Crafty Jan has had a busy wrapping season! My sister and I always tap into her talents in this department. And when she makes presents too cute to unwrap, why wouldn’t we? Above is a gift she wrapped for my son’s birthday. Love how she popped the monkey up and gave him a flag.
And here, bubble wrap, a fish bowl and glitter letters make this present cuuuuuuuuute. Crafty, crafty! And that’s a wrap!
Crafty Jan strikes again! We’ve been on the kiddo birthday party circuit for a couple weeks now and here are two of the adorable wrap-jobs I roped my mom into whipping up for me. She has gotten every cent out of her cricut machine, that’s for sure!
Pink butterflies for the lady!
And beachy fishes for the little man. I love those toy fishes on top. She just plopped them on there with glue dots. Good idea, huh?
And that’s a wrap!
A couple weeks ago my sister Ellie, “The Bee,” turned 30! Yahoo! Instead of a big party, she and her huz opted to go to Vegas just the two of them. My mom, sister-in-law, and one of Ellie’s best friends, Brooke, couldn’t let her get away without some kind of celebration so we were planning on a midweek lunch with the birthday girl at my mom’s house. Little did we know what my mom really had in store for her… and us. A totally cute, surprise Bee Picnic. 
Since there were only 5 of us, my mom packed individually wrapped sandwiches, salad, and soup into one picnic basket. She set up a low beach table and we sat upon pillows to lunch and gab away.
I personally couldn’t get over the sandwich bags. That Crafty Jan sewed muslin sacks and printed the bee graphic she designed on iron-on transfers. So darling! Totally stealing this idea. Or better yet… begging her to make them for a party I throw! 
Loving the detail on this napkin set up. A teeny bee on a wire was floating above the ribbon, and eco-friendly utensils and the cutest paper straw ever were poking right out. Perfectomundo!
Totally adorable water bottles…
… and cute labels for the food.
You certainly cannot go wrong with yellow tulips.
Throw in some mimosas and you’ve got yourself a very happy Bee-day girl!
And what birthday would be complete without dessert? Loooove that thick candle.
My mom even stole my niece right after Ellie arrived and dressed her up in a bee costume! It was such a cute, unexpected and super adorable birthday party. That Crafty Jan needs to have her own blog! Until that happens, I promise to keep showing off her darling parties and pretending like I had something to do with it! 
Here’s the happy birthday Bee!
Well holy guacamole. Easter is this weekend! And if you’re hosting a family gathering but are a little short on time to make things springy and sweet, just dig into your ribbon stash!
Using complimentary ribbons, weave them over a table. You can get as crazy as you want and cover the whole thing – or stay simple and just highlight the corners like these photos show.
Simple, easy, and pretty.
Crafty Jan saves Easter! (Another one of her party tricks!) Now you can just spend your time figuring out what the heck you’re going to stuff into your kiddo’s Easter baskets. I recommend lots and lots of peeps. Then send them off to grandma’s house to work off that sugar. Just a suggestion.
Here’s a Crafty Jan special hot off the racks! GLITTER EGGS! Yahoo! Wanna join me in making these? Okay! Come on along!
You’ll need to gather your gear. You really can’t go wrong with that crafty broad Martha Stewart’s glitter and glue, but any tacky glue should be just fine. I’d still stick to her glitter though – and the bigger the egg the more glitter you’ll need.
You’ll need to find some paper-covered cardboard eggs. They are super cute in their own right, so you might have trouble covering them. Poor bunny up there doesn’t have a clue he’s going to be pounded with glitter in a matter of seconds! You can usually snag these guys at discount stores like Tuesday Morning, sometimes Home Goods, and usually Cost Plus World Market around Easter time. Just keep an eye out. Or google them. I think they go by “German paper-covered cardboard eggs.“
You’ll also need a variety of trimmings. Ribbons, buckles, wordy banners and knick knacks – whatever you have on hand or whatever you can scoop up at a craft store. (You won’t need all of this stuff… just showing you an example of what you can use but really the sky is the limit!) I love the purple foil trim up there but we’re not sure where it came from.
Now, crack that egg and brush some glue onto it.
Reconnect the egg before dousing that bad boy with glitter. What a pretty mess you’ll make!
Now look what you did! Stupendous! Don’t worry if it’s not perfect at the midsection… you’ll be putting trim on that area in a second.
Now measure the bottom half of the egg and cut a ribbon to fit. Wait until the egg is dry, then using tacky glue or a glue gun – whichever you’re most comfortable with – glue it onto that half.
For the top half, leave two ribbon pieces pretty long and glue each ribbon to either side. Make sure it matches up with the ribbon on the bottom half. Remember that you are going to want to open this egg, so make sure you don’t wrap the whole egg in ribbon. (You can see the two halves they way they should look in the lower photo up there.)
Take those long ribbons and tie a pretty bow on top.
Now with either a glue gun or a smaller glue pen, glue each edge of the egg one side at a time so you can add some fun trimming.
Trim one side, then repeat the glue+trim thing on the other side.
Add something funky to the top! This “Easter Greetings” was just printed on plain old 20 lb. paper cut to look like a banner.
And look what you made, you sassy little glitter bug! Glitter eggs! Yahoo! What a fun way to wrap an Easter gift too! You know like candy? toys? $100 bills? (Hey Easter Bunny, did you hear that?)
Here are some more inspiring eggs for your viewing pleasure! I love how that yellow one turned out… it was actually a happy accident. The pattern underneath really came through since the glitter was so light but I think it made it even prettier. And those daises are too cute, right? As toppers anything works! Check out that blue lizard! So fun for a little boy’s basket. Clever, clever Crafty Jan strikes again!
