Aunt Peaches

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Gift Wrapping

Aluminum Gift Tags

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Well folks, this may go down as The December That Kicked My Butt.

The week before Christmas is usually when I am at my most creative and productive and tinsel covered, but instead, I find myself climbing new heights of laziness, including ordering pizza and toilet paper online. Ahem. I didn’t even even pick up the phone to order the pizza. That’s like, wow.

In my defense, nearly half of this December has been (or will be) spent traveling or laying on the bathroom floor (don’t ask details)…but suffice to say, I’m looking forward to getting a fresh start in January. Regular post schedule will resume, and all pizzas will be ordered by phone!

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Good news: Back in November I was extra on top of my game and made some stuff for the nice people over at Pentel. If you are looking to up your gift wrapping game and impress your family with some serious gift tag game, this is your chance. Check it out over on Pentel’s blog.

Hope everyone is enjoying a fun and festive week with family and friends. Happy holidays!

Painted Gift Bags

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Remember that time when you had nothing else to do two weeks before Christmas and spent hours lovingly painting gift wrap for your friends and family?

No?

Hmmm….well, remember that time you freaked out because you were leaving town and instead of doing your work you went into a manic surge of creative energy and stayed up half the night painting gift wrap for friends and family?

WELL I DO.

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Truth is, I don’t even have all that many gifts to wrap, I’m stockpiling in general. I keep my paper shopping bags under the sink (in a paper sorter, fyi) and then every time I’m about to rinse off a paint brush, which is more often that you’d think, (occupational hazard), I swipe the leftover paint over a bag or two. Then months later, when inspiration strikes, there is already a base for adding more color and pattern.

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Most of the bags started out as paper shopping bags, but a couple are actual gift bags from the dollars store. This is how they start out…

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This is how they finish…

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The one on the left is called Christmas Leopard. I’m shocked they aren’t selling this pattern by the bolt. Someone, please, let’s get on this! Holiday animal prints could really be a thing. I have it on good authority that Santa loves leopard print. Also, Santa loves glitter. So you know we had to hit that.

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Here is the process in action.  If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen this one already…

These @crateandbarrel shopping bags never saw it coming.

A video posted by Peaches (@aunt_peaches) on

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I also made some boxes, but boxes are bad for traveling, so these will be staying home. ‘Til next year little boxes!
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And the bonus is, THEY LOOKS REALZ GOOD UNDER MY FLAMINGO TREE.
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Stay tuned. More on the flamingo front later!

Giftwrap with Pompoms

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For someone who dips into their pompom stash every other day, I really ought to figure out how to spell the name.

Pompom? Pom-poms? Pom Poms?

Last week I got an email from a guy named “Christopher” wanting to buy ad space on my blog for a Chinese company that sells commercial grade pipe parts. “I think it will be a great fit for your audience and will drive many traffics to your site!” then signed it “Kristopher.”

I’m guessing his real name wasn’t Christopher/Kristopher, but he probably did that to convenience me and my lack of Mandarin. Pompoms/Pom-poms/Pom Poms don’t allow me that excuse, so I’m going to need an authority to weigh in on this (anyone know a cheerleader?). Until then, I’m keeping it squat and using one word: pompoms. Lower case? Uppercase? Damn this is hard.

Okay. Anyway. Those fluffy things — they make for good gift wrapping.

Late spring seems to be a popular time for gift giving. I like to dress up the box (especially if I’m feeling unsure about the gift inside). It’s amazing what a plain box and a little hot glue can do.

This little one is my favorite. I made it thinking I’d give it away but now it lives here. It likes me. I pet it and feed it sometimes.


For you! Who knew pompoms and leopard would look so good together?

Oh yeah. Leopard looks good with everything.

Even Christopher/Kristopher knew that.

