25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 25

Merry Christmas!

Here is my tip for you today...make sure you relish every moment, even the not so great ones.  Be thankful for whatever it is you have now. Hope for even better days ahead.  Most importantly, remember to love yourself.  You are deserving....

The studio of The Homeless Finch

Have the Happiest of days today.  I am going to to be taking off a few days to enjoy my family and recuperate from the last 25 days and all the zaniness that has gone on here behind the scenes at The Homeless Finch.  I have one guest post at the end of the week. Besides that, I will see you guys again in 2012! 

Thank you to all my wonderful followers, especially all the new followers who found their way to my blog this past month.  I am so very grateful today for all of you.  Thanks for the support, the comments and the encouragement.  With you, I would have never made it to the end of this crazy crazy journey over the last 25 days. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did presenting it!!

When I get let out of the straight jacket I'm putting together some new and exciting things to show you after the first, so come back and check it out! 

 Hugs. Lesley

Goodbye for now hope you enjoyed my 

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Ideas and Gifts Series!!

-The End-

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 24

Last Minute Gift Bags from Re-cycled Shopping Bags

Do you need a gift bag in a pinch?!!  Did you miss calculate how many bags you would need and came up short?  Do you really want to recycle an old gift bag, but think it's too ugly to put that well thought out gift into for that someone special??  We all have piles of these.....

If you don't have a pile of these, start keeping them for next year.

Are you in a pinch and need a nice gift bag?  Well.....you come to the right place.  I am going to show you how to throw together a quick solution by recycling the shopping bags from the gifts that you bought.  Here's how....

Gather up your shopping bags, leftover wrapping paper, decorative papers and old greeting cards.  Like the ones we talked about yesterday in my blog post Very Last Minute Gift Tags From Recycled Holiday Cards.  Grab a glue stick, maybe some rubber cement and a pair of scissors.  I also used my hot glue gun.  We are going to transform those ugly shopping bags into something pretty and usable! 

Here we go....

I covered the logo with a glittery piece of white paper and topped it off with the front of
an old Christmas card that I had in my stash. 

I don't shop at Bloomies. Can't remember why
I have this.  But it is a great brown paper bag.

Covered the Bloomies logo with a piece of
red paper, added the front of an old
Christmas card and cut little strips of burlap
for the frame.  Added a little piece of burlap tied
off for the bow.

Just bought killer eyeshadow for myself.

Simply cut out this little piece of paper with my pinking shears
 from a flyer I got in the mail. 

Had to buy the Peppermint Bark!!  The holidays aren't the same for us
without it!

Larger bags are better suited using decorative paper or wrapping paper.

Something yummy came home from this
delish restaurant here in town.

A piece of glittery black paper, followed by
another black and white patterned paper.
Then topped off with a matching gift tag made
from cutting out a motif from a corresponding
page.  Add an elegant bow.

Don't shop here either.  I call this place
"Needless Mark up."  But hubby bought
a Prindables Apple for his assistant and
I gobbled up the awesome bag!

The base is a piece from the back of a card, added
a cutting from the inside of another card and got
lucky with this neat glittery dove that was on
the front of yet another card.  Added the red ribbon
to tie into the red typeface on the message.

Wine bag I had on hand.  Ugly. Needs
help. Besides, I don't want to give
wine in this to anyone!

I know you guys haven't had enough of this
decorative advent paper.  But had to use it
because it changes the entire look of this bag. 
Now I can put something other than wine in the bag.

Hubby bought something at a golf event.

Piece of burlap topped with the front of a card.  The ribbon was added to hide
a few surface tears in the bag!!

From a collectibles mall near my house. I do shop here. (wink)

Simply glued down a piece of wrapping paper and added a note card
made from some of that decorative advent paper.  Topped off with a
nice bow.

Hope this gives you some ideas.  You don't have to buy bags to create a pretty place to put your gifts.  Just save the ones you have and spruce them up a little bit.  Both people and the environment will thank you.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my
Day 25...Last Day!
of

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Ideas and Gifts Series!!

-The End-

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 23

Very Last Minute Gift Tags From Recycled Holiday Cards

Christmas is almost here!  The excitement is building. You have just a few more gifts to complete.  But, UGG!...you need a gift tag!  Well, you could always walk in and give you gift, hoping the recipient remembers you brought such a lovely, thoughtful gift, or you can take two minutes to throw together this charming little Gift Tags from Recycled Holiday Cards.  Here's how...

