Our #1 Favorite Way to "Wrap" Gifts

We are winding down our holiday blog posts and gearing up for some beautiful winter projects. But, first we want to share our favorite go-to wrapping idea.

For small odd-shaped gifts, these adorable corrugated cardboard pillow boxes are so perfect. They are simple to use and can be dressed up with your favorite ribbon or tag.

If you love these as much as we do, you're in luck. They are 50% off on our website right now, along with a bunch of other great gift items.

Happy Holidays!

DIY Gift Tags

Hopefully all your shopping is done and you are now busy wrapping your gifts! If you need something to dress up your packages a bit, try a special oversized tag.

We made these tags with the Holiday Cheer perforated sheet and mounted it on a larger paper cut into a tag shape. The accents are ribbons and buttons.

Check back tomorrow for more wrapping ideas!

DIY Gift Bows with Velvet or Scrapbook Paper

Hey there! It's holiday time! Are you ready? We are mostly done shopping here. But, now comes the job of wrapping up all the gifts.

When you have pretty wrapping supplies, this can be one of the most fun parts. If you want a DIY option, we have a fun and simple idea for you. Make your own gift bows! These are great because you can use any kind of paper and make the bow coordinate perfectly with your wrapping.

We even made you a fun little video to show you exactly how to do it! It's really simple. Just cut 3/4" wide strips of paper 4", 10", 11" & 12", loop as shown, and glue them together. Voila!



For our video, we used velvet paper. The texture is soft and rich, perfect for the holidays. You have to see it in real life to fully appreciate it.

The awesome part is wrapping supplies, including velvet paper, tag sheets & holiday paper is on sale this week! Check it out here.

Holiday Scrapbook Layout

After the holidays are over, it's time to scrapbook all those memories! We think there's no better time than those cold winter months right after the memories are made.

Here's a quick layout idea to get you started. We used leftovers of our Sweet Yule collection from the December Club SEI scrapbooking kit.

We want to know, when do you scrapbook your memories? Do you try to do it right after while the memories are fresh or do you have a different system? Maybe your idea will help someone with their New Year's resolutions. :)

Simple Holiday Card Ideas with Scalloped Edges

It's not too late to send out holiday cards! So grab your favorite scrapbook paper and get creating.

We used our new Sweet Yule papers for these pretty cards. One of our favorite details are the scalloped edges. This was so easy to do with the scalloped mats that come in our December scrapbooking kit. Just fold them in half, add die-cuts, and gems!

If you are done with your holiday cards, you could make some extra and tie them up to give to someone else. What a great gift idea for someone who likes to give cards!

Here's one more scalloped card. This one is a little bit bigger for someone special. Have you ever considered giving a thank you card as part of your Christmas gift? I did this for my parents once and they loved it!

We hope our scalloped card ideas have inspired you to create some cards of your own!

Holiday Scrapbook Layout Ideas by Club SEI

Today we are excited to share our December Club SEI scrapbooking preview! The Sweet Yule collection is so pretty. Check out all the layouts you can create with this kit...

The sweet patterns and graphics are perfect for documenting your favorite holiday traditions, like picking out the perfect tree, decorating it, playing outside, and opening presents on Christmas morning. Here are a couple of our favorite pages...

The sundries pack and glitter chipsets are some of our favorite parts of the kit. Here is an image of all the contents...

Learn more and sign up for Club SEI here.

Last-Minute Thanksgiving Decor

Surely it didn't just hit you that Thanksgiving is less than a week away, more than 20 people are eating at your house, and the only fall decor in sight is some rotten pumpkins and an old wreath? Not that we know what that's like... just kidding! We know EXACTLY what's that's like.

It's ok, take a deep breath, throw out the old pumpkins and let's get decorating! We're going to show you a few last-minute Thanksgiving decor ideas that you can do with simple supplies right now. We used our new Bountiful paper collection for these ideas.

IDEA #1: Framed Art

There are so many free printables out there! These are so simple to use and make great seasonal decor. Just print and frame! Done! This one is one of the freebies offered to Club SEI members as part of their subscription.

