Gift Wrap Challenge........No. 3 with sparkle

I am only on No. 3 of my Gift Wrap Challenge here at Summer Camp but is becoming a good exercise in restraint for me. It took me a bit of time to know where I was heading and did have some second thoughts about restricting myself to 2 ribbon colours. It seemed like a good idea when I started this challenge last week. With that thought I dispensed with the ribbon entirely and put myself to the task of wrapping a gift presentation with no ribbon. Absolutely none...............hard to believe I know but occasionally it happens around here. 

But it worked...............and I absolutely love this understated gift presentation. I did have one of those duh moments in working the crystal embellishment off the backing. I have made it quite clear in past posts that I am not the most crafty person and have no working knowledge of scrapbook materials so I was trying to remove the whole embellishment off first which required way too much handling and the loss of several crystals. Yes duh..........you have to roll this embellishment off the backing from the top (placing top in position on the paper) and then it is quite easy to handle. I will admit that it took me more than a few minutes to figure this out, but I am getting there with this whole scrapbook frame of mind. 

This flourish embellishment is from a company called Recollections and is available at Michaels along with all the other supplies I have been using in this challenge. The package of 3 stickers is 6.99 ( which means quite a bit less in the US) and the rubber backing is clear and almost invisible when all is said and done. This could be a beautiful and tasteful alternative for a shower or wedding gift and has become my summer camp favorite so far. 

Since the paper is ivory I did think this monochromatic gift presentation needed a bit of definition so I used the leftover paper strip and folded it into pleats and used double-sided tape for the rear. Since the flourishes are on a clear backing I could easily see the position before removing and placing in the final position. These rhinestone flourishes are a decent size and certainly have the ability to bring sparkle and elegance to a gift with no ribbon. Feel free to leave comments for your summer camp counselor (me)........she wants to make sure you aren't bored. 

Photographs by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

Yummy Treats at Summer Camp

These delectable notebooks caught my eye while spending a few humid minutes browsing a new blog named Simply Seleta. Actually it was way longer than that, you must go visit her charming blog that I found via the aqua-infused blog House of Turquoise. I loved the colours and simplicity of these personalized notebooks from Paperwink that were featured in a past post at Simply Seleta, wouldn't they make a lovely summer hostess gift? At $15.00 for a set of 3, I thought this personal gift treat was almost as satisfying as eating gelato in these delicious flavours. So yummy that it inspired another summer camp post of simple gift wrapping. Did I tell you that I had some pistachio gelato in Chicago on the holiday weekend? It wasn't as good as the huge scoop I had in Rome last fall, but I could live on that stuff right now. Especially today with the temp at 110. That is the Feels Like temp, but at that point I don't think it matters much..........it is just plain hot. Bring on the gelato.

It is all about the technique and this is a pretty simple and affordable presentation. Any solid gift wrap, a yard of satin seam binding ribbon, and two of the 8 Martha Stewart flower stickers. I showed you the same flowers in the bright tones the other day when I embellished the Kate Spade box. The 2 remaining white ones bring a fresh summer look to this gelato palette. 

While I was playing around, I also tried just a few other applications. Moved the flower around a bit. You could use this gift card to write a personal gift message. If I was a better camp leader I would suggest drying and pressing real flowers from your summer garden for a future embellishment. But buying them is about 100 times easier and summer camp is supposed to be kind of lazy.

I took an hour break from camp and headed over to my embellished world where more is always better (I did tell you I am a lousy camp leader). Since it is so cool here in my studio I wrapped up a trio of green paper flowers in satin binding ribbon just to see how they would look on this ribbon striped gift.

More can be better in my world....... flower on top and then another flower on the gift card.

Todays camp tools.

These Paperwink notebooks are also available in several other delectable colour combinations.

Photos 2, 3, 4 5, and 6 by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

Simple Kraft Boxes.........embellished

I am staying in the coolest part of our house right now. Temps are at 100 plus and as we all know you simply cannot put a 56 year old woman in that kind of heat and not have her display an awkward melt-down. I am cool as an English cucumber and playing with my collection of Martha Stewart scrapbook embellishments, continuing the summer camp of gift wrapping I talked about in my last post. In the summer spirit of keeping gift wrapping simple and easy, I also picked up a collection of basic Kraft boxes to illustrate that gift giving doesn't always have to be a overly-embellished affair. I have deliberately left the boxes unadorned, no gift wrap. Sometimes it is best to keep the presentation simple but thoughtful. When? giving a simple just thinking of you gift. a homemade gift. when you don't know the recipient well. if they live a green life. if an over-embellished gift would make them uncomfortable. when it feels right. when your gift message is simple. when you are sensitive to their reciprocal gift budget.

A special novelty ribbon can elevate even the most humble of gift boxes as seen with this bird nest stamped satin ribbon from Midori Ribbon. The contrast of materials, humble and luxurious, makes for a beautifully understated presentation. The secret to successfully wrapping simple gift presentations is understating the presentation but in a novel way. It shows thought behind the effort even when using the most humble of gift wrapping materials.

For the XO (Kiss Hug) box I used a small jewelry box in Kraft, recycled the brown ribbon from my Kate Spade store box and then added two silver letters from Martha Stewart. As there is no alphabet repeats in the set, you may have to get license plate clever with the words you use. Which can make it all the more fun and novel.

Nothing like a little sparkle to jazz up this larger Kraft box. I thought these Glitter Chrysanthemum stickers from Martha Stewart were a colourful embellishment and you could use a single mum or go colour crazy with multiples as I have shown in this photo. I like the stickers cascading over the box edge but a single glitter mum as seen in a section of the third photo (just brown and silver) works well too.

The MS letter stickers are slightly embossed which gives them an interesting dimension when used in such a simple application. You could also use their initials as a monogram or.............ooh, I just had an idea that would take care of single letters most efficiently(another summer camp post). Next post is the orange and white scrolls you see to the left. Isn't summer camp fun?




All photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life


Please Note: Due to the technical difficulties that Blogger was experiencing with comment moderation today, many comments that were received today were not posted. I was able to enjoy them by email. It appears the problem is fixed as the last comment received is now showing.  Hopefully, comments will be back to normal now. SC