Baby Shower Bonanza, Part 4, Packaging

 Remember those beautiful tea bags and sugar cubes?

 They need to be presented in something.

Something equally beautiful. These will sit at the place of each of your guests. This gives them a hint of the kind of soiree in store.

This time, I decided to go with clear boxes, that I could decorate and tie with a ribbon. Let's keep it simple people.

Cut some co-ordinating paper to size, dot with strong, double sided tape, and wrap. If you use the skinny, cheap stuff you had left over, the paper will pop right off the plastic. Live and learn people. The first one I did had the paper join in the middle, but from then on I had the join at the very edge at the back. You can now barely see it.

Adding the seal from the invitations ties evey thing in nicely.

Note the Madame Clochette mug in the background!

 And then just keep going and going.

Place the sugar cubes in a little bag of their own.

I'm pulling this odd, smug face because in the other photos I look cranky and double chinned.

This one is perfect.

Repeat. And Repeat.

Pop a packet of sugar in the box, and add teabags. It ended up looking nicer if I held all the tags together and then placed them in the box, just so.

Now tie it all up with a matching ribbon. To get the perfect bow, with even ends, make one side longer than the other. How you tie it will depend on which side needs to be longer.

Demonstrating the craziness...

I'm mainly including this pic because I like the over exposure and my nails.

 I got a little excited using my mini tripod again, so I apologise for all the ribbon tying pics. I know you know how to tie a bow!

 

Repeat, and repeat...

Soldiers ready for combat?

After all that faffing, a gratuitous shot of the bloody bow...

This pic wasn't taken until after this little one had been to Canberra and back, so it's looking a little frayed. Still pretty!

 
 And Voila! Thank you gifts, party favours, or bonbon-whatsits.

Next up, a guessing game in a JAR!
Can you imagine my delight?

Salut!
MC

Baby Shower bonanza, Part 2: Handmade tea bags

And so it continues. Do join me for a little craziness in the form of Handmade Tea Bags.

Yes. Teabags. Made by me.

There are numerous versions on Pinterest, but this is the one that inspired me and gave me very simple directions. There are even free, printable tags.

Lia Griffith

 What I loved about this version is that the teabags look like someone actually made them, and with love. I know, sounds corny. But I am!

What I also love about these little bags, is that they're cheap to make. The muslin cost $2.50p/m, the tea, Melbourne Breakfast from T2 (Sadie's favourite) was $30 for 250g(which ended up giving me about 85 teabags) and the tags were made from scraps of the invitation paper.

One teaspoon (one you use to stir your tea, not a measuring spoon)

Gather and tie

Trim, and you're almost done.

These weren't hard to make. If you're good with your hands, they'll be easy. They're just fiddly, and time consuming.

I made 120 tea bags. I know.

120? Yes. There were 27 people on Sadie's guest list, so I made 30 invites, just in case she'd forgotten someone or decided that some Facebook friend was nice enough to come along. I'd decided to use plastic boxes to package them in, and so, to make it look generous and not stingy, four tea bags each was the plan. If you're using smaller packaging, you could certainly package 1,2 or 3 and they'd look gorgeous. (Keep an eye on the Madame Clochette Facebook page for a few different options soon).

Like in Lia's original post, these teabags would make a great Mothers Day gift, or you could even package up some "xmas" scented tea and give them as Xmas gifts.

Hmmm... That's a good idea.

Must remember that.

Next up in the Bonanza....

Handmade Sugar cubes.

A bientot!

MC

Merry and Bright

One week of school left.

One week until we fly to France.

One last bunch of Christmas gifts to wrap.

Remember these little babies?

 I made a heap of chocolates at the time, knowing full well Mr Frog would change his mind about not giving gifts to the teachers in his office at the last minute.

As it turns out, the teachers in Mr Frogs office, teach Japanese. So, having also studied Japanese at school (for six years!) I was a little inspired.

Today we practice the Japanese art of Furoshiki.

First, pop your choccies in a little plastic bag and seal.

 Next, cut a rough square out of your chosen fabric. Mine are about 15x15cm, but it'll depend on the size of your pressie. Place the packet on top of the wrong side of fabric. I put it at the opposite angle so I didn't need to use too much fabric, and so it would look a bit neater.

 Take two opposite corners and tie a knot.

