Hello there! It's Throwback Thursday at Papertrey Ink and I'm up this week, which is perfect timing because I've been putting together some fun Fall gifts for friends, and I used the Autumn Abundance set to create some cute gift tags, to pull my gifts together! I've also gotten lots of questions in recent months, about what to do with washi tape, so I've paired some with my favorite tag die and the Autumn Abundance set, and I thought I'd give you a peek into my creative process today! I've also got lots of ideas for Fall gifts, in case you want to bless your friends or family with some of your own! Let me show you...
So, as I said, I've been using washi tapes in some of my pictures on instagram lately, and I've gotten some questions about what to do with it. I use it for various things like closing up glassine bags and to decorate envelopes, but I thought I'd give you another idea today. You can pull out a variety of washi tapes in your color combo of choice, and adhere them to some card stock. Then, die cut the card stock with a cute tag or other decorative die, and voila! You've got a fun, custom tag or embellishment! You'll want to pay attention to what color of card stock you use with the washi. In a lot of cases, washi is somewhat transparent, so the card stock color matters, because it might be visible, at least a bit, through the washi.
In the photo above, you can see that the two tags on the left, have white card stock as the tag base, while the other four on the right, have a kraft base. There's nothing wrong with either one, but obviously, the colors are a bit darker on the kraft tags and a bit lighter and brighter on the white tags.
I also wanted to give you a peek at my watercolor process. First though, let me just explain my choice of stamps from Autumn Abundance. Of course the three main images in the set, are larger in scale and they're typically the ones I've used in the past. But this lesser-used image is a perfect little guy to use as an embellishment for pretty much any fall-ish project and was certainly perfect for my tags today.
So to watercolor, I add color to leaves that aren't touching each other, so that after I add the water, they can be drying while I move on to other parts of the image. This lets each section dry without blurring into the one next to it too much.
I also just add a bit of color with the Zig marker on each little section, and then add water to fill in the entire leaf or other image. Then I can move on to other leaves, and then while those are drying, I can go back and add color on top of dry sections I colored first, which is where the watercolor magic really happens....when you start layering color. I just move around the image working in little sections, giving each one time to dry before adding on the next layer of color.
The above photo is really just there because I don't know about you, but I find these types of in-progress pictures full of pretty supplies just waiting to be assembled, really fun to look at! They inspire me, so hopefully this one inspires you, too!
So, the thing with this leaf cluster image I chose to work with, is that it doesn't have a die. No worries though. I just sat and fussy-cut them out while watching TV with Bartley one night. Fussy-cutting is actually kind of therapeutic and relaxing. Plus, I just like saying fussy-cutting! Maybe it's because in life, we rarely get permission to be fussy about anything! So, I'm happy to take advantage of it when I can! LOL!
Here are my tags all assembled and ready to be tied onto my gifts! FUN, don't you think?!
I used the other two dies from the Tag Sale #12 set, to cut out the circle layers from kraft and saffron spice card stocks and then I stamped the kraft layer with two sentiments from Autumn Abundance before popping all four layers together with foam adhesive. It's times like this when it comes in super handy to have that gigantor roll of foam adhesive I use....I don't feel a bit bad about making everything super dimensional! (I linked the foam adhesive below.)
And now, how about some ideas for Fall gifts for your own family, friends, co-workers, teachers, etc.! Back before I got so sick, I used to do things like this all the time, so it feels really good to be getting back to it.....I have a gift closet that I stash things in when I find them on sale. And then, when I need a gift or I just want to brighten someone's day, I can pop into the closet and pull together something sweet that will hopefully bless the recipient. I need to clean out the gift closet, because it hasn't gotten much use in recent years. But, look out baby! The gift closet is open for business again! Haha!
So I've been stockpiling things for a bit now, for a few special friends that I want to do a little something sweet for. They're from different walks of life and have different interests and such, so each gift will be catered to each friend, but I figured some of these ideas might be helpful for you. NOTE: These ideas can also translate to gifts for Christmas or any other holiday you need a gift for, of course. Also note: Some of the MOST fun gifts to give, are the ones "just because".....gifts like these....to welcome fall and to say "thinking of you". The most fun gifts to give are the ones for no good reason at all, because they're the ones that are a total surprise. I love giving gifts but the "just because" ones are my favorites!
Some fall "just because" gift ideas:
-a favorite bag of coffee or box/tin of tea (New England Coffee "chocolate cappuccino" is my favorite - I drink it every day - and it also works great for this color scheme.)
-chocolate bars (No brainer! ha! I got these Chocolove bars - almonds & sea salt and salted caramel partly because they're delish and partly because they go with my overall color scheme for my Fall gifts. Got mine at Whole Foods.)
-harvest corn (the chocolate version of candy corn, because it's the best of all the candy corns! Heee! Tuck some in a cute jar or give them the whole darn bag. The choice is yours!)
-fall soap (Bath & Body always has great ones.)
-candle (also found a sale on some yummy ones at Bath & Body.)
-pens (I grabbed some Stabilo pens in brown this time. Everyone can use pretty pens. These InkJoy's are also favorites of mine and you could certainly pull the fall colors out to tuck in a gift, and then shoot....I guess that means you'll have to keep the other colors for yourself. Darn.) :) :) :)
-brush pens (If your friend might like to hand-letter, these fall colored brush pens are a great choice!)
-embroidery floss (Obviously this type of item is best for a crafty gal, but since I know a few of those (wink!), I grabbed some to tuck in my gifts. I just picked a few colors that compliment my gifts' overall color scheme again. My friends can use them together or separately on whatever their little hearts desire.)
-beautiful wood buttons (I found this GORGEOUS bag of them at Michael's! The photo on their site doesn't remotely do them justice. These are about the prettiest wood buttons I've ever seen and they're not expensive either! You can fill up cute jars with them or can tuck a few in a glassine bag and seal it up with some washi tape. Again, this type of gift works well for crafty girls, but their gorgeous brown color and wood texture makes them ideal for tucking in a fall basket. Seriously, I'll be keeping some of these to use around here. They're so pretty and would even look cute sitting out in a dish with your fall decor!)
-galvanized metal letters (I found these cute metal initials at Michaels. See the photo above. Couldn't find a link for you, but they're fun for tucking into decor here and there, and they're great for anyone regardless of whether they're on a diet or they're not crafty or whatever!)
-cute fall kitchen towels (I couldn't find these at my store, but how cute are THESE or THESE or THESE? They're also an item that are great for just about anyone!)
-cute fall notebooks (These look like they'd be awfully cute! I kinda want some for myself! Haha!)
-washi tapes (I couldn't find links for you, to the ones I have, but these are 60% off and look like they'd be gorgeous for fall. Same with these! And these wood ones look similar to one of mine.
Ok my sweet friends, I hope these gift ideas and the tags to dress them up with, have given you some inspiration and gotten your creative juices flowing! Giving gifts is the BEST so whether you give someone a whole basket of fall treats or a single chocolate bar with a gift tag tied on it, I encourage you to give someone a gift just because. It's fun! And you'll feel like a million bucks because you know what the Bible says....it's better to give than to receive. It's so true! It'll make you feel great and it'll make someone else's day too!
As for the cute Autumn Abundance stamp set, be sure to head to the Papertrey Blog for more ideas from a couple of the other girls on the Design Team! Do you have this set in your stash?
Thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me! Happy gifting, dearies!
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{Fall Gift Tags supplies -- click on thumbnails}
