Wedding ... products, inspiration and a contest reminder

Monday 22 October 2012

ribbons, tulle, burlap, resin flowers, diamond wrap, favors, diy stationery, paper lanterns and pompom flower kits, glassware, card holders

 
I think that Creative Bag is the best place to shop if you are planning a wedding. Our three retail locations and online shopping have everything that you need to create your dream wedding whether you have hired a wedding planner or you are going to do it yourself. From the ceremony to the reception and anything in between, we have a large selection of wedding products and custom accessories that can be personalized to suit your wedding theme and colours. I get so excited when I start talking to brides about ideas for their wedding that sometimes wish I was getting married again ... of course, to the same man I married the first time!
If you are looking to include some diy projects into your dream wedding we are the place to start looking for supplies.
paper straws, wood cutlery, glassware, serving trays, food containers, favors, diy labels
Sweet tables and themed food & beverage bars are so popular at weddings and we have everything you need to get the party started!
If you are searching online, be sure to check out both www.creativebag.com and www.creativebagwedding.com for our full selection of wedding products. And if you are a true do-it-yourself and like to think outside of the box ... check out our everyday Creative Bag packaging products and let your imagination go wild.

Next to Pinterest ... one of my favourite sources to find wedding inspiration are magazines. Call me old fashion, but just I love to hold a magazine or a book. The best part about magazines is that I have no problem tearing out pages to hang on my inspiration boards, glue into my smash book or file away for later.
I was looking through the new Fall/Winter Weddingbells magazine on the weekend for some ideas. There are so many great wedding magazines out there but what I love about Weddingbells is that I can find local shops to buy from, which is a nice {green} thing to be able to do.
This morning I was checking out the Weddingbells website for more inspiration. There were so many great Canadian weddings featured and I was so excited to see that most of the brides had a few diy projects worked into their wedding day. Weddingbells.ca features lots of great diy wedding projects/tutorials so you may want to check it out if you are looking for ideas.
If you are getting married this year and are using Creative Bag products in your wedding, I hope that you will remember to take lots of photos and enter our Creative Bag Wedding Contest. The deadline is December 31, 2012 and I'd love to see your entries!!
Check out this post for more details.


DIY Halloween Jack-o'{paper}-lantern

Wednesday 17 October 2012


I really wanted to decorate a paper lantern to look like Halloween jack-o'-lantern but realized that we don't carry orange paper lanterns. At first I was disappointed and thought that I would just have to come up with another idea. I started looking at the tissue paper pompom kits and it occurred to me that I could use a package of our orange coloured tissue paper to cover a white paper lantern. And so my jack-o'{paper}-lantern project was on!
So here's what I did:
I used a medium sized paper lantern and one package of tissue paper. I cut the tissue paper into 2" wide strips.
My adhesive of choice was gel medium (modge podge or white glue will also work) and I used a foam brush to adhere the 2" tissue paper strips to the paper lantern. As you can see in the photo above, I adhered the tissue paper strips from top to bottom and worked my way around the lantern.
I found it easiest to apply the gel medium directly onto the paper lantern first and then carefully add the tissue paper using the foam brush to make sure that the tissue lays flat. Once each tissue paper strip is in place use the foam brush to apply a top coat of gel medium to the tissue paper.
Tip: I covered one half of the lantern one evening, hung it up to dry and then finished the second half the next morning.
To add the eyes and mouth to create a jack-o'-lantern I used black paint and painted directly on the dry paper lantern. You could use black paper shapes if you don't want to paint and attach the paper with gel medium or tape.
If you are looking for paper lanterns for a wedding or party and cannot find the perfect colours to match your decor -  keep in mind that you can easily change the colour using white paper lanterns, coloured tissue paper and some gel medium.
After making these Halloween paper lanterns, I started thinking about other ways to decorate our paper lanterns. Look for more paper lantern decorating ideas for theme parties to come!!!
Are you still busy working on last minute details for a Halloween party? Then this is a great time to visit our Creative Bag stores! All of our Halloween themed products have been reduced to 50% off! Hurry into any of our three retail locations before everything disappears.

bitty bag packaging inspiration for cookies

Friday 12 October 2012

Here's a fun way to package cookies using our bitty bags. I have given all of my examples a Halloween theme but the basic concept can easily be adapted to suit any party, shower or wedding theme.

I used one of the Martha Stewart All Over the Page paper punches to create a cut out on one side of the bag! By packaging a large cookie (or a few small cookies) inside of a lip and tape bag and inserting it into the bitty bag the cookie will stay fresh longer.

This is how I created the Halloween themed moon and bat bags ...
As always, gather your supplies: paper bitty bags, lip and tape bags to fit inside the bitty bags, all over the page paper punch in shape of your choice, black ribbon, scissors, orange paper scraps and large circle paper punch, hole punch (I used the we R memory keeper's chomper).

