Tuesday, December 03, 2013

wrap roundup

Nothing heightens the anticipation of Christmas morning like beautifully wrapped gifts.  These would all be festive decorations as well, up until the big morning unwrap!  Links are below for more on DIY instructions, printables, or supplies.











Gorgeous wrapping inspiration from: 


Happy Gifting! -Alicia





Thursday, November 21, 2013

Hostess Gift and Free Printable!

Hello, friends!  It's that time of year for celebrating with family and friends and that means lots of invitations and fun events!  Alicia created this lovely DIY hostess gift, perfect for the holiday season.  I've designed a coordinating printable so you can recreate her project for the hostesses you're thankful for this season!  Enjoy!  - Jen

This hostess gift was pretty fun to put together.


 I filled clear ornaments with popcorn kernels, and I strung popcorn and wrapped it around a small rosemary plant.  I picked this one up at Lowe's.  The plastic planter it came in wasn't so pretty, so I used our Merry Christmas stamp and Encore silver ink on kraft paper to wrap the pot.  I printed out the easy peasy printable, cut on the lines, and tied it on with red yarn.  This smells lovely, and makes me want to eat gourmet popcorn every time I pass by.


And just because we love you so much, here's the hand lettered and hand drawn Printable Hostess Gift Tag - which also has a card you can cut out and fold.

Download the printable PDF at the link!

If you're feeling a bit more ambitious, I'd suggest making a loaf of rosemary herb bread.  This would be a good way to get two hostess gifts from the plant.  Or just pass along this recipe with it, I've made it before and it is really tasty. It's Pastor Ryan's Herb bread from the Pioneer Woman's blog.



Monday, November 18, 2013

Tags Roundup!

We've rounded up a few stunning ways to use blank tags.


Kinfolk Camp Cooking Workshop Nashville









Find vintage style manila and kraft tags in Paper Sushi shop and get wrapping!



Sources: (Stamped Gift Tags from Craft & Creativity), (Gift Tags with wildflowers, wrapped with twine, from the fabulous Local Milk), (Wooden spools + paperclips + tags = place cards for your tablescape, from House of Earnest)(Gift wrap with evergreen bough from Latte Lisa), (Tags with pom pom ribbon and colored doilies from ThePaperedNest on etsy), (Glittered Deer place card found at New Home Interior Design), (Pig place card via Hatch Creative Studio), (RSVP cards via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Stamped Napkins and Tea Towels

Hey guys, Alicia here.  I am honored to be part of Paper Sushi helping Jen get some of her great ideas posted for you to see.  I'm going to dive right in with a project she came up with months ago that would be an easy DIY Christmas gift.  I imagine this could work great for just about anyone- neighbors, teachers, your brother's girlfriend, or yourself.

Jen sent me a big box of goodies and an idea.  The supplies were some fun stamps, VersaCraft fabric ink stamps and a couple packs of plain white flour sack towels.

 This tea towel has bright pink hand drawn succulents in a random pattern covering the towel.



We try to use cloth napkins in our house, and with little ones, I can always use more.  One tea towel cut into four napkins and I was able to iron, fold and stitch a simple hem for all four in under thirty minutes.  I stamped away to my heart's content and ended up with some adorable napkins.
I did learn that these need to be set with an iron, not the dryer.  The dryer left some ghost images of the stamp across the fabric.  






Seriously easy! The VersaCraft ink comes in Pink, Red,  Blue, Black, and White. And that Hello! stamp?  You can get it here

Thursday, June 06, 2013

Printable Hand Lettered Homemade Cleaner Labels and Recipes

Almost a full year of radio silence! I think this might be my new record, you guys. But, I was procrastinating while cleaning the bathrooms the other day and now I have something to share. Read on for some natural cleaning recipes and free printable hand lettered labels!

We try to use homemade and natural cleaners and avoid the harsh chemicals. There are a lot of great recipes out there on the Internet, though you must be a bit careful as many of them would have failed your basic high school chemistry quiz. Even more importantly, you must label your bottles very awesomely as cleaning needs all the help it can get when it comes to general awesomeness.


Clean All the Things - your general all purpose cleaner. Many of the recipes call for both vinegar and baking soda. Yes, this makes an impressively fun reaction, what with all the bubbling and foaming, but don't let that fool you into thinking you've created a super cleaner! What you've created is water, a bit of salt and a whole bunch of carbon dioxide flouncing off in a dramatic bubbly rage. And, water and a bit of salt aren't much of a cleaning agent.

I soak orange peels in vinegar in a mason jar, hidden off in the pantry for a few weeks. If you'd like to cut to the chase, substitute a few drops of your tea tree or lavender essential oil for several weeks of orange and vinegar on honeymoon.

Clean All The Things

2 cups orange infused white vinegar
2 cups water
a squirt of dish soap


Dat Glass - glass cleaner that smells terrible and works wonderfully! Wheee!

Dat Glass

2 Tbsp white vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup rubbing alcohol

I've read that corn starch added to this mix will make an even better glass cleaner, but it works so well without it and I don't remember enough of high school chemistry to understand what difference the corn starch would make and what the possible downside could be. An experiment for you to carry out, friends!


Glow Your Bowl - a toilet bowl cleaner that doesn't require you to throw every window open and fan on, just to breathe. Again, lots of fans of baking soda + vinegar and castile soap + vinegar out there. If you absolutely must include vinegar in your toilet bowl cleaning routine, use it as a rinsing agent AFTER you've cleaned.

Glow Your Bowl

1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup castile soap
1 cup hot water

For this one, I just use dish soap. I don't have castile soap and I firmly believe one only needs so many different kinds of soap in the house. Whisk it all together in a bowl and pour it into a little squeeze-y bottle, then go to town.

A few bonus homemade cleaning tips:

- we keep baking soda in one of those shakers you see in every pizza joint with hot pepper flakes in it all over the house. Perfect for the bathtub, for the glass top stove, for a stubborn stain or crunchy bit on the kitchen counter, for sprinkling over stains on the carpet.

- this magical carpet cleaner really is magical. To cut down to a normal stain sized portion, I just use 1 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp clear dish soap and 2/3 cup hot water.

- go straight for the super industrial sprayer bottles. There are very cute spray bottles at Target. Don't waste your time.

Want your own bottle labels? Download the free homemade cleaner bottle label printable here! I printed on label paper and used a 2" punch for mine, but I've included a row with a 2" frame for cutting out the old fashioned way as well. Enjoy!