It's a wrap!

Hello!
Yes I intended that to be a pun - because Christmas is finished. "It's a wrap" as they say in the movies BUT I also wanted to show you my round-up of more great wrapping examples I have come across on the web over the last couple of days (I've had the luxury of catching up with some net surfing!)...


These can inspire you for next year (tuck them away in your Pinterest perhaps!) - or you can evolve these ideas into your own for birthdays, baby showers, weddings... whatever!

{Images from  Pocketful of Dreams}

{images: Happy serendipity}

{image}

{image from What no Mints}

{Pink Paislee}

{Poppy Talk}

{A Spoonful of Sugar}

{images from The Pink Couch}

Hope you enjoyed these!

Love,

Sally xox

Christmas Fun!

I hope you had a great Christmas ( if you celebrate it).
We had a great time, on Christmas Eve we met friends in the park during the day then went to a Kids' Carol service at church, where we were shown this brilliant short film of "The Christmas Story" made by members of St Paul's Church, Auckland. You should watch it - it's so sweet and funny too!
That was followed by an evening spent with friends.

Christmas Day:
After very little sleep due to an over-excited Mr 6 waking up at 3am and no-one really managing to get back to sleep... our day went like this:

6am - get up and open Santa gifts....

...Scrambled egg, bacon, toast & fresh orange juice for breakfast with crackers (Bonbons)
then clear up, chill out, shower etc...

Then set off for an hour's drive using my new 'Navman' to help us find our way - to a friend's parents' house.

We spent the day with lovely people eating a yummy roast turkey dinner followed by delicious homemade plum pudding and choc & rapberry pavlova, and watching the kids have rides on a tractor trailer and a pony, and then finally having a good hosing down for some splashy fun!!

We got home and opened a few more pressies before tucking them up in bed :0)

Then Boxing day, the boys went swimming, we all had the rest of our pressies, a yummy buffet lunch &
a roast lamb dinner (somewhat incongruously, but tastily, with Yorkshire puddings, creamed Horseradish  and stuffing!).

There was lots of Skyping too (both days) with our family in the UK.

What did you do? What did you eat for Christmas lunch?

Now ~ a little 'Etsy Finds' ode to Christmas ~
the TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS:

{image}

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Two Turtle Doves

Three French Hens

Four Calling Birds

Five Gold Rings

Six Geese a Laying

Seven Swans a Swimming

Eight Maids a Milking

Nine Ladies Dancing

Ten Lords Leaping

Eleven Pipers Piping

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Enjoy the rest of the Holiday Season,
love,
Sally xox

Creative Christmas Gift Wrapping

Hello,
are you feeling festive yet?

This week, I was thrilled to be asked to make a video for Fairfax Media, as part of their DIY Christmas series, on Creative Gift Wrapping for Christmas.


You can watch it here!

Myself "on set" at the filming! The set was really the beautiful home of the lovely Cate Holst
(whom you can see with her gorgeous smile in the last photo!).
Cate also made a couple of wonderful videos - visit her blog post here for one of her featured recipes,
and her post about the videos here.

Anyhoo, my philosophy on gift wrapping is that it's great to try to be more creative and eco-friendly, by using simple supplies and what you have to hand rather than buying store bought 
specific Christmas wrapping paper, tags and those dreaded plastic bows!


Those bows along with most Christmas wrap are not recyclable and end up languishing in landfill.
Hopefully you may even save yourself a heap of money!

This gift looks stunning but cost me nothing to wrap - it was all from salvaged items!

Basically, the best way to go about this is to firstly gather supplies ~ make yourself a "Useful Box" for gift-wrapping, and card & tag making. I find one of those plastic tubs with lids is perfect, you know the kind you can store under your bed, (you may want to be even more more 'green' and use a cardboard box, by all means go with what suits you!).

some of my supplies, tools and handmade embellishments.

Examples of what you may want to put in your useful box are paper and ribbons salvaged from gifts you have received along with any interesting found papers, fun stuff like vintage Bingo cards and tools such as sticky tape, string, scissors, a hole punch and so on. 
{For a more comprehensive supplies list, as well as tips on wrapping awkward items, and embellishing your gifts to make them stand out from the norm, you can download an information booklet here}. 


What you can then do is surround yourself with your gifts and your useful box contents and let both inspire you. I like to put on some Christmas music, or just music that I like, and maybe have a little tipple or treat to get into the festive spirit! 
Just Remember:
* it doesn't have to perfect
* it doesn't have to take long
* just have fun and enjoy it 
* the recipient is sure to appreciate your efforts!! 


Below are some of the example-gifts I created for the Fairfax video! The first four are the same gift simply wrapped in brown paper but then embellished in four different ways. The last photo is of the same gift wrapped in fabric and topped with a brooch for super fun, modern and reusable gift wrap! 

By the way this fabulous brooch in the last pic, was made by my friend Janelle,
{if you'd like one, don't worry as once her shop is up and running I'll blog about it, with a link! }

Finally I'd like to mention (for the uninitiated!) that Etsy is a great place to buy supplies for your creative gift-wrapping, or for finding fabulous, unique handmade or vintage items to give as gifts.

 vintage buttons and vintage belt buckles available from my Etsy shop

Here are a few more great items I found on Etsy.

Christmas stickers from Joey Design

vintage French banner style labels by Petite Fabrique

Kraft and cream tags - great for you to embellish, from Percival Road

I hope I have inspired you to get creative this year!!


For the video, I was also asked to mention some tips for sustainable packing solutions should you need to post your gifts to friends and loved ones not so near.
This got edited out as we were pressed for time, but I will be blogging about that in the next couple of days, so please do stop by again soon for that post .


Feel free to share any of your own creative wrapping tips or ideas in the comments. I always love to hear from you!


Happy wrapping!!


Love,
Sally x0x