I've recently stumbled upon Eddie Ross's design website and blog and have become greatly inspired by many of his ideas.  He is greatly talented but has ideas which are inexpensive, uncomplicated and beautiful.  I used his idea for the paper I used to wrap my christmas presents this year. When I saw this idea, I immediately fell in love with it and wanted to give it a try.  It seemed easy enough, even I couldn't mess it up and it was! I decided to use silver, blue, and white to match the colors of my wrapping paper and because I find they are lovely together.

For this project you will need:

One wire hanger (find one in your closet or beg your local dry cleaner)

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

65-80 ornaments of varying sizes and colors

Ribbon for the bow on top

Begin by using glue gun to securely attach metal caps to ornaments.  This will keep them from falling off once stung on the hanger.  Next, bend hanger into the shape of a circle.  Once that is done, unwind the top of the wire hanger and begin stringing on the ornaments varying colors and sizes as you go.  To finish, rewind the top of the hanger and use the hook of the hanger to hang the wreath.  Attach ribbon to hide the exposed part of the hanger.  And you're done!

I really love this wreath I made and I am ignoring the perfectionist in me who wants to take it apart and start again. I can see where the colors/patterns are grouped together and could be spread out.  But, in the end, I made this, it makes me smile and I don't need much more than that.  It's a lovely addition to our Christmas decorations.

I have some fairly strong opinions about gift giving and I firmly believe a well wrapped gift can add not just to a gift's appearance but to the significance of the gift itself.  With that in mind, I had been contemplating alternatives to the $1.99 roll of Christmas wrapping paper from Target when I cam across this post from Eddie Ross.  I knew I had to give it a try

For this project you will need:

One roll of Kraft paper (I used white but am already imagining other colors for the future)

Non water based spray paint (for me, one can made approximately 20 ft of wrapping paper)

1-2 yards of inexpensive lace or eyelet fabric of your choosing

The directions are very simple:  Lay your fabric flat on top of the paper and spray paint evenly over fabric - you're done!  Do not worry about imperfections, they add to the character and handmade feel of the paper

A few notes:  Be safe - use a well ventilated space and wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty.  If you're like me, you'll end up with some paint on you instead of the paper.  I used an eyelet fabric which gave me a smaller design than the lace Eddie used but I still really liked the end results.  Some of the paint went through the fabric creating a misting effect between the holes.  This was unexpected but I thought it added a nice touch.  I draped the paper over the back of a chair and let it dry overnight before I wrapped the gifts,  Also, one of the paints I used was a silver plating finish - it was sparkly, pretty and reminded me of snow.  However, I DO NOT recommend using this typed of paint.  Even when it was dry, it would rub off.  I ended up having to spray a coat of fixative on the paper to keep the paint on the paper and off my hands and clothes.  I also used this technique (also from Eddie Ross) for the bows.

In the end, I had lovely looking gifts to give to family and friends.