Giant Candy Bar Gift Box

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Ten years ago I ran a side business making centerpieces for Bar and Bat Mitzavahs. They were large, hotel ballroom type affairs filled with loud music, bad food, lycra-clad dance teams, and people named Mel.  I loved it.
My work was not much to look at. It was a lot of soccer players. Magician hats. Balloons. Balloons. Balloons.
It sounds like an easy gig, but catering to 12 and 13-year-old clients is rougher than you might expect. Lack of opinions. Comparisons to older siblings. Marsha. Marsha. Marsha. 
One time, a client’s mother wanted the table markers to be giant candy bars (coordinating to real candy bar place cards, naturally). I think they were expecting me to carve them out of foam or something, but with a 200 person event with 20 different tables, that just wasn’t an option. So I made due; I bought a Snickers bar, ate said snickers bar, flattened the wrapper, took it to a copy shop, had them print out a blown-up enlargement, then folded it back to look like the real thing. Presto!   
Personally, I thought it was awesome. The client thought it looked “too much like a trade show” and decided to switch to a garden party theme at the last minute. Urghhhhh. What is the Yiddish word for dithering indecisiveness?
Anyway, somewhere in the process I realized this concept could be applied to something bigger than just a one-time centerpiece. Why not stuff the thing with candy and give it away? Why not take the thing and hang it on a wall? Delicious, three dimensional art anyone?
Making this is easy. And it cost five bucks. $1.89 for the Snickers bar. $3.00 to have the copy shop enlarge it to 11”x17”…add scissors and double-stick tape, that’s it.

In addition to the candy bar you purchase (and eat) for the wrapper to take to a copy shot, I suggest you buy a second one to use as a model when assembling. It will look far more realistic if the folds are in just the right place. 
Hungry? Why wait? Grab a Snickers.

Stay Classy, Double-Stick

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There are people in this world who say, “Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.”
I am not one of them. 
If one of them should find themselves on my gift list this year, well, they’ll have to suck it up and get ready for a big ol’ smooch. I have a big glittery batch of herpes with their name all over it. Literally.  
First I wrap the gift with irritating precision, then spell their name in doublet sick tape. 
A little glitter…a little dust off with a feather..a little boom. Done!
A little leopard print….a little glitter…herpes…Merry Christmas!

Stay classy, double-stick.

Box’n and Cookie Swap’n

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Cookie swaps are just about my favorite thing in the world. They are like a potluck party but instead of bringing food everyone brings cookies, and instead of leaving drunk and tired everyone leaves with…wait for it…more cookies.

What is not to like?

I have been cookie swapping with a handful of former co-workers for a few years now. Back then it started as a practical way to generate a variety of baked goods without all the cooking — just a few people exchanging tupperware boxes in the office kitchen one Friday….now it’s grown, and since hardly any of us work in the same place anymore, it’s a good excuse for a get-together. Cookies + old friends = good time.


Unfortunately, not everyone on the planet can come to my house to swap cookies (maybe next year, guys). Until then, it’s nice to give cookies to family and friends sans party.

I love giving and receiving little bundles of cookies but sometimes storage can be a pain. Paper plates covered in foil or plastic wrap are fine for transportation, but they don’t do a very good job of keeping things fresh sitting out on the counter. Disposable tupperware boxes are nice but they aren’t exactly pretty to look at (or good for the environment). What do you do?

Save your boxes, that’s what you do.


The empty cardboard boxes from rolls of foil or parchment are great for exchanging baked goods. When lined with wax paper they keep cookies and bars neatly in place, plus, now the recipient can put the whole box directly in their cupboard or bread box. No fuss. No mess. No stale or broken cookies. Huzzah!

To make these, I just used a little bit of craft paint to dress up the outside then covered the metal “tear strip” (that sharp thing along the edge of the box) with a little bit of washi tape. In retrospect I could have saved the washi tape and covered the metal strip with masking tape and then painted right over the whole darn thing, but you know…learning curve.

