Taheerah Atchia

Hey everyone! Happy Saturday!!

I’ve been looking forward to this Saturday ever since the last Saturday, lol! That’s because it means I’m able to bring you another post as Winnie & Walter’s Leading Lady for this month!!!

Firstly, let me thank you for all the fantastic support and sweet comments left on my debut performance. and also my second performance and third performance! And again, I cannot thank Julie and Shay enough for their amazing hospitality, wonderful support and encouragement, and even greater generosity!! I’m still a little overwhelmed by it all!! Hope it doesn’t show in today’s performance, lol!

I just wanted to remind you that my appearances as Leading Lady are just one of many many events happening on the Winnie & Walter blog in celebration of their birthday month!

NOT ONLY do I get to bring you some new and fun projects every Saturday for the entire month of January on the Winnie & Walter blog, but I also get a front row seat to all the birthday celebration fun they’ll be having too! AND January is my birthday month too, so I felt even more like a pampered star, with my birthday being celebrated in a very special way! I feel utterly spoiled and can’t thank Julie & Shay enough for their hospitality and generosity!!

AND THERE’S MORE!!!

I wanted to also remind you that Julie and Shay very generously offered to sponsor my Cure For The Monday Blues Challenge for this entire month too!!! 

So not only do I get to bring you some inspiration every Saturday (& a giveaway for those posts too!!) but you also get the chance to win prizes for my challenge also!!! Make sure you play along with the challenge to be in with a chance of winning awesome prizes!!

So, back to today’s scheduled performance! How about a little something different this week? 🙂

The response to my performances so far as Leading Lady has been so positive and kind! And the continued support and kindness of Shay and Julie, and of course their amazing generosity, has been a tremendous gift! Overall I’d say that the Leading Lady gig has been like the gift that keeps on giving! And that brought me to thinking about gifts, and the gift of giving. 🙂

So today I’m going in a different direction and giving you a handmade gift set! I bought the amazing homemade soaps from a craft market last year, and I thought they’d make the perfect gift for someone special! Unfortunately the packaging left a lot to be desired – but that’s where I come in!

So let’s take a look at the little gift set I whipped up (warning: photo-heavy post ahead!): 

I am *so* thrilled with how this turned out!!  

I wanted to go with a gender-neutral palette, and something that tied in with the rustic nature of these wonderful soap bars! Winter Woodland is certainly the stamp set that keeps giving – just look at that packaging!! 

I started with a vellum wrap for the soap. I used a ruler to help tear some straight edges for my vellum for a very natural look! Then I repeatedly stamped the tree rings from Winter Woodland for a stunning presentation! I wrapped some twine round the bar and tied in a simple bow to secure the wrap – no need for adhesives and makes the wrap totally reusable too! I used some Multi Matte Medium on the twine tails to stiffen them so they hold their shape.

I stamped the branch sprig from Winter Woodland and fussy cut it out. Yep, I fussy cut that sucker as I don’t have an electronic die cutting machine! Good thing I enjoy fussy cutting!! For those of you who break out in a cold sweat at the thought of cutting out a complicated image like this (or who are more sane than me!) remember Winnie & Walter have cut files for this set!! 

I wanted to add a cute little gift tag so I die cut one from vellum and a corresponding tag from Rustic White cardstock. I kept the same torn edge look on the vellum to match the wrap and kept the stamping in sympathy with the wrap too! I then stamped the ‘You’ from The Big, the Bold and You and the companion ‘for’ sentiment and trimmed both out. I used a mini peg (clothes pin) to pin the sprig and tags together (having threaded the tags onto the twine before tying into a bow) and adhered the ‘for’ to the pin using Multi Matte Medium. I just wove the ‘You’ into the bow loop loosely so you can remove it (you’ll see why later!).

On the reverse of the cardstock tag I stamped the ‘to:’ and ‘from:’ from Happy Christmas to complete the tag.

Now then, a cute gift set also needs a little card to go with it! I kept mine nice and clean and simple, and kept the same elements as used on the packaging:

And here they are together:

Sometimes you don’t need a sentiment, y’know? 🙂

Especially when you can detach the ‘You’ from the packaging and do something like this:

*squeal* I *love* little design details like this! It totally expands on the presentation options, and doubles-up on awesomeness too!

And, because this kind of packaging works with any design really, I created another wrap, this time sponging some gold ink through the Scenery: Big Bang Classic Star Creative Screenings to create a fun star-themed wrap.

I’ll leave you with one last shot – then I’m off to wash my hands. 🙂

So, that’s a wrap on my penultimate week as Leading Lady! What do you all think? I’ve had *such* fun putting these cards together, so I can hardly wait for next week! I hope you feel the same way! 😀 If you are impatiently waiting (like me!) how about a little something to sweeten the deal? 🙂

I’ll be giving away a $30 gift card to Winnie & Walter this month! All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to leave a comment on the Leading Lady posts on my blog! The more posts you comment on the greater your chance of winning, so be sure to comment every week to improve your odds! I’ll announce the winner at the end of the month! 🙂

I want to once again extend my sincerest thanks to Julie & Shay for giving me this opportunity! I cannot tell you how much it means to me, and I hope I’ll do you girls, and your amazing products, justice!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you left some love before you went on your way!!

 

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