Jingle Belles 2020 - No Time Like the Presents

Hello.  My name is Lorraine and I will admit that I am a paper addict.  A wrapping paper addict.  There is seldom a piece of wrapping paper, tissue paper, gift tag, or fancy ribbon that goes into my garbage without inspection and reflection as to how any or all of those pieces and parts could be repurposed.  I love a carefully wrapped gift, and I love to carefully unwrap them.  I cringe when I hear that paper tearing like some cringe when they hear chalk on a chalkboard.  My reputation is both questioned and respected.  There are those that dare to look me in the eye whilst they tear off their paper and scrunch it into a giftwrap snowball.  And there are those that know enough to try to avoid ripping and will look me in the eye and say "I know, you want this don't you?".  And yes, there are the  occasional newbies that laugh, not having witnessed my obsession before, when I say "this will be someone's Christmas card next year".  

Which brings me to the real purpose of this post.  The first Jingle Belle challenge of 2020.  Using what's been rescued from Christmas.  I kind of hit the motherload this year at our family pre-Christmas Eve gathering.  My daughter-in-law used these fantastic tags she got from Costco a couple of years ago.   I didn't offend anyone by asking for their tag, I simply waited to see what was going into the trash and rescued what I could.  And of course, there were my own.  I have two cards with those tags today and a card with a tag that was on a gift that I got at work.

This one repurposed the tag, and the background was a beautiful holographic wrapping paper.  The green bow is from a package of my favorite USA made caramels.

This oval tag with the bear was on the work gift.  And the snowflake was cut from another tag and popped up on yet another glittery circle tag I had from IKEA.  (The picture doesn't do it justice - it really is much prettier IRL.) (Even HWNSNBP said WOW when he saw it.)

The JOY tag was perfect against some metallic gold gift wrap I framed with some red glitter paper strips.

I have two, possibly three more WIP's on my worktable that I hope to get to this week.  But this is a great start to the year.  What I have to remember to do is not to wait until December to make sure I have envelopes for these sometimes odd-sized cards, and to decide on the sentiment that will be going inside ahead of time. The past couple of years I've stamped the sentiment on white cardstock and used a label die to cut them out. Then I make them into stickers so they can easily be applied to the inside of the card.

Another thing I started last year actually, was to put my Christmas card list into an excel spreadsheet and I have added a column that I can add a (shrunken) picture of which I card I sent to everyone.  That way I'm sure not to duplicate a stamp set, or theme to the same recipient.  And sometimes, in November, if I'm behind on my card count, I'll make a quick batch of duplicate cards and I might have one or two leftover and I don't want to take the chance of sending the same card to the same person again. I'll put a post-it note on the cards as I finish them with the date of the challenge.  When I spread out all of my cards when they're done in early December, I put another post-it on them with the name of who they're going to (this helps HWNSNBP get involved with the signing and mailing - his part in this mayhem along with postage).  We stick the Challenge post-it to the name post-it and set them aside before they're tucked into the envelopes.  Then I can go back to the list and put the correct picture in.  I know, it sounds like a lot of work, but it goes pretty fast, and I really find it helpful.  The post-it's with the names on are saved from year-to-year.  

Okay, this was much longer than intended so I promise you if I get to those other ones it'll be much shorter.  Be sure to check out the gallery over at the Jingle Belles and see what other lovely creations they have there.