HHDE day 9: making xmas cheer

* read the original HHDE post here. follow along and post your daily endeavors in the comments! {click photos to enlarge}

i have yet to find my real xmas cheer this year, but i mustered some up yesterday in order to wrap a few presents and get some cards in the mail. our official xmas events get underway this coming weekend, with a family dinner and secret santa exchange and excessive spoiling of our nieces. i also have some gifts to mail, and i needed to inventory what i've already got and what i still need to pick up. there are more presents to wrap, but here's where i started:

the decorative paper elements you see on the presents are all former xmas cards repurposed into gift tags and adornments. i glued the bird image to the blue box to cover the shop logo and a row of the letterpress potted trees card works well as a gift tag. the santa tag on the silver present is a holiday tradition of sorts that my mom and i enjoy. she sent me the card; i sent it back as a gift adornment; surprised to find it back in her hands again, she held on to it and the next year it came back to me, and so the story goes ... back and forth between the two of us each year.

i've redacted the addresses on the xmas cards for privacy, but you get the picture. some get stamps, some get ribbon, some get stickers; most get washi tape; and everyone gets one of our round address labels that i made from these papersource labels. i love that no two are alike! i have a rather large collection of holiday cards that i buy each year after xmas, so the following year i get to pick and choose which one goes to whom. most of the cards come from hazel or virtu.

finally, our neighbors asked if i would take some photos of their dogs for them for xmas. meet "the JRs" ...

* read the original HHDE post here. follow along and post your daily endeavors in the comments! {click photos to enlarge}

i have yet to find my real xmas cheer this year, but i mustered some up yesterday in order to wrap a few presents and get some cards in the mail. our official xmas events get underway this coming weekend, with a family dinner and secret santa exchange and excessive spoiling of our nieces. i also have some gifts to mail, and i needed to inventory what i've already got and what i still need to pick up. there are more presents to wrap, but here's where i started:

the decorative paper elements you see on the presents are all former xmas cards repurposed into gift tags and adornments. i glued the bird image to the blue box to cover the shop logo and a row of the letterpress potted trees card works well as a gift tag. the santa tag on the silver present is a holiday tradition of sorts that my mom and i enjoy. she sent me the card; i sent it back as a gift adornment; surprised to find it back in her hands again, she held on to it and the next year it came back to me, and so the story goes ... back and forth between the two of us each year.

i've redacted the addresses on the xmas cards for privacy, but you get the picture. some get stamps, some get ribbon, some get stickers; most get washi tape; and everyone gets one of our round address labels that i made from these papersource labels. i love that no two are alike! i have a rather large collection of holiday cards that i buy each year after xmas, so the following year i get to pick and choose which one goes to whom. most of the cards come from hazel or virtu.

finally, our neighbors asked if i would take some photos of their dogs for them for xmas. meet "the JRs" ...