Let's face it...the season of shopping is upon us, so we'd better get started. Back in the day, my goal was to have all of my Christmas gifts purchased by Halloween. While I'm no longer that ambitious, I do try to be finished with shopping right around Thanksgiving, or shortly thereafter. Finishing early makes December so much more pleasant and serene, and I can turn my attention to the more creative aspects of Christmas... such as decorating the house, planning a Christmas brunch, and wrapping the gifts... all things I enjoy doing a lot more than shopping.
We all have friends and co-workers we need to remember at Christmas with "a little something." These gifts need to be something fairly inexpensive, but still thoughtful. Today's idea focuses on presenting those "little somethings" in a creative way.
Here are the dimensions of this bottle tag. Start with a piece of cardstock cut 4 inches by 8 1/2 inches. Score at 2 3/4 inches from one end. Punch a hole in the top with a hole punch that corresponds to the size of your bottle. For this wine bottle, I used the 1 1/4 inch punch. I added a focal panel cut with the Top Note Die (p. 222). In fact, the only reason my bottle tag is 4 inches wide is to accomodate the Top Note. You can make your bottle tag much narrower if you aren't using the Top Note. Slip the tag over the bottle, add some raffia or ribbon, and you are done! I used Clear Block C as a shadow stamp and inked the block on my River Rock pad. Then I overstamped with the maple leaf from Gently Falling (p. 16 of the Holiday Mini-catalog). I inked the stamp with Old Olive, then rolled the edges in Cajun Craze before stamping. The sentiment, "Give Thanks" is from the elegant Hand-penned Holidays set (p.15 of the Holiday Mini-catalog) and is stamped in Early Espresso.
There are many things that come in bottles that you could decorate this way...your gift doesn't have to be a bottle of wine or sparkling cider. For a friend who cooks, you could give a bottle of olive oil, fancy vinegar, maple syrup, ice cream sauces... there are tons of yummies that come in bottles! For a girly friend, try a bottle of bubble bath, lotion, body spray, or other "spa" product. Almost anyone would enjoy a pretty pump bottle of kitchen soap to place next to their sink and it is a good "little something" gift to take along to a holiday host or hostess.
OK stampers, you know what you have to do. Ready, set, shop! Oh, and don't forget to come back tomorrow for another classic card!
Susan
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