Valentine's Tissue Hearts

We still get asked a lot about this project that we featured in our February 2009 newsletter. It's such a simple way to make a plain giftbox (or bag) look amazing!

Though this isn't exactly a brand new craft idea (many of you may have done this one in grade school!) we’ve given it a fresh spin by making the tissue hearts on giftbox lids. This project is quite easy, even for small children or the crafting-challenged.

Click here to link to our website where you can follow the steps and even download the heart shape templates.

Have fun!

Wedding Favours - Coloured Paper Bags

Another segment we did this month in the February newsletter was the Birthday Idea, using our new coloured paper bags (available in pink or blue).

To dress up these bags and make them wedding-worthy favours, we added a touch of elegance with some patterned paper from our Envelopments collection.

We cut a narrow strip of the patterned paper; you can make this strip any width you choose. We embellished the front of the bag with one of our Invites A La Carte square seals, custom printed with the names and date, along with an accent of ribbon in a co-ordinating colour.

Here's a view of the back of the bag - we made the strip of patterned paper just long enough so we could have it go over the top of the bag and down the back a bit. We used the Sook Wang super sticky tape (sold at The Essential Packaging Store) to attach all of the paper to the bag.

Each favour bag looks amazing on it's own but we add them all together, they make quite an impact. Remember, you can use any variation of colours/patterns to make these favour bags truly your own!

Bow Tutorial - Sheer Ribbon

Hi again! In the February newsletter, we did a segment on "Last Minute Valentine Idea" that included our super easy Cheater Bow. Well, here is the tutorial on how to tie our famous Cheater Bow-

To make this bow, we used about 16" of our 7/8" wide Sheer Asiana ribbon, 10" of the silver tinsel cord and a light pink boa bow.

Form the ribbon into a loop that resembles the Breast Cancer ribbons. Then bring the loop down until it touches the centre where the ribbon crosses itself. Place the tinsel cord vertically down the middle of your bow.

Take the ends of the tinsel cord and tie a loose knot. As you begin to tighten up your tinsel cord knot the centre of your sheer ribbon bow will also begin to gather. Be sure to make a double knot with the tinsel cord to secure the bow. Once you've finished the tinsel cord knot you may need to adjust the sheer ribbon so that the bow lays properly.

Then I trimmed the ends of the bow tails on an angle to give the bow a nice finish.

Lastly, add the boa bow to the centre of the sheer bow. You've made your Cheater Bow (and isn't it lovely?)

Ok, you're not totally done - you have to tie it onto the Valentine cello bags (with the yummy Rice Krispie hearts in them!!)

The hot pink and lavender bows on either side of the middle one are in fact the same Cheater Bow, just in a narrower width of sheer ribbon.

Hope you enjoyed that tutorial and are now ready to make your Rice Krispie Valentine treats!

Take care,
Anna