Pepper Design Blog - Page 118 of 438 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

Holiday Cards Become Next Year’s Gift Tags

February 4, 2014 by Morgan

I recently came across the idea of recycling Christmas cards into gift tags in Martha Stewart Living and decided to try it out. I love receiving holiday cards – it’s truly one of those joys of Christmas that I most look forward to. It’s like old school, once-a-year Facebook. You get to check in with friends and family via smiling faces and a few kind words – it’s a little peek into what’s going on in their lives. Families that you haven’t seen in years still feel part of your world because of that little card. I also love that I feel like I’m reconnecting all season long by displaying their Christmas card in full view somewhere in the house.

It seems silly to waste so many beautiful, well-designed cards at the close of the holidays…

So I pulled all of my craft punches, bakers twine and ribbon bits from my craft drawers to create holiday tags for next year. I already feel ahead of the game (I’m on a roll this year).

After cutting out favorite words or patterns, I used a simple slip knot on most so that I could either tie or tape the tag onto a future present:

Now I’ll put them all into a little ziplock baggie and throw them into my Christmas box out in the garage to be discovered in 11 months!

Whoever thought up the idea of Christmas cards was really on to something… some of the relationships I have with friends from back in college, high school or even grade school exist because we swap cards of our families. I dig that we still get to stay connected and I LOVE the excuse for our family to take a family photo once a year (even if labeling, hunting down new addresses, mailing and all of that is such a pain). Can’t wait to find these sure-to-be-forgotten-about tags next year, we’ll see if reusing these cards as gift tags was worth the effort.

Do you display your holiday cards for a while or pull them down right after Christmas? I’m feeling like I took mine down a little earlier this year…

An Update on Taylor Rose

February 3, 2014 by Morgan

You know what’s amazing? Little hands, little toes. A little face that lights up with the most brilliant little grin when you shine a smile in her direction.

We are beginning to manage a stretch of sleep that is longer than five hours these days. Five hours isn’t horrible, it’s way better than two. But by three months old (let alone seven) Liv was sleeping for 13 hours straight and I was happy as a sleeping clam. Oh man, those were the days.

We followed BabyWise and Secrets of a Baby Whisperer (loved both, I’m leaning on the latter at the moment) to a t with Liv from when she was 2-3 weeks old. I sort of forgot all about it when Taylor came around. I remembered the steps but wasn’t diligent about employing them, and, obviously, that is the secret. So we’re back on track now but it will take a bit of time.

The above pics chronicle T’s first seven months! I have this big, fuzzy white blanket that I keep in the living room for snuggling on the couch and it was a perfect prop for her newborn photos, I love how cozy it looks and plan on using it in her regular photo updates just like I did with Liv’s giant bear.

Taylor is the best baby. She may not sleep as much as I’d like, but everything else about her little personality, coos, scoots and hand clapping is addictive. I’m trying to get her out of my bed, but in reality falling asleep with her on my chest (Kev constantly lets her fall asleep wrapped up against him, and he’s always reminding me that that is truly the best feeling in the world) is my kind of cuddling. She’s sweet and energetic and perfect.

PS I pulled together all of my favorite baby product posts into one easy to find spot.

Liv’s 3rd Camping Birthday: Wax Paper Pouch Favors

January 29, 2014 by Morgan

This is one of those off-the-cuff projects that sort of slipped into Liv’s party incredibly last minute. I thought I would share it today because it’s a quick way to put together any sort of favor, snack bag, Valentine’s Day treat (is that that holiday that’s just around the corner?) with just a few supplies on hand.

I didn’t think about favors for Liv’s camping birthday until the day before the party when a mom texted me to RSVP and noted: ‘don’t worry about a favor for us, I know we’re a late add’. Oops. Party favors were never at the top of my mind (especially since we’ve only hosted baby and toddler birthdays up until now, not preschooler birthdays where these sorts of things are totally normal).

It wouldn’t be the end of the world if we didn’t have one, but I figured that if we did have time, I’d come up with something with what we already had around. I put my thinking cap on and found some supplies from around the house and already purchase for the party, and then recruited family to help me assemble a batch of wax paper favor pouches.

Super simple process. Materials include wax paper, washi tape, scissors or a paper cutter, s’mores ingredients, printed label and two-sided tape.

Cut wax paper into ~4×10″ strips and fold three quarters or so of the way up so that you’re creating a pocket with a fold over top. Run washi tape along each side of the pocket so that the edges are sealed. Use scissors to trim the washi tape at the bottom of each side for a clean finish. **Post-party we realized that the some of the washi tape was beginning to peel. I recommend using thin scotch tape under the decorative washi tape for pouches that are more durable (not pictured). Fill each treat bag with s’mores filling (or candy hearts or chocolates or whatever you’d like) and fold top of pouch over. Seal with tape. Option to wrap a label around the bag and secure with two-sided tape.

My printer broke the day of and my favors went into a basket sans labels, but I recreated the pouch to photograph and added the labels so that you can see my intention :-). You can download a pdf of the labels for printing here (right click and download saved link as, or open link and save to your computer).

The washi tape I used for the party pouches was slightly different as well with little leaves and berries on them (very girly camping – totally awesome that I had the roll on hand). Having that roll on hand made me definitely feel like I have ‘too much craft stuff’!

The washi tape is not a permanent adhesive so my bags were starting to lose their shape by end of night. If you’re looking for a wax paper pouch solution that’s slightly more durable, consider lining the sides of the bag with scotch tape before applying the pretty washi tape. The great thing about wax paper is that you can make any size bag! It’s very quick, very custom.

PS more pics from Liv’s little 3rd birthday here. More Valentine’s ideas here.

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