Next you want to position the all over the page paper punch so that it is where you want your hole. Place the bottom half of the paper punch inside the bag so that you will cut a hole on one side of the bag (as shown above). The paper punch is magnetic so it stays in place while you are punching.
Now you are ready to package your cookies into the lip and seal bags. Simply peel off the protective strip and fold over the opening to close. I love these bags because you can reposition the adhesive edge if you didn't get it quite right the first time. Insert this package into the bitty bag and you are ready to decorate your bitty bags.

To make the Halloween moon and bat: Cut a large circle from a scrap piece of orange paper. Position your circle near the top of the bitty bag and off to one side. Use your hole punch to create two holes off to one side of the orange circle as shown above - making sure that you go through both layers of the bitty bag. Now you are ready to add your ribbon! Thread the ribbon through the two circles as shown above.
To make the ribbon "bat" you will need to tie a knot and cut the two ends on an angle as shown to form the bat shaped wings.
And we're done! Super easy and it would take very little time to do a batch of these for a large party.

And here's another way to decorate these enhanced bitty bags ...
This time I used a different all over the page punch shape. I decorated the top of the bag with a piece of my bag header art that I created for you to download here. I added a piece of black glitter tape at the bottom of the art as a decorative element and I used orange thread on my sewing machine to seal the bitty bag.

Here's another picture of the bitty bag with some other Halloween projects that I have shown you already ... the blackboard painted pumpkins and witches' feet cupcake decorations. The spooky glass was made by cutting black glitter tape into eye shapes. If you serve orange beverages in the glass they look like pumpkins ... milk will look like ghosts!

I think that all of these would all look great on a Halloween themed sweet table.
BTW ... Looking for paper punches, hole punches and glitter tape? They are all available in our Toronto Store in the Creative Studio section. All of these projects were demonstrated at the {free} Halloween workshop last week .. missed it? ... sign up to receive blog updates by email and you will get advance notice of the next workshop dates and project details.




{free} Halloween iron transfer download for our small fabric bags

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Before I get started with this blog post, I just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to attend my workshop last Thursday. Traffic was terrible on all of the major highways and I know that it was difficult for some people to get to the Toronto Creative Bag store. I think that everyone that showed up had a great time - I know that I did. We did a lot of crafting, eating & talking!

I have one more {free} Halloween download for you that can be used with the iron on transfers to decorate our small canvas bags. As you can see in the photo above, I used the iron on transfers on small drawstring fabric bags and some mini fabric bags with handles.

I talked about these spooky fabric loot bags at the Halloween workshop. If you have never used our iron on transfers before I have given directions for using them in some of my previous posts.

And now, as promised, here is the download for the iron on transfer art.

You can download the art as shown above here. Remember to read the iron on transfer instructions for printing how to's. Please note that all of my art is for personal use only. No commercial use.




You can see that I used just the iron on transfers on some of the bags ...


and I embellished other bags with the iron on transfers and ribbons!
I did not want to spend time sewing the ribbon onto the bags so I used two-sided fabric tape to adhere the ribbons to the bags. We have some great two-sided fabric tape in the Toronto store in the Creative Studio space.

I have a couple of more fun Halloween projects to show you this week. Stay tuned!








Halloween inspiration using paper straws

Tuesday 2 October 2012

My Halloween workshop is just a couple of days away and I wanted to share with you one of the projects that everyone will be making when we get together. I used paper straws and boots cut out of black cardstock to create these simple (and funny) little cupcake decorations. I have not figured out what kind of cupcakes I will be serving ... my daughter loved the red velvet cupcakes that I made to shoot this photo - but I'm thinking maybe dark chocolate or carrot cake.
Here's how I made these ...
1. I drew a boot shape on plain paper and cut it out.
2. Then I used the shape as a template with black cardstock paper. I drew around the shape once, then turned the template over and drew around it again to create left and right boot shapes.
3. Cut the two boots out of the black cardstock and set aside.
4. You will need to cut two "legs" from a paper straw. Cut the straw pieces long enough so that you can insert one end into the icing/cupcake.
5. To attach the boots to the straw, cut two slits on one end of each straw as shown above and insert boot.
By the way, these are the three {free} projects that everyone will be making at the Halloween workshop this Thursday:
1. Halloween themed loot bags using my headers  
2. black board market trays 
3. witch's feet cupcake decorations
I have lots of other packaging, decorating projects and inspiration to show you that can be used for a Halloween party or adapted for a birthday party, shower or wedding.
I am working on my workshop goody bags now. There are still have 5 seats left for this week's workshop! If you are interested in joining us let me know - quickly!!!