Decorative Packaging

Sweetheart Sack

Transform any sack or bag into a Sweetheart Sack.  If you want to decorate a lunch bag, treat bag or a gift bag to surprise sweetie, you will only need a bag, ribbon, scrapbook supplies or construction paper, and imagination. Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon or other Novelty Ribbon would be great for this project.

You can decorate sacks for a school party and fill with goodies. Teens would appreciate one in trendy colors to take their lunch in. Or even a masculine version for the hubby will make him the envy of his piers when he opens his lunch and finds a little love note you have hidden between the sandwich and the chips.  These little bags would be wonderful as a weight for a bouquet of balloons when you add some candy and a stuffed critter.

Dress up any plain Greeting card with a little bit of narrow satin red ribbon and eyelet lace. Just measure enough lace to border the part of the card you choose, Elmer’s glue will work but hot glue is much faster and only takes little dots, then weave a narrow red satin ribbon in and out of the holes in the lace, finish off with a cute little bow.  (I reccomend weaving the red ribbon through the lace before you glue it down.) This special touch will show you took the extra time to make their card extra special just for them.

Bad fashion

Gather pics of yourself, your husband, friends and family wearing fashion trends that have thankfully been taken off the rack (at least until some young kid picks it back up). You could create a page for each decade (if your pics range from 50s to 90s for example). Select papers that compliment the bad fashion trends you are documenting, like earth-tone paisley for the 70s or tie dye for the 90s. Stone wash denim paper would be easy to make for the 80s page, using grey blue ink and a sponge. These pages could be relatively simple to complete. Arrange your photos so that there aren’t too many on a page (2-3 max), frame them with wide satin ribbons in “fave” colors of that decade (like neon pink for the 80s). Use a headline like “I can’t believe I actually wore that!”

Honor your elders

Make a scrapbook page or pages in honor of your grandparents or great-grandparents. Find those quintessential pictures of grandpa in his military uniform or grandma with her hair all curled and her perfectly tailored dress. Use “vintage” ribbons, buttons, paper, postcards, newspaper clippings or other embellishments to give the pages that historical look. Save a spot to journal your favorite memories about your grandparents.

First Flowers of Spring

Document the first flowers that bloom in your yard, neighborhood or local park. Take tons of up close pictures, then pick the best ones for your page. Select a background paper that is complimentary but doesn’t compete with the brilliant colors of your floral pics. You can caption the page or photos as “Spring Awakens in _______” Use thin spring green satin ribbon to write the name of your city!

Food Face Kids

Create a scrapbook page with pictures (one each) of your kids when they were in that spaghetti-all-in-their-hair phase (hopefully at an appropriate age).

First select a photo and background paper. The other supplies and papers you will need will be based on the foods that are all over “Baby”.

Once you’ve chosen a picture, use white card-stock to cut out the shape of a high chair tray and use it to frame up the bottom of the photo, it should be extra large compared to the tray in the photo.

Use Paper, yarn, ribbon, rat-tail, shred or whatever you can to make “fake food” that looks like what Junior has all over his face. Glue the food to the high chair tray. You can be as creative as you want, with more food splattered around the photo or whatever you think up.

Give the page a caption like, “Zoe wore her cake and ate it too” or “Devon’s first plate of spaghetti”

Just for fun, a list of my favorite things…

1. Glitter

2. Ballet flats with bows, jewels, or any other shoe jewelry

3. Little girls with ribbons in their hair

4. Black as night mascara

5. Scrapbooking

6. Scrapbooking stuff, like jewels, ribbons and pretty paper

7. A ribbon or scarf tied around a plain toss pillow

8. Earrings

9. Belts of all sorts: ribbon, leather, metallic, funky, big and chunky, western…

10. Summer Time!!!

We’ve gone over some ideas for your scrap ribbon, now let’s highlight something you can do with bits and pieces of scrapbooking paper.

Here’s a list of some great ideas I found on other websites:

1. Make handmade cards.

2. Punch out as accents for your pages, cards or paper pieces.

3. Use the scraps in your die cutting machine.

5. Use the scraps as rubber stamp test papers.

6. Use the scraps to make scrapbook tags, punch out titles, shapes ect….

7. Give the scraps to your kids so they can make their own albums, use as drawing paper.

8. Make confetti.

9. Add dimensional texture to your scrapbook borders by layering.

10. Donate a box of scraps to your local schools (preschool, kindergarten ), day care, church.

11. Make gift tags.

12. Use the back of the scraps to write down messages, grocery lists.

4. Once you’ve nailed down the desired atmosphere for your wedding, you can choose an embellishment item that can be repeated throughout the details to give them a cohesive feel. If your affair is formal and traditional, tassels are a great choice. On the other hand, if it’s a whimsical romantic wedding, you may want to go with gossamer ribbon and flowers everywhere. If your wedding is modern, a little embellishment goes a long way-a few yards of black satin ribbon will set the tone when used in small doses.

5. With everyone fussing over the bride, don’t you think it’s nice to pamper the bridesmaids a bit? Create wedding day essential cosmetic and toiletry kits for each member of your wedding party. Attach a special handmade card with a little note thanking them for standing by you on your big day. Secure the card with a length of ribbon in your accent color, making it a potential keepsake for your friends.

 6. Provide each member of your wedding party with scrap-booking supplies suitable for making one page. Take photos throughout the wedding planning-rehearsal dinner-and other bridal affairs. Have your friends work on a “Planning of the Wedding” scrapbook and tell them they are off the hook for getting you wedding present.

When you’re willing to admit you have a problem, you are on the road to recovery. That is the basic premise of every self-help/addiction or “anonymous” group I’ve ever heard of. Well, I know I have a compulsion for something that could possibly destroy my happy home, and I need help!

When I started scrap-booking, it was just something I wanted to do in order to display the stacks and stacks of family photos I had in boxes, cabinets and utter disarray. I never imagined it could take over my life. This is a warning to anyone who has a tendency to be an overachiever, perfectionist, or obsessive compulsive in the least. Scrap-booking isn’t something to dabble in. You can’t just create a couple masterpiece pages and then put it away. It will become an obsession you cannot shake, no matter how hard you try.

It has been almost 36 hours since I last cut ribbon, used a glue stick, stamped or embellished paper…I can do this!