a day in the life of the gilded bee: the lovely package exchange

Showing posts with label the lovely package exchange. Show all posts

Monday

Clara's Kit

My favorite sort of gift, is the sort that truly is a gift, and totally unexpected.
I tend to forget to send birthday and Christmas and other holiday gifts.
I often send birthday presents a month after the actual date.
This gift is for a small person, my cousin, whom I haven't met, but have heard of,
she is quite imaginative and fanciful, and I created this kit with the idea of supplying interesting pretty things that are made for creating and crafting...

1. start with a hinged wood box...

2. paper the inside of the box with this super-cool adhesive fabric!

3. Add some bright modelling clay...

4. add a miniature wooden rolling pin for rolling clay...

5. Glitter!

and a nice tablet of thick watercolor paper...

and a rainbow of paints...

beautiful sticky butterflies...

and a very large, glittery feather butterfly...

Top with a fabulous uber-pink wide ribbon,
I hope these are a surprise and an enjoyable one. :)

the rose box

a Christmas gift.

Sunday

brown paper parcels

My favorite wrapping papers are plain brown or unprinted newspaper.
They are the perfect canvas for all sorts of fancy or perhaps very simple trims.
This one is wrapped around and around with vintage bakers twine + seam binding + a shipping tag.

vintage forget me nots + label + cream colored vintage bakers twine + persimmon satin ribbon

I made a ribbon rose for this one, then added some vintage and velvet trims, sequins, a stripey label and chocolate organza ribbon.

Friday

I wrap

I have been wrapping a lot of parcels.
little ones.
big ones.
lumpy ones.
my favorite topper?
fabulous ribbon.

Thursday

Suitcase Wrappery Kit

This is a Christmas gift I made,
I enjoy making these sorts of kits...

Step 1: Roam the internet...
look to find the most perfect little suitcase...

then add something to tie,
and patterned tape...

medallions in bright colors...
origami papers + instructions...
popcorn bags...

Labels in candy colors...
sugary lace...
pillow boxes...

linen and paper, some vintage millinery flowers...

tinsel + glassine envelopes...

silver and gold and tins and pins and buttons and brass...

dainty glass vials with a bit of cork, beads and glitter...

into the case layered with my favorite waxed paper...
add some black and white houndstooth shred...

tie with the most perfect wide striped ribbon...
with a very large bow...
and some shipping tags with Christmas greetings scribbled onto them.

Friday

paper cones

I love paper cones, and have hunted around for some good templates/tutorials.
They are so perfect: any task, from Easter trifles to cones of fresh flowers as wedding favors, to holding cello bags of popcorn for trick-or-treats, to holding chocolates and small gifts on a Christmas tree, to new years crackers, to Valentine parcels.

I made these out of random vintage book pages.
These are inspired by the Lovely Livy of A Field Journal:
http://afieldjournal.blogspot.com/2009/04/paper-cones-craft-tutorial.html
Hers are made from vintage sheet music and are longer than these and are oh-so-elegant.
These are easy to make from any text weight paper, and look charming in vintage and patterned papers.

These cones are made from this free printable PDF template:
http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/cone.htm

You can add a fancy edge if you wish ;)

To hold heavier objects, I made these out of cardstock.

The template can be sized to be smaller too.
One way of dressing them up is to add a trim around the edge of the top.
In this case, gold tinsel.
They can be hung by wire.

They can also be suspended by ribbons or twine. I added a big white carnation to this one. The options are practically endless.

Thursday

antique clip art

Today I thought that I would share one of my most favorite sources of free antique clip art: http://antiqueclipart.com/
There are pages and pages of lovely images.

I love to tint parts of these black and white architectural/furniture clips.

Wednesday

Security Envelope Rosettes

I started out my crafting life as a very small child.
Armed with a roll of tape, bottle of paste, and a pair of scissors, I would hoard "Garbage".
Paper towel rolls, cracker boxes, used envelopes and papers, plastic containers etc.
I made 3-D doll houses with them.

I've carried that attitude with me to the present: how can I make something interesting out of random components? Security envelopes have been on the random component list for a while.
I have been sure that something was waiting to be created...

I stumbled into this blog one day and have kept going back for more. I love her tutorials. I want to make the projects in all of them.

TO MAKE THE ROSETTES:
instructions:
http://papiervalise.typepad.com/scissor_variations/2009/04/judging-an-envelope-by-its-return-address-part-1.html

Tuesday

mini take out boxes and paper fortune cookies

Here is another post along the theme of interesting packaging.
I've been enamored with little and unusual boxes for a while, and collect templates to make them.
This one is a favorite: the mini take-out box.