Simple and Easy DIY Gift Bags

{These are headed to other far away members of our pack)

We're heading out for Christmas and I was planning to wrap the gifts we are taking with us.   Enter the TSA website that states that wrapped gifts may be unwrapped if they look "suspicious".  We've had our bags searched by TSA and know they are not careful about repacking.  Pretty sure that means the unwrapping and repacking would be less than ideal.  So I'll be wrapping our gifts after we arrive.

I didn't want to pack long tubes of wrapping paper, so I made some easy gift bags that I'll fill when we get there.  I hauled out my stash of blank craft paper bags.  Not much holiday spirit happening with these bags!  I do understand that normal people would just go out and buy bags , but we all know normal is highly over-rated.  Besides I HAVE bags, just naked ones.

Enter a sheet of Cavallini Christmas wrapping paper.  I love Cavallini  papers - so much going on, so many little bits that can be used for all sorts of projects.  I guess you could actually use these as wrapping paper, but at $4.50 for a 20x28 inch piece, it's pretty pricey wrapping, but I get a lot of mileage out of one sheet.   This is heavy archival cream Italian matte paper, worthy of any art project.

For one set, I swiped some white paint over gold paper doilies to tone them down a bit, then glued on images cut from the wrapping paper and glued the doily onto the bag.  

For the others, I swiped gold paint mixed with blending gel (to get a more transparent finish) onto some Italian text pages.  Then glued down wrapping paper cut-outs.

Quick, easy, made from stuff from the stash, and no TSA personnel involvement.

Homemade Kahlua Experiment - Part 2

After three weeks of steeping on the counter, it's time to bottle up the DIY Kahlua.   

First, straining the liquid.  I hated to throw away all those yummy beans, but couldn't think of what to do with them (and really don't need one more project - maybe next time).

All ready to bottle up, but of course needed to do some quality control testing first.   Added a splash to my coffee - yummy!   I was worried that the cinnamon might be too overpowering, but it is just right - background, not the main event.

Add some labels and baker's twine and done!  Well, not quite.  As I was uploading the photos of my bottles, I noticed that some of the labels were stamped "Kahlua", but most were "Kahula".  Arrgghh - maybe  that's what  you call it when you make it yourself!  Some new labels and now we're done.

Calendar Page Procrastination

I think I've figured out why it takes me so long to get projects done ; I am easily distracted!  Yesterday while rummaging through paper scraps for a new page  I found a stash of postage stamps I bought at a thrift store.

The text looked like Hungarian, the same language in my grandmother's old documents.   Enter Google Translate that confirmed that the papers are Hungarian and the postmarks are all from Hungarian cities. It looks like these are some sort of postal tracking stamps or labels.

I love the cancelled stamps, the handwritten notes and of course the bits of text.

This is why I love thrift stores; you never know what you're going to find.  So many questions -  why would someone tear these into strips?  Maybe some stamp collector who wasn't interested in the text ( horrors!) , just the stamps.  And how did Hungarian postal tracking stamps end up in a thrift store on the New England seacoast?  

Feel free to save these images to use in your art projects (click to enlarge, right click to save-as).  If you do use them, link back here so I can see your creation.

OK, enough stalling - back to work!

Calendar Page - Getting Started

I am frantically trying to get my pages done for my 2014 calendars.  A sensible person would start these, oh say, in September , but that would be cheating.  Somehow December always sneaks up on me   even though it has followed November for as long as I can remember.   Last minute panic is a wonderful motivator.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and apparently didn't actually pin it so I can't give credit to the artist who shared the technique.  (If I find it, or if you know, please let me know and I'll add it to this post).

I started with a piece of artist paper from a Somerset Studio magazine and added punched squares of Gelli print leftovers.  Actually liked it at this point and hated to cover up my Gellies, but I pressed on.

Covered it all with a coat of gesso, added  text circles from an old letter, stamped the text circles (Jenny Doh) and smudged on some Broken China Distress Ink.   Enter the Grunge Paper butterfly - yikes - several layers of colors before it seemed right - Dylusions Aqua spray , more Distress ink, Perfect pearls mixed with gel medium, a bit of yellow and finally a swipe of white to tone it down a bit.

Now, eleven more and I'm done!

Tag Tree

I know you well-organized types already have your tree up and decorated.  Not me, but I do have a new tree for my tags.   I made some Tim Holtz tags when he was doing the 12 Tags of Christmas. and never knew what to do with them.  (I do miss the 12 Tags and the fun and frenzy of trying to recreate Tim's magic without all his wonderful supplies.).  These are serious tags - the kind that take hours (or at least take me that long); the kind that I would never actually put on a gift.  As much as I love my family and friends, the thought of one of these tags ending up in the trash with all the Christmas wrapping paper makes me sad homicidal.

I found a little tree at Home Goods for $15.00.   My first set of pictures got eaten by gremlins, so I don't have a picture of the bottom wrapped in burlap and fur.  Burlap and FUR?  I admit it;  I am not sophisticated enough to "get" that combo, so I knew the faux fur had to go.

Fir gone, bottom wrapped in more burlap and branches straightened and spread out - ready for tags.

There - now my tags are freed from their storage box and as an added benefit, I rescued this tree from the shame of wearing fur with burlap.