Easy Handmade Luxury Gift Tags

There is nothing like a gift given with them little personal touches to show that its bearer has put real thought into it.

I think that gifts should always be wrapped with tender loving care and I therefore like to wrap my Christmas gifts to friends and family in a homemade style.

To do this I simply wrap in pretty tissue paper and tie with beautiful coordinating ribbon, before finishing with my very own handmade gift tags to give it that extra special personalised magic touch.

Here’s what you will need to make any of the styles I’ve created for this post.

2 different colour card scrapes) as to create two square embellishments for your tags)

Pic-Tixx 3D Glitter in gold and silver

Some small gold bead balls

Selection of ribbon to complement tag colours (I used cream, black, pale blue, orange/gold)

Small length of thin black ribbon (enough to tie into a bow)

Hole reinforcers

A5 Silver card or another colour of you’re choice (A5 will give you 4 tags per sheet)

Silver card for the tags star unless you wish to use any other colour or patterned card (half of A5 size works fine)

A5 Gold card (or colour of choice)

A5 Shimmery cream card (or colour of choice)

A5 Glittery patterned blue & white card (other colours are fine but be sure the pattern contains that of small flowers or even better, snow flakes)

A5 Glittery leopard print card (for heart tag)

Tag Template (or draw & cut out your own)

Heart template (or you can draw this free hand like myself)

Glue dots

Glossy Decopatch Vanish or Mod Podge

Tools needed

Scissors or precision knife (I use the latter)
Hole punch
Glue Brushes
Pencil
Rubber

Firstly select your card which should be of reasonable good quality in a medium thickness.

Use your tag template to draw around and transfer to whichever card designs you have opted for. I used gold, silver, shimmery cream and a piece of blue and white glittery patterned card as listed above. Tip… Use a pencil to do this as it allows you to rub out any lines later on. Note, all my card was pain white on one side making it easy to trace the template and later write your message. Lastly don’t forget to make out where the tags hole will need to be.

You will then need your leopard print card or other! On the plain side, draw a heart shape. You can draw around a heart template if you have one or like myself, draw it free hand.

Now using either scissors or a precision knife (which I used) cut out all your gift tags.

Once complete, use a hole punch to punch a hole in each of your tags. For your regular shaped tags punch a hole at the top centre of the tag a cm from the edge. As for the heart tag, punch your hole a few cms from the edge on the top right hand side.

Decorate each tag using the different instructions below for each.

Sliver Tag

Use two different designs of card to cut out the shape of one small and one big square. Be sure to ensure these are no wider than your tag. See the silver tag below for a visual idea on required size.

Use glue dots to Secure the squares to the centre of the tag ensuring they are at a slight angle with the smaller square slightly over lapping the larger squares top left hand corner (see image for further clarification).

Now use gold Pic-Tixx 3D glitter to boarder around the hole of your tag as well as to create a cross on one of your squares. Now use silver Pic-Tixx for the remaining square. This should now resemble two ribbon wrapped gifts.The Pic-Tixx should be shaken and tested first as to make sure it isn’t coming out too watery. If this is the case keep applying pressure to the tube in till it thickens up.

Take two tiny gold beads and place in the centre of each square pressing gently into the Pic-Tixx glitter. Now place your tag to one side to dry.

Gold Letter Tag

For the gold tag use gold Pic-Tixx glitter to boarder the tag all the way around its edges. Now boarder the hole like you did for the silver tag. In the centre of your tag write the letter of the gift recipients first name in the Pic-Tixx silver glitter (the Pic-Tixx precision nib makes this simple to achieve).

Use four of the tiny gold beads to decorate the four corners of the tag. The Pic-Tixx glitter boarder will act as the glue needed to hold the beads in place. You can now place your gold tag to one side to dry.

Blue & white Glitter Tag

For this tag you should have selected any patterned card featuring small flowers or better still snow flakes.

Use the silver Pic-Tixx glitter to randomly draw around some of the flowers or snow flakes (see pic for clarification).

