I love the holiday season! It’s a great time to share gifts with friends and family. Today I’m here to show you a simple way to dress up a gift with bottle tags! I plan on making quite a few of these tags this month to add to my neighbor gifts this year — things such as bottles of sparkling cider or hand soap. To make mine, I used elements from both the All Spruced Up Kit and and All Spruced Up Journal Cards by KimB Designs…

Supply list:

• Digital kit of choice
• 1.5 inch circle punch
• Scissors
• Glue dots
• Hand soap / sparkling cider (or other bottled gift)
• Optional: digital template for a bottle label tag pocket (or you can approximate yours using the following image as a guide)

To begin, I started with a canvas sized at 11″ x 8-1/2″. I  used the Christmas tree element cards and word brushes from the All Spruced Up Kit.

If you choose to freehand a simplified template and don’t use a cutting machine… measure a rectangle 9″ x 3″, and then make a scored fold line at 2.75″ from the top. You can leave a square edge or round the edges.

Now, for those of you who are using a template similar to mine (shown above)… I loaded the template image into my digital program. I centered the Christmas tree and word art inside my transparent 9″ x 3″ template, and then I designed the image on the front of the tag as 2.5″ x 6″.  If you choose to add the pocket card on the back, you will need to create a journal card  2.5″x 6″ to slip inside. It will be the same dimensions as the image on the front of the tag.

As you can see on my image above, the right side is the front of the tag. On the left is the card for the back. In the photo, my template is on the side you will straighten the template to fit over the Happy Holidays image.  Once you have your page ready, you can print it on card stock from home or send it off to your local printer. Trace the template and cut it out by hand, or use your cutting machine. Punch a hole with a 1.5″ circle punch (or freehand it with scissors like I did). Score the dotted lines and fold, and then secure the back of the pocket with glue dots.

I have included the front and back view of my completed bottle tag with the hole punched. Scored edges and pocket tag are shown on the back.

Here’s a look at the bottle gift tags attached to apple cider and hand soap… ready for gift giving!

So simple to create… and you now have a personalized gift for friends and neighbors.  Join us in the forum for a fun challenge!

Merry Christmas and happy gifting!

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About the Author Terresa is a mother to 5 beautiful children. She loves capturing memories with her digital camera and then creating a visual family memory book to be enjoyed and treasured. She also loves to design and create personalized items for her home and children. Other interests are crafting and gardening, and you will often find her enjoying the outdoors and soaking in the beauty of nature.

I love everything about Christmas, especially traditions. For the last few years, I have dreamed of having an advent calendar for my family as a new tradition… but what a seemingly-HUGE undertaking! I like quick crafting (another reason I love digital scrapping!), and taking on such a project has always daunted me. When I saw this gorgeous digital kit, however — Season of Joy, by Scotty Girl Designs — and this fun Whitewash Christmas Tree Cardholder from World Market, I knew I had to make it happen this year!

First, gather some crafty supplies —

• Digital kit of your choice (I used Season of Joy, by Scotty Girl Designs )
• Thin cardstock & plain bond white paper
• Adhesives (I used dimensional glue dots & an ATG gun)
• Scissors & paper trimmer
• Other embellishments such as twine, ribbon, buttons, and mini clothespins (I ended up not using the buttons, which is crazy — because I usually put buttons on EVERYTHING!)
• Cardholder, or other frame to the calendar elements

I started the project by taking a photo of the tree cardholder and then enlarging it to 100% in Photoshop, so that I could measure/resize the elements and decide on their placement. I quickly figured that my little envelopes needed to measure 2″ square, and then I was able to fill in the gaps with elements from the kit, and size them appropriately. The numbered circles are from one of the patterned papers in the kit – I sized them to 1″ inch so that I could quickly use a 1″ punch to punch them all out. Once that was squared away, I set up 8.5″x 11″ documents of what I needed, printed them, then trimmed out all the pieces.

I loved how all the elements in this kit have a white border – I could just make it out once they were printed, and used them as guides as I trimmed them.

For the little envelopes, I cut plain white paper to 3.25″ square. I used a 2″ inch template of thick cardstock to fold my envelopes. I lined the corners up on the grid of my trimmer, to make it easier to center my template, and taped the bottom flaps down as I went. Then I tucked a little note into each, directing us on something to do for that day (you can find awesome lists on Pinterest to get ideas for your own notes!).

To make the envelopes easier to open, I placed a dimensional glue dot directly under the flap. Later, I adhered the numbered circles onto them, which helped to keep the envelope sealed… but still let it open to easily remove the notes.

I also used mini glassine envelopes and filled those with little treats (I only did nine treats, as I didn’t want the calendar to be all about the candy!).

