After sharing some of my recent artwork, {gratitude garland, artful banners, paper medallions, stationery suitcase, and my latest collage} I quickly realized that a lot of these items would make terrific gift items... especially as the Christmas season is right around the corner. My thoughts quickly turned to how can I re-create them in a way that first isn't too time-consuming --- if I'm going to be creating them, I'll need time to do that and secondly, how to keep my expenses down. Let's face it, if it is going to be costly to create these things, wouldn't it be easier to simply use the money and go shopping instead... there is a lot less stress involved there, LOL!
I got to brainstorming and realized that some of these things could be created in a big way only in a smaller version and using some additional things to personalize them and speed up the process.
The garlands: either the ring style of the gratitude or the artful banners can be made smaller. Can you envision them in a smaller scale? What about a 1/2" x 3" style for the ring one? You could cut a lot of them out of a single sheet of printed paper and cardstocks, use colors that would match the recipients decor and personalize them by themes. If I used staples to create the rings, they would go together fairly quickly and creating a 4 or 5 foot one which could drape over a curtain rod, dress up a shelf, or add a ribbon or fiber hanger to them could be hung on a wall using simple push pins, hung over a picture grouping on a wall.
The artful banners could also be created on a smaller scale and I think that they would be adorable hanging on the edge of a shelf. The banner style itself hosts a lot of possibilities, what about using circles, diamonds, a rectangle with a triangular cut out to resemble the cut ends of ribbons? Again, very easy to personalize! Colors, themes, sizes... A package of scrapbook embellishement would assist with the smaller scale and stickers for images wouldn't be too awful expensive, right?
The paper medallions.... oh how I am loving these! So easy to create and they can adorn almost anything! I can even see them added to the joined spaces between the artful banners, on a gift tag, a gift bag, as a jar topper. Paper choices are fantastic, anything from vintage documents, wallpaper, sheet music, book pages to simple scrapbook printed papers. Then my mind began to wonder with even more possiblities... can you see them layered? This puzzled me for a moment as I realized how they are folded and the thickness of the center when it dawned upon me that as it being folded and before it spread out, why couldn't you simply cut out the center, layer it and insert each fold into the pleats of a previously created one? The circles would be easy to decorate..... and who says it has to be a circle? A square, a rectangle, a triangle would easily work as well... and decorated again with simple pre-made scrapbook embellishments and/or stickers. Those banners that drape below, could easily go over top. Personalized with any words related to themes, seasons, occassions. I couldn't resist thinking of the possiblilities to use some stamping techinques either. Polished stone backgrounds, embossed crackles.... especially embossing and glittering! The glitter truly makes them spectacular! What about glittered diecut shapes? Can you see stars and flowers shapes within the designs? A couple holes with string, ribbon, and fibers strung through and you've got one amazing Christmas ornament! A set of 3, and yep, it is a gift! I then remember the little matchbox that I originally discovered the medallions upon, and my mind quickly raced with a few more ideas. Creating a shrine inside of a matchbox, adding a glitter outline shape to create a miniature shadowbox within. Add in ribbon adhered to the edges and more ornaments abound. Well, the box idea is a great one and we all know that they come in a variety of shapes and sizes in paper mache. I started envioning them in the small circular sizes, decoupaged with papers, a paper medallion used as a collar for a styrofoam snowball decorated with a face and a cone hat! A larger wooden bead would also work! and robbins, fibers, strings adhered around them add an additional decorative touch. Even a small hole, made in the top layers and punched through the lid would allow you to create yet another ornament! Adhere the inside top of the lid to the top of the box and viola, it wouldn't come apart! Of course, they would have to be glittered!
The stationery suitcase.... well as much as I'd love to be able to create one these for all the ladies on my list, it simply isn't going to happen. But then I remembered that Stampington? possibly, or Mirkwood maybe ?, anyway one of them offered a template for a suitcase created from paper. {I'll post again when I rediscover it!} Any container would work, a paint can, a wicker basket, a lid to a box or a box itself. Of course it would need decorated!!! I thought about how a garland or a banner would look hanging along the upper edges, or a paper medallion decorating all four sides!!!
The collages....... well, in all honesty, these would be the easiest and the fastest for me to create. The supplies are inexpensive enough, I've an entire box of the frames as I picked them up a few summer ago while I was at the flea market! I remember Linda and I went in on the box for a $1 each and split it..... I wondered then what the heck will I ever do with 48 frames? Well, once we split them, it was 24 and I've gave some away. Those frames are neat! as in they are deep! I could even possibly turn them into a shadow box as the back opening is larger than the front. Of course, I'd have to trim the back easel section of the frame to fit the front opening and remove the photo turns from the frame. I thought a piece of matboard frame could easily be hot glued to them and decorated as well. The illustration boards aren't too expensive and are available usually in a package of 4. I've a lot of paints on hand and tissue paper! Use my own stamps and another gift is born!
Lots of ideas and inspiration.... and knowing that if I don't write them down, create sketches, they will quickly vanish... so that is what the purpose of this post is about: a gentle reminder! {and perhaps to inspire someone else....}
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