Giftwrap à la Restoration Hardware

My Christmas giftwrapping theme this year was not planned; it just happened.

In a rush to wrap up a Chinese Christmas gift using recycled magazine pages, I stumbled upon my Restoration Hardware catalogue, and my creative gears began to roar out of control!!

Restoration Hardware combines a unique blend of styles: steampunk, scientist, and European farmhouse, and a unique blend of materials-burlap, linen, metals, and leather, and for those reasons, its style extremely alluring for both women and men.

That being said, using the pages from our gorgeous Restoration Hardware catalogue made it very easy to wrap each gift according to the taste of each recipient.

The gift above is wrapped in a muted gold paper, embellished with a Restoration Hardware cataloge page, slate gray satin ribbon, an antiqued bronze drapery ring and a swatch of tan linen fabric (to be used as a gift tag.)

This Restoration Hardware kitchen scene was the perfect page to use for my sister-in-law, Renée, who is the foodie in our family.

Her gift is wrapped in glossy white paper and embellished with a wide strip of burlap that is wrapped around the width of the box.

I used small brads to tack the burlap to the underside of the box. Those scrapbooking supplies always save the day when I need them!


I also wrapped the width of her gift with a thin silver wire, which helped to secure the antique fork to the top of her package. Notice that on the top of her gift, I also attached an oversized paperclip to the burlap to bring in a hint of modernity- I would have loved to slip an antique, handwritten recipe to the front of her box, but I don't have one!

For our uber cool brother-in-law, I decided to use gloss back paper and the image of the ultra sleek bar stools.

I call this the GQ package!

Using the same thin silver wire, I attached a random clock winder to the front of the gift to add a little steampunk style!

I also used a shiny metal brads to hold the thin silver wire in place.

This gift is for my hubby, and it is probably my favorite creation because everything just worked out perfectly for his package.

Aaron has always loved the antique look of filament lightbulb by Restoration Hardware, and since they are $15.00 each, we just have to be happy with enjoying them from the catalogue! So, I decided that this catalogue page was the perfect fit for him! (And it gives a little hint to what is inside of the package!)

Now, for la pièce de résistance-his gift topper- and actual lightbulb that is attached by two strands of thin silver wire!

Can giftwrapping get any more steampunk, scientific, and manly than this???

Best of all, my giftwrapping cost me zero dollars this year. Remember, this was last minute and I live over an hour away from a decent craft store. So, I used leftover giftwrapping paper from last year and scavenged the house for embellishments. Luckily, we like old things and rarely throw anything away!

I still have a couple more gifts to wrap, so perhaps after Christmas I will share them with you.

Until then, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Your loyalty and friendships truly make my life a little brighter and I thank you for that!

_{images by à la parisienne}

Merry Macarons!

I just wanted to share with you a fun little photo I took of my pistachio lemon butter macarons that I made a week ago for our ladies' church Christmas party.

I couldn't help but add the new French macaron images to my banner for some added Christmas spirit!

I am in the thick of several Christmas projects, and of course, I am behind {I can be an awful procrastinator}! So, off I go to finish my projects. And I appreciate your sweet comments about my handmade Christmas tree!
I hope you are all enjoying all of your Christmas gatherings and wish you safe travels!

Joyeux Noël!

_{image by à la parisienne}

Winter Blossom Christmas Tree

As many of you have read, my hideous white Christmas tree and I have been at odds with each other over the past couple of years. My store-bought Christmas tree has not taken care of herself-always mis-shappen and shoddy looking-and I am sure she has heard the awful things I have said about her under my breath, not to mention, she still gets huffy when Zena, our cat, gnaws on her prickly, plastic branches. Needless to say, last year I decided that we needed a break from each other, and I promised myself that I would not drag her down from the attic this year.

And I KEPT my promise.

