the Embellished Box

 Wouldn't that be a spectacular name for a series of posts! The Embellished Box ~ simple and elegant at the same time. I was sitting in my craft room this past weekend finishing up a birthday album for Alaina using the kit from Gossamer Blue when I realized how much extra stuff I had left over. Just little bits and pieces, snips of paper and random left-over stickers, extra diecut shapes. Now, I'm not one to throw out even the smallest scrap, so the idea of embellishing tiny gift boxes sounds like the perfect end-of-the-month project! 

Hope you enjoy the photos! 

I went with the perfect combination of pretty birthday colors! Lots of pinks and corals with a bit of shimmery gold, orchid and teal. 

I have more projects to share, it was a busy month for me over at Gossamer Blue! Stay tuned! 

xo ~ Tara

diy ideas: Holiday Gift Tags

It's easy, with all the hustle & bustle going on around us, to forget about the little details of the holiday. Things like gift tags! You wrap a gift, make it as pretty as possible and then remember that you don't have a gift tag to attach! Here are 6 simple gift tags that you can probably make with just the random craft items sitting on your desk right now! 

I'm doing a natural/gold/silver decor this year for Christmas and I made my gift tags to match. I'm also forgoing the traditional wrapping paper in favor of recycle-friendly newspaper! But I think I will make a set of these in bright reds & pinks though. (I bet they would even photograph better than these too!)

gift tags DIY

* use a paper punch to punch out a snowflake on a gift tag, glue scrapbook paper onto the back of the tag (I used a glitter paper)

* hand sew a glittered floral stem (they have lots to choose from in craft stores right now!)

* sew a punched snowflake onto a gift tag

* sew leftover chipboard letters, the first letter of each persons name onto a tag

* cut out 3 circles from felt, sew them from large up to small for a quick snowman tag

* sew pieces of fabric starting with longer pieces on the bottom up to smaller pieces on top for a fabric tree

{{DIY ideas is going to be a little mini-series this month. I have a few more post ideas that are Holiday theme-ish. Hope you enjoy them! xo ~ Tara}}

Sweet November: Pretty Package

A week of Fall inspired posts wouldn't be complete if I didn't add at least one little gift wrapping idea! I was thinking about gifts that we give during this season, and one came to mind that almost everyone will either receive or be giving away this month. Any guests as to what gift that would be? 

If you said a Hostess gift, you and I are thinking alike these days! My grandmother told me to never show up empty-handed to someones home that has invited you for dinner. Since I'm usually the one doing the inviting, I thought it would be fun to think of a couple of ideas for hostess gifts just in case! 

Tara's Top 10 Sweet Hostess Gifts 

- Fall scented candle (this would be my #1 to receive!) 

- a cute pair of dish towels (think the embroidered ones from Anthropology)

- a bottle of wine (Peter's favorite :) 

- gourmet honey, butter, salt, oil, or sugar (who couldn't use more of any of these!)

-  a pretty set of kitchen magnets

- instead of flowers, bring along a potted herb plant (try Sage or Rosemary this time of year) 

- a set of buffet napkins

- clean scented kitchen hand soap

- a pair of wooden salad servers

- new cute dish gloves

Since most Hostess gifts tend to be on the petite side, I was playing with some ideas on how to wrap it all up. I found some great gift boxes at our new Paper Source store that just opened, using a few book pages I simply used my paper trimmer to cut strips and used them as filler for the inside of my box. 

To decorate the top of the box, I used a minimal amount of products just a few leaves, gift tag, clothes pin and a little seam binding. Now, the leaves that I had on hand were not the right color for the overall look I was going for. (When are unsightly red and yellow-orange-ish leaves ever the right look?)

 Fear not though, a little coat of spray paint and those red and yellow leaves are now a trendy metallic gold and bronze! One coat is all it took, and I rather liked the color, especially the red, peeking through the paint. 

Clip the leaves and gift tag together with the mini clothes pin and tie some seam binding or ribbon around the box to hold everything in place and your thoughtful Hostess gift is ready to be gifted! 

Tomorrow I have a repurposed Autumn Wreath tutorial to share, anything with wool, paper leaves and vintage jewelry is always a good thing in my book! Happy Monday to you all!