IDEA #2: Banner

Banners can be simple paper rectangles that spell "thanks" or more elaborate, like this pumpkin one cut from our Club SEI cutting file. Either way, banners are a great way to spice up a fireplace, above the door, across a serving table, or any other blank space you want to fill.

IDEA #3: Wreath

What better way to welcome guests than a fresh, new wreath! This one was made with a chipboard wreath base. But, you could easily cut a piece of cardboard into this shape. We added some burlap, ribbon, die-cuts, sundries, and paper cut using the same cutting file.

IDEA #4: Table Favors

Make each guest feel special with a little table favor. We just used simple paper bags for these ones. Just add some die-cuts, ribbon, and feathers, voila! If you add a name they can also double as place cards.

Holiday Card Inspiration from Club SEI

After we design a card kit for Club SEI, one of our favorite things to do is see what we can make with the remaining papers and embellishments. So, today we are sharing 4 of the "bonus" cards we made for our most recent card kit.

We hope these cards inspire you as you begin your holiday card-making. What's your favorite thing to do with "leftover" pieces?

Christmas in July: Holiday Card Inspiration

Greetings crafty friends, welcome to the blog, it's Rhonda here today to share a bit of "Christmas in July" inspiration with you. I chose the Glimmering Boughs collection to create a few Christmas cards.

My first card features the pretty wreath sticker from the collection, layered on top of one of the kraft doilies die cut with red filigree foil accents as the focal point. The gold metal sundries were the perfect accent to the bow!

I've also used some of the gorgeous glitter borders and some of the regular paper border as accents on the side.

My second card is a more masculine and linear design featuring the "Trees of Gold" background paper along with the "Season's Greetings" sentiment sticker and a few stars. The foundation for the design is a few Border strips that were layered in a small woven pattern.

The bits of gold and texture of the embossed patterned paper in this collection make even clean and simple cards feel so very elegant.

Thank you so much for stopping on over to spend a minute or two with us here at the blog today.
Rhonda

SEI Products Used:
Glimmering Boughs Assortment Pack
Glimmering Boughs Borders
Glimmering Boughs Sundries

Christmas Cards with Gold Metallic Accents

IIf you have some last-minute holiday cards to make, ​grab your December Club SEI Scrapbooking Kit. Just because the kit is designed for making scrapbook pages doesn't mean you can't use the supplies to make cards, tags or other holiday crafts.

I fell in love with the metallics and gold foil details featured in the design of these papers and embellishments. To further bring out the metallic accents for my cards, I picked up a stack of pre-folded gold-edged cards from Michaels. I simply cut the patterned paper to fit the size of each card front, then decorated with stickers and baubles. Using dimensional adhesive (foam squares) further makes the designs "pop." I can't wait to give these elegant cards to my family this year!

Happy Holidays,
Stephanie

Baby's First Christmas Handmade Ornaments

I love creating handmade gifts over the holidays. Ornaments are a quick and easy paper craft you can make that family and friends will cherish for years to come. I made two "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments featuring SEI's Merry Mistletoe collection. The fun shapes and sweet pastels make this collection perfectly fitting for new baby gifts!

The ornament frames came from Michaels and only cost a few dollars each. To make the ornaments, I selected favorite accents from the Merry Mistletoe papers, stickers and embellishments (paying special attention to use blue accents for celebrating baby boys!) and cut and arrange them to fit inside the frame. A simple alphabet sticker of each boy's initial further personalizes the design, along with a handmade message. I wrote them with a thin Sharpie.

Have you made ornaments or other handmade gifts for the holidays? We'd love to see! Be sure to share a link to your designs in the comments.

Happy Holidays,
Stephanie

Christmas Holiday Pennant Decor

Hi, Connie here with a Holiday Decoration using the Pennant Kit from Sei. It is perfect for the front door or the Christmas Tree, really a great gift also! Let me show you~

I added some greenery, to the center of the cardboard pennant, and then decorated the greenery with die cuts from the Holiday Wishes/Glimmering Boughs Collection by Sei. Once the greenery is decorated attach the greenery branch to the cardboard pennant. Punch a small hole on each side and wire (from the kit) to secure the greenery branch.

