DIY / FREEBIE: Holiday Gift Tags Download

On Friday we made Bourbon Apple Spiced Cheesecake Pies (in jars!), which were amazing.

Boozy Apples. Pie. In. Jar. How could they not be amazing?

You worked so hard to make the treats, why not give them a bit of pizazz with some holiday gift tags.

Don't worry, I whipped some up for you to use. Click here to download the PDF.  Print out the freebie on a piece of cardstock and cut along the light gray line. Use a hole puncher to make a hole for the string. How easy is that?

Simply use whatever string or ribbon you have in the house to tie the gift tags to the jars and write your pal a message on the blank side. I always have bakers twine around here, so I used that! You can even use these tags on other gifts! 

The lucky recipient of these jars will be in awe of how hard you worked, I won't tell them it was easy-breezy, don't worry.

DIY / Simple Christmas Cutout Decor (with FREE download)

Now that Thanksgiving has past, I feel ready to begin the Christmas season. First thing's first, the decorating!

I wish I could shop at TJMax all day and snatch up all the holiday decor, but I have no where to store it when the season ends. Living in Brooklyn with 2 roommates, we don't have a ton of extra closet space, so when it comes to decorating, I like to try to think of easy, cheap ways to spruce things up when the holidays come around.

Last year we whipped up some Pipe Cleaner Snowflakes, Snow Globes, and some Standing Holiday Cutouts. This year I thought we could convert some of the current apartment decor INTO HOLIDAY DECOR with some scrap paper and paper cutouts. The frame pictured above is from a Gold Refresh DIY we did a while back, and is usually the home to a pic of my grandparents, but quickly became a Christmas Tree. Hot Damn.

With some plain white printer paper and scrap book paper we will convert any picture frame into a festive holiday piece. I'm excited.

SUPPLIES / 

Downloaded Christmas Cut Outs (click to download)

Scissors

Various Frames from around the house

Tape

Scrap Book Paper - or any colored or patterned paper you have laying around!

Bakers Twine or Ribbon

Optional Supplies / You will see later that I used some washi tape and an additional ribbon for the ornament cut out

In the Free Download you will see 3 pages, what will be a Gift Box after we add some pizzaz, a Christmas Tree and Hanging Ornaments. 

Download and print the document on plain white printer paper.

Cut out the shapes you printed out. 

Trim the white paper to fit into the frames you selected. The gift box and tree are small and can be cut down to fit in a small frame easily, the ornaments require a bit of a larger frame if printed without scaling.

Back the white paper with the cut out with the fun papers your selected!

This is where I used the gold tape- I covered the top of the ornament with little rectangles, cute right? - If you don't want to use tape, just leave the cut out so the decorative paper shows!

Using the bakers twine, make small bows. and tape into place.

Place the assembled paper and bow into your frame and you're all done!

You see above where I used a second type of ribbon, but you don't have to, use the twine or leave the cutout showing.

Using small bows made from the same ribbon or bakers twine on all of the cutouts creates a family look to all of the frames, even if you use different papers, like I did. 

Its amazing how 4 square cut outs becomes a festive gift box just like that!

Place on shelves like shown earlier or create a cluster of these cuties on a table, where ever you choose, they will be a perfect addition to your holiday season!

What other fun decor do you have around your house this year?

Holiday 2012 / Quick & Easy Decor + a Free Desktop Download

Now that we are on a roll, we have our Christmas Village up and running lets keep going. I don't know about you, but I don't think Michael Bublé singing Christmas tunes ever gets old so put that 'ish back on and lets get moving!

You can't possibly be in mood for the Holidays with that boring desktop image! You have to get your head in the game to be in it to win it, so download the desktop wall paper here and then we can continue. OK, that's better.

You will learn over time how much I adore the dollar store, although, lets be honest, nothing is EVER a dollar, but it sure is cheap. I snatched up some cheap-o Christmas lights but they needed a bit-o-love.

I also grabbed some twine (which was actually 99¢) but you can really use anything, ribbon, garland etc.... and I printed out some stars, click here to download my star file. Other than that, you just need a bit of patience and a small hole punch.

1 / Download and print the file. If you have cardsock, use it, if not plain white paper will be fine.

2/ Cut out the stars (I cut out 20).

3 / Punch a hole in the center.

4 / String them along the twine (or string of your choosing).

5 / Twist the twine around the string of lights and start inserting the bulbs into the holes you punched in the star. Only put a star on every-other light or it will get too cramped. Make sure you leave the twine loose and twist it all around the sting, it wil give a lovely sense of movement.

Keep on going until you get to the end. Look how pretty!

I hung ours on the stairs leading upstairs, but you could really just thumb tack them to the wall, or wrap around your tree! Be warned, BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR LIGHTS! I got halfway done and went to test plug-em in and they were not working anymore and I had to start over! Luckily, I had a second box, so I kept it plugged in while I added the twine and stars just to be sure!

While I was at the Dollar Store, I grabbed some candy canes and Christmas balls (they were only 5 for $1!) so I hung them along the twine as well. TA DA! Its starting to feel like the holidays in here, wait until you see the recipe and free download I have for you on Friday!

I'm designing, decorating AND baking, what are you doing to get in the Holiday spirit?

Holiday 2012 / Quick & Easy Decor + a Free Card Download

Thanksgiving has passed and the holidays have sneaked up on us once again! I'm really in the mood this year for some reason, and I ain't gonna complain about it! Let bring in Christmas right this year, turn on the Michael Bublé Christmas album, break out the wrapping paper, start baking those cookies, and make your home festive. Oh wait, holiday decor? That can get expensive (and I gots-a-lot of people to by for), damn... what to do, what to do?!

Hollllld on, wait one minute... to start... did you send out your Holiday Cards yet? No?! (Don't worry, me either.) We should get on that! So click here to download a holiday card... and what are the holidays without some baking? 

The inside of the card has a Red Velvet Cupcake recipe and message! Don't want the recipe?! FINE! Only print page 1 and you got yourself a card!

OK! Now that you have gotten started on sending out the cards, why don't we make a quick Christmas village for a few pennies. Yes, I said it, PENNIES. Get a few slices of white paper (card stock if you got it, if not, just use whatever you have) and lets get a craftin'!

Start by downloading the templates for the tree template here (there will be 3 pages for the tree file, so you can have a few different sizes!) and the snowman template here.

Cut along the line, including the dotted line down the middle.

Slide the 2 pieces together...

If you want to get crazy, you can use 4 cut outs and make a big-ol-crazy tree! OR make really any shape, just cut 2 slits, of equal size, one from the top and one from the bottom!

AND VOILA! THEY STAND! We had an extra white sheet so we threw that over our shelf in the living room and picked up some lights and a sleigh at the dollar store to complete the look. One of my roommates loves origami so she made the adorable boxes. I found the instructions for you, click here to check them out.

Easy-peasy Christmas Village to make your space festive for the holidays! I'll be posting another free download and cheap-o-easy-peasy decor idea tomorrow so stay tuned!

Do you have any easy ways to inject the holiday spirit into your life?