Valetine Blog Hop

My favorite card (and the favorite of many) this Valentine's Day season was inspired by my exact feelings of the holiday.

I'm not a big Valentine's Day person. I get frustrated by its over-commercialization. And I think this card sums up my very reason for that. Why should we say I love you in a big way just on Valentine's Day? Yet here I am, still making and selling Valentine's Day cards. So that in itself is a bit hypocritical. I am a card maker after all, I suppose.

When challenged by the Etsy Greetings Team to pair one of my cards with an Etsy gift for this blog hop, it became obvious what would be most fitting. Cards and stationery are meant to be written in, so it makes complete sense that I chose these fabulous Valentine's themed pencil packs from Write With Moxie.

I love the simple idea of the pencils, and being a teacher, I find these too cool for school. Perfect to pair up with a card to to give just as is!

And don't forget, see what other Valentine's Day pairs the Etsy Greetings Team has come up with by following the hop via the links below!

Holiday Gift Tags

One thing that I love about the upcoming holiday is wrapping gifts. A lot of people hate this task, but I always have enjoyed it. There is something super fun about making sure that each package is wrapped with nice sharp creases and that the end product looks like perfection. Maybe it is the inner nerd in me, but I just love it!

Growing up, gift wrapping was one of those things that also meant time spent with my parents. I would spend an evening wrapping gifts with either my mom or dad, while the other was out running last minute shopping errands with my sister. My dad seemed to have the knack of folding the perfect corners with wrapping paper, while my mom always used the wrapping paper itself to decorate the package, folding small lines across the front of the package.

One thing that we never had for our packages were gift tags. My mom would write names on the gifts with a pen, while my dad had an elephant's memory and remembered which package was meant for whom. This seemed to be a good system for my dad until one year, upon giving my mom and I a gift at the same time, we were disappointed when she opened a gift containing a stuffed animal and I opened one containing a sweater clearly meant for my mom. After a good laugh, we thought it may be time for a new system. From there on out we made our own gift tags, usually from leftover scraps of wrapping paper-- nothing fancy whatsoever.

So as I thought about something I would want for this holiday season to make things a bit easier, I decided gift tags would be just the thing. And as an added bonus, I figured that I would share them with you. Just click here and feel free to download them for your own personal use.

Simply cut out the tags, punch a hole on them and add your choice of ribbon or twine. And for a bit more fun, this blog post is part of the Etsy Greetings Holiday Blog Hop. So while you're at it, stop by other blogs of the Etsy Greetings Team to check out more printables and holiday traditions. Just click on the blog hop arrows below to make your way through the hop.