Happy 2010!

I can't believe that the first decade of "the new millennium" has passed and 2010 is here already!

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions - I believe in changing when you are ready, and not waiting for New Year's day, or Monday, or next week to begin anew. That said, I've been feeling for some time that I had to revitalize my much-neglected blog, and so I'll begin today, since that is when I'm ready to!

Here's a belated peek at my holiday cards and this year's wrapping. Several years ago I switched to all white wrapping paper, partly as a way of simplifying my life (I always have appropriate paper on hand for any occasion) and partly because it's a great creative backdrop for me - with beautiful ribbon, my prints, and other embellishments I can always find a fun way to wrap a package.

I'm not really one for choosing the most traditional colors, so instead of having a red and green Christmas, mine was orange and blue! My cards were hand printed orange mittens, and I printed strips of white paper with the mitten pattern in orange and blue, to wrap around my white packages. Then I added tags with the same pattern, and various blue and orange ribbons (I especially like the blue/orange multi stripe ribbon) to complete the packages. I loved that they were fun, warm and unexpected (hmmm, and I'd like to think that description sounds quite a bit like me, too)!

All wrapped up!

A few years ago, I decided to take a step toward simplifying my life, and eliminated the endless half rolls of wrapping paper and mismatched gift bags, and replaced them with white and Kraft paper and bags. Don't get me wrong, I love the gorgeous papers that are out there in the marketplace, but I found that I was always buying it, and never seemed to have the correct color, style or theme to go with my gift, and more importantly with my card. Yes, I'm one of those who must coordinate.

Plain paper - boring, you say? Well, fortunately, I am able to print my paper if I want, so that helps with the boring factor, and there are such beautiful embellishments and ribbons, that I never feel bored.

With everyone wrapping for the holidays, I thought I'd share a couple of my past holiday looks - the first was my favorite ever.


My Christmas card was my polar bear, set against a pale blue sky filled with snowflakes. My wrap - white, with blue organza ribbon. Tags were white, printed with little blue snowflakes. And to top off the packages (for all the girls, at least)... lovely rhinestone and crystal snowflake pins that I collected from vintage stores in the months before Christmas. In some cases, the gift inside was just a small token, a bar of handcrafted soap or some little sweets, and the pin was the real gift! In the years since, I often see my friends, cousins and aunts wearing the little pins that were atop their packages.


Then there was the year of the penguin. My card for that year was the chill card... which I chose because, well, I really needed to do that! For my wrap, I used white again, with hand printed penguin tags, and a variety of apple green ribbons, in polka dots and plaids. My plain white gift bags were all hand printed with the penguins as well. For some of the little gifts, I chose apple green and red polka dot organza bags which I just thought were too cute to pass up! And the little girls had their gifts packaged in pink paper suitcases with green bows and penguin tags.

As for this year... well I'm still working on it. My cards are done, and will be going in the mail in the next few days, and I'm working on my packaging now. Of course, I know I'll be starting with white wrap, then I'll add the ribbons, tags and embellishments!

Happy Wrapping!