To My Mum and Dad I Gave......

    for Mum.....

    For Dad....(I also got him some black fleece gloves, which aren't photographed)

    For both Mum and Dad......

 Masking sticker set: Hobbies from the Heart

Tape Measure from Marks and Spencer.

Books sourced from my local charity shop, see my detailed blog post on them here.

Badger Tea Towel: Sophie Parker

Die-cut Flowers: 32Northsupplies

Galleon and Clipper Ship drawings made by me :)

To My Sister and Her Boyfriend I gave......

Wildlife stickers made by Jessica Gowling

Eagle and Owl Die-cuts from 32DegreesNorth

'Peter and the Wolf' book which I bought off Amazon.

'Beetle and Moth Specimen Diorama' made by me :)

Wrapping is fun

I made my own tags using miniature matchboxes and decorating all the sides and then inserting tickets inside.

I used the sheets from the magazine 'Wrap' I was telling you all about yesterday.

I coiled some dark pink ribbon around another ribbon, just to make it a little different.

Wrap

A couple of days ago I bought this wonderful magazine called 'Wrap'. I have been looking for the perfect Christmas wrapping paper as I like my gifts to look unique and different, so just by chance on twitter I came across Wraps online shop. The idea of the magazine is that you read all the interviews and illustrators profiles and when you've finished you then slide out the pages to reveal large sheets of wrapping paper. I am so scared to cut into any of the paper as the illustrations are fantastic, but I must be brave and go for it. The last image shows the gift tags for the wrapping paper, which I am going to keep for myself and maybe frame some of them as I have already made my own tags, which I shall be blogging about soon. I totally recommend this magazine to everyone. Here is their shop and if you want to buy anything you can get 15% off using this coupon code WELOVEWRAP (make sure to use it by 31st December). 

Mail Art from The Second Magpie

Boy oh boy have been in for a treat with this awesome package from the very talented @The Second Magpie (Sarah Hutchinson Burke). A while back I posted about some charity shop finds I bought, some being buttons, with one that a castle on it. Sarah said she had a button just like it and said she would send it too me. You are so kind Sarah :) So this button has started off our mail art swapping. The attention to detail and presentation has been carefully thought through. I received various pieces of artwork and collage, tiny tags, hand-made science based envelopes WIN!!! and the most precious vintage buttons and two lovely stamps, the one with the glasshouse on it reminds me of one of my drawings which you can see here. I also got a little pack of the prettiest flowers which are from the Mourne Mountains in Ireland. That name 'The Morne Mountains' reminded me suddenly of the Lord of the rings and this gave me such a good feeling inside, as its one of my most favourite things in the entire world. In fact if I got a Lord of the Rings inspired mail art I would probably scream with joy, hint hint ;) I'm so subtle...NOT!! I am totally in love with the Teabag collection with its beautiful description on the tag and the finger prints and dates. Even the colour all the paper has been dyed with, love all these personal little touches, what a great idea. Thank you so much for your amazing mail art Sarah it has brought me so much joy and happiness.