Same gift - two ways to wrap

We love recommending glassybabys to our clients to give as tokens of appreciation to their friends, families, and associates and we LOVE to wrap them. The compact packaging is a gift-wrapper's dream. It's great fun choosing the materials to compliment the occasion and our paper/ribbon design selections are specific to the client and are only used once.

Celebrate the New Year Elements in this project included: off-white Japanese silk/hemp paper, green hand-marbled paper, Midori gross-grain and double-faced satin ribbons. Our custom-made floral attachments (dried seed pods, paper and satin leaves) added the finishing touch. A small card accompanied each gift.

Spring in Seattle Wrapping fifty glassybabys gave us the opportunity to really improve our skills! Components in this project included: two layers of white tissue, Japanese silk-screen cherry blossom paper, and pale pink matte ribbon. Midori red herringbone twill, secured with a square knot, tied it all together.

Wrapping it up/creating beautiful packages

Do you love giving gifts? Isn't it great when you find just the right thing? Here at DIY Good Tastetm we have the best time working with our gift-giving clients. We assist them in selecting meaningful items and then we wrap and mail the gifts as well. 

One of our recent corporate gift projects involved LOTS of little house banks. Our client wanted to send tokens of appreciation to associates, friends and vendors. A magazine article by lifestyle maven, Kelley Moore, featured these little houses and I knew they'd be perfect. 

Each house was wrapped in embroidered satin/silk cloth, a take-off on a furoshiki (a type of traditional Japanese cloth that is frequently used to wrap gifts). The gift card, tucked inside with the bank, thanked the recipient for their support and friendship and added that a donation had been made in their honor to a local charity. Information about furoshiki traditions was also included.

Custom hand-done calligraphy name cards added the finishing touch. The little houses were very well-received and our client was thrilled. We're looking forward to our next wrapping project and making someone else's day.   

Creative inspiration - it's in the details

Everyone has little treasures - mementos of trips,  gifts given by friends, a favorite cup. Where do you keep yours? These little 'happys' are on my kitchen window sill. They greet me every morning, sharing space with ripening fruits. This simple still-life makes my view out the window richer, adding texture to my creative life. 

Making and mailing fun postcard art

I love getting mail - especially 'good' mail. Fortunately, I do get great mail every month since I belong to an artists' postcard group. All the members create original postcards, mail them out and receive postcards in return. We send all sorts of stuff - sewn cards, collage cards, metal cards . . . 

For this month's mailing I played with cards and papers that I had in the studio. The photos to the right show the process. It's easy to make postcards from materials you have on hand. Card stock works best, but you can glue several sheets of text weight paper together or use recycled cardboard from boxes. Just make sure that you add enough postage when you mail your cards. I generally over-post, since I don't want to get my mail returned.

Try surprising friends with art mail  - they'll love getting 'good' mail. And you'll have fun creating it.

Layer upon layer - bulletin boards revisited

Bulletin boards give you a concentrated glimpse of into a person's life. glassybaby cards - I get one every time I visit their shop - they look like glass gumdrops. Postcards from family and friends, a recipe that looks interesting, the newspaper horoscope from my birthday . . . layer upon layer, I tack one on top of another - to create a rather chaotic collage of my interests on any given day.    

Fresh flowers make my day brighter

I love to give flowers - and I love having fresh flowers in my home. They contribute much to my well-being. The soft textures and spots of color allow me to escape to places of gentle beauty. 

Right now tulips are everywhere - they have bunches of five for $4 at my local market. It's fascinating to watch tulips grow in the vase - as they absorb the water, they get taller. I cut them shorter in order to keep them going longer. For less than the cost of latte and muffin I get an abundance of pleasure and a glimpse of the upcoming spring. And they're calorie free!

Morning rituals help start the day

Do you have morning rituals? Daily habits to help you enter the day? I have several - my favorite being to read newspapers - our local paper and the New York Times. I make a pot of tea and cozy down in a chair near the fireplace. On Tuesdays the NYTimes science section grabs me and on Thursdays it's Style and Home. Sometimes all I have is a moment for a cursory look, but I always make a point of reading at least one article from each paper. 

To me, newspapers are like libraries; full of information, ideas and beliefs. I might be interested in one item and another will catch me - often with a photograph or a compelling headline. And then I'm off - reading an article on a subject that I didn't know anything about   - adding to my creative storehouse.