Etsy Monday AnastasiaMarie

Obsessed with this shop and blog! From her Etsy shop description:

"Anastasia Marie is a stationery + design studio based in the Portland, Oregon metro area. Founded by Anastasia Mikailenko in 2009, Anastasia Marie originally began only as a full on custom design service, but has then progressed to include ready-made goods and packaging supplies. Anastasia Marie continues to specialize in the handmade, which includes 3D layered cards + wall art and layered paper garlands + toppers — as well as wedding + social stationery, working with brides and small businesses to bring their life’s stories and dreams into their paper goods." 

She has so many good things in her Etsy shop that you can use to recreate the amazing ideas in her blog.  For example, can you get any cuter than this baby shower gift wrapping using cut outs of little baby things?  No you cannot.

Directions for this look can be found here.

 Or this elegant dahlia gift wrapping?  Sigh.

So pretty.

And if you go to her shop, you will find the best tags, washi tape and glitter things ever. For example, this corrugated tag with glitter:

Buy these tags here. 

Which can be used to wrap gifts like this:

or like this:

Go here for directions on how to do this.

I could go on for days. But just go check it out to find your favorites.

Okay, just one more.

Can you stand it? So, so cute!

draw on your hidden talents.

What could be more personal than a hand-drawn image on gift wrapping?  I hear a lot of people say they can't draw, meaning I guess that their sketches aren't polished or professional looking.  I think that is emphatically not the point.  As a person with moderate skills or at least comfort with sketching/doodling/etc. I think one should just put pen (or pencil/marker/crayon) to paper until you come up with an image or design you like. It does not have to be perfectly executed or at a Picasso/DaVinci level for you to create something satisfying.  For example, my husband and I collaborated on a painting that has a prominent place in our living room.  He created a beautiful goldenrod venetian plaster background and I drew my version of a smiley face on it with some kind of craft store paint. It makes us both smile every time we look at it. Success!

Any kind of sketching basically involves looking at something, whether real life or not, and drawing what you see or want to see.  The possibilities for application to gift wrap seem endless! Here is some giftwrap sketch inspiration for you:

A wedding present?

From CandyPopStyle

A gift for your love?

Think how cute this would be sketched on kraft or white paper

Warpandweft used some of her doodles as an inspiration for printed gift wrap paper.  You could too. Remember Spoonflower? It is pretty easy to come up with a repeating design through them that can go on fabric or gift wrap. Spend some time playing there.

Warp and weft

Are you a doodler?  Look how pretty your plain old scribbles can turn out!

Fair Ivy DIY Instructions

 or try this take on doodling, even simpler!!

InspiredbyCharm

Bonus points for the washi tape and photo gift tags!

Inspired by Charm

White wrap.

Can you believe the gift wrap below was actually a do it yourself with an embossing plate?  I am intimidated.

(Sourced from Gave That.)

Then she put vellum butterflies on it.

(Images by Mam for Gave That.)

When I started this post, I was thinking about super simple white wrapping paper with some ribbon or lace, like below. But then I found Gave That's wrap. I am still reeling.  Embossing. Vellum butterflies made with stamps and blue ink.  I feel so inadequate.

Confetti Style

rolling!

I saw this picture without a good explanation (or link to original page) and wanted to dissect the brilliance that it was.  This looks like someone slipped rubber bands around an old rolling pin to create a DIY stamp. Notice the paper wrapped around the rolling pin under the rubber bands which would technically make it possible to use a NEW rolling pin for this DIY. I loved this idea.

But then -- a hunt for rolling pin gift wrap opened up a new world for me.  This is not a new idea at all, I find and in fact there are many, many pictures of kids happily wrapping varieties of stuff around rolling pins to make gift wrap paper. And grownups talking seriously about rolling pin print making in videos showing how to do it. And so on. For example:

A more sophisticated take on this technique at this blog

Finished product!

So while I have missed out on the opportunity to give you any kind of original DIY gift wrap post, I did get on a roll covering the subject.

justmakestuff

genius blog. Justmakestuff.