After you have everything trimmed and ready to go, I suggest putting all the envelopes in place on the frame and then sticking on the numbered circles; that way, you’re not shuffling through them to try to find what goes where. Finally, all of the open spots are now ready for the magic touch — the adorable elements!

I didn’t want anything adhered TOO permanently, so I mostly tucked elements in or pinned them to the frame with mini clothespins. You could always use twine or ornament hooks, as well.  I am so excited to have something I can customize each year!

You can make your calendar as simple or detailed as you like. This one took me about 5 hours total – which is a bit lengthy for me [wink!] –but the finished product made it worth it! I am so excited to be starting this tradtion with my family!

We would LOVE to see your hybrid holiday decor – please share it with us over in the hybrid gallery and our Facebook page. And be sure to come back tomorrow to see the second post in our 12 Days of December series!

 

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About the author  Arielle H Gordon is a wife and mom of two crazy kiddos, ages 5-1/2 & 7. She moved around (a lot!) before returning to settle down in her hometown of Enterprise, Alabama, to marry her sweetheart and start her family. She is an avid crafter — digital, hybrid and otherwise! She LOVES Jesus, family time, camping, gardening, reading cozy mysteries, hot tea, popcorn, and anything on the BBC! This time of year, you’ll find her glued to the Hallmark channel watching every single Christmas movie — even if she’s seen them 5 times each!

 

Did you ever struggle with the Trace tool in your Silhouette software? I did and sometimes I just failed, especially with white edges. I played with filters as hard as I could but still didn’t get it to work.

The last time I was using my Cameo, I saw that the sticker sheets in Let’s Plan: December by Mommyish and Mari Koegelenberg had an additional black mask. I wondered if that would make anything better. So I used them. And suddenly tracing was easy breezy! And the cuts came out perfectly. Most perfect cuts ever, to be honest. I was hooked and created several sheets for Print-and-Cut and they were all traced fast and cut with precision, even on the edges.

 

 

I thought the easiest way to show you how to create a black mask and to use it for tracing was a video tutorial and here I go!

 

 

I hope you learned something new for your Silhouette fun and it made your day like my day was made while Printing and Cutting those tags!

If you have any further questions, go ahead and post them in the comments, I will do what I can to answer them.

Have a great time and take care!

 

About the Author: Alina enjoys sitting in front of her large computer screens too much. Apart from that she loves walking her dog and watching sunsets while being amazed of life in general. She is married to her best friend. Tries to manage the needs of her two cats and her dog and badly fails when they all want their cuddle time at once. Everything else is scrapping, taking photos and currently crafting. Having said that, she needs a bigger craft room.

 

Hello everyone! Donna here to get you inspired with a hybrid project.

Although we don’t have fall where I am, it is one of my favorite seasons because of the warm colors. Today, I’d like to show you a project on how to create a simple hybrid fall wreath.

First, gather your materials.

• Cardboard (size depends on your preference)
• Printer, photo paper
• Digital kits (I used WOODLAND WHIMSY DIGITAL KIT BY: INSIDE PIXELS BY LISA BELL and AUTUMN WOODLAND ELEMENTS BY: RIVER~ROSE)
• Scissors
• Glue gun/stick (or craft glue)
• Ribbon
• Die cutting machine, metal dies (optional)
• Acrylic paint and paint brush (optional)

I already printed and cut some of the elements here. I used a 100 gsm photo paper for my print outs. Preferably, use fine-tipped scissors to cut through the intricate print outs. I cut all of these by hand but if you have an electronic cutting machine, you can also do that (I do have one but it’s under my craft table and I’m too lazy to pull it out lol).

 

This is optional. I just happen to have a die cutting machine and some metal dies so I used them for this project. 

I also used the same metal dies to trace solid ones. Another option is to search Google for fall leaves templates and trace those instead if you don’t have metal dies like I mine.

Cut a circle like the one in the image. This is approximately 8 inches in diameter. I just recycled a cardboard from a shoe box.

The background won’t show through but I still preferred the cardboard painted. (Ignore the messy table… lol)

Tie a ribbon and a bow. Then start adhering the cut outs. I used a glue gun because it’s faster. But you can also use any craft glue.

Continue adhering everything, making sure there is balance in your placement. It’s also like creating digital layouts, balance is key to a desirable outcome.

That’s all for now, I hope you give it a try!  Please join us in the challenge forum for a fun challenge inspired by this.

Happy Crafting!

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About the author: Donna Espiritu is a mom to a little girl who just turned 1 year old and wife to a very supportive husband. She is currently living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with them. When she is not scrapbooking, she likes to read books/e-books (sci-fi/romantic/time-travel) or watching old episodes of some of her favorite TV shows.