Packaging Ambassador: Rebecca Luminarias

Hello, hello!  After a month off from packaging duties to focus on Papertrey Anniversary festivities, I’m so excited to be back!  It’s feeling like spring where I live (because it never feels like winter in Southern California) and I’m seeing tulips everywhere!  That’s very exciting since the stamps and dies I designed for the February release center heavily on that spring flower.

My Packaging Ambassador post this month is a bit of a departure from my usual fare in that I’m not using a bag or a box, but rather packaging up some flowers in order to show you how I intended the stamps and dies to be used.  Don’t fret, however, if you’re not keen to give flowers often…the sentiments and dies can be used for giving ANY gift, I promise!

For my colors this month, I actually had a little help from some of the lovely ladies in the Papertrey Ink Forum.  I’ve been using many of the same colors lately, I feel, so I decided to ask what everyone else was using.  To my surprise, a resounding chorus of “Green Parakeet!” rang out–and it’s such a gorgeous shade of green for spring florals that I had to use it.  I also heard Winter Wisteria so I chose WW, GP, and paired them with Sweet Blush and Raspberry Fizz (okay, I used those back in January, but they are so pretty with the other colors!).  Plus, I saw ALL of those shades in the tulips I picked so it was kismet.

Onto the wraps themselves…these are really more about the tags than anything else, but I steadfastly believe that sometimes a tag (or a few) is all you really need for successful packaging.  In today’s projects, I’ve focused on the tags, choosing the Large Tulip Tag and Scalloped Tags dies and pairing them with the You Deserve Flowers stamp set.

I wrapped my first bunch of tulips in tissue paper and tied it up with Sweet Blush Grosgrain ribbon.  For my tags, I used the Scalloped Tags Dies, which I designed to coordinate with the sentiments and images in the You Deserve Flowers stamp set.  Because the tag, to me, was critical in my vision for giving flowers, I wanted to design a simple but feminine tag set.  There are 4 tags, ranging from 1 1/2″ x 1″ all the way up to 3 3/4″ x 2 1/2″ to fit any of the stamp messages.

I began with a base of gold glitter paper, die cutting a tag with the largest of the dies, then trimmed a second tag in the next size down from white cardstock.  A flurry of leaves stamped repeatedly in Green Parakeet and Limeade Ice is my version of a patterned paper tag.  The next layer is a soft pink embroidery floss tassel, followed by a tag trimmed with the Large Tulip Die.  I LOVE this die and I hope you will, too!  I’ll tell you a bit more about it when I move onto the next tulip bunch, but here I’ve stamped “you deserve flowers” in Winter Wisteria and a tulip bulb trio in Sweet Blush.

To finish the layered tag set, I topped it off with the smallest scallop tag, simply stamped with a colorful Raspberry Fizz and Green Parakeet flower.

The tag set is tied around the grosgrain ribbon with pink twine.  You could use this same tag set on a larger bouquet or a vase of flowers.  How about even a bouquet of handmade paper or felt flowers?

My second bouquet is tulips again, a trio this time.  And I wrapped them up in layers of purple tulle and kraft paper, getting my texture in any way I can!  This time I tied up the paper with New Leaf Satin ribbon.  Since flowers, and nature in general (and, happily, PTI!), have such varying and complex shades of color, I’m not trying to be matchy-matchy.  I used what I had on-hand with the tulle and ribbon, keen to bring in a deeper shade of green with the New Leaf.  It’s right up there with Green Parakeet in terms of great Spring greens!

Sometimes, just one simple tag is enough; especially when it’s the shape of a tulip bulb and colorfully stamped.  It’s okay to let the flowers themselves steal the show–fresh flowers are tough competition, after all.  But just because they’re the star doesn’t mean your tag and wrap can’t be great supporting characters.

The Large Tulip Tag die is big enough for many of the sentiments in the You Deserve Flowers stamp set, and in this case, there’s even room enough for an image.  In some of the phrases, I’ve formatted the word layout to leave room enough to tuck the small flower images into them–like here, you’ll notice the bouquet of tulips seamlessly sits to the right of the message.  While you can (and should!) use this set to make cards, too, I really wanted to be able to create quick tags where the phrases and imagery blend together effortlessly.

Large tags or small tags; single stems or by the dozen, there are plenty of options for delivering hand-picked (or store-bought, no judgment here 🙂 flowers to the special folks in your life.

And it doesn’t have to involve tulips–may I just say that You Deserve Flowers is the perfect complement to the Papertrey Ink Anniversary set, Mixed Bouquet?!  This tag features Betsy’s floral designs from that set paired with a sentiment from YDF.

I’ve also used the “flowers” die from You Deserve Flowers Sentiments die collection.  It coordinates with the “flowers” in the stamp set so I stamped the word in Green Parakeet and die cut it to add to my tag, which is the largest Scalloped Tag.

“Picked just for you” is stamped in Winter Wisteria, while the pretty blooms are Sweet Blush and Raspberry Fizz with GP stems.  I can’t wait to make more cards and tags with the rest of the florals from Mixed Bouquet and blend them with the sentiments from You Deserve Flowers.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post…so many in the USA are experiencing miserable winter storms and I hope I was able to inject a small burst of sunshine into your dreary house-bound hearts today.  Stay warm, my friends!

Stamps: You Deserve Flowers, Anniversary Set: Mixed Bouquet

Ink: Green Parakeet, Winter Wisteria, Raspberry Fizz, Sweet Blush, Limeade Ice

Paper: Stamper’s Select White Cardstock

Dies: Large Tulip Tag, Scalloped Tags, You Deserve Flowers Sentiments

Ribbon: Sweet Blush Grosgrain, New Leaf Satin

Other: Tulle, Glitter Paper, Twine