theartofquilling.com

I have participated in many craft shows over the years and have found one that I really like sponsored by the South Cobb Arts Alliance.  Unlike traditional 1-2 day shows where you set up your booth and then personally sell your merchandise each day, this 11-day show is set up like a Christmas house.  You bring your items for the initial set up, work two 3-hour shifts, pick up your unsold items, and they mail you a check for the items that you did sell.  It is wonderful!

The only down side is that you are not there to watch over your items.  That is where creative packaging can be a big help.  Along with my “captured ornament” series, this year I am offering three different quilled ornaments for sale.  And while I know that paper ornaments are quite sturdy, I really didn’t want to put them out without some type of protection.  I would hope that adults would treat them with proper care, but the tables are low enough that little ones might be tempted to reach for them.

To solve this problem, I created a simple gift box for each ornament and then placed it inside a plastic sleeve (like those used for cards).  Packaged with the box open, potential buyers can see exactly what the ornament looks like.   

I make the gift boxes from heavy scrapbook paper or card stock.  I like using a nice printed paper for the top and a solid color for the bottom.  I purchase the paper during the year when I find it on sale, that way the boxes cost next to nothing.  My boxes are roughly 3-in x 3-in square, but you will want to make yours sized to fit your ornaments.  Just be sure to make the lid a little bit larger so it will fit over the bottom (trust me — I speak from frustrated experience).  I also make the lid height a little bit shorter than the bottom height so that the box is easier for the recipient to open.  There are several good scoring tools on the market (I use the Martha Stewart one, but Score-Pal is very popular, too) that make creating these boxes a snap.  For those who would like detailed instructions for making these boxes, I have posted a step-by-step tutorial.

For an added touch, I cut a piece of white quilt batting to fit inside the box.  I purchased an inexpensive roll of batting at my local JoAnn store (using a coupon, of course!).  I’ve probably made five dozen boxes and still have plenty of batting left for next year.  This gives the gift box the feel of an expensive jewelry gift box.  I did find, however, that my white snowflake did not show up well on the white batting, so I cut a piece of pale silver tissue to sit on top of the batting underneath the snowflake. 

Since my ornaments are for sale, I include my custom hang tag which contains basic quilling information.  This tucks away neatly underneath the batting.

Even if you don’t participate in craft shows, you might want to give this idea a try.  Think of how delighted your friends and family will be to receive your quilled ornaments inside their own little gift box.

Bookmark It

When making cards, I think it is fun to replace letters with bits of quilling.  It adds such a touch of whimsy.  When I ran across the “Big On Christmas” stamps from Stampin’ Up! I knew they would be perfect for my 2011 Christmas cards.  As you can see, they had the same idea.  Of course, I didn’t want to stamp the tree, ornament, or snowman (which I replaced with a snowflake).  I wanted to quill those instead.

Unfortunately, having this idea and implementing it proved to be two very different things.  You see, I am not a talented stamper and I was having a hard time stamping just the letter part of these holiday stamps.  I tried adding ink to just the letters using a marking pen, but my hand would slip and I would invariably get ink on the picture portion of the stamp.  Next, I tried covering the picture parts with tape, but that didn’t work for me either.

Finally, I decided to cut out the part of the stamps I didn’t want printed.  It was a hard decision to make since there was a very good chance I could ruin the stamps, but I took my craft knife, held my breath, and carefully cut around the picture section of each stamp and peeled off the cut portions.  Since the stamps were mounted on wooden blocks, the spacing and alignment of the rest of the stamp sections was not disturbed.

I then inked them up (I like using StazOn solvent ink since it dries quickly and doesn’t smear) and stamped away.  As an added bonus, I was delighted to find that I hadn’t ruined my stamps at all.  The cut out portions fit right back into their original places so the stamps can still be used as they were originally intended.

I am sure that if you look around you’ll find many other stamps out there that would lend themselves to this creative “altered art” technique.

Bookmark It