Printable New Year's gift tags for bottles

As 2012 draws to a close, I wish everyone a happy new year! Thanks so much for reading, commenting, and sharing ideas with me this year.

If you'll be heading to a party, you might make use of these printable gift tags I whipped up. Download, print, trim, and fill out the "to" space to make a bottle of wine or champagne a little more festive.

Download the PDF here (2.4 MB)

On a related note, I used a gift certificate from Moo.com, the printing company, to make some matching greeting cards. I'm always on the lookout for good printers in my line of work, so I was eager to give them a try. Opening the box I got in the mail was like Christmas, since it had fun stickers and graphics printed inside. I've never seen a commercial printer put so much thought and care into their packaging. The cards and envelopes were snuggled in their compartments securely, and they were flawless. Vibrant colors and thick paper stock. And the cool thing about Moo is that I could have put a different design on every single card in the pack if I'd wanted to, all included in the price. I'm impressed. Put Moo in your rolodex for future reference.

And with that, I'm signing off for now! I'll resume posting the second week of January, after a holiday break full of traveling and hosting visitors. Happy 2013!

Cheap, homemade Christmas ornaments

Our Christmas tree has a few purchased ornaments on it, but most are paper things I've made. For a recap of the tutorials:

Modular balls
Flowers
Teardrops
Snowflakes
Ice cream cones
Striped bulbs
Retro foam ornaments
Origami garland (not on the tree at the moment, since it's in the process of getting longer.)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

DIY paper teardrop ornaments

I made a few more ornaments for my mostly paper-decorated tree. It's been super gloomy outside, so the corner of the living room with the tree is too dark for picture taking. Imagine these on a silver Christmas tree, instead of hanging from the wooden skewer I taped temporarily to the window sill to obtain maximum natural light. Ha!

To make these paper teardrops, download the template and print it on colored paper.

Cut out the drops, then fold them in half lengthwise with the printed side facing out. Cut out the hole in the middle.

Align the sides of two pieces and glue them together. Keep gluing in more pieces until the ornament is as full as you like. I used 16 pieces for these, but you could add even more. Then string the ornaments on thread.

Generate mini typographic posters

If you've got a favorite quote, you can visit recitethis.com and turn it into a graphic for display on websites and blogs. If you don't have a favorite quote, you can pick from a big library of phrases. Generated images are low resolution (about 2" wide at 300 dpi, standard print res) but they're amply sized for the web. Have fun creating and sharing!

(Thanks, Tania!)

Make an origami penguin

I folded this little origami penguin by following the step-by-step video tutorial from Jo Nakashima. All the pre-creasing went well, but the wings and tail had me scratching my head a little while. Fortunately it turned into a penguin and not a crumpled paper ball in my garbage can. I will not be making a penguin army, but I think somebody should.

A roundup of holiday wallpaper freebies

If your desktop, phone, or tablet could use a dash of festivity, download these free Christmas wallpapers in assorted sizes.

Above, wallpaper from Ampersand Design Studio with a matching gift tag download

From Wordpress, in blue and red versions

From Ciera Designs

From West Elm, an assortment of choices

From The Henry Ford (scroll down a bit when you get there)

From Eleanor Grosch, a variety of options

From ModCloth, various designs

Make your own Lego ornaments

Designer and photographer Chris McVeigh creates objects out of Legos and shares instructions for how to build your own Lego Christmas ornaments.

See all of his build-it-yourself projects here, including holiday bulbs, a turkey, and Santa's sleigh. Or check out the Star Wars ornaments, along with a piece of cake and a hamburger. Find the parts lists and instructions for the Christmas items right here. Awesome!

(Via ManMade DIY.)

Free font: Grand Hotel

If you need a sweet, retro script that would look pretty on holiday cards, try Grand Hotel, a free OpenType font by Astigmatic. Get it right here at Font Squirrel.

DIY geometric Christmas tree card

I tried out a simple, geometric Christmas tree card made from solid-color papers. To make your own, get my template file right here.

You could use just a white sheet of cardstock to make this. Or, if you want contrasting colors, do what I did:

Print the template at 100% on white cardstock. (This makes a 4.25" x 5.5" folded card to fit a standard A-2 announcement envelope.)

Then glue a colored sheet of light-weight paper to the back of the cardstock. I used my fancy Xyron machine and some cheap Astrobright paper from Office Max. You could also use spray adhesive to glue the colored paper to the white cardstock. Or better yet, find cardstock that's already two colors.

Next, cut along the printed lines with a sharp craft knife, slicing all the way through both sheets of paper. Try to keep to the outside of the triangles so any printed lines will be hidden when the flaps are folded down.

Then cut out the card.

Fold the pointed flaps down to form the tree and fold the card in half.

If you write inside the card, your message will show through the holes in the front. So if you like, add a second sheet of colored paper to write your message inside.

Cut matching paper to 8.5" x 5.5", fold it in half, and use a strip of double stick tape to secure it to the inside back panel of the card.

If the triangles won't stay flat enough for your liking, lay a heavy book on the card for a little while to press the flaps open.

I like how the cutouts create shadows and a 3D look.

Fabric sighting on a book cover

I don't know anything about this soon-to-be-released sewing book, other than that it has one of my fabrics on the cover. A fun surprise! Thank you to whoever sent me the link to this at Amazon, and apologies that I can't remember who it was or find your note at the moment. If you guys didn't send me things, I'd never see where my stuff ends up. I appreciate it!

Download free typographic wallpapers

Fifty Five Hi's has a fun selection of typographic wallpapers for the taking. Help yourself right here to some quotes and illustrations to adorn your devices. And admire the prints, posters, and cards for sale there, too— the output of designer Ross Moody's creative brain.

Calligraphy gift tags and more

The annual 24 days of Free Christmas Downloads has kicked off at Suite Muffin Suite. Ms. Muffin has designed some lovely hand-drawn calligraphy gift tags you can download and print. Or get desktop wallpapers, printable cards, and decorations from various designers. Check the blog throughout December as new freebies are added!

Make a geometric origami garland

If you like folding paper, here's a pretty origami garland to try. Each "bead" takes half a sheet of origami paper. (Preferably a different color on each side.) It's time consuming, but I love how it looks. It's a good, repetitive activity to do while watching Christmas movies you've seen a hundred times.

Learn how to make it from Daily Origami's YouTube video tutorial. The design is by Toshie Takahama.

I didn't have a long enough needle to string them, so I used a piece of thin wire bent double at the end to form a hook. I poked holes in the ends of the beads first with a real needle, then used my make-shift needle to pull the thread through.

Printable monogram gift tags

'Tis the season for gift wrapping! To help us, Sarah Khandjian has made sets of free, monogram gift tags to download and print. They're sprinkled with confetti and come in four colors. Tie them to packages, wine bottles, or your children if you have trouble remembering which one is which.

Sarah is a graphic designer and blogger who loves making things. She spends her days designing custom stationery, crafting DIY projects and covering her entire house with glitter. You can find daily design inspiration and DIY projects at her blog, Sarah Hearts, and view her portfolio here.

Download your choice of monogram gift tag PDFs right here:
Blue alphabet
Gold and silver alphabet
Pink and teal alphabet
Red and green alphabet

Printable advent city

Have you seen this cool, make-it-yourself advent calendar at Mr. Printables? Build a set of geometric-patterned boxes that look like buildings, numbered 1 - 24, to form a Christmas city.