Gather up some of those old Christmas cards that you have been saving, or some of the ones you received from people, well lets be honest, whom you hardly remember knowing! (wink)  Here is a basic supply list....

Supplies

Old Holiday Cards

Spare Wrapping Paper (optional, I didn't use but you can)

Holiday Themed Scrapbook Paper (optional)

Glue stick, rubber cement

Scissors...standard or decorative edged

Hole Punch

Here is an example of a pile of cards that I have saved from years past.  Notice as you look at them, how little gift cards, when cut out of the card, seem to leap to your eye! 

Don't get what I talking about??  Read on....

Grab a card and take a look at what is on the card zeroing in on the pretty parts of the card.  These are your new gift cards. 

This card is pretty obvious.  The tags
are basically already there waiting to
be cut out!

Look at the "Merry Christmas."
It creams gift tag! Even the top red
printed part would make a neat tag.

Don't forget the flap on envelops.  Often times they have a
motif that is usable.

Another good source is holiday scrapbook paper. 
Pretty obvious where to cut.

Even the inside of cards are great!  Don't forget to cut
out the message.  They make great gift tags too!

Here is a motif that I got off the back of a card.

Sometimes you get this...the other side of the motif you want
has something on it like type.  Just cut out a piece of white
or decorative paper in the same size and glue stick them
together.

Here it is glued together.

Add a thin red ribbon and you have
yourself sweet little tag!

The back of this is from an envelop flap.  The little red
motif is from the top part of that photo card that I showed you.
and the top little birdie motif is cut our of a decorative paper.
They all came from different places, but come together nicely.

Don't forget The Graphics Fairy!!  If
you don't have any cards, you can always
get your graphics from her. 
A ton of Christmas graphics for free.

Sometimes a card gives you an easy gift card.  This glittery
dove adorned a card and now will be a neat gift tag.

This card in the background had a neat french style
script on it.  Don't be afraid of the logo though.  This neat
little cut out from some decorative paper will cover that up!

Using a glue stick, I covered the logo. 
Cut out the card for a nice border.

My little collection of tags.  They took no time at all.

In the end, you will get some super neat custom tags in a split second without spending your hard earned dollars.  Remember to save those card from this year, for next year.  If you need a quick tag and don't have any cards, don't forget The Graphic Fairy! Click HERE to get to her Christmas Collection of free graphics.  It's a busy day... the fat man arrives tonight!  Hope all of you are having a wonderful season.  Hugs.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my
Day 24 
of

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Ideas and Gifts Series!!

-The End-

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 22

Last Minute Napkin Ring Idea

So, you probably aren't done have all your shopping done and all your gifts are on your dining room table unwrapped beautifully wrapped under your tree.  You are getting ready to have your pain in the butt relatives lovely family over for a nice meal and time together.  You wish you had taken the time weeks ago to put together a few custom napkin rings for your Holiday table.  Well, I have a  Last Minute Idea on how to throw together something quick, but pretty!! Here's how...

Take Dollar Store plastic shower curtain rings and use ribbons, fabric, raffia and such to wrap the ring, similar to the way I showed you in my very first post in this series Mini-Wreaths. 

Here's what I threw together. 

Wrap the ring with your ribbon or raffia, overlapping
as you proceed.

I wasn't always precise with my wrap up top. Here, I made
it a little bulkier in order to give the bow more stability.

If your ribbon is thin, you can wrap the ring like a candy cane.

Maybe even use a feather boa!

What ever you got laying around or have enough of to wrap the amount of rings you need.  Just make it quick! Time is wasting and Christmas is only a few days away.  I am happy with a few that I put together for you.  One or two, I am not a huge fan of.  But I wanted to show you in case something about it inspired you to do something on your own.  Here are the results...

This leaf really glistens. Photo doesn't pic that up.

With the leaf, I took an image of two others that I made
with snowflakes from the Dollar Store.

So, can you guess which ones I don't like and which ones I like?!!  Do you know my fav? 

The next couple of days I will be bringing you some other last minute ideas, like gift tags and gift bags.  This post was my least favorite of the series.  It was also the last project of the series that I struggled through actually made.  I think it is okay to admit...I am so done. Stick a fork in me.  Make sure you check out the next few...they are better. Promise.  Even my sis, who stopped in my studio today said that she loved them.  She got taste too, that sister of mine.  (She's not one of those pain in the butt relatives by the way.)  I'll keep her around.

So on that note...

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my
Day 23
of

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Ideas and Gifts Series!!

-The End-