Now use the gold Pic-Tixx to boarder your tags hole (as you have done for previous tags).

Now take some of the gold beads and place them in the centre of the glittered Pic-Tixx flowers or snowflakes. If any of your Pic-Tixx flowers or snow flakes are located at the edge of your tag only exposing small areas of the design then reframe from adding beads. As you can see I just added three beads to the pattern in the tags centre.

Now place with your other tags to dry.

Shimmery Cream Tag

Cut two similar sized triangles from your silver card, ensuring they are no larger or wider than your tag (see image of mine for visual instructions).

With glue dots secure the triangles to the centre of the tag as to create the symbol of a star (one triangle is placed upside down on top of the other to create this effect).

Use the gold Pic-Tix Glitter to write the the first letter of your gift recipients name In the centre of your star and again boarder your tags hole.

Place one gold bead at one of the letters edges allowing the Pic-Tixx to secure it in place.

Place your tag with the others to allow to dry.

Leopard Print Heart Tag

Bring forward your leopard print heart tag and with a precision knife with a small tip cut out two tiny oval shapes at the centre top of tag (see precise location in the image of this tag)

Once you have taken the above step, use the gold Pic-Tixx glitter to boarder the tags edges and that of the oval shaped cut outs and tags hole.

Now randomly add the tiny gold beads around the tags boarder (see image)

Lastly, place your tag with all the other decorated tags and allow to dry.

Tags will normally be fully dry in around 3 hours, in some cases quicker depending on the drying location. Mine took around an hour but I left a little longer as to be sure.

Once all tags are dry cover the designs in Decopatch glossy glue or shimmery Mod Podge. If using using Decopatch Glue add some ultra fine silver glitter dust (just a pinch). Glue will dry clear giving the tags a professional and durable finish.

Again tags can take anything from an hour to three hours to dry. You will know when the process is complete as the tags will look shiny and the glue would have dried clear. I like to do this part before bed so I know my tags will be fully dried by morning.

Now add hole reinforcers to the back of your tags hole to ensure its extra strong.

Finishing touches

Use the thin black ribbon to thread through the two oval cutouts on the leopard print heart tag. Then to finish tie the tread into a bow cutting off any excess.

Now thread your chosen ribbon through the hole of all your tags. You can make a loop by securing ribbon to the back of the card or leave ribbon hanging so it can be attached, allowing tag to dangle from gift.

Messages written on gift tags look extra special when they have been wrote in glittery or metallic gel pens.

Would love to help about everyone else’s festive craft ideas, so feel free to share.

Reference

Pic-Tixx – Baker Ross Ltd
Card – eBay
Tiny Gold Beads – HobbyCraft
Ribbon – Baker Ross Ltd

My latest Art – Japanese Teen

Japanese Teen

For more of my work please click the ‘Creative Flare’ tab under the main blog header.

Would love to know what anyone thinks.

Not Much Moshi For Your Money

Our second TRU Toyologist box was full of all sorts of surprises, one being the “My Moshi Home“.

I won’t lie, both little man nor Alice have an interest in Moshi Monsters. They both feel that at 12 and 9 they are both that bit to old for it. Nonetheless, my almost 3 year old is a big fan. He loves everything and anything Moshi so I knew there would at least be someone happy to play with it.

The idea behind this toy is to allow moshi fans the opportunity to recreate their online Moshi home!

The set contents are however a tad disappointing. The packaging makes you think your not only going to get the Moshi Home but some Moshlings to live in it. sadly this is not the case (you do however get one posable poppet figure). The set also comes complete with 20 different accessories featuring Telegroan, Pop-Up Bin, Friends Tree and Wheel of Fortune. You also get a secret code for a Limited Edition Moshling Online.

Many of the parts within the Moshi Home are interchangeable. This means children can change the set up of their Moshi home whenever they get bored. Items that can be changed are the window frames, doors and floors. Children are also provided with a number of stickers to customise their Moshi Home as they wish.

