Let’s Get Crafty–Summer Tote Bag

A girl can never have too many Summer Tote bags!  I crafted this beauty using basic craft store supplies, leftover fabric and some beautiful ribbon.

Head here to get the full DIY tutorial.

 

Have a terrific weekend crafting or doing just nothing!

 

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Pretty Packaging

While I’ve shown you some of my personal tricks of the trade when it comes to gift wrapping, it’s been a while since I did a round-up on the packaging that inspires me.  So many beautiful and creative ways people and wrapping gifts! 

 Enjoy the eye candy (and the tips I’ve included)!

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Wrapping with a color theme in mind is a great way to keep the overall look cohesive but interesting.

 

 

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Always keep a lookout for paper, fabric and ribbon flowers at the craft stores.  They are a great way to add pizzaz to simple wrap.  P.S.  check the hair accessory area in store for inexpensive flowers on pin and clips too!

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I love this combination of bold, graphic wrapping paper with solid colored satin ribbons.  Easy elements to keep on hand for a quick gift wrap job!

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Create paper buckles from decorative scrapbook paper, add ribbon and wrap!  So chic for the holidays!

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Creating pretty packaging has a lot to do with thinking outside the box.  Here, a strip of candy buttons was used to create a bow for a gift bag and pretzels were added along with yarn to dress up a plain gift bag.

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Just about anything can be used to create a beautifully wrapped gift.  Keep your eyes open for bargain utensils, buttons and round containers while you’re out thrifting. 

p.s.  love the embellishment created from cupcake wrappers (top photo)!

 

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Pom Poms on a stick…so adorable!  A great fall wrapping idea!

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For some reason I have a slew of old stamps and just have never put them to use.  This great package above gives me inspiration for a unique way to seal gift wrap.

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Scott Antique Market, which I attend each month has a slew of plastic vintage buckles for $1.00 or less.  I love the idea of putting these to use with pretty ribbon. 

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Adore this wrap.  Sheet music and vintage baubles which can be found at yard sales and flea markets for a song!

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Another color coordinated look with solid paper and varied embellishments.  The details are what count!

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A truly fabulous was to turn a plain white box into a stunning package!  Add buttons and ribbon!

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I’ve stacked up on paper dollies (which are very inexpensive) and adore this vintage inspired gift wrap they help to create above and below!

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If you’re into beautiful gift wrap like me, you’ll want to be sure and check out one of my favorite on-line paper sources, Paper Mojo.  I just ordered a slew of new papers and can’t wait to get them in my hands.

I have a few gifts I’m in the process of wrapping and will share the finished looks with you on Saturday.  It involves buckles, pins and clips.

Also, be sure to head over to my Pretty Packaging and Ribbon boards on Pinterest for inspiration galore!

 

Now, go wrap something beautiful!

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Let’s Get Crafty: Lattice Placemats

I told you I was in a crafting mood!

Have you ever had a design idea pop into your head and make you excited beyond belief to give it a try? 

That was the case when the idea of creating Lattice Placemats using ribbon hit me at round 3 am one morning. I couldn’t wait to get started designing my placemats so I jumped right in, went to work and turned out one of my favorite projects ever!

I’m so excited to share the how-to for this project but I must first warn you that creating these placemats is a bit time-consuming and requires your full attention, especially when using the Exacto knife.  But, I promise the end result is fabulous.

Here’s what you’ll need to create these placemats:

1. Clear Contact Paper—available from Wal-Mart, Target and some craft stores.
2. Ruler—a metal ruler will work best for this project!
3. Scissors
4. Exacto Knife with sharp blade
5. Ribbon—Creating 4 of these placemats will require about 30 yards of 5/8” wide ribbon. 

 Of course when it came to choosing ribbon for this project, I headed to my favorite ribbon company, May Arts!  May Arts has such an incredible offering of ribbons in just about any color, material, width and style you can imagine.  I used their FN-14, 5/8” Twill Ribbon in Red which can be purchased here.

 

   The first step in creating your placemats is to cut four rectangular pieces out your contact paper, each measuring 14” x 18”–a pretty standard size for a placemat.

 

 Next, take one of your pieces of contact paper and peel off the backing.  Place the contact paper sticky side up on your work surface.

Take your ribbon and lay a piece along one edge of the sticky contact paper and cut to fit.  Repeat on other three sides of paper, overlapping the corners.  Your contact paper is now framed in ribbon. 

 

Next, take your ribbon and run a piece diagonally down the center of the paper from the one corner to the next. Cut the ends so you have a clean edge.

  

Now you’ll begin creating diagonal lines across your contact paper.  You can space the lines however you want but for a more intricate pattern, place the ribbon about 1” apart.  Lay ribbon pieces from one side to the other.

