Saturday, June 18, 2016

How to Put Together a Simple Girly Birthday Gift {For a Girl of Any Age!}


It's almost summer.  Which means, in our family, it's birthday season.  And birthday season means lots of cake.  OH OH and also lots of gifts to give!

One of my sisters is somewhat hard to get gifts for, so you know what I did?  Well, I went straight to Thinking Outside the Giftbox by Lauren Lanker, and when I was done, I had several ideas to pick from!  I decided to use two, and put them together to make a cute gift in a jar.  Or a glass.  Or whatever you call this cool looking thing that came from a building in our woods.  What do you call it?  (Ooh, and it even has this cool glass top with four points that look like the points of a compass!  Coooool.)
The two gifts I ideas I chose were a "10 Things I Love About You" booklet, and a plain ol' letter, because everyone loves letters!  The "10 Things I Love About You" booklet was not originally Lauren's idea; she borrowed it from Ashley at The Creative Place.  It's such a simple idea, and yet so special!

Instead of using the printable, I decided to just make my own from scratch.  So I painted on watercolor paper, and used that as my "canvas."
I didn't do 10 things actually.  I did 9, only because, with the size of the paper I was using, it worked perfectly to cut it into 9 sections.  There are certainly more than 9 things I love about my sister!
 I hole punched and fancily numbered each one.
Now this is the fun part - writing out what you love about your person!  (JK, all of it is the "fun part.")  Lauren said in her book that the ones she and her husband made for their moms were so specific that they couldn't be said of the other.  That's what I tried to shoot for.  The more specific, the more specialific!
This is the tag I made to attach on the front.  It's just white cardstock and black sharpie.





I have this little jar of ribbon that is just! so! fun!  Actually I have three matching jars of ribbon!  One of them contains lots of thin, pretty, colorful ribbons, and it is where I fetched the beautiful teal ribbon used for the booklet.
You could tie it like this, with a long tail....
 ...Or you could tie it with a pretty bow like this, which is how I ended up doing it.
I wanted the letter to be fun and colorful too, so I wrote it on this cool, wrinkled, old looking paper I had, with all different colors of sharpie.
Since I write long letters, and since I couldn't write on both sides of the paper because the sharpie bled through, the letter ended up being two pieces of paper long.  Which I like.
Now the construction of each of the gifts is completed, and all we have to do is package them up!  That's one of my favorite parts.
I wrapped a ribbon around the letter so it's all nice and compact, and it fits in the jar.
Now, just because the making of the gifts is done, that doesn't mean the making is done!  Time to make confetti!  (That's part of packaging up, right?)  I have these cool fringe scissors that are perfect for this.  I used hot pink, light pink, and light blue tissue paper, and just cut it into about inch-long strips.
Now, just because the confetti making is done, doesn't mean the making is done!  Oh no!  We still have a tag to make for the jar!  Actually though, this tag was pre-made when I put this gift together.  Yes, it was pre-made by me, but still, pre-made.  So all I had to do was punch a hole and write on it.
Out of the same jar of ribbon as I fetched the teal ribbon from, I pulled this pretty green ribbon.  It happens to be the same ribbon I used for The Little Green Bow, if anyone remembers that!
Alright, now the making is finally done, and we can put the gift together!
First I put in the confetti.  Then the booklet and letter went in together, and on top of that, the top!
Don't you just love how old and antique-y this jar looks?
And the top is so cool.
As I said in the title of this post, you could do this for a girl of any age, and she'll love it!  I'm sure you could easily tweak this also to be a good guy's gift.  But...probably only if he's your sweetie or your brother.  Or your dad.

Who, in your life, could you make something like this for?

{P.S. Linking up here!}

29 comments:

  1. Such a nice idea; I love it! <3
    xo,
    -Anna
    www.demigodsandunicornsblog.weebly.com

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    1. Thanks Anna! The gift book I used really helped a lot. :)

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  2. This is a good idea, and I might try a variation of it, because I find it so hard to know what to give people! That is a nice jar, and I like everything you did - your hand writing, and the ribbons, and confetti. :)

    So do you have Thinking Outside the Giftbox? I hadn't heard of it until now, but it looks quite interesting. Have you found it helpful/useful? (If you have it, obviously.)

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    1. That would be great! It really is something that I can confidentally all girls will appreciate. Or, the large majority, if not all! And same - gift giving is a hard task for a lot of people! I quite enjoy it if the person is an easy giftee, but sometimes it's hard. If you find gifting is hard, I think _Thinking Outside the Giftbox_ would come much in handy! And yes, I have it. It was only an e-book until around last Christmas-time, and I got the paperback for Christmas, and much to my surprise and excitement, Lauren signed it and wrote a note in it for me! (I was ecstatic.) She and I are friends, so I may be a teeny bit biased about the nook, but I still way recommend it! Especially if you have problems with gift giving! Oh, and yes, I have found it useful! (And it looks great on my shelf. :))

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    2. P.S.! I've tried to figure it out, but how DO you do italics and bold etc. in comments?! I cannot figure it out!

