Maggie Holmes Woodland Grove Gift Bags

Hello, it's Julie here with a quick project using the beautiful Woodland Grove by Maggie Holmes.

I created two small gift bags using Walk In The Woods  and Garden Grove.  The bags are approximately 3 1/2" square bags with a small handle that can be decorated with ribbon or washi tape.  They are a lovely personal touch when giving a small gift.

I found a cut file on Silhouette Studio for a gift bag and cut two from the Woodland Grove papers. 

For the first bag I added a simple shaker pocket as a base.  There are a few different ways to make shakers but I find the simplest is to use a small plastic pocket (I use something similar to these).  Using these plastic pockets it means that you only have to seal one side, I stitched mine up with a sewing machine but you could use glue or a Fuse tool.  I then used some washi tape and layered stickers from the Woodland Grove sticker book and a beautiful flower on top of the shaker pocket. 

Finally for the handle I layered some leaves and flowers from the floral ephemera and added it as an accent to the black and white background paper.

For the second bag I kept it super simple and layered some washi tape from the sticker book and some stickers to create a cluster at the bottom of the bag.  I actually used a sticker with a leopard on it but knew I just wanted the background colour and covered it with another label sticker.  I used to be worried about hiding part of stickers, or couldn't see another use for some brighter stickers but I have found layering is a great way of using what you have in another way.  I then put a gold flower from the floral ephemera on some foam tape and added a "with love" sticker on top of it.  It came together so quickly and simply but it looks so effective.

Thank you so much for joining me in using Woodland Grove, please come back next month when I am using Retro Summer to make an ice cream truck!

Simple Stories ~ Hearth and Holiday 🌟

Hi all, it’s Anna back with you today! 

It’s December and the countdown to Christmas is on! With this in mind, for one of my design team posts this month I wanted to make some form of advent calendar. 

I have made advent calendar’s for the blog before, which you can find here and here. 

My idea for this advent calendar meant I wouldn’t have as much space as my previous designs, therefore I decided to make it a ‘12 days of Christmas’ advent calendar rather than the full 24/25 days.

I am working with Simple Stories Hearth and Holiday collection, which you can find in the shop here. 

To create my advent calendar I created 12 items that could be hung from a wooden dowel. I used twine to do this. 

For days 1,2,8 and 12 - I used tags from the ‘Tags’ patterned paper simply cutting them out and punching a hole at the top and threading twine through. On the back I attached gold chocolate coins using foam pads to stick them down.

For day 3 - I cut out two star shapes from brown paper. I then tore the edges rather than cut out the stars and then hand stitched the two pieces together. Before I completed the sewing I added in some chocolate treats. 

Day 4 - To create day 4’s advent treat, I used an envelope, mounted with some Kraft cardstock and two triangle shaped pieces from ‘spreading cheer’ I mounted the number onto some red cardstock and added some stickers from the combo sticker sheet. 

Day 5 - Using red cardstock, I created a 3D triangular prism, where I could easily insert another chocolate treat! I added a strip of  Holly & Jolly along with some more stickers. 

Day 6 - Again I created a 3D element in the form of a small gift bag. Inside I added a nail varnish and embellished the front of the bag using red cardstock and a bow from the combo stickers. 

Day 7 - This one was made by using a toilet roll tube and wrapping it up in the form of a Christmas cracker using brown paper. I embellished the front by adding a strip of red cardstock and some combo stickers. 

Day 9 - I wrapped up a Christmas treat using brown paper and then added a piece of ‘Holly&Jolly’ patterned paper to the front. I wrapped lots of twine around it which I could also use to tie the parcel to the dowel.

Day 10 - I followed a template to create a 3D gift box out of the B side of Holly and Jolly.  Again I wrapped twine around it to create added texture and decoration as well as using it to tie to the dowel. 

Day 11 - For day 11, I created a stocking, this was simply made by using red cardstock. I hand-drew a shape of a stocking and cut out two pieces. I used gold thread to sew them together and then added a strip of Kraft cardstock along the top of the stocking. I added my treats into the stocking. 

To create the numbers on each of the advent pieces, I used my silhouette cameo to cut numbers in different sizes out of white cardstock. 

Thanks so much for looking! I’ll be back again before Christmas to share a scrapbook layout using this collection. 

See you soon!

Anna

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