Here’s another Crafty Jan special! My mom wrapped an enormous present for our friend Chelsea who had a circus-themed baby shower. I don’t know if you can tell by the photo how large this is, but it is a honker of a present! I think we gave her a jumparoo or something big like that if that helps you gauge the size.
The best part about this one was that it was interactive. Open the tent doors to find a three ring circus going on! Clever, clever. 
And of course, she put one of her signature flags on top! Wouldn’t you be excited to get a present like this?
Chelsea’s shower was over the big-top adorable! I’m going to track down photos and show you what her mother-and-sisters-in-law came up with. It will blow your mind!
Thanks for the photos Chelsea! Can’t wait to share more!
Hello party peeps! Today, with the help of Crafty Jan, I am going to teach you how to make a really simple paper flag. I love this concept so much because you can do so much with it! But we’ll talk about that in a sec. Now, let’s figure out how to make this bad boy.
Gather your gear, my dears! You’ll need:
a small wood dowel or a fruit skewer
a wooden bead
tacky glue
pretty glitter (oh that Martha strikes again… she does make the prettiest glitter.)
assorted ribbons
double stick tape (or a trusty tape gun)
paper or design to use as the flag about 8.5″ x 2.75″ – I print on standard 20lb paper so it waves like a flag should!
and a paper plate to catch any messy mess
Crafty Jan makes these a ton so she’s got some great time-saving tricks. So what are we waiting for? Let’s hop to!
1. Dip the tip of your skewer into the glue bottle. So clean and easy! I probably would have poured glue all over the plate. No waste! Love it.
2. Now put that wood bead onto the glued part of the skewer. Now this is important info right here: WAIT until that glue dries or you will lose that bead on the next step. Isn’t waiting so dang hard? 
3. All dry? Okay, now dip the ball into the glue.
4. What you’ve got is a nice little gluey mess.
5. Now use your fingers to make the glue less messy and more uniform.
6. Get ready to dip into the glitter! Same way as dipping into the glue! No mess!
7. Out comes a pretty glittered ball. Nice work, Lady! (Or do dudes read this blog too? In that case, nice work to you too, Dude!)
8. Now leave that pretty ball alone. Find a nice place for it to hang out for a bit while we get to the next part. 
9. Grab your pretty paper or flag design.
10. Now you’ll need to make a little flag cut. An easy way to do this is to gently fold – but NOT crease – the flag at it’s center…
11. …Then snip it diagonally so you’re left with…
12. …Something like this!
13. Now grab your tape! You’ll need to tape the back of squared edge of the flag. Make the taped area about 1″ or so wide.
14. Fold the taped portion around the skewer. Easy enough, right?
15. Make sure you leave a little room between the flag and the glitter ball. This space will be used for ribbons!
16. Speaking of ribbons… grab a few of your favs and either pinch the center of each ribbon together or tie it in a knot.
17. Tie the ribbons onto the flag with using your smallest ribbon. Baker’s twine is actually a great option because it’s thin and looks super cute, but you can make anything work!
And what do you know? You’re all done! So cute! Now what can you do with a flag like this?
Oh no, no! The question is what can’t you do with a flag like this? They make fun additions to flower arrangements or wine bottles if you need a hostess gift, they’re great for birthday gals or guys, small versions would be darling as place cards, they are cute for the holidays as decorations, and my sister even used one and mailed them out as her daughter’s baby announcement. (If you do want to mail them, lose the bead and just use ribbons. It will mail better and be less expensive to send.)
Have fun creating, friends, and thanks Crafty Jan for your tutorial!
Now let’s all wave our flags as I wave bye bye!
Crafty Jan strikes again. I pretty much never wrap any gift I give if my mom’s available to help. This time she wrapped my and her gift for Kari’s shower using beautiful ribbons.
I’m really not crafty when it comes to things like this, but I think this is something you could recreate. The key is in a cute box. She picks up boxes like these wherever she can find them but I would start at Target and see what you can find.
Then wrap those pretty ribbons all over the box and you’ve got yourself a little piece of art. (It’s pretty enough without the giraffe so don’t fret if all you’ve got are ribbons.)
Speaking of ribbons, make sure you cut on the diagonal or in a V shape. A straight cut just doesn’t do it for me.
Here’s a monochromatic look at another gift this crazy lady wrapped. So sweet, right?
Pretty box + pretty ribbons = pretty present. Nice job, Jannie!
Oh and what’s that you say? You’re curious about that adorable flag? Okay, okay. I’ll teach you how to make one of those next week! Have a good one!
With all the parties you go to, you certainly can’t arrive empty-handed! So why not make your gift something to gab about? When it comes to wrapping presents, I have to say that my mom is the master. She’s such an outside-the-box thinker and literally turns gifts into works of art.
Using her trusty Cricut machine, bubble wrap, a bathtub ducky, sparkly paper, and her uber-creative brain, she turned this huge boxy shower gift into a feast for the eyes. 
I won’t attempt to deliver directions on how to recreate something like this. I’ll be posting her creativity for inspiration purposes and to show that if you just stretch the imagination a little, you can create something truly unique.
Here’s a much simpler, but still darling example of her work. Crowd pleasers to be sure! Happy wrapping! If you have any questions, go ahead and post them… I can try to answer as best I can.
**And quick side note, I am going to add a category on the right that is devoted strictly to the things she does. You’ll be able to reference her under crafty jan.**