Instead of decorating with my plastic, commercial white Christmas tree, I made a new one, and it didn't cost me a penny.
Inspired by Cherry Blossom trees, I simply gathered sticks that had fallen from our trees and painted them a creamy white, and placed them in a white decorative pot (which I have used in numerous projects-Remember Amelia's Secret Garden Party?)
Then I made white tissue paper petals to mimic cherry blossoms and glued them to the white branches.

I could have stopped there if I had wanted a simpler, minimal look, but the romantic side of me just couldn't stop, so I added a handful of luxurious white feather plumes~

Since this tree was created for Amelia's room, I adorned my homemade Christmas tree with sweet, childlike ornaments:
a pair of vintage dusty ice blue mittens, petite vintage silver bells and birds,

a handmade paper ornament,

and a gray dove-accessorized with a aqua satin scarf. And notice the top of the white pot was also dressed for winter, I added a vintage white rabbit fur collar around brim for a wintry touch!

And my favorite detail about my homemade winter blossom Christmas tree is that I placed it into the curio cabinet in Amelia's room~a fancy little display case just for the tree. I hope to add white lights inside of the cabinet so that at night, it becomes a magical little scene behind glass for Amelia to enjoy.

_{images by à la parisienne}

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!

*********************************

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}

Parisienne Stocking Stuffer

Okay, let's be honest, most of us are natural procrastinators when it comes to Christmas shopping. But I must brag, I have already purchased 5 Christmas gifts so far...not impressed?

Okay, neither am I. I have so much shopping, wrapping, cooking, cleaning, decorating, and planning to do in less than 6 weeks.

{swift shudder of panic}

Oh, and I am in charge of the children's Christmas play at church this year, which means more planning, rehearsing, singing, setting up the stage, acting....but it is always such a delight to watch these children in the spotlight!

So, I've been a good little elf, and lately I've been brainstorming and creating for all of the special holiday events coming up, and, of course, for my Etsy shop just in time for the holiday rush.

In hopes of offering some good deals on my Etsy, I've decided that

Every week from now until Christmas, I will be having a sale on certain items in my Etsy shop.

This week's sale is on one of my newest additions to my Etsy-

a winter white felt brooch adorned with a vintage black button, and houndstooth leaves, properly named Winter in Paris.

From November 15- 17th this flower will be on sale for $10.00 plus shipping ($2.50).

*This classic winter flower pin is very versatile and can be worn by a young girl, teen, or woman.

*It is great for stocking stuffers, Chinese Christmas exchange, or any office gift exchanges.

*This brooch will be pinned to a pretty coordinating paper and will be placed in a cellophane bag.

*Best of all, it will come right to your mailbox!

Okay, my shameless promotion is almost over.

_{a glimpse of this year's Christmas tree}

For those of you who loved the vintage fur neckties, I have added more!!

I hope you all have a happy week!

I am off to do some more Christmas shopping!

Joyeux Noel

May you see Christmas this year like the heart of a child--filled with wonder.

I just want to wish all of you a safe and Merry Christmas!

This year for Christmas my parents are coming here. I can't wait to spend Christmas day with them in our home. I know that they will enjoy watching Amelia opening her gifts!

Joyeux Noel, mes amis!

Romantic Gift Wrap

Here are some of my gift wrapping projects that I promised to share! I have now wrapped three gifts (two more than last post). These three projects are very feminine and romantic.

When I gift wrap I try to keep in mind who I'm gifting. Some people could care less about gift wrap and those gifts are the ones that I can tackle in about five minutes.

However, I have many special women in my life who appreciate beautiful things, so I also try my best to make the outside of the gift special. These are the gifts that take a little more time, but it's always worth it.

I bought this gift wrap in Canton, TX at the flea market a couple of years ago. The colors of this paper are just gorgeous and the print on this paper is so sweet.

Like many of you, I have been following Sande's blog A Gift Wrapped Life for a long time, and I realize that wired ribbon is not always the most beautiful ribbon. This wired gold ribbon is one of those that looks pretty on the roll but in my hands it feels...cheap. It's very slippery and hard to work with. You don't even want to know the words that came out of my mouth when I was attempting to make this ribbon candy-like confection. Let's just say that I had to walk away and regroup before completing it.

