Up In The Season

I've been caught up in the Season of Christmas, hence my absence from the blog.  Between nursing a three-and-a-half-week-long head cold (three and a half weeks, people!) and managing the shopping/wrapping/sending gift mission and, oh yeah, work, I've neglected CYAH for over a week.  Shame on me.

But I come back bearing gifts... FREE printable gift tags for your holiday gifts.  There are many artistic, crafty and downright adorable bloggers & artists on the web who have generously provided their art for free download this season.  So why buy those tiny sticker tags or pricey cardstock options when you can print them out for free on your own paper at home?  Any of these will add an extra crafty panache to your gifts this year.


 Baking Labels and Gift Tags from Crafty Carnival

Free printable tags from Insightful Nana

Christmas Tags from Yoonie At Home

Holiday Gift Tags from Nina Seven



Gift Tags & Wine Bottle Tags from Alpha Mom

 

Botantical Tags from West Elm

 

Gift Tags from Brunte Productions

from the delightful Sarah Hearts, Free DIY Gift Tag Template

 

Holiday Labels from Orange You Lucky



Blue Gift Tags from Totally Severe

Typographic Gift Tags from Eat Drink Chic

Holiday Tags from Blush Printables

Happy wrapping and happy gift-giving!

Cheers,
Whitney

Um, Yum?

Sometimes, I think I'd like to make my prized-turkey more prize-like.  And I'll bet a golden delicious apple would be better if it was actually golden?

A team of Germans culinary geeks apparently thought the same thing, and developed edible spay paint in metallic colors.  No Joke.

This is by no means whatsoever an endorsement for this product.  I have never tried this product and don't know if the FDA is side-eyeing it or not.  But when I saw it I simply had to blog about the bizarreness.  It's a concept that is both delightful and terrifying. 

According to reveiws, the spray contains only a few ingredients, including ethyl alcohol and numerous food colorings depending on the color. The spray's producer, The Deli Garage, promises that the paint is completely tasteless, and will do nothing but enhance the appearance of your dish.

I might foresee using the product in prop-styling or maybe with certain food-specific crafts (like gingerbread houses!).  But somehow the idea of drowning a perfectly good food item in a "harmless" chemical spray paint seems a little foodie-sacrilege.  I mean, Julia Child would clutch her pearls, no?

photos via Geekosystem and Deli Garage

The product, called 'Food Finish' won't be selling in the USA for a while, but it seems like you can order from the Deli Garage website.  Just watch out for your teeth.  Happy spraying.

Cheers,

Whitney

Couch Surfing

A fun little shot from photographer Tim MacPherson.

Hope you have a wonderful, festive Halloween weekend planned.   Whether you're Trick-or-Treating with your little ones or partying it up at an all-night costume bash, please be safe and be smart.

And may I suggest the following entertaining/intriguing/exceptional bits of Internet goodness for post-Halloween-party couch surfing...

Five Half-Assed Halloween Costumes to Thrill and Impress Your Friends.

House Hunting? You'll know you've found yours when these symptoms set in. 

Yum and wholesome: Butternut Squash 25 ways.

When David Calvo juggles *and solves* a Rubik's Cube, your brain flinches. 

Still need some fall-ish decor for your front porch?  Go on a pinecone hunt and make this.

The Paint Doctor is In.  Her book should be a keeper. 

Organize your cards, envelopes and stationery like Benita in nifty upright containers.

Sugared and Spiced Pecans make a great housewarming/hostess gift during the autumnal months.

Want to live in the pages of Elle Decor?  You can if you want to buy any of these homes. 

Cheers,

Whitney

Map Fad

Is the decorating with maps fad over?  Once Ballard and Pottery Barn and Home Decorators start framing maps and hanging them like art, you know its a mainstream idea.  But does that mean we have to start moving onto the next fad? 

via Elle Decor

via Martha Stewart

via Apartment Therapy

I think that the appeal of cartography-as-art is the personalization that can be achieved. You're from Oklahoma? Go find and old map depicting the state boundaries during the Land Run of 1889. Love to sail? Find nautical maps by the bookload and frame them for your powder room. Have a young astronomer in your house? Have galaxy diagrams wallpapered onto the kid's ceiling.

via Elle Decor

via Elle Decor

via House Beautiful

via Elle Decor

Martha's Maine House via Martha Stewart

To avoid that overtly-contrived, generic store-bought feel, it's generally best to work with maps that matter to you.

And for this reason -- the seemingly endless options available -- the 'decorating with maps' practice may not be so easy to pigeonhole as "a fad."

via DecorPad

via Martha Stewart

via BlackEiffel blog

by Steven Gambrel

by Pootery Barn (typo, and it stays!)

via Simplified Bee blog

via Forever...Whenever blog

via Houzz

And don't just limit the cartography to your walls.  Bring cartography to your doors...

via Apartment Therapy

via Apartment Therapy

 Get down with your DIY self and Mod Podge some things! 

via PS I Made This

via Urban Sardine

Have your favorite globe turned into a hanging light fixture!

via Addicted 2 Decorating

 A rolling map can be easily converted into a window shade!

via Martha Stewart

via O at Home magazine

 Cartography products can be chic and happy in many forms...  A pillow, a plate, a lampshade!

via Rockett St George

via homelife

via Ralph Lauren

All in all, I think it's fair to say that the map fad is indeed a fad.  But, it's a long-lasting fad because it can be so widely interpreted.  Lots of editorializing from the consumer can keep this fad from looking tired.  

The easiest way for you to incorporate a map into your decorating is to choose a map that has personal meaning to you.  Whether you frame it, decoupage it, wallpaper with it, cover a window with it or make a lampshade with it is up to you.  Keep it personal and it becomes authentic!

Have a wonderful day, world travelers!!
Cheers,
Whitney

Sketch Much?

I was chatting with friends this weekend about school supplies.  Truly it was the only good part about going back to school after a long and fun summer.  The art supplies were always my favorite, and a new box of crayolas could seduce me into even excitedly waiting for the looming school year.  Peechee folders, a clean new pencil case, and new fancy scissors were a hypnotic force of awesomeness.  Like 1stdibs for my 8-year-old self. 

So imagine my delight when I come across 500 Colored Pencils?  A colored pencil subscription service, for 20 months, awards you with 25 colored pencils each month packaged by hues with truly original names.

And while your collection of pencils grows, you may want to invest in their signature storage solutions, wherein your ever-growing collection can become an art installation.  Brilliant!

Fantastic.  Found on Elle Decor za via La Isla Blogita

Cheers,
Whitney

Bulbous Beauties

Crafty Camilla, my fellow blogger on Home & Family Network, whipped up some industrial-chic sculptures using burnt-out light bulbs and a glue gun.  These darlings are getting my mind rolling for other fast & unique accessory projects, not to mention eco- and budget-friendly! 

See instructions & more photos of Camilla's inventive project here.

Happy crafting,Whitney