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    3. Hmmm. That books does sound really good. I just signed up to receive the couple of free chapters, so hopefully that will help me make the decision whether to get it or not.

      Oh yes, italics and bold - I was trying to write out an explanation, but it keeps making the text bold and italic, instead leaving the tags so you can see them! Anyway, check out this link, and hopefully it makes sense: http://www.ehow.com/how_12016081_add-italics-blogger-commenting.html

      When I started using italics in comments, I always previewed them before publishing, just to make sure it worked - so perhaps do that as well to be sure that everything looks as it should. :)

      Thanks for always replying to comments, and being so helpful! Thank you for following my blog too - I'm definitely honoured and blessed. :)

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    4. Oh good! I think you'll like them.

      Yes, that is helpful! Thanks! I'll definitely try that out in future comments when I need to!

      That's a good idea to preview the comment. I always preview my blog posts, but I forgot that was even an option for comments! I should actually use that every time, because, as you've probably noticed, I tend to make a lot of mistakes when I comment!

      Yeah, no problem! I think replying to comments is really important, and helps establish relationships with those who read my blog, like you! Plus, I know I'm less likely to comment on a blog if the blogger doesn't reply to comments.

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  3. That is a really creative gift, and it's so cute, too! I love the idea. :)

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  4. This is such an awesome idea!!!!! I have like zero money to spend on gifts, but really want to make my friends feel loved, so this is a perfect option ;P also, handmade gifts always seem so much more genuine to me. THANKS FOR SHARING. will definitely be referencing this in the future :D

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    1. Woot, thanks Olivia! I totally gt that - I hate spending money. Actually I like buying things, but also not. Ahg, it's complicated. XD Anywho, yes, handmade gifts are so much more special. YOU'RE WELCOME. Yay!

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  5. Wow! You are amazing as this! Keep up the good work!

    amberbakerblogs.wordpress.com

    moreamber.wordpress.com

    Xx

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    1. Eep, thank you Amber! Only amazing by the grace of God! Checking out your blogs now!

      P.S. I love your name. :)

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  6. This is so cool I will use this for some friends or maybe Christmas

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  7. Once again your creativity is jaw-dropping...you have a gift that few people have.

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    1. Aw, thanks. That really means a lot. I'm thankful to God for the talents He gave me.

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  8. DUUUUUUDDEE THAT IS HONESTLY SO CREATIVE.
    You are so so talented too at what you do...like those numbers you drew are BEAUTIFULLLLL <3 Girl, teach us your ways.
    But I seriously think I should do this sometime. I am such a spender (UGHHH) so I usually like to go out and buy people gifts, but homemade is always good too. I think this would be especially nice for people a bit younger than me who I don't know too well (OR DO ACTUALLY *cough*)...This is really simple and sweet too :) Thanks for sharing!!
    P.S. CAN I JUST SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE YOUR BLOG THOUGH??? Like, idk, it reminds of a food blog, except it's crafts, so THAT'S LIKE AWESOME.

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    1. AHHGGGG, your comments are so great, Autumn. I usually buy gifts too, just because it's easier, but homemade gifts are THE BOMB in my opinion. :D Ooh, yes! A little girl would like this I think!

      Ahhh, for realz? Eep, I'm so glad! I hope yo keep getting better at this blogging stuff! Haha, that's sort of funny it reminds you of a food blog. I'm notorious for messing up recipes. :D BUT SERIOUSLY THANK YOU!

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  9. Hi Maggie! Thanks for commenting on my blog, there is a reply there. I imagine we do have a lot in common!

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    1. Ooh, hi again, Amelia! :) I just went and looked at your reply, and just followed you too! Excited to get to know you better!

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    2. Awww, Thanks! I followed you too!

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  10. Oh cool, I love the booklet idea! And the paper is so pretty!

    Grace
    golden halcyon

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    1. Yeah, I do too! Such a fun idea, right? And thank you! I really love watercoloring. Thanks for commenting, Grace!

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  11. What a brilliant and lovely gift idea, Maggie! I definitely want to do this in the future. Maybe for one of my sisters or close friends.

    -T.
    x

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    1. Thanks! I hope you get the chance - they'll love it!

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  12. Yay! SO glad you like it, Julie! 😊 This is probably one of my favorite posts that I've written. Hope your sister (whichever one it is) likes it, and you're welcome (though it wasn't really my idea). xoxo

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