Now lay ribbon pieces in the other direction creating a criss-cross pattern.

Once all your cross ribbons are in place, place another piece of ribbon along each side of your placemat covering up all the edges of your ribbon strips. 

               Press all your ribbon pieces down firmly to make sure they are stuck to the contact paper.

You’re almost done, but this next step is where you really need to concentrate.  Put on some fun music, pull out your Exacto Knife and get ready to cut your paper.

To create a true lattice and open-work feel for your placemats, you are going to cut out all the pieces of contact paper between your criss-cross ribbon. 

Ready, set, go!

Once all the contact paper is cut away between your ribbons, the contact paper that is left under your ribbon pieces will give your placemat just enough support and body. 

 

So, was I right?  Wasn’t this project one to get really excited about.  I love how my placemats turned out and can’t wait to use them at my next dinner party!

p.s.  Lay the placemats end to end and you can use them as a runner too!

 

The holidays are only a few months away so now is a great time to craft placemats for yourself or make a few as gifts!

 Hop on over to the May Arts shop and pick out your ribbon.  All May Arts ribbons can be purchased on Amazon… just type May Arts Ribbon and the style code into the search box to find your ribbon. Or, find a retailer here!

 

Did you do anything crafty this weekend??

 

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JENNIFER RIZZO

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Crafting a Handmade Card

I’ve been in a crafting mood lately as you could tell from the ribbon placemats blogged about yesterday.  One of my favorite  things to make are handmade cards.  I’ve been crafting cards for years and am trying new techniques to make my designs special.  This time around I pulled my sewing machine into the action. 

 Check out the Gifts Galore Card I literally stitched together!

   

 Here’s the how-to on making this card.

Supplies:

• Blank white notecard—size will depend on how many presents you want to place on the front of the card.
• Scraps of decorative scrapbook paper
• Double sided tape
• Brads or other small embellishments
• Scissors
• Sewing Machine
• 2 thread colors that work with the colors of your decorative paper
• Sewing needle
• Craft Glue
• And of course, no project of mine would be complete without incorporating May Arts Ribbon!  This project calls for narrow ribbon, 1/8” or narrower!  I used the following ribbon styles: 
  • 395-15-14  1/8” Suede String,  340-58  1/8”  Solid and SK47  1/8” Silk

Now the fun begins!

1. Cut your decorative papers into small square and rectangular shapes and arrange a layout on the front of our card.  Make sure to leave a little space between the packages for stitching and bows you will add.
2. Once you have your layout, use double-sided tape to secure the paper pieces in place.
3. Next, with your card open, sew around the edges of each package using a zig zag stitch.  Alternate the thread colors to add a bit more interest to your design.
4. With the paper “packages” sewn in place, add ribbon in a criss-cross pattern to a couple of packages.  Make a few small bows, securing them in the center with your craft glue and then stitch them onto the tops of one or two packages. Add small brads and embellishments if you want a little more bling on your card.   

To give my card a finished look, I lined the inside front with a piece of decorative paper, covering up the stitch lines. 

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my latest craft project.  I’ll be back tomorrow with another DIY project!

 

Hope your weekend is going great!

 

Stop by the ConfettiStyle Etsy shop to se more of my handmade pieces!

 

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Let’s Get Crafty–My DIY Mod Love Pillow

Last Saturday, I was watching one of my favorite design shows, The High Low Project with one of my favorite designers,  Sabrina Soto and saw this Jonathan Adler Mod Love pillow used in the high-end version of the nursery she designed for a young couple.  I was immediately smitten with the pillow until I researched it on-line and found out that it cost $175.00. 

Here’s the pillow if you didn’t see the show or aren’t familiar with it.

 

While I love me some Jonathan Adler, I just couldn’t bite on that price so I decided to create my own version of it.

Here’s my pillow which when it was all said and done only cost me $8.00!  WhooHoo!

 

 

 

 

Wanna know how I made it??   Here’s all the deets.

Gather the following supplies:

• Neutral Color Pillow—17” x 17”—Mine came from Wal-Mart and was only $6.00
• Felt—one piece of red and one piece of purple. One sheet from Hobby Lobby is .29 cents
• Hot Glue Gun of your could use fabric glue too!
• Scissors
• Lighter
• Ribbon–Of course I used ribbon from my favorite ribbon source, May Arts Ribbon.  You can view and purchase the entire May Arts ribbon line on Amazon.com.

  You’ll need three different colors/styles.  This is what I used:

•  FN27—5/8” Twill in Yellow—You’ll need 45” total
• QH46—1.5” Grosgrain in Apple Green—You’ll need 11 ½”
• WFF46—1/2” Grosgrain Circles in Apple Green—You’ll need approx. 62” for a 17 x 17 pillow.

