Saturday, November 26, 2011

A Gift-Wrap Philosophy: Part Two

As some of you may remember, I love the traditional colors of Christmas but sometimes feel the need to break out and try something different, something rad, something rebellious, something edgy.

Yeah, I'm such a bad girl.

*snort*

One thing I love about my new Gift-Wrap Philosophy is just how flexible it is, allowing for lots of variety in styles and colors. For those of you who tolerate mass-production well and can't stand non-traditional colors for Christmas, today's post may not be of much value, but for those of you who, like me, would rather bleed from your eyeballs than mass-produce, well, here's a fun way to put some variety into your Christmas packaging!


Tropical fruit-slice snowflake stamps and sentiment from Hero Arts

Note how the sentiment makes excuses for the tropical colors. And the bling makes this so sparkly and pretty!


Retro colors of Brilliance inks and Hero Arts Stamps

I love aqua and orange and make at least one card with them every Christmas. The Brilliance inks are shimmery and I added a spot of Stickles in the center of each snowflake to kick it up a notch. This is a less expensive option than rhinestones, but remember if you're sending packages to the troops overseas...no glitter allowed!


Stamp by PTI.

Memento's gray ink makes me swoon and fills me with joy. Paired with this shiny silver and shimmery white ribbon, it's a stunner. Who knew gray could be so fabulous! BTW, adding a bit of bling to the center of each snowflake would be even more fabulous.


Stamps by PTI. Orange baker's twine.

Using quintessential Christmas icons in totally fun colors keeps the theme clear while allowing for rebellious color choices.


Stamps by PTI. Glitter by Doodlebug.

Finally, blue isn't exactly a non-traditional color, but it is pretty. Very pretty!
And that's it for Christmas tags this year. I'm considering making angel cookies to give to neighbors this year, and if that happens, I'll share that packaging as well. Otherwise, it's time to get cracking on Christmas cards because oh holy sugar plums, I've only got about 30 and need 130.

It's time like this when Clean-and-Simple Design is sooooo my friend!

How many holiday cards have you made? How many do you need?

15 comments:

  1. Beautiful ideas for tags, Susan. I needed 70- all are different and made them a few at a time since August. They are all set to be mailed-stamped and everything- woo hoo.

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  2. I love the navy and grey tags, but the others are just too non-traditional for me!! I'm such a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to Christmas colours!

    I need about 75 Christmas cards, and I've done 66 - 6 a month was my goal for the SCS Christmas Card Challenge and I stuck to it all year and got them done. It is a great way to avoid the panic in late November!

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  3. I don't comment very often (I know, bad bad blogger!) but these were so fun that I had to! I love Christmas in all color combos, so this was a super cute post. I might have to borrow the concept...! ;-) Thanks for sharing, I just love them!

    xo
    Kristina
    www.pearlgateway.com

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  4. What lovely tags. The non-traditional colours really work here. I haven't started my Christmas cards yet. I had good intentions but life got in the way. I look forward to seeing some of your cards as you always inspire me.

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  5. Love your ideas. I'm the family ribbon and paper hoarder-"Oh, don't rip that!" so I have quite a bit saved up, not to mention my collection of quality ribbon near my stamps. tfs hugs!

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  6. What fun. I totally love using non-traditional colors for Christmas! These are all wonderful, thanks for sharing! (You're not making a mess of that beautifully staged room, are you?) Hmmm....I have made 'some' cards for Christmas, and many more to make! If I say real numbers here, I may give up and go to Hallmark! lol...

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  7. Beautiful tags! I just finished making 15 cards today. All the same design. It almost killed me. I got bored after 4 of them. But I had bought this stamp set NEW this year; and was determined to use it! After three for four failed attempts the design I came up with worked; so I had to make many of them.

    Still need about 10 or 15 more cards. But I will probably only make 3 of each design I come up with because I really don't like mass production.

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  8. I adore all of your funky tags, especially the tropical fruit and stocking tags! As of now I have made about one-half of the cards I'll be giving/mailing out. I personalize each card, so no two are exactly alike. I also make cards for a local shop. A week ago last Thurs., I completed their order for 24. Last Fri. the owner called and ordered more. She wants them on or before Dec. 1st, so the forecast for me this week calls for crafty skies, holiday music winds, with a 100% chance of stamped snowflakes. Heehee! Hope you have a joyful week! :)

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  9. I have 35 cards made. I try to make about 80-100 cards, the bulk going to crafty friends both in person and on-line. My hubby asked for 8 cards this year for co-workers as well. My send to list varies depending on how many cards get made. With 35 done I can cover those I feel really must get a card, anything else (except those 8) is just extra frosting!

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  10. I love non-traditional colour combos for Christmas - pink & lime is usually my go-to, but I'm thinking about what I have in orange & blue now.
    So far this year I've made about 150 Christmas cards, but I sell them, so I don't feel like it 'counts' the same way. I'll probably make about another 150 before I'm done, and although I do make sets of 6 most of the ones I make are unique, because I too would much rather bleed from my eyeballs than mass-produce. Not my favourite activity.

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  11. I love all of the tags and I especially love the concept of white or Kraft paper!!! As soon as I use up all of the Costco paper I have (it may take years!) I am going to buy only plain paper. I have 56 cards made and I need about 75. I wrote on my calendar to do a few each month, but it just didn't happen,so I have been busy. They are all one of a kind.

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  12. More super tags!! I have 66 Christmas cards made. I think that is all I need. I may make a few more if I missed anyone. I have some snowman cards finished too that could also be used for Christmas by adding a sentiment.

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  13. I just love all the "non-traditional" tags. I think that would drive my husband nuts since I think his picture is in the dictionary next to the definition of traditional.

    I was done with my Christmas cards until my mother asked for 20. I'm adopting your clean and simple philosophy for that!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!