Inkling: gift card wrappers

We recently celebrated some family birthdays and I {gasp} ran out of time and bought some gift cards to use as last minute presents.

Don’t get me wrong – I love gift cards but I felt a little guilty not finding the perfect personal gift or making a special gift basket. Rather than stuff the gift cards into store bought birthday cards, I tried to make the packaging extra special.

Parchment paper, doily and twine – pretty and feminine.

This one was hard to photograph because of the glare but I wrapped the gift card in navy blue card stock and used polka dot cello wrap as an outer wrap. A plain binder clip held the tag.

Rustic and shabby – the paper is from a home décor catalog. It’s a photograph of a rug. A strip of fringed fabric and silk flower hold it all together.

Origami paper and a contrasting ribbon wrap up this gift card with an Asian flair.

The gift cards ended up being a hit or at least the gift wrap was a hit. 

Thanks for visiting!

Carolyn

I happily link at the parties listed here and 

   

Sew and Tell: burlap gift card holder

Have you jumped on the burlap crafting train? If so, and you have scraps of burlap, you can make some quick and easy gift card holders.

Just cut a piece of fabric measuring approximately 3.5” x 8”. Fold the bottom and the top to form an envelope and iron.

Sew the edges together using a straight or zigzag stitch.  

Insert a gift card and tie off with a piece of twine.

Inkling: gift card holder

One of the most popular gift items is a gift card. They’re everywhere. Even the grocery store has a rack with every card imaginable. Which is actually pretty convenient. They also sell cute gift card holders but why spend the extra money when you can make one yourself.

To make these gift card holders you will need:

Cardstock
Glue stick
Ruler
Xacto knife
Embellishments

I took pictures while I was making these but they mysteriously disappeared off my camera. Here are the text instructions.

• Cut a piece of cardstock a little wider and three times the height of a gift card. Approximately 4” wide by 6.5” high.
• Score and fold at 2.5” and 5”.
• Score and fold the sides in by ¼ inch. Glue these side edges down. Let dry.
• Fold the bottom up and glue the edges. Let dry. Here is the only surviving photo of the process.

• Trim the envelope flap edge with decorative scissors, a corner rounder or regular scissors. Add an embellishment.

For these card holders, I used regular white cardstock and printed them with images I found online. The cherries are a vintage fabric. The black scroll is scrapbook paper and the pretty blue design is from Lovely Design.

Make a stash of these and keep them on hand for that last minute giftcard you get at the market.

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This project is also linked at:

Inkling: halloween party part 1- mummy invitation

Let the Halloween fun begin! Candy corn, witches on broomsticks, trick or treaters and parties.

If you’re planning a Halloween party this year, you might like this mummy-inspired Halloween invitation I created.

I printed out the invitations leaving plenty of room between the lines of type. I used gauze from our first aid kit, tore off pieces and glued the edges to the card.

Once the glue dried, I trimmed the gauze edges.

The Halloween fun will continue tomorrow. Check back for matching mummy party projects.

Inkling: window envelope gift cards

I’ve found one good thing about junk mail and bills. You can reuse the window envelopes to make a cute craft.

To make these little gift cards, cut a window into a piece of cardstock.
Cut out the window portion from your junk mail window envelope and fold in half.

Add colorful paper punches. For mine I added the letter printouts “BFF” and “I heart U” for some extra cuteness. Glue the edges of the window closed and glue onto the back side of your card window. Cover the backside of the window with another piece of paper so that when you open the card you don’t see the window.

Micro hole punch the top corner and add a string.

And “I heart U” for visiting my blog!

Inkling: pressed leaves

I received this flower press kit as a gift years ago and I never used it. But now I can’t stop pressing leaves and flowers.

It takes a little while to press and dry the flowers - so for this post, I’m showing my first batch of fern leaves.

You place the leaves between pressing paper which absorbs the moisture from the plant. You can do several layers at one time. Once you have your plants between the pressing papers, you cover the top and bottom with pressing board and place into the press. My press uses straps which you tighten.

I checked the fern leaves periodically and they were flat and dry in about one week. I used spray mount to adhere the leaves to the cards.

Here they are – pressed, dried and ready to use.

I currently have flowers in the press and will post about those once they’re ready. This project requires a little patience while your flowers are pressing. It’s a good skill for me to learn…the patience part – not the pressing.

Be my guest: a different point of view

My friend Julie sent me these beautiful cards that she made from photos she took on a recent trip to Tokyo. I was expecting cherry trees, shrines maybe a statue or two. But her eye for detail captured something I would never have seen – manhole covers.

Each one is so unique – they remind me of enamel medallions.

Julie’s a fantastic graphic designer and her artistic point of view has reminded me to look around because you never know where you’ll see creative inspiration – even down on the ground.

Inkling: gift card storage box

My son has amassed quite a few gift cards. Although he seemed to know where they all were, I needed to have them in one central location. My first step toward organization was to stuff them all in an envelope marked “gift cards.” This worked for awhile but I knew we needed to take things a step further.

My second step was to put them all in a box. The box idea worked really well. And then it dawned on me - I needed to give the box a makeover.

First I covered the box in some pretty paper. I used a rice paper since it was fairly forgiving when I folded it. Then I made a template for the category cards. I printed out the cards on cardstock and cut them out.

I labeled the box, filed the gift cards and sat back in complete satisfaction.

Organize gift cards. Check.