However, the beautiful, high quality pink satin ribbon on this gift can be found in Sande's Wrap Room.

After Christmas is the perfect time to buy ornaments and Christmas adornments for next year's gift wrapping. I decided to string three miniature pink ornaments to the main ribbon on this gift with a thinner gold ribbon. I admit vintage pink ornaments would look better on this gift.

I was drawn to this paper because of the old gold and cream colors. Usually, I am not a big fan of traditional Christmas icons- Santa Clauses, reindeer, snowmen, etc. but I like the vintage illustration of Santa and the colors in this paper.

This gift is decorated with cream flocked velvet wired ribbon (purchased at--gasp-- Walmart last year). Okay, I must confess I actually like this premade gold ribbon in the center of this bow. I actually bought several of them.

The color of the gold ribbon is a muted gold, not a brassy gold.

This gift is wrapped in a muted gold damask with some cream accents.

I decided to make this gift simple.

I tied cream seam binding around it and into a bow. Then I made a simple circle out of cream cardstock and then stamped the word "Peace" in the center of it with gold ink.

At the bottom of this gift tag is an embellishment made from one of my "cast-off" petals made of cream silk and glitter leaves.

I hope you all have a "peaceful" weekend with your last-minute Christmas shopping and gift wrapping!

A Little Christmas Inspiration...

It's been since Thanksgiving that I've had a chance to blog again. Christmas time is here and I just love decorating for Christmas. The main reason is that I LOVE vintage ornaments, glitter, ribbons, especially the silver, vintage golds/champagnes, pinks, and aquas. As you can see, I have an artificial (politically correct term for "fake") four foot white Christmas tree. Most people who love real trees would not only snub this little tree, they would probably laugh in her face for being so unreal. That's okay with me, though!

This year's color palette for my Christmas tree is cream, vintage gold, and pink.

To give this stark white tree some warmth, I wrapped champagne colored tulle around it from top to bottom. Without ornaments, it looks like a wedding cake.

One thing I've discovered is, when you buy what you like everything you own seems to coordinate.

I hung Amelia's little dusty rose, gold, and chocolate brown velour dress behind the tree to bring in more color to the scene. I just love this little dress.

Michael's craft store had these WONDERFUL glittered feathered bird ornaments last year.

I nearly fell over when I saw them hanging there. I could decorate with these all year...

My favorite thing about this bird is that her feather are the perfect shade of cream and the ends of the feathers are curled up, creating a ruffled effect.

I place this tree atop our diningroom buffet every Christmas for two reasons:

Number 1-From the double windows in our adjoining living room, one can see the illuminated tree from our front yard.

Number 2-The enormous buffet mirror behind the tree reflects the lights and ornaments and makes this diminutive tree more substantial.

(And number 3- I just thought of another reason) Amelia can't reach the ornaments (or as she says, ORN-NAH-NENTS) from the floor:)

Unfortunately, Zena, the warrior princess, our very overweight cat, can still manange to leap up to the top of the buffet and snack on the plastic tree limbs. I guess when you put a tree on a buffet, one should expect it to be eaten...yeah, when a cat craves eating plastic, there's definitely some marbles missing...

I felt camera happy one evening and had to do a "photoshoot" of some of my brooches nestled in my Christmas tree. (Notice the big dark blob at the top of the tree in the first picture.)

This "Winter Wish" brooch is one of my newest additions to my Etsy store.

It is made of 100% silk in a beautiful shade of silver.

The center of this brooch is adorned with a layer of dove gray velvet and a

vintage rhinestone pin

One of my wrapped brooches

I don't know about all of you, but I have only wrapped ONE Christmas gift!

Oh, I am so behind.

I plan to share with you some of my wrapped gifts soon!

I hope you all have a blessed day!

_{All images by à la parisienne}