Joyeux Noël, Mes Amis!

I just wanted to drop a few lines to wish you all a Merry Christmas! I am cherishing every moment with my family this year and feeling so blessed.

Life is good and God is great!

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Click here to read my previous post about this giftwrapped package . Somehow I messed up when I published it:)

_{image by à la parisienne}

Christmas with a Couture Twist

First things first, I think I am hooked on this glossy black and houndstooth European-style gift wrapping paper I found a couple of months ago. In fact, this paper is one of the things that inspired me to do a couture-inspired Christmas tree...

Which leads me to my second preface to this post:
Someone out there needs to design a new type of artificial Christmas tree-something that is not cheap and ugly like my artificial white plastic Christmas tree; something more artistic; something beautiful that I would keep up year round.

I keep imagining a simple tree-like form with spaced branches, made up of paper-WHITE paper, with paper flowers and vines, {Psst- "Noel, I'd love to see what you could come up with!} Really, I'm serious. Of course, I'd like to be able to afford it so whoever you are, when you create this tree (even if it has to be a mini tree) I'd like to be able to buy it without my husband freaking out when I tell him the price. Mr. à la parisienne is not a fan of Christmas décor, but we've agreed that if I will exclude him from the decorating process (getting decorations out and putting them back up) that he won't complain!

That being said my couture-inspired tree already has a major disadvantage- the tree itself is just plain ugly. It's stark. It's from Wal-mart. Enough said. So if you are a part of the Chanel or Dior design team, please don't take offense.

_{Zena, the curious tree-eating cat, checking out the stash.}

I didn't buy a single ornament for the tree this year. I just scavenged my ornament stash, my closet, and my accessories. I decided that I needed to be resourceful and if I like this style enough to repeat it next year, I would wait and buy better ornaments for Christmas 2011.

My Christmas tree is wearing:

*A white paper northern star accented with two dramatic black feathers.

*Two scarves-one taffy pink velvet scarf, and one pink, black, and white plaid scarf.
*various flower brooches made by à la parisienne fashioned with chiffons and velvets

*vintage pink and silver ornaments

*a couple of bangle bracelets

*a few handmade ornaments fashioned with black glitter and houndstooth ribbon

*a black tulle {tree} skirt (not pictured)

_{a little something for ma mère}

This is my favorite gift I've wrapped so far. Since haute couture is known for playing with angles and assymetries, I put the ribbon to the left and cut a sharp angle to add a little drama. Of course, the houndstooth paper and thick black satin ribbon are quite the pair.
For this jewelry box, I wanted to add a little sparkle, so I sewed on a small vintage rhinestone button. To me, this gift wrap design resembles a fancy cuff.


More pictures to come. Most likely after Christmas.

_{all images by à la parisienne}

Gift Wrap with a Dash of Shabby Chic

As promised, here is the first of my giftwrapped packages for adults. This sweet little package is actually for my mother-in-law {no worries} She doesn't read my blog, so it will still be a surprise.

As I have shared with you in the past in this post,

my mother in law's style is charm. She loves packages that are sweet and thoughtfully put together. When I stumbled upon this handmade ornament on Etsy by Under the Night Moon,I immediately ordered it and decided it would be the perfect gift topper.

My Christmas tree and other gifts are actually fashioned in a different style {more to come soon}

but the colors I have used in this package will definitely coordinate with my main color palette.

I used a thick glossy white European style wrapping paper as the base of this design.

Then I followed the advice of fellow friend & blogger Sande {A Gift Wrapped Life} to use left over strips of wrapping paper as an embellishment for my package. The gray wrapping paper with white snowflakes works quite well here. Of course, you do know how much I love gray!

I tied a seashell pink ribbon around the gift and created a large, loose bow.

Then used a paler shade of pink ribbon to attach the perfectly sweet shabby ornament for a perfectly sweet mother-in-law!
_{images by à la parisienne}

Felt adorn*a*ments pour les enfants

I realize that I've been away for over a month and hope you all haven't given up on me or moved on!

I finally started wrapping gifts yesterday and I began with a couple of children's gifts. It's always fun to use youthful papers when wrapping for little ones-

the bright colors and whimsical shapes are refreshing for someone like me who generally uses a muted color palette. Somewhere stored away, I have some adhesive gift tags, which would have been much easier to use on these gifts, but I decided to spend a couple extra minutes creating these fun felt gift tag adornments.

For the felt ornament gift tags, I simply folded some green felt in half and cut this vintage ornament shape. Then I used my handy Fiskars punch to create the scalloped white paper tag.

To attach the paper to the felt, I sewed a little Northern star with hot pink thread mimicking the patterns in the giftwrap's ornaments.

For the boy's gift, I used a gray paper with large white snowflakes.
I decided that a little felt snowman would be fitting.

For this snowman gift tag, I cut out a square piece of gray felt for the backing.

For the snowman's body, I cut out two white felt circles for the top of the snowman and used the same Fiskar's punch to create a scalloped paper circle for the bottom of the snowman.

While creating the snowman's eyes and buttons with black thread, this also attached the snowman to the gray felt backing.

To finish off the gift, I used a large piece of red yarn ribbon and tied it at the snowman's neck, creating a little scarf.

I attempted creating a black felt beret, but it looked très laid (ugly). Then a toboggan, but it looked awkward. Finally, the Stetson hat made the cut.

I have many great plans for my other Christmas gift wrapping projects-much more sophisticated and glamorous and they will coordinate with my Christmas tree. Hopefully, I will be able to create what I have envisioned and share them with you soon.

Until then, wishing you a Merry Christmas, a joyful time with family, and safe travels.

_{All images by à la parisienne}