As mentioned Alice wasn’t really into it but made an effort to have a play and share her thoughts! She states its not really “her thing” but she is sure it would provide lots of fun for Moshi Monster fans. The toddler proves this to be the case when he refuses to play with anything else for the first week we received it.

The toddler plays with it really well. His not that interested in changing all the pieces, mainly because his quite young! He does however love pushing his Moshi monsters through the doors located on the Moshi house. Luckily Harley already owns a number of moshlings and was happy to add these to the play experience.

Setting up the toy wasn’t that difficult, however, it should be noted that there are images shown on the packaging that don’t tie in with the product. An example being… The box image shows the ceiling covered in a plastic yellow shell therefore allowing stickers to be displayed on it! However, the product itself doesn’t reflect this. I spent ages thinking I must be missing pieces but looking online at other decorated Moshi homes this doesn’t seem to be the case. There is no plastic ceiling covering making the box that bit more misleading.

I also found that the chimney would not slot into place accordingly and once I managed it, it kept dropping back off. The floors are also made of card which in my opinion doesn’t make them very durable.

The great thing about this toy is its easy storage. The house has a catch that locks it and its contents shut whenever it isn’t in play.

Moshi monster fans will love this little house (including the toddler) but it was my honest opinion that for £32.99 you really are not getting a lot of Moshi for your money.

The Moshi Monster My Moshi House is Available from Toys R us.

Creative Fun With Waggle Tagz

Waggle tagz was one of the items in our third and final toys r us.

Alice was most excited to discover this toy and couldn’t wait to give it a try.

The toy created by John Adams is a creative tag studio that has been designed to allow children to create their very own 3D motion and morphing image tagz. Tagz can be added to books, bags, lunch boxes, zips and more. It also comes with birthday tags allowing children to make them as gifts for their friends.

The contents of the set are as followed… Waggle tagz workstation, 15 printed cards and lenses (2 sizes ) 5 holders for small cards, 15 tagz, sticker sheet, and instructions.

Alice loves the Waggle Tagz and we honestly haven’t a bad word to say about it. Its fun and creative and Alice was able to use this without any adult help. The only slightly negative point was that she found it a little difficult to turn the handle on the laminator and found she had to put some force into it. However, once she had done it a few times it became much easier.

Waggle Tagz comes with some really funky stickers allowing children to customise each tag as they wish. The cards are really cute with images of cute bunnies and puppy dogs. Each card also has space on the back to add name and details or a message to a friend.

Alice loved how the tagz were converted into magical 3D motion tagz once laminated. The set kept her busy for a good hour or so.

Alice had almost created all the Tagz available and did panic. However, we ordered a refill pack online directly from John Adams with no problems whatsoever. The bonus and refill packs will make excellent stocking fillers and can be brought and delivered for under a fiver.

Alice gives this creative kit a huge thumbs up.

We would recommend this to friends and family as a Christmas present for creative girls. Please John Adams lets have one for the boys now!

Waggle Tagz is available from Toys R Us now and is currently priced at £16.99 on sale from £19.99 which we feel is great value.

Chocolate Lolly Making With The John Adams Kit

The John Adams Chocolate Lolly Maker was in our 3rd and final Toyologist box and the kids couldn’t have been more excited.

First I must state how the packaging and its contents are very “Pink” to my 12 year old sons dislike. However, we managed to get past this and he eventually agreed to at least eat a lolly.

Alice, however, was very please and in all honesty the toddler didn’t care what colour it was… It was chocolate and that’s all that mattered (a boy after my own heart).

Included in this kit you will find

4 fun chocolate lolly moulds (flower, heart, horse, rabbit) a number of lolly sticks, secret message stamps, melting pot/bottle, wrapping foil, ribbon, lolly wrapper and instruction sheet.

First you will need to fill the pot/bottle with warm water. Screw on the lid and then place the chocolate on top to melt. Once melted pour chocolate into moulds. Secure sticks in place and add secret message. Now place in the freezer for around 30 minutes.

Once the chocolate has Solidified pop out the moulds and use the lolly wrapper to wrap your lollies in foil. Lastly tie with pretty ribbon to complete.

