This printable is coming to you a bit on the late side, but I figure now is better than never. :)  Here's what I used for this year's Christmas box. I love the pillow box design. It's easy to cut and assemble and it holds just the right amount of caramels for a small treat. I've done this shape in the past, but figured I'd give it a fresh new look with some calligraphy and watercolor foliage.  As I assembled the boxes, I noticed that some of the boxes started to come undone. The double-stick tape wasn't cutting it with the fuzzy letterpress paper I had used for printing. So I used some cheery red tape to keep the edge closed. It added a festive touch.  I got extra fancy, and busted out the gold ink and penned the names of the household. I only put 4 caramels in there, so it wasn't meant for sharing with the whole family. ;) Want to see previous Christmas Candy Box printables? Click the years below: 

2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015

I rounded up the kiddos and we started walking around the neighborhood to drop off the treats, but the 9º wind chill made that excursion last for 2 houses. Felix and I popped in the car and drove the rest around. I was kind of bummed that the weather was too yucky for a winter stroll. But such is life!  I hope you use these boxes for next year!! Click the link below to download. The download includes a printable for cutting by hand and files for the Print & Cut feature on Silhouette. Enjoy! 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

The freebies in this post are free for personal use only. Alteration or distribution without written consent is prohibited.

Want to learn more about the brush calligraphy used in the download? Check out my online class right here!

This year marks the first in 7 years that I haven't booked my ticket to Alt Summit. As a result, I've decorated for Christmas. And I've had fun doing it, too! I've been slowly growing my collection of decor items, and I'm at a happy place this year with a grown-up tree that's dressed to my liking.  I have a few personal hang-ups with holiday decor. One being that it's impossible to store the other 12 months of the year and the other is that it takes up too much living space while out that everything feels cramped.  I found our white, pre-lit, minimalist tree a couple of years ago at Walmart for $80. The closest I could find is this one. But I fell in love with the realistic texture of the branches and the tiny box footprint it takes up when in storage. The problem: it's really sparse. So I got creative. I don't like the look of seeing the metallic pole down the center, so I bought a couple of feather boas and wrapped the center of the tree with them. The feathers added richness and weight to the tree that was lacking.  Many of the ornaments I've had in the past are white and silver, but with the white tree, I felt like it's too cold to have silver details. So I opted for warmer white and soft pink details with pops of green and dark browns. Since the tree is so obviously fake, I thought some realistic tree picks with flocked pine cones added a nice touch. And the flowers. The flowers really did it for me.  Eco Flower sent me a wood flower bouquet for styling with my calligraphy work. As a quick shout-out, I wish they'd been around when Chris and I got married. They're beautiful and last forever! Chris helped me deconstruct the bouquet and add the beautiful blooms to our tree. Since they're on wire stems, it was easy to wrap them around the branches and affix in place. In fact, most of the decor is firmly stuck to the tree so it's quite kid-friendly. The only issue I've had with the decorations so far is that Junie likes to open up the presents when I'm not looking. She's having fun and it's no big deal to re-wrap those boxes. In addition to the wood flowers, I got out the bunch of paper flowers I made months back out of coffee filters as a craft night with friends. The bigger, fluffier blossoms fill out the tree nicely, too.  In lieu of a tree skirt, I got a basket from Tai Pan trading to fit the tree. I still have to cover the ugly stand with presents, but that's a good excuse to get my gift-game on early to cover it all up. At some point, I hope to DIY a wooden stump into a stand. Maybe next year? There's always next year.  I'm just so thrilled with how it all turned out. I'm slowly figuring out my personal style when it comes to holiday decor, and I'm enjoying the process.  RESOURCES: 

• Wood flowers: Eco Flower c/0
• 12 days of Christmas: Land of Nod c/o
• Pink wrapping paper: Tiny Prints
• Gold wrapping paper: Tai Pan Trading
• Basket: Tai Pan Trading
• Picks: Tai Pan Trading & Walmart
• Paper flowers: handmade

 

I've spent about 3 weeks with Sakura's newest product, the 48 pan watercolor set (it's currently sold out on Amazon). It's fabulous. I'm loving the color and texture quality. LOVING.  See my review below and enter to win a 36 pan set on Instagram RIGHT HERE. If you want to learn more about how to watercolor, check out the work of Natalie Malan. 

LAST CHANCE to sign up for this Thursday's upcoming calligraphy workshop. We're covering brush lettering and making customized tags for this season's gift-giving. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!  This class is going to be jam-packed full of great info, and tasty treats. For $80, you get:

• materials (marker, pencil, paper, tags, ribbon, exemplar sheets)
• treats
• 2 hours of instruction

The instruction is hands-on. I'll demonstrate the basic strokes, alphabet and walk around and help attendees with orientation, positioning and grip. Lefties, beginners and intermediate letterers are welcome! I demonstrate left-handed for left-handed guests, so no one gets left out. Can't make it to Paper Crush for the event? Take the online brush class HERE or sign up for our newsletter below.

This post is sponsored by Tiny Prints. They provide excellent quality printing and amazing printing options to make your holiday cards stand out this year. I love Tiny Prints. They make sending out Christmas cards a no-brainer. The designs are beautiful and already done for me (we used this one for ours). It's wonderful to be able to simplify another thing about this time of year without sacrificing tradition. To help you simplify even more, below I've included a printable envelope template to help you address your holiday cards quickly. I've even included a fun, casual all-caps alphabet exemplar to use with the template.

Do you have a Silhouette cutter? CLICK HERE to download the .DXF file for the envelope template. You may still want to scroll to the bottom so you can print out the alphabet exemplar as well.

The family photos were totally chaotic, but Sam Pierson captured the energy and love of our family perfectly. And to be quite honest, I love the screaming photos. June was in the worst mood ever, she didn't want to have anything to do with our photo session. I was worried that we wouldn't have any good ones, but candid photos  just get me.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Use the envelope template for all-caps work with markers or pens (thicker pens work better, in my opinion), or use it in your regular handwriting! Just write the descenders last, after you take off the template.

Shop ornaments here.

With the help of Tiny Prints, I've gotten grandparent, teacher, bus driver and friend gifts all taken care of. Their custom wrapping paper is beautiful and you can get it in large rolls to wrap bigger gifts.

Shop gift wrap here. A huge thanks to Tiny Prints for working with me this year! It's the third year I've partnered with them and I've loved every single product I've ordered through them. If you have any questions about ordering, just ask! The freebies in this post are free for personal use only. Alteration or distribution without written consent is prohibited.