Making your own gift packaging is Sweet (Sorbet!)

First of all, I must just say how overwhelmed I am by the amazing response from my "So Very Grateful For The Pinkies Blog Hop" post over the weekend! WOW! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to leave a comment, I was really touched! Also, as so many people have asked me how I made the shadow box card, I will endeavour to get a tutorial up on my blog at some point this week! So, watch this space, as they say!!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some ideas for gift packaging that I have recently made. These will be given out as free thank you gifts to my class attendees who book a place for themselves and a friend of theirs, who is new to me/my class. Both the attendee AND their new friend get to choose a gift from my special basket as a thank you from me for the introduction. At my next evening class, one lady will be bringing FOUR of her pals with her, so she will be getting to choose FIVE gifts and her four pals will each get one gift too! I am really looking forward to meeting them all and I can't wait to see which gifts they all choose!

Anyway, here is the photograph for you to see:

I made the tags by stamping on Whisper White Cardstock with the gorgeous "Petal Parade" Sale-a-Bration stamp set (available for FREE when you spend £45 until 31st March 2014) using the  following colours: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party, Sahara Sand and Pistachio Pudding. I then used my trusty Envelope Punch Board to shape the tops of the tags and also to round the bottom corners.

 

I punched a pretty flower-shaped hole in each tag using the "Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack" and threaded them with with either Coastal Cabana Ruffle Stretch Trim ribbon or the Crisp Cantaloupe Twine (the latter is from another fabulous Sale-A-Bration freebie set: the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack, which has three generous reels of different colour twine and some printed cork stickers! Love it!). The 'thank you' sentiment comes from the "So Very Grateful" stamp set and is stamped in Jet Black Stazon ink. I carefully swiped my Write Marker brush tips around the edges of the sentiment banners to add a bit of definition, before sticking them onto the labels with Stampin' Dimensionals, to give a bit of height.

I took the inspiration for the tag colours from the utterly beautiful "Sweet Sorbet" Designer Series Paper that is also available for FREE in the Sale-A-Bration offer - which I have really fallen in love with! It is my "go to" paper at the moment and I am already sad that it will only be around until the end of March -boo hoo!

 

 The peachy-coloured gift envelope and its co-ordinating belly band are both made using the "Sweet Sorbet" papers and again, I used the fantastic Envelope Punch Board to whizz it up in a jiffy! I adore my Envelope Punch Board - it is just SO versatile and you make make so many other fabulous projects with it too: boxes, gift card holder cards, crackers, mini albums - all sorts! It is an amazing piece of kit!

Think you don't recognise the gift bag on the left of the top photograph? Well, it started life as one of Stampin' Up!'s "Tag a Bag Gift Bags" - three scores, three cuts, a little bit of glue plus a small rectangle of cardstock, to strengthen the base, was all it took to transform the flat paper bag into a pretty, three-dimensional, free-standing gift bag! Da-naaa! Easy! Bit of ribbon and a tag and you're done!

 

If you want to have a go at making your own gift packaging then it is really easy using the Stampin' Up! products I've mentioned above, as they all coordinate beautifully!

 

All of them (and more!) are available to order through me. You can place an order direct with me (via phone or email) or, if you prefer, you can buy them via my online shop 24hours/7days a week. Shipping is only £4.95 direct to your door, regardless of the size of you order! AND don't forget that for every £45 spent (before shipping) during Sale-A-Bration, you earn one FREE special Sale-A-Bration item, too!

The hardest part is deciding which of the 13 gorgeous Sale-A-Bration goodies to choose first!! Good luck! ;O)

Right, I am off to make some more gift packages and plan my shadow-box card tutorial I think...

Until next time, happy crafting everyone!

 

Lucy x