I am still due for another round of baking later this week. Anyone have a favorite recipe to recommend? I’m on the lookout for a no-fail somethingorother that comes out crispy. I’m good on the chewy and chocolate fronts, but a crispy cookie would be nice. Suggestions welcome.

Christmas Just Got Fonty

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I decided to make some of my own wrapping paper this year. Now, normally I’m all for paint and glue and glitter, but sometimes it’s nice to keep it clean. Not that I’m not giving up my sparkle tooth anytime soon,  folks. But when it’s the first week of December and I’m knee deep in glitter, sometimes a palate cleanser is required. Typography is a great place to start. By mixing the words from A Visit From Saint Nicholas (aka ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) with Century Gothic, I got an interesting texture that was fun for all sorts of holiday niftyness.

 

Just for fun, I did another version with lyrics of old English Christmas Carols done up in a fancy pants old English font.

I made a PDF for both that you are welcome to use at home using any letter sized piece of paper you can fit in your printer. Click here to view the PDF.

I am weird about tape. I dislike the transparent stuff. For wrapping presents, I like to use double-stick to seal from the inside (hems folded, obv), or I like brightly colored tape to accent the presentation, or, I’ll use labels. Address labels are dirt cheap and work great for this purpose. Labels these days are great for so much more than envelopes!

So, I gave you are starting point but that’s no reason why you can’t make your own. If you can work a Word doc you can make these any which way you like. Have fun!

A Good Use for Leftover Paint

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I hate wasting paint. I’m trying to get better about letting go of unnecessary things, but paint feels like such a luxury. Wasting it, even a drop of the cheap stuff, makes me nervous. To counter this problem,  I pair my leftover paint with my leftover shopping bags and presto-chango I am ready for gift wrapping at any time!

Okay, I lied. That part about leftover shopping bags is only half-true. Sometimes I buy packages of plain white bags at my local dollar store for this express purpose. But I still save gobs of money in the long run, so, I’m okay with that.

I would also like you to note that I use leftover egg cartons as paint pallets. If you are sensing a theme here (and hearing the theme song to Hoarders), you are not alone.

I happened to have some Hanukkah stickers in easy reach so I used them, but you could certainly use whatever you like. In the top image, on the big bag, I used those office label dot things. Use whatever you have around or your kiddos are willing to forgo. When I was a kid I didn’t share my sticker collection with anyone. ANYONE I TELL YOU.

Sweet Valley High, I have such a thing for patterned tissue paper. It makes everything look better. Simple patterns like dots and stripes are my favorite, especially with an abstract bag like this. I’m considering buying a carton of leopard print tissue to get me through the holidays. This place has the best stuff. 


Not into painted bags? Use envelopes. They are just as fun.
   

 

Postcard From A Hoarder: Gift Bows

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Gift bow drawer pic

I am in the process of cleaning out my craft room. While I’m sorting things out, I decided to designate a drawer to ribbon…

…. then that drawer split and begat two more drawers, one for loose fabric ribbon, and one for spooled ribbon; then that drawer begat three drawers, one for curling ribbon, one for wrapping ribbon, and one for raffia …. and so on and so on through every type of arts and craft supply under the sun until I filled an entire wall of drawers (thank you Ikea Antonius). There was a lot of sorting and dividing. A lot of begats. It’s practically the Old Testament up in here.

I had five or six bags of plastic bows floating around the house — some salvaged off of gifts, most purchased at after Christmas sales for 50cents or so. Now that they are consolidated, it’s quite the collection. The sad part is, even though I have made some into peonies, I don’t even remember the last time I gave a gift with a bow on it. Why am I saving them?

***ALTERNATIVE GIFT TOPPERS (AKA: MORE STUFF THAT WILL PREVENT ME FROM DEPLETING MY BOW COLLECTION. WHICH ISN’T REALLY A COLLECTION SO MUCH AS A SIGN I NEED TO QUIT BUYING CRAP THAT I WILL NEVER USE) ***