organization {wrapping station}

today, i'm over at one of my favorite blogs, marta writes, with a guest post: how to create a gift wrap station. it addresses ideas and tips on how to gather your wrapping supplies for the holiday season (and beyond). it doesn't have to be fancy or expensive (though, those are nice!). to correspond with the "how to" post, i thought i'd share some snapshots of how i organize my stuff.

as you can see, i was serious about "not fancy" part! click the image to view it larger.

my wrapping supplies are organized in a variety of containers. but the important thing is that they are (1) organized (2) easy to access and (3) kept in close proximity to each other.

wrapping rolls: stored in a tall plastic container designed for this very purpose. it came with a top cover, which i've chosen not to use so that i can store longer rolls that wouldn't fit with the top closed.

gift bags + large gift boxes: stored in two plastic containers (which i believe i purchased at home depot design center). the boxes are stored folded flat with the smallest sizes in the front and largest in the back. gift bags are also stored folded, by size. the only difference is that the largest ones are actually in the middle with christmas on one side and all other designs/themes on the other size. 

tissue paper + tools: in a smaller version of the same plastic containers, i keep my tissue paper (folded) and my tool stash. my "must have" tools are a pair of scissors, a sharpie (or two), invisible tape, double-sided taped and/or tape runner. since my wrapping area is also in my scrapbook room, my tool stash is minimal. i have lots of tools at my disposal if needed (punches, paper trimmer, etc).

ribbon: on the inside of my closet door, i attached racks intended for kitchen use. in them, i store large and small rolls of curling ribbon.

other stuff: on shelving right outside of the closet, i have a few helpful things (1) a container of paper scraps - great for creating last minute tags (2) a box of greeting cards - handmade or store bought (3) card making supplies

if you ended up here from marta writes, welcome to the chronicles and thanks for swinging by.

guest post {simple scrapper}

part one of my guest post at simple scrapper went up yesterday. the article is a three-part series, with parts two and three going up today and tomorrow. it's called dealing with digital overload and is a detailed description of the process i use to manage and organize my digital photographs. i'd love for you to swing by the site and read part one. please leave a comment over there as well! i love comments!

edit: below are links to all three parts of the series

dealing with digital overload
part one
part two
part three

tutorial {easy digital valentines}

for several weeks, i'd had an idea floating around my head...i wanted to do some sort of super cute valentine photo shoot with coleman and turn those adorable shots into the most amazing digital valentine ever. well...that didn't happen. so i improvised.

i wasn't even planning on buying coleman a "valentine's day shirt" because it's such a girly holiday. however, i found the best shirt at target. it said "cupid is my homeboy". how flippin' cute! anyway, i digress.

on this day of creative goodness, i put the shirt on coleman and did a mini photo shoot. i got a few acceptable shots so i let the little munchkin off the hook. i created a very quick and simple digital design in PSE7.

my canvas was 4" wide by 3" tall. i began with a basic red striped background. then added my photo with a frame. in the left corner is a heart/love embellishment and then i just typed a quick note at the bottom. not very impressive, but i was short on time. here is the digital file:

i printed six to a page (on hp presentation paper)

i cut each one out leaving a thin white border, then matted with black cardstock.

i got lucky and happened to find some envelopes that fit. TIP: choose an envelope FIRST and then create your valentine based on the size! I just got lucky.

i needed 24 pencils for spencer's class and had a pack of 30. that means there were 6 remaining - the exact number of kids at daycare. see where my mind went??? i added decorative circles to the pencils (you see more information on these in my text tutorial for cupcakes).

i also used the decorative circles as "seals" on the envelopes, and then taped the pencil to each one.

Not super exciting and certainly not even close to the fantastic ideas in my head, but i was pleased to have done something personal. spencer has always done boring, store-bought valentines (which is fine). now that i have {minimal} digital skills that i lacked when he was younger, i hope to be able to do something cuter for coleman each year (until he tells me to stop!).

tutorial {valentine's day pencils}

last thursday was a marathon of valentine goodness. after being out of town for three days and left with one day to get everything done for school/daycare on friday, i was a mad woman of red heart creating. i did manage to take a lot of detailed photos and this week i will do a few tutorials featuring the (very simple) projects i did.

i will start by saying that regardless of how simple or complicated your project might be...if you are making multiples of something, the key is assembly line production. you will see that common thread in my heart day tutorials.

for spencer's "valentines", i opted to keep it simple and skip the candy (total confession: i just didn't buy any candy...therefore it wasn't an option). i had picked up some valentine's day pencils at party city the previous week, so that was my starting point. in planning coleman's birthday party, i have fallen in love with my 1.5" circle punch. you will see that common theme throughout my heart day projects, too.

i began by using PSE7 to design 1.5" circles. I kept in simple, for time's sake, and made sure they were NOT girly. I chose a darker shade of red, and added a black outline. I did add a heart, but I lowered the transparency so that it was barely noticable behind the text. I chose a font that looks like the ESPN font. I printed all 24 on one sheet and used my magic punch!

here you can see a good illustration of my assembly line process. the circles are punched and stacked. the pencils are ready. tools are handy. i went ahead and cut all of the ribbon pieces at once.

next, i tied a piece of ribbon to each pencil.

i added some dry scrapbooking adhesive to the back of each circle.

and then attached the circle over the ribbon on the pencil.

and there they are...finished products. like i said, SUPER SIMPLE.