The cardboard pennant is decorated with die cuts from the Holiday Wishes/Glimmering Boughs Collection, also. Speckled with white acrylic paint to represent snow.

Welcoming all !!!

Thanks for stopping by~
Connie

Whimsical Holiday Cards

Greetings and welcome to the SEI Blog, it's Rhonda Van Ginkel here to share a few cards that I created featuring the Merry Mistletoe Card Kit which includes card bases, envelopes, die cuts, glitter elements, stickers, pearls and adhesive foam squares.

This kit has instructions and materials to complete 8 holiday greeting cards. I thought it would be fun to come up with a few other designs.

My first card is "Joy To The World" and has a pop up feature to it in the interior. I selected the red micro dot pop up card base, added the blue striped border to the edge finished with a touch of gold string that I had on my desk. The sentiment was adhered using the foam squares.

I started with the mistletoe and layered a bit of the floral trim which I cut into a banner at the end. The mistletoe is embellished with the gold glitter circle accents and a few of the pearls. I added some foam squared to the die cut bird and adhered.

For the interior, I added the gingerbread house to the pop up fold, then adhered the candy cane stickers on either side on top of the gold string. The glitter lights banner was added above the sentiment block.

My second card, "May your Holidays be Bright and Merry" is more clean and simple in design. I love that the kit elements give you so many fun options! For this card, I chose the light green card base and added the multi color fold accent. I used a gold accent strip and tied a bow using some of my gold string.

The snowman was attached using foam squares, then I tucked in the sentiment and added one small package using a foam square. The light banner was trimmed and layered to fit under the snowman and up to the trim. I accented the lights with a bit of glossy accents for shine.

SEI Products Used:
Merry Mistletoe Card Kit

Thanks so much for stopping over and spending some time with us today on the SEI Blog.
Rhonda

Merry and Bright Scrapbook Layout

Greetings and welcome to the SEI Blog, it's Rhonda Van Ginkel to share my first project featuring the Merry Mistletoe collection of pattern papers, die cut pack and stickers.

I thought it would be fun to create a page featuring our family photo for 2015. Even though the photo isn't perfect, I like that it's more of a casual shot taken when we were out goofing off at a park.

• Once my photo was matted, I selected my background paper and layers.
• I stitched the red 10.5" square using my sewing machine.
• Next I added a bit of modeling paste using a stencil with crack shapes for a bit of subtle texture.
• Once dry, I used a scrap piece of 6" diameter circle corrugate that I had, trimmed it and tore the paper a bit and inked with a touch of Iced Spruce distress ink.
• The corrugate was attached to my page by stitching it, then I stitched around the outside of it to frame the shape a bit.
• A 3.5" x 5.5" piece of cheesecloth was trimmed to layer on top of the corrugate.
• I die cut a few banners using my die cut machine and a border and notebook paper element which are layered under the photo.
• Layered the vertical strip and attached, stapled a few staples at the top.
• The banner pieces were layered with the border below and notebook paper.
• Photo was adhered using foam dimensional adhesive.
• Reindeer, With Love Tag and Red Bird elements from the Merry Mistletoe Die Cut Pack were tucked in. Mr. Reindeer has his eyes accented with Glossy Accents, a sticker on his nose, topped with a touch of glitter glue. The With Love Tag was accented with glitter glue around the border also.
• Final touches are the snowflake stickers tucked in and the branch sticker layered under the bird.
• I cut the "Merry & Bright" title using the Under Mistletoe paper and my Silhouette Cameo. I used one of the stickers to dot the "i" in the title.

SEI Products Used:
Merry Mistletoe Paper Collection
Merry Mistletoe Die Cut Pack
Merry Mistletoe Stickers

Thank you for visiting the blog today!
Rhonda