wrap it up quick!

If your house is like mine this week, there have been lots of parties, shopping lists to complete, and presents to wrap. It can all get overwhelming for sure! Today I am sharing how I wrap up my family's gifts for my girls to give to their teachers, paras, and therapists. I have a few tips to share that might help you get things wrapped up at your house this year... or at least help you get a start in your planning for next year!

One of the quickest projects to create to personalize a gift is a tag. And the best way to create multiple tags for multiple gifts for teachers - or just for your pile of gifts in general - is to set your self up in a sort of assembly line and mass produce a bunch at a time.

Planning ahead can actually save you time, and it might even be quicker than driving to the store, finding a place to park, getting through the crowds, finding what you need, and then standing in line to check out.

Gather your supplies, do any die cutting and embellishment prep that you can before tag assembly, and lay everything out so you can find what you need.

For the tags I am creating, I am actually using the trees that I created at Papertrey Ink's Stamp-a-Faire this past August using shrink plastic. You can find the tutorial to create the trees here. When I created the trees, I knew I would use them for holiday tags and so made up a bunch at that time, while I had all the supplies out. It was a great project to do while I was chatting with friends and having so much fun that day.

I used the new Tag Sale #9 dies and kept it simple by cutting the small tag from kraft cardstock and the larger tag from white cardstock. I stamped the "Christmas Joy" sentiment from the Rustic Wreath set at the bottom of the kraft tag in True Black ink. This actually the only stamping that I did for this project to keep things quick and simple!

 

Eyelets just give tags a nice finished look and they are perfect for attaching the 2 tags together. I try to keep a stock of basic supplies, like silver eyelets, so that I am not running around looking for what I need to finish my project. All of my eyelets and eyelet tools are easy to access in a drawer in my worktable.

Next, I attached the tree embellishments to the tags. Once I had my tags to this stage, I moved from my work table up to my dining room table where we have had our wrapping supplies stationed.

The best way to wrap up a number of gifts, is to do the same as when I made the tags. Gather everything together that you are going to need and lay it all out. It saves so much time! And it's so much more fun to wrap with piles of holiday goodness around you (it definitely helps to get rid of the trash/extra wrapping right away as well, so it's not there to stress you out!)

For our gift this year, my mom knitted sets of washcloths for me (so nice, I know - thanks, Mom!) and I added in some sweet treats too.

The gift bags and ornaments that I used were ones that I picked up on clearance after the holidays last year. I am big on getting supplies for wrapping and embellishing gifts on clearance. Yes, I store them for a year, but it saves me SO much money.

I tied the tags and snowflake ornaments ot the gift bag handles with some red & white twine that I had on hand. As my table filled up with finished gift bags, I felt a definite sense of accomplishment.

 

The two layer tag is perfect, because now we can go and write in the names of the gift recipients on the white tag. And with that, our teacher gifts are all wrapped up. now, to the next item on my list...!

Supplies:

All supplies from Papertrey Ink unless noted

Christmas Joy Tags

stamps: Rustic Wreath

ink: True Black

cardstock: white, kraft

other: Tag Sale #9 dies, tree embellishments (see supplies on this post), silver eyelet (unknown)