The kit is this simple to use. I do like the idea of using warm water inside the water bottle as this allows children to make their lollies independently. However, this does seem to make the whole process a lot longer and I was tempted to just melt it over a pan of boiling water (though I didn’t)!

The lollies came out the moulds very easy and there was not one broken lolly in sight which I was most pleased with.

Note: The chocolate is not include. We used a big bar of dairy milk which made a good 8 lollies. The moulds are nice and deep making the lollies most enjoyable.

The John Adams Chocolate Lolly Maker is a great kit that the children really enjoyed using.

We give this creative kit a massive 5/5

You can buy the John Adams Chocolate Lolly Maker from Toys R Us

#silentsunday – Play Time

My Latest Art – The Rocker

My Latest Piece…

The Rocker….

For more of my work please refer to the creative flare tab under the blog header

Bristol’s Street Art

My daughter won a trip to Bristol which included a night at a 4 star hotel and dinner on the Matthew ship (you can read all about our fantastic trip in a few days when the post goes live)!

This post however, is to share with you some of the images I captured of the incredible street art on Bristols Nelson and Christmas Street.

As many will already know, Bristol is home to Banksy, my favourite graffiti & stencil artist, who’s work can be found popping up all over the world whether it be on the side of a rundown block of flats, an industrial bin or the London underground, it always makes a statement. I love how Banksy uses both words and images to highlight important issues affecting our society. Whenever a piece of Banksy art work appears in london I’m first on the train to see it, so you can imagine my disappointment whenever the council decides to destroy it.

above image from Wikipedia

The images I captured in bristol however are not by that of Banksy but a number of talented street artist putting their mark on the city in a truly fashionable sense.

What’s more there is no fear that the art I captured on Nelson street will be removed by council officials as its been carried out as part of an urban art exhibition called ‘See No Evil’ curated by Bristol street artist ‘Inkie’ which took place in August for that of its second year. The exhibition took place with full backing from both the City Council and that of the Art Council.

graffiti and what I also believe to be stencil art can be seen on buildings up to 10 storeys high and the talent displayed is incredible.

For more great images of Bristol’s Street Art visit the Bristol Street Art Blog

How Too Make A Clay Beaded Necklace

So I had some clay left over after the children had made their Piggies for the Natwest Competition.

This was air hardening/drying clay and with more than enough air tight containers full of modelling clay or play dough, I decided to use it up.

It was a real awkward amount, not enough to make anything to big, but more than enough not to want to waste. With this I decided to make some clay beads and a necklace for my daughter.

Here’s what I used…

Air Hardening/Drying Clay
Pearlised Acrylic Paints (Green/Yellow)
Acrylic Glaze
Black Bead Thread
Plastic Necklace Fastener

Tools…

Paint Brushes
Scissors
Clay Modelling Tool
News Paper or Table Cloth ( to cover surfaces)

How I Made The Beads

Despite only needing a small number of beads for the necklace I decided to make some extra so that the toddler could use them to help build his fine motor skills.

To make the beads I simply worked with very small amounts of clay at a time, rolling them into a ball, then using the sharp end of a modelling tool to make a hole through the middle of each bead (make sure the tool pushes right through the clay so the hole goes all the way through).

I then used the opposite end of the modelling tool to score lines, grooves and various patterns into each bead.

Feeling a tad adventures, I also made a few different shaped beads and charms.

The clay instructions are not to use water as its ‘Air drying’ However, I always find that this type of clay tends to crack more easily and does so fairly quickly. So, with this I often just wet my fingers a little and smooth over any cracks if I find this to be the case at all!

Once all my beads were complete, I left them on a sheet of newspaper and placed them in a dry area, leaving them over night to dry at room temperature.

Tip: You can tell when your beads are dry as the colour of the clay will turn from a stone grey colour, to white.

Decorating The Beads…

Once fully dried, I choose two paint colours (pearlised green and yellow) and put a small amount of each on a pallet (aka paper plate). I then used the end of a very thin paint brush and pushed it through the hole of the bead I was going to decorate. This allowed me to paint the entire bead without it being to fiddly and no area was missed.