 Then take the remaining corners and tie another knot. If you have enough fabric, tie another knot to secure. I was being frugal.
 

 Voila! Or should I say dozo.

  I had exactly four plain chocolates left, so I made this up, just because.
 A bit of Kikki K twine, some Washi Tape (did you know it's Japanese?) from Kaisercraft, and that is a very cute little parcel.

That's it from me for the year. I mean it this time.

I hope the holiday period is just fabulous,

Merry and Bright,

and keeping praying my Christmas is WHITE!

MC

All wrapped up

I love birthdays. I love xmas. I love random, made up reasons for gift giving.
I just love giving presents., especially when a) I've managed to find the "perfect" present, and b) I'm able to wrap said gift in something fabulous. A well wrapped gift adds to the sense of occasion about the whole affair. Sometimes, I get too excited and get it wrong, sometimes I try too hard.

Sometimes, I get it right.

 

Clearly, I love a theme.

It all started with the card. Silly me forgot to take pics, due to the screaming tadpole I had in the background. I also made a mistake ("Happy Birthay"), which was rectified somewhat by just cutting the mistake away. (Nobody will ever know)

Take one paper bag from my favourite store. (To see why, head here) If I love anything more than gift wrapping it's making something plain, pretty. Cut two pieces of coordinating (or not) scrap booking paper big enough to cover up the advertising. Glue.

Then add gifts, top with slightly bunched tissue paper, and accessorise with matching ribbons.

Voila, there you have it. A colour themed gift.

For AMAZING gift wrapping ideas, head over to my idol, Rebecca. She rocks.

MC

Paper Craft

In between the constant feeding of the Tadpole, I've been making a few cards. It's been quite a process, due to the fact that all my craft supplies have been stored away in boxes up in a cupboard, which means lot's of ladder climbing and unpacking and packing.

Mr Frog convinced me to sell them (just head to the Madame Clochette Facebook page) because he thinks they're great.

 

What do you think? 

MC

Back in The Saddle

It's been too long! So long in fact that I went and had a baby girl! The tadpole is now eight weeks old and taking up lots of time and energy... which I mostly enjoy.

In this past week I've managed to find an excuse and a project to get myself back in the crafting way. Here's what I've been up to...

Take one, plain wooden box you bought super cheap, and remove the hinges and latch.

After a light sanding,  paint around all the edges and inside, then glue scrapbook paper cut to size to the inside of the bottom .

Then get to gluing the outside, one side at a time. I cut my pieces out in sequence and glued them as I went to make sure the pattern was continuous. Keep in mind you'll need to put the hardware back on, so poke holes where the screws will go.

Now I waited until I had covered all sides before I sanded off the edges of paper. Don't do that. Although a little more time consuming, I think you'll get a better result if you sand as you go. Just make sure the glue is mostly dry before you do.

Once you're happy with the edges, give the lid and the bottom a couple of coats of glue. This gives it a satin finish and is "water resistant". Of course, you could use polyurethane if you prefer... but I was doing this on the cheap.

Screw the hardware back on and you're done.

A great gift... fill it with lollies or a little surprise, and a great project for the school holidays!

Enjoy

MC

New Life

Left to my own devices, the majority of my recycling bin would be saved "for something", some other use not yet thought of, but just a moments inspiration away.

Were it not for Mr Frog, I would be drowning in "crap" I could "use", "someday".

Yesterday, I got to indulge in the delight known as upcycling, or using -what- you- have- to- hand.

I made a delicious batch of White Chocolate, Macadamia and Cranberry Cookies (a Nigella recipe I bastardised) for my hubby to take to work... hey, sometimes I like to pretend to be a domestic goddess!

Now I could've just put them in a sealable bag or on a paper plate that could've been thrown away, or even in a plastic container that hubby would bring home for me to wash and been done with it. But No.

There was an empty, plastic ice cream container (actually frozen yoghurt) calling my name from the recycling bin....

So, after a bit of faffing, I made it pretty....

... well, added a bit of brown paper, the cookies, a journal tag I had, some string, and ...

Voila, a very cute package of biscuits.

This is me keeping it simple. It would've looked awesome with some fancy black ribbon, or even something other than brown paper... but it was just for a work day...

I'll save the glam for something special.



MC