Friday, January 11, 2008

Wooden gift bags make great storage!

Have I mentioned how addicted to these little wooden ($1) gift bags I am? Besides being a great way to package up a small gift for someone, they are also useful after the gift! I keep a nice little stockpile of these around and make them often. Most I end up keeping simply because they're a great little storage item. I keep several on my workspace at all times to keep things handy. I have one on my desk for pens and pencils too (not my good scrapbook pens, of course - those are stored on their sides, as they should be!). Plan to see some that I am making for kitchen and bath storage too soon!



For this particular WGB (I think I'll coin a new abbreviation today!), I covered it in Fossils of Kenya patterned paper from Zsiage's Out of Africa? line (yes, a lot of their paper collections have names ending with a "?" - one of these days I'll remeber to ask Dina if there's a story behind that, lol). As you may have noticed I have an affinity for all things sparky and shiny, so I decided to rub on Making Memories pearl glaze - this completely changed the look of the paper - try clicking on the picture for the large version to see the subtle shine (ok, I checked and even in the gigantic view my photo didn't pick up the pearly effect so you'll have to just trust me that it looks really great)! Then I picked out a few Bazzill Blossoms (yikes, I'm starting to run low on Prima's! I need Hobby Lobby to carry that line too!) and layered them with small felt flowers from Creative Impressions and some glittered brads from Making Memories. I painted the inside and edges of the WGB with DecoArt's metallic finish paint in Dark Patina (this color is soooo striking in peson!) and dabbled a bit more of it around the center of the felt flowers and on the ridges of the larger blossoms. To add the paint highlights to the flowers, I used my favorite all-purpose tool that EVERYONE has...my finger!

On a side note, I've noticed I have several readers from Champaign - can anyone tell me where Scrapbook Expressions (I think the new owners might have re-named it?) moved to? I was going to stop by when I was in town a few weeks ago and it was no longer in the strip mall out on the south side. There are some things I'm dying to get my hands on that I'm hoping they carry so if anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

4 Comments:

Laurie said...

Hey there!! I can help you out with the lss.....first Pixie Dust and Paper Dreams (the old SE) has been gone about a year maybe?? they moved up to Rantoul then closed a short time after. There's a new lss in the Royal Plaza (strip mall with what used to be Pickles) not too far from your old stomping ground, called Blessed 2 Scrapbook. Donna is the owner and is super sweet. If you come over this way give me a shout and maybe we can do lunch or something!!

Linda Beeson said...

Wonderful! I have one of these I need to pull out and decorate.

Linda said...

I love those little bags and I have a staash of them too. They are great for teacher gifts.

Jenna Franklin said...

Laurie! Hi! I'm going to be over there today (Saturday) but don't know how to reach you! If you see this, email me at michaelcsmommy@yahoo.com, otherwise I'll check Troy's phone book (for some reason I have no idea what I did with the Champaign one I once had) and give you a ring! :)