Make Christmas Gift Bags with Matching Gift Tags

Make Christmas Gift Bags with Matching Gift TagsThis craft is simple, quick, and is fun for all ages! You can create elaborately decorated bags or you can create simple bags that are nonetheless colorful and festive. Best of all, regardless of how you care to decorate the bags, you can make matching gift tags!

To help you with this craft, I’ve provided free, illustrated instructions at:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/makechristmasgiftbags.htm

These instructions contain several pictures, so it might take several (long) seconds for the page to open. Once the page does open, then allow a few extra second for all the pictures to appear.

For my craft items, I shopped at a “dollar” store, Michael’s (a large craft store), and Office Depot (yes, Office Depot). By thinking ahead, you can make the most of buying discounted bundles or quantities of gift bags (in various sizes). Also, while the illustrations show just one method of decorating the gift bag and matching gift tag, once you understand the concept of this craft, you can browse through Michael’s or any other craft supplies store (or section in stores like Wal-Mart and Target), and let your imagination roam.

For the basic craft project, you’ll need:

• Plain gift bags (all-white or brown kraft paper are best, although plain red and green can easily be used)
• Christmas stamps (rubber stamps or foam cube stamps as shown here; you can easily substitute Christmas stickers, stencils, or anything else that can be put or glued on paper)
• Stamp pads (red, green, and white shown here)
• Blank business cards or postcards (for use as gift tags)
• Colored tissue paper
• Curl ribbon

To make the bag, used stamp decorations (as shown in the illustrations), follow these easy instructions:

1. Moisten the stamp on the stamp pad. Be sure the entire surface of the stamp is covered with colored ink.

2. Press inked stamp onto gift bag. Decorate with as many different stamps, or just one stamp, as desired.

I learned while doing this craft that the bag really has to be flat, on a hard surface, for the stamp imprints to take. Also, it took a few tries to get the hang of just how much pressure I had to use to get the whole stamp to imprint without getting the “sides” of the stamp on the paper. You might want to spend a few minutes experimenting on a blank piece of paper, or use a bag to practice (and just make it your experiment bag—and afterward put trash in it, or use it to store your stamps and stamp pads).

If young children are going to be working on this project, it might be more suitable to have Christmas stickers or adhesive-backed foam shapes that can easily be stuck to the bag (and gift tags).

3. Set the bags aside to allow them to dry. It may take several long minutes (or longer) for the ink to dry, so do plan ahead and have fun with this craft long before you’ll be wrapping Christmas presents!

4. To make the matching gift tags, stamp either a blank business card or a blank postcard with a stamp that you used on the gift bag. Shown in the illustrations, a business card is stamped with a red ornament and a post card is stamped with a green tree. Use a hole punch to punch a hole in a corner of the business card or postcard so that you can attach the gift tag to the bag.

Just as with the gift bags, set the gift tags aside to allow them to dry. Once dry, and before you tie a gift tag onto a bag, be sure to fill out the To and From on the card. (For more ideas about using business cards to make Christmas gift tags, please go to “Make Your Own Christmas Gift Tags” (http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/makegifttags.htm).

If young children will be doing this craft, you may find that it is easier to use postcards (or blank 3 x 5 index) cards as gift tags. The larger card surface will be a little easier for little hands (and developing hand-eye coordination skills) to get the decoration on the card.

5. Loosely wrap your gift in colored tissue paper and place into gift bag. I like to put the object in the very middle of two or more sheets of tissue paper. Make sure the tissue paper sheets are offset from each other (that is, lay one sheet over the other at an angle).

Then pick up the edges of the tissue paper so that the gift is in the bottom of the “cone” of tissue paper. Put the gift into the bag, with the points of tissue paper sticking out of the top of the gift bag.

6. Use coordinating colors of curl ribbon to tie the gift tag to the handle of the bag. Personally, I like lots of strings of curl ribbon and I leave them generously long. It sure does make the bag look very festive!

Now that you’ve created your own gift bags with matching gift tags any gift in the bag will look like a million bucks!

For more Christmas crafts, go to Jan’s Reading Room, and click on the Holidays and Seasonal category:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/ReadingIntro.htm
Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. Visit http://www.jansportal.com for more information about Jan’s free crafts, recipes, tutorials, other resource sites, and free content articles, as well as Jan’s business services. Be sure to visit Mom’s Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005 to present. All rights reserved.

 

Writing the Perfect Christmas Letter

Writing the Perfect Christmas Letter by Rachel Paxton

I don’t know about you, but I always look forward to receiving Christmas letters from family and friends during the holiday season. Often it is the only news you receive from some of them throughout the year.

I started sending out our family Christmas letter the year after I got married. Some adult children are content to share their family news in a letter from their parents, but I wanted to start our own family tradition with our own annual Christmas letter.

Sitting down to write a letter can be an intimidating task. It’s easy to put off until the last minute if you’re overwhelmed with the idea of trying to figure out what to say. There are several things to take into consideration when writing your own family Christmas letter.

Some people get very creative with their Christmas letters. There are a variety of formats to choose from. You can buy holiday printer paper at any office supply store. Just print out your letter on the decorated paper, and you’re all set to go. If you’re printing out a lot of letters and don’t want to spend as much on the paper, you can also just choose colored paper with no design…red or green paper look festive all on their own with your letter printed on them. You can also copy your letter on to the paper with a copy machine instead of printing each one on your printer. If you are into rubber stamping, you could also hand-decorate your letters after you print them.

Or, you can go paper-less! You can email your letter to family and friends if they have Internet access. This would allow you to insert pictures into your letter and not worry about having to print them. Some families have web sites set up to post family pictures and happenings. This would also be a great place to post your Christmas letter for all to see.

So what should you write in your letter? Keeping things short and to the point is definitely a fine art. I try to keep my letters to a page, if possible, a page and a half at the most. It also depends on how large your family is. The point is not to lose the reader’s interest with too many pages to read.

I start my letters out with a greeting, and then a paragraph or two of major family happenings, like births, deaths, weddings, etc. This is also a good place to briefly describe any favorite family vacations for the year. I then write a short paragraph about each family member to get everyone up to date about who just got their driver’s license, braces on or off, started their first job, etc. I just try to hit on the major milestones that people would be interested in knowing about.

You’ll find that once you sit down to start your letter that the words will just start flowing and you’ll be done with it in no time. Who knows better what happened in your family this year than you? It’s also a good idea to let someone else read it before you send it out to make sure you got your facts straight. Especially about your kids! That could definitely come back to haunt you later.

Try to send your letters and cards out during the first week of December. I love getting letters and cards at the beginning of the season. Hearing from family and friends is a great way to get into the holiday spirit, and once you have those letters out the door your time is freed up for other important tasks.

Make sure you keep a copy of your Christmas letter for yourself. I place a copy of mine in a binder in which I keep all of the holiday letters I receive. Someday this will be a wonderful keepsake for my children and grandchildren.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What’s for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For more recipes, organizing tips, home decorating, crafts, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com.

Article Source: http://www.ladypens.com