By now it should come as no surprise that my over-the-top-ness extends to every insignificant detail of Christmas, so I couldn’t think about leaving out the gift tags.

Each year I pick my wrapping paper early and buy enough to wrap all my presents in matching paper that coordinates with the tree. And then I, of course, have to make cute gift tags that match the paper.

Bear’s family thinks I’m slightly insane with all this. They tend to wrap a present with paper and then just write the recipient’s name on it in Sharpie. The thought makes me shudder. Of course, it needs to have a fancy wrapping and gift tag. That’s just the right way to do it.

Last year my wrapping paper was cream with a thin blue, brown, and red plaid. The plaid was a lot more subtle than you’d expect, so the overall effect was of something you’d see in a winter cabin in the mountains. I figured that a gift tag should reflect that.

I’m really no Photoshop expert, so this tag started in Word. I inserted a clip art snowflake I downloaded from the Microsoft website, and adjusted the color to a blue tint, and then adjusted the brightness to 20%. Then I tossed a text box on top, changed it to have no fill color and no outline, and typed in my message. You can group these items together and then copy paste them until you have a whole sheet full and customize each one with your giving list. For our friends and neighbors gifts we usually forego the typical To: and From: for a more generic message like what you see above.

Once I printed them all out I took a spare piece of white fleece I had lying around and sewed around each snowflake, through both layers. Then I cut them out, cutting the paper layer slightly smaller, and punched a hole for a string.

It really didn’t take long, and the computer does most of the hard work already, so with this project you get to look like the got-it-all-togther, no-detail-overlooked type without making yourself insane in the process.

Wreaths seem to be my new obsession. Last year I made some Halloween wreaths, which I still have to share with you, of course, and that kind of launched me into a wreath making frenzy. Just like my garland experience, I had made a couple of wreaths in the past and didn’t love them, and it was for the exact same reasons as the garlands: 1)I was skimpy on the fancy stuff and 2)I couldn’t tie a proper bow.

Here’s the only early wreath I still use:

A few days before Christmas a few years ago, a whole bunch of other projects hadn’t panned out and I found myself with a couple cheap pine-like garlands, a blank metal wreath form, and a bunch of glass ornaments. So naturally I decided to toss them together and see what I came up with.

I wound the garlands on top of the wreath form and wired them in place with floral wire, but if I hadn’t happened to have those things needing to be used I would have gone with just a normal cheapy pine-like wreath. Then I hot glued all the small ornaments onto the branches and tied a lame lame bow.

I hated the way it looked, because of course the bow was so jacked up, so I tried to think of what else I could do to make this interesting, so I hung three ornaments down from the center at different heights. I probably would have gotten rid of this wreath long ago if it weren’t for that detail. I still really need to replace the bow.

I came across this wreath a while back, maybe on one of those Design for a Dime type makeover shows.

It’s a great little recycling project. You take a wire coat hanger, and stretch it into a circle, then bend the hook backwards to make a hook for the wreath. Then you rip a plastic dry cleaner bag into little strips and tie them onto the hanger. You just repeat that over and over again until you can’t cram any more little strips onto the hanger, and you’re left with this great totally mod wreath.

I wanted to add a little more interest after that, so I hot glued some ornaments on the top of it.

This year I wanted to make new wreaths for my double doors. I’ve finished them for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas. It just seems like double front doors call out for wreaths. Of course, I didn’t get around to buying anything for it until the day after Thanksgiving when Michaels was largely picked over. I was also making this after finishing a ton of other Christmas projects and I was getting a little sick of the typical Christmas color palette, so I had to get really creative with what was left.

All the stuff I kept being drawn towards didn’t seem to have anything to do with Christmas. I snapped up those little glittery presents, but I still wasn’t satisfied with the level of festivity, so I wanted to throw some ornaments on top but I couldn’t find any that worked with the color scheme.

The ornaments I ended up using were ones I painted. I bought some clear iridescent ornaments and put a couple drops of paint and a couple drops of water inside each one and shook it all around. This ended up working great and gave me exactly the touch I needed to make it all glam and fancy, but still look like Christmas instead of just a floral arrangement.

Floral design was one of those things that intimidated me for a long time. I’m a self taught crafter, and somehow I thought that there was some mysterious trick to floral design that I just wouldn’t be able to crack. A few years ago when I was working at a Michaels running the classroom department, I became good friends with the lady who ran the floral counter and she just demystified the whole process.

Basically? It’s grabbing a bunch of stuff you like and throwing it together. It can get a whole lot more complicated if you want it to, but at it’s core it’s a bunch of stuff that looks nice together held together in a container or with some combination of hot glue and wire.

Ever since then I’ve grown more and more interested in garlands and wreaths.

Last year I whipped up this garland for my banister

and it was hands down the best one I’ve ever done. Here’s a couple more quick tips for garlands. 1) Don’t be stingy with the fancy stuff, and 2)Learn how to tie a big fat bow.

Here’s a little help with that second tip, although I might have to see if I can do a video tutorial or something. It’s way way easy when you watch it done.

A few years ago I tried to decorate a garland, and while it’s fine, it’s not wonderful. And the mistake I made was going stingy. I kept thinking too small, trying to add beads or other small touches that are just invisible once it’s put together.

see any beads in there? I didn’t think so. Also? It’s really hard to take a picture of a garland.

This garland only got salvageable when I tossed in a ton of leftover ornaments and draped a big fat ribbon all down the side of it.

The first garland I made was even less successful, but I think I had some good ideas in there. Like I mentioned, I was a self-taught crafter, and that means you learn every lesson the hardway.

I was watching a lot of Carol Duvall at the time, and one of her frequent guests did a lot of velvet embossing, so I got the idea to do a garland of embossed velvet leaves. The embossing didn’t quite take on the velvet, but I got enough of the impression there to cut out the shape, and then I hot glued a piece of florists wire on the back of it. As soon as I cut the velvet it started to shed and look ratty, so I ran a thin bead of glittery fabric paint around the edge.

Then I decided that the leaves were too floppy to keep any shape, so like the total noob I was, I decided not to back the leaves with something, and I probably didn’t even know what interfacing was back then, so I (oh gosh, do I even dare type the words?) …. I …Ijustgoopedawholelotofhotglueallovertheback. :shudder:

Then when I was finally satisfied with how the leaves were holding up, I took all the lengths of floral wire and braided them together to create the body of the garland.

Just look at that hot glue shimmer in the light.

I think I had some great ideas with this project, but I missed it a little bit in the execution. Now I’d do a couple things differently, but I think the garland itself was a good idea, especially the braiding of the wires to put it all together. Every year I think about redoing this, but there’s always something else that needs to get done. So for now I still use it, but I just use it way up high where no one can get too close a look at things.