I know she likes beads:

I plan to get these will go in the mail tomorrow, I hope the recipients like them.

Valentines

It's getting close to Valentine's Day, so I made a few valentines. I decided to create them out of buttons, since I have a ton of those. I apologize that the pictures are to dark. I finished them tonight and have a few I want to get in the mail tomorrow (fingers crossed they'll make it by Sat, they're going in state, so should be fine.)

As you can see I basically made hearts with the buttons, I covered a few cards with dictionary paper because I wanted to see how it looked with the white buttons on it, a sort of low-color card. I kept thinking they needed something else in the middle to make them look done, so I dug out some heart shaped things from my stash.

This one I covered the background with dictionary paper, and tried out a button border, I also only used clear buttons for the heart. I'm not sure I really liked the clear buttons on the dictionary paper. I used a clay button for the center.

 I also made the heart with clear buttons here, the middle is a sticker, I had a particular person in mind for this one.

 The middle here is a piece of lace.

 For this heart, I used all vintage buttons with string, the middle is a locket.

 Again, dictionary paper, this one has all vintage buttons with a sticker in the middle.

 I used a cupid button for this one.

 More dictionary paper with a sparkly pendant for the middle, all mother of pearl like buttons here.

 Just a clay button for the middle.

 Another pendant for the middle, again with the buttons with string.

 This one has a nice cloisonné pendant for the middle, sadly it fell off after taking this picture, figured I'd send it plain.

 This one I had a particular person in mind, which is why it's made with purple buttons and a nice bead for the center.

 This one has a vintage pin for it's center.

 This one has a button with a heart cut out.

 This one has a sticker I picked up somewhere, the design is created with micro beads.

And lastly, this one has a piece of metal filigree in it.

 

I kinda think they look like a kid made them. I found out I do not freehand hearts well. And when some of them looked so good before I glued the buttons down, they seemed to have morphed into something that's not a heart afterwards. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

Christmas gifts

This year for Christmas gifts I decided to alter some Altoids tins. My first step was to glue dictionary paper on them. I tried to paint the insides of them, but my glue gun wasn't sticking well to the paint, so after scraping some of the paint off, I added paper to some and left others just plain metal. Here are all the tins:

 I tried to customize them to people's tastes, but as I wasn't sure who was really into Christmas I ended up with more snowy ones.

This first one was for someone who really liked Christmas. I printed some old clip art off my computer for the fronts of the tins. This Santa picture just fit on so perfectly, he needed to be on a tin. I also used trim on all the sides of the tins, this one has a fancy gold on it.

On the inside of the top, I added another vintage picture, on the bottom of the tin, I added holly paper, a felt snowman, a present button and some red and green star beads.

 This next tin was for a person who doesn't celebrate Christmas, but I wanted to make her something. So, I kinda went with a steampunk like feel. The background is a sticker from a Tim Holtz sticker book. On the corner I layered a metal gear with some clock hands and a jewel. There is gold trim around the edges.

 Inside the top I added some more dictionary paper and piece of glass. On the bottom, I put burnt out Christmas tree bulbs on the top and a robot ornament on the bottom.

 This one has another vintage picture, this time of a snowman, there's a lace around the edges of this one.

 Inside you can see the paint, and then on the lid I put some dictionary paper. The blue snowflake is metal, the white one plastic and the small one a sticker. On the bottom, I glued a snowflake cut from paper and a snowman ornament.

 This one also has a vintage snowman picture. After gluing this one down I decided I liked the fussy cut look better, but it was too late for this one, it also has lace around the edge.

 Inside you see more dictionary paper and the pendant from a necklace. On the bottom is some snowflake scrapbooking paper. The snowflakes at the top were earrings, the snowman was a pin.

 This one, I wasn't really sure of the recipient's tastes, so I went with more of a fun winter scene. There is a vintage winter scene on the front with green ribbon on the edges.

 Inside is a cute little winter scene. The snowflakes are stickers. You can't see it, but the deer are standing in some sparkly white flakes to represent snow.

 Another vintage snowman picture, it also has lace along the edges.

 Inside I glued burlap ribbon to the lid and added some sparkly letters. On the bottom is snowflake paper with a snowglobe sticker and a couple pencil toppers.

 And here they are all wrapped up. I decided to just add letter stickers instead of doing tags this year.

I really wanted to make/alter boxes for all my presents, but I decided that was too big of an undertaking. I'm hoping to do more of these in the coming year.