I’m excited to let all of you know about a guest post that I did for Cottage Industrialist recently. The post is all about hosting your own canning party, and I designed free canning party printables, including invitations and envelope liners, recipe cards, and jar tags and labels, so you’ll have all of the paper goods that you’ll need to throw a shindig.

The tags in the canning party set may also be of interest to those of you have asked about tags beyond the designs that I included in my first set of jam jar tags. Since the canning party labels and tags are completely blank, you can print them out and write in whatever you’d like. Or, if you have access to a graphics program, you can open the files and use them as a background for a text layer containing your information.

If you’re looking for packaging ideas for small Father’s Day gifts, then you’ll want to head over to Paper Crave, where I share a Father’s Day packaging project that you can put together in a snap. These shirt and tie gift boxes will hold things like fishing lure, small electronic or kitchen gadgets, watches, gift cards, and more. Download templates for a necktie, a bow tie, and for the gift box, too!

photograph by Lisa Rigby

Do you remember the secret project that I hinted about a while ago as my excuse for being absent from this place for a while? Well, I realized that I never did tell you about the project. Yeah, my memory’s not what it used to be.

My new (or new-ish, at this point) project, a collaboration with Maddy Hague of The Inspired Bride, is a wedding-centric online magazine called Nonpareil. The magazine focuses on the DIY details of weddings, though many of the projects found in the magazine can be used for all different types of occasions, not just weddings. So far, we’ve featured everything from felt flower boutonnieres to budget centerpieces, and we also share many free printables that can be used to recreate the projects shown in the magazine.

We just launched the second issue this week, and I’m super excited about all of the cool projects from the awesome contributors that worked with us in both this issue and the premiere issue. My feature from the current issue is a “dessert table” that features bath and body products instead of food, and it was so much fun to put together. I also loved working with Lisa Rigby, who perfectly captured the mood that I was going for in her photographs.

You can get directions for making all of the bath and body products that I used in the feature, and you can download all of the labels, signs, and other printables if you’d like to make your own dessert table with a twist. And be sure to check out all of the other pretty tutorials and downloads while you’re visiting!

Irish or not, everyone deserves some love on St. Patrick’s Day! Be sure and get a kiss when you give these mini “Kiss Me, I Might Be Irish” cards, which can also be used as gift tags. I designed the cards to fit my favorite little envelopes at Paper Source, but envelopes aren’t necessary. Happy St. Patty’s Day, and hope you get lots of smooches, preferably not the slobbery, drunken kind (unless you like that sort of thing).

Download the St. Patrick’s Day Mini Cards (141 Kb PDF)

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and use this file. Download the reader for free here. These templates are for personal, non-commercial use only.

Hi, everyone! Yes, I’m still here. I’ve been in the midst of a huge new project for the past few months, and the long hours have meant little time left for posting here. But I want to let you know how grateful I am for all of the linkage and comments about crafts and recipes featured on this site over the past couple of months. It makes my day when someone tries something and lets me know about their results, and I’ve loved what so many of you have done with the ruffle wreath, especially. You gals and guys kick butt! I can’t get over how fast you are at cutting those circles, and thanks to those of you have shared your tips for making the process faster.

I’ve been meaning to post a little roundup of the crafts that I made over the holidays. Hey, it may almost be Valentine’s Day, but at least I know that no one on my gift list is going to have their Christmas surprise foiled by seeing what I made for them.

From top to bottom:

* Snow Babies project by Jenn Docherty, from  Holiday Crafts by Better Homes and Gardens. This special interest mag had a lot of great crafts this past holiday season, and as soon as I saw these snowpeople I knew I had to make them for my mum for Christmas. I turned them into ornaments so she can hang them on her tree. Next year, I definitely have to make some for myself. So cute!

* Peppermint Swirl Pincushion project, from Moda Bake Shop. I made these for all of the seamstresses in my life, and I think that they turned out really well, especially since I’m not a pro with the sewing machine. The result of my first attempt was not good, but after that I got the hang of it.

* I broke out the candle making supplies for the first time in a while and whipped up lots of candles and scent melts. Our apartment smelled fantastic, like a mix of Christmas trees, roasted chestnuts, and pumpkin bread. Yum!

I hope to be back with more recipes and crafts soon, and I’ll let you know when the new project launches!

I try to design a new set of holiday gift tags to use on my gifts every year, and this year I had a lot of fun with a wintry holiday theme. Icy blues, teal, pink, and red have been some of my favorites for the holidays over the past couple of years, and I made use of most of those in this set, which includes ten different tag designs. Print them onto cardstock and punch a hole for twine or thread, or print them onto sticker paper for festive holiday labels. Download the Wintry Holiday Tags (185Kb PDF).

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and use this file. Download the reader for free here. These templates are for personal, non-commercial use only.