I rotated the colours, painting one green the next yellow and so forth.

The paint is very quick to dry, but I left for a good hour then repeated the process.

I then left to dry for another 2 hours before painting them in the same way only this time with a clear acrylic gloss glaze.

After an hour the beads were ready to thread. I used black thread and secured with a plastic necklace fastener.

Having made my necklace and some beads for harley to practice his fine motor skills, I did however, find I had a bit more clay left over. So, with this I decided to make a pendent for the necklace and a pair of earrings to match. I also made a feather pendent too.

How I Made The Matching Pendent & Earrings…

Added materials needed…

Earring wires

I flatten the clay so it became very thin and delicate. I then used the modelling tool to cut out a large tear drop shape for the pendent and two for the earrings. Once I had my earring shapes I then flatten these a bit more as to make them almost paper thin. This is to unsure they are not to heavy to wear.

I then used my fingertips to help form a pattern, before using the sharp end of the modelling tool to complete my desired design. I did this for both the pendent and earrings (not worrying if they were the exact same in detail)!

I then used the sharp end of the tool to make holes in each piece.

Next I followed the same steps as I did for the beads. I painted in the same way only using both colours on each piece. I also covered all pieces in the same acrylic gloss glaze.

The last step was to add the ear wires to create a pair of earrings.

How I Made The Feather Pendent…

I flatten the remaining clay like that above and cut out one large leaf shape and another one about half its size.

I used the modelling tool to add the detail of the leaf before finally adding the holes for threading.

I then did all the same steps as I did for my beads, pendent and earrings. I used the same paints, gloss glaze and dried for the same amount of time. (Note the earrings and leaf pendent dried much faster as they were so thin!)

Alice loved all the pieces (apart from the earrings these are to large for her as she only wears studs, plus they are not real silver)!

The clay jewellery is perfect for dress up or even gifts. I’m now making clay bead bracelets for Christmas Cracker fillers. 🙂

Alice is keen to have a go herself so I’m going to make a batch of salt dough and see what she can come up with!

Homemade Tree Decorations

I’ve been making lots of Christmas decorations (which you have probably worked out already) but I can’t help it, I just love getting crafty this time of year.

I brought a whole bag of Decopatch paper mâché decorations ready to decorate and I’ve already shared some of the decorations we have made using them. If you haven’t checked these out out already, please do! I have made twinkly stars for the tree and some shabby chic Christmas hearts.

Today I want to share these pretty hanging tree decorations decorated with both paints and Decopatch.

Here’s what you will need to make your own…

2x Decopatch hanging Christmas trees
Pearlised acrylic green paint
Sparkly green tissue paper
Green glitter
Decopatch glossy vanish glue
Sticky gems (large and small)

Tools needed…
Scissors
Paint and glue brushes

For the painted tree decoration

First give your paper mâché tree to coats of pearlised acrylic green paint on either side.

Once dry paint on 4 stripes with glue then cover in green glitter. Shake of excess glitter and leave to dry before repeating on the other side.

Once the glitter is completely dry on both sides, decorate between the glitter with sticky gems. Do this for both sides.

That’s it your finished.

For the second tree I simply cut the tissue paper into small pieces and layered onto the paper mâché tree with Decopatch glossy glue (adding glue to both the tree and over the top of the tissue paper). This was left to dry for around 3 hours.

I then covered the whole thing in decopatch glue before covering it in glitter.

I finally added one more layer of the Decopatch glossy vanish glue over the top of the glitter. Don’t worry this does dry clear allowing your glitter to sparkle.

REFERENCE SECTION

Pearlised Acrylic Paint: Baker Ross Ltd
Sticky Gems: Baker Ross Ltd
Decopatch Decs: eBay (but you can get some from the Decopatch Place)
Glitter: Hobbycraft
Decopatch Glue/Vanish: Decopatch place
Tissue Paper: PoundLand