- Crate Paper

The holidays provide the perfect occasion for focusing on the creation of handmade gifts and other personalized items that we often seek out to make this time of year. We imagine that most of you have already begun your holiday projects, though we still feel compelled to bring forward a special event for you in celebration of this month's jovial festivities! With that said, we'd like to formally welcome you to our first ever Crate Paper "Happy Holidays" display! From now 'til December 23rd, we're hosting an endless array of Christmas themed tutorials, projects and prizes here at Crate Paper! And to further rejoice in the season's excitement of give gifting and homemade splendor, we're also devoting the event to your creations with each brand new post! Of the creations posted from now 'til the 23rd, one will find themselves a large surprise box of Crate Paper goods!! We're not talking about any ol' box of goods either - this is the kind of Crate Paper stash one dreams of finding under their tree come Christmas morning!! So if you haven't already, send your Crate Paper projects to us at info@cratepaper.com! On a final note, we hope that you find this event to be packed with holiday inspiration and thoughtful ideas worth trying before Christmas's arrival and in following, you might possibly receive an early present as the prizes and offerings are sure to be a real treat! You'll not want to miss out!

Hi there! Michelle here to share with a wreath that was inspired by many of the wonderful wreaths that I have seen through blogland lately. I had an idea of what I wanted to do,but my plan didn't work, though in the end, it turned out to be a good thing! The wreath turned out better than I could of imagined!

Loop-de-Loop Wreath Material List:

White Styrofoam Wreath (Flat on one side)
Snow Day Pattern Papers (one of each design)
Crepe Paper
LOTS of Hot Glue
Sewing Machine
and a good movie to watch while you cut all the pieces apart.

Start by wrapping the wreath in crepe paper. Secure the ends of the paper with adhesive so that it doesn't unravel.

Following wrapping the wreath, alternate between trimming both 1" and .75" strips of pattern paper from the Snow Day collection. Trim these strips in half and then decide which sides of the pattern paper you want to show on your wreath. It's easiest to turn these to the sides in which you want to use so that you can see what color scheme you want to emphasize.

Sew all of the pieces closed at their ends with the help of a sewing machine. Sewing them together in a chain-like format makes this process go quicker, so have your paper strips readily available for this step. Always pay attention when adding the next loop to keep the chain intact!

Lastly, after sewing all your little loops closed and cutting them apart, get ready to glue! I started a couple of ways, but found that the paper was a bit tougher to manipulate, so here is where I changed my course.

Start gluing the little loops from inside the wreath's opening. Then start layering behind the first set of loops while moving to the outside of the wreath. It was really visual for me in taking on this process and sometimes, I would tear some pieces off as I went if it just didn't look right.

Additional Tip: Only treat the center of the wreath as a full circle in adding your loops. Thereafter, add the loops as you "like them", meaning adhere them on wherever you want while filling in the gaps! Don't go around in one continuous circle - make it a bit more freeform. It'll look better that way! I think so anyway...

As I finished the wreath, I realized that I didn't have the heart to string a piece of ribbon through it (to hang). So, it now sits on top our bookcase and looks so pretty! Feel free to hang it or have it sitting on a shelf instead.

I hope you liked my interpretation of the holiday wreath as I had a blast making it! And I promise it goes much faster than you may think!

Our first project to premier during our ongoing holiday event is Lolly Chessie's Advent Calendar! And as luck would have it, Lolly's written up a full tutorial in how to make one utilizing a handmade calendar template so that it can be used all year round - locate further details on her blog. We love the many Snow Day papers that peek through the windows of this calendar and the additional details are an added treat! Cute, Cute.

This is a first for Crate Paper - A 3-D pop up mini album from Larissa which tells the story of her daughter's first time seeing snow.

Here are a few tidbits about the album from Larissa: This is a three-dimensional paper structure which takes advantage of a crease for the opening of the album. When it's closed, the mini lies flat and can be easily stored. When opened, the elements move forward by the help of a piece of paper on the bottom that is then folded and adhered onto a base. This is how it's becomes dimensional!

And now for some holiday projects from our blog readers (whom have already been thrown in the mix of the grand prize giveaway that we'll announce the winner for on December 22!) - the first one to find us is from Cassie - it's of an adorable hanging decor cone filled to the brim with brightly colored paper shreddings. It'd be the perfect presentation item for the giving away of a gift!

And who says birds wouldn't flock to Crate Paper's Snow Day, especially when orchestrated as a bird house?! We couldn't resist sharing this lil' bird ornament from Diana - it's obvious that so much went into making it as the details lend themselves to the house beautifully.

From "Flea Market" to "Christmas Tree", Restoration has never looked so lovely and shimmery before! Anna Bjorklund from Sweden sent this to us. It's made from a styrofoam cone and is decorated with fluid chalk, mica snow, glimmer mist, and white acrylic paint.

This is an especially exciting time as we're presenting our first official Crate Paper Happy Holidays event giveaway! So, what exactly do we have available for the "gifting" today? Well, Michelle Lanning's Loop de Loop wreath immediately reminded us of the traditional displaying of holiday trimmings and brightly lit Christmas trees common amongst your homes this time of year. It seems about right then that we make available a Crate and Barrel $40 gift certificate as our first giveaway! So, leave a comment and as with all this week's prizes, we'll announce the winner on December 21st! And don't forget to join us tomorrow for giveaway number two!

We'll see you tomorrow for day two's Happy Holidays blogging event! Happy creating!

Comments

Gorgeous projects! I can't pick a favorite, I love them all! Thanks so much for the inspiration!

Posted by: Dana Tatar | December 13, 2010 at 04:49 AM

woow es genial!!me encanta la corona!!

Posted by: marina | December 13, 2010 at 04:52 AM

these projects are so yoummy..thanks for the inspiration

Posted by: laury55 | December 13, 2010 at 04:58 AM

All of the projects are absolutely fabulous!

-Kristin

Posted by: Kristin Perez | December 13, 2010 at 05:15 AM

I love the Advent Calendar! :)

Posted by: emily (justem) | December 13, 2010 at 05:16 AM

Lovely projects, especially the tree. Thanks!

Posted by: Jan B. | December 13, 2010 at 05:24 AM

These projects are all so awesome. I've been really busy the past month and haven't been able to start on Christmas presents yet (!!) but checking various blogs everyday have certainly given me much inspiration! And this blog is no exception! I am excited to try a bunch of these projects this weekend... :)

Posted by: Dani | December 13, 2010 at 05:24 AM

I love them all. Such awesome work. Thank you for sharing with us. Happy Holidays!

Posted by: Crystal | December 13, 2010 at 05:27 AM