 

The How To:

 Note:  After you cut your ribbon pieces as outlined below, run the cut ends of your ribbon over the lighter flame to seal the fibers and prevent fraying.

 First, create the ribbon border around the edge of your pillow using you’re the grosgrain circle ribbon.  Adhere it with your hot glue.

Cut 3 pieces of yellow ribbon—9” and 3 pieces 6”.  Following the layout in the photo, lay the three long pieces vertically towards the left edge of the pillow and glue in place.  Lay the small pieces horizontally and glue in place.

1. Cut a heart from your red felt and glue down.
2. Cut a 11 ½” piece of your wide apple green ribbon, form a ‘v’ and glue in place.
3. Cut an ‘e’ out of your purple felt and glue it in place above the ‘v’. 
4. Stand back and admire!

 

 Savings:  $167.00

 The Look for Less:  PRICELESS!

 

Have you knocked off  any designer pieces lately? 

 

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Ribbon Love: My Go To Source

One of the things I told in my 2012 blog goals post  was that I wanted to share with you my love of ribbon and creative and unique ways to gift wrap.  We’ll today is the first installment of Ribbon Love and I’m not only sharing with you fun Valentines gift wrap ideas, but also my favorite source for beautiful ribbons, May Arts Ribbon Company.

May Arts is a US  based company offering a vast array (thousands) of ribbons in every material, color and style you can imagine.  Up until now, May Arts has been available to the trade only, but I’m excited to announce that all of May Arts ribbons are now available to the public on their exclusive May Arts Amazon shop.

  Yeah!  That means that now you too can buy beautiful ribbon from my favorite ribbon source and share in my ribbon love!

 

Here’s just a sampling of what they have to offer:

Red Twill Chevron Stripe–available in other colors too!

3″ Satin Ribbon–available in a range of colors and widths!

Grosgrain Leopard Print–What fun!

Fuzzy Pom Pom Ribbon–available in a range of colors

Net Ribbon–such fun to wrap with. 

Reversible Satin Ribbon–available in a range of colors and widths!  This is one of my favorite ribbons to wrap with.

 

May Arts doesn’t just inspire you through their enormous offering of ribbons, they also have a newly updated blog full of craft, card and wrapping projects to thrill you as well.   And, to celebrate the blog redesign, May Arts is having a fantastic giveaway!  Head on over the May Arts blog, check out all the great stuff and enter to win ribbons and much more!

   (p.s.  I’m a member of the May Arts design team so be sure to follow their blog and check out my ribbon projects).

 Now on to the wrapping inspiration.

Presentation is everything and beautiful wrapping makes a gift even more special. 

 

 

 

 I folded and pleated the paper for this gift and then tied on a beautiful satin ribbon in a red and white diamond print.  A red glittered clothes pin holds a white die-cut tag I glued red dots to.

 

 After wrapping my box in red paper, I placed a die cut note card on each end of the box and laced the two together with red and white cotton ribbon. (side view of the notecard above).

To create this look, I layered pink and red paint chip cards on top of each other and wrapped them around the box.  I used a white lace ribbon, paper mache heart and pink floral tag to finish the look. 

 Wrapping gifts is so much fun. I hope you’re inspired and ready to be creative with your gift wrapping and May Arts Ribbon! 

 

Material Source:

 All ribbon from May Arts

Red Gift Wrap from Ikea–You may only find it available during certain times of the year but they carry a good selection of solid colored gift wrap.

Die Cut notecards, paper mache heart, pink floral tags and red glitter clothespins from Micheals  (all in the $1.00 or 2/$3.00 section–whoopee!)

Paint chips–Home Depot (free)

  images: Ribbon via May Arts, wrapped gifts by ConfettiStyle 

 

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Let’s Get Crafty: Christmas Cone

As a member of the MAY ARTS Ribbon blog team, I get the opportunity to create unique craft projects incorporating their incredible offering of ribbons.

 My latest project was “grand” and “all about Christmas.”  Head on over to the MAY ARTS blog and check out my Super Size Christmas Cone and get crafty with me!

 

The May Arts blog is full of great holiday craft projects, so be sure to spend a little time checking it all out!

 

 

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Holiday Craft Link Party

 

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Come On, Get Crafty!

If you’re looking to get a little crafty this weekend, here is a quick craft project I’ve put together showcasing some of the wonderful ribbons from May Arts and an everyday placemat.

 

Bamboo Placemat + Ribbon = Stylish Notecard Holder

For instructions, head here and get your craft on!

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