Paper crafting topic: Decor and/or gift items

WRAPS! Okay--the food industry introduced us to wraps a few years ago and guess what! Wraps are now one of the hot trends in paper crafting. At Christmas-time, my nieces and nephews got specially-decorated jumbo-size candy bars. (see photos)

I recently created special wraps to go around glass candle holders. I planned for them to either be un-tied (ribbon threaded through a paper strip like a belt for an outfit) or slid-off. (see photos)

The idea is very adaptable. Foodies are using wraps around paper liners of muffins and cupcakes. What can you wrap?

Paper crafting topic: bookmarks and tags

Size and shape and maybe usage is what separates a bookmark from a tag. Lately I've been making my own 'base' tag or mark from manila file folders or cardstock. I've got several examples to use for shape/size patterns.

Sometimes I will round the corners or use decorative scissors around the sides or sometimes just at the bottom end. Occasionally I'll use a stencil template to give the bottom a creative touch.

Inking the edges also gives distinction and can help reinforce your selected color palette.

Here are some of my recent attempts:

layered embellishments

For many of my holiday cards I used text, paper or cardstock to cut out different sizes of stars to create my own "starflowers". On some of them I took time to ink the edges which adds interest and dimension. I also try to vary the points/rays of the stars as I put the layers on the brads which helps with the fullness effect of the embellishment.