Bella Blvd Studio Blog: Handmade Christmas Gifts

I think that most of us, as crafters, love to create handmade gifts at Christmas time. This could be anything from creating gifts for our children, family members, teachers and co-workers, or even simple stocking stuffers. We asked our Altered Project Designers to create some quick and easy handmade gifts, using our Christmas Wishes collection. They have come up with a great bunch of projects to share with you today.

Glassine Cookie Treat Bags, by Suzanne Sergi.

One of my favorite little gifts to make for the holidays, is to package sweet treats for my children. The cookie is fabulous on its own, but with a few supplies you can make the packaging extra special. Here I used food safe glassine bags.

One of my favorite go to techniques is to use my embossing folders. They add instant texture, and are so simple to use. I chose a snowflake embossing folder, and decided to top my treat bags with a bold snowflake. I almost went with a white snowflake, but decided to step outside my comfort zone. I used the Christmas Wishes quadrant paper to cut my snowflake. On this size of embellishment, it was a better pairing with a paper that had a smaller image. I love the red on the snowflake, and the faint pattern of the mini hearts. Perfect for a child's treat.

I then used my Cricut to cut a label to fit around the bag. This was the layer to hold my snowflake embellishment. I used the circle stickers from the Journaling Sticker sheet for the center, layered on top of a white doily. On top, a sweet sentiment tied together with a mini clothespin, and twine.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Quadrants

Christmas Altered Acrylic Ornaments, by Suzanne Sergi.

Last year, for my children's class I altered these acrylic ornaments I found at my local craft store. I filled them with bright blue gumballs, but this time I decided to fill them with more traditional Christmas colors. Children love skittles, and I was glad to find them in colors that went perfectly with the Christmas Wishes collection. These skittle ornaments are perfect for surprising children on Christmas morning.

I used the Santa Claus image from the Cute Cuts as the main embellishment. I used various papers from Christmas Wishes to add a few paper piecing details to him, such as the star, and the heart. The holly is cut from the toasty paper from Bella Winter. I added a touch of glitter to the beard, and a red brad for the nose. I also added a green heart border around the middle of the ornament for an extra layer. I tied the Santa Claus at the top using twine, tulle, and white pom pom ribbon as the finishing details.

I inked my sentiment on top of the Christmas morning journaling card from the cute cuts paper. I trimmed this card apart so I could create three banners for each of the ornaments. My children will be surprised to find these at their door. I will also be making more of them for teachers, too. I think everyone enjoys treats at this festive time of year!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits stickers, Candlelight; Winter Wonder: Toasty

Christmas Candy Bag, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

This candy bag can be created very quickly. All you have to do is put some candies in a plastic bag, measure the length of said bag, and cut a piece of paper of that length, that you will fold in half and staple to the bag. Then, decorate the piece of paper as you see fit. You can add stickers, text, or even a tag, as I did.

Christmas Gift Card Holders, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

As you can see, you can create many different gift card holders. You can create a card and include a pocket inside for a gift card. Or you can create smaller gift card holder using a small piece a folded cardboard. One has a sleeve to ensure that it doesn't open, and the other one is open at the top. Just insert the gift card in it.

Christmas Altered Notepads, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

I used my Cinch binding tool to create two of those little notepads, but if you don't have a binding machine, you can just buy regular note pads and alter them using Bella Blvd products. The longer one was made by folding a piece of paper in half. I recycled some sheets I had at home and cut them to fit the cover. I then adhered a ribbon to the cover and put another piece of paper on top to secure it. I will carry this notepad in my purse for Christmas shopping, so that I will have all the wish lists handy!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Star Stripe, Quadrants, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Journaling Stickers, Icons; Baby Blooms-a-Bella: Saffron

Santa Treat Bag, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I love Big Dies for my Big Shot and this bag is one of my favorites. It is the perfect size for small gifts such as jewellery, gift cards or candies too! The Santa was perfect and I wrapped a couple of patterned paper strips around the bottom, then added some glitter tissue and a ribbon bow and it's ready to go!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Cute Cuts.

Christmas Treat Box, by Jennifer Edwardson.

This box is another die that I love to use for all occasions. It is so fun to pretty up with paper and ribbon and holds bite size treats such as homemade chocolates and little holiday cookies too! After wrapping a patterned paper strip around the box I added a border sticker and cut up a word sticker strip to add a sweet sentiment to the front of the box. The small circle alphas were the perfect size for the little gift tag.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Alphas+Bits; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers.

Christmas Altered Tree Ornaments, by Jennifer Edwardson.

Each year I like to create a few new handmade ornaments and I love how these ones came together. When I saw these plain white shapes at Ikea I knew I could change them up and make them the perfect addition to our tree.

After choosing the paper for the bird, I traced the shape for both sides, cut them out, adhered them to the chipboard base using quick dry glue and sanded the edges. Because the patterned paper is a heavier weight than what was used in the original piece, I reduced the length and width of the wings to be able to 'spread' the wings and have them stay open.

I then punched a hole in the bottom and used mini jump rings to add stickers from the bottom. I really had fun making these and hope to find a minute before Christmas to make a few more as gifts :)