How to Choose Your Best Holiday Card

4 Easy Ways to Help You Choose Your Best Holiday Card! by Gold Standard Workshop

It’s holiday card time again!! Yay!! It’s that time of year when paper lovers like me rejoice and get super excited to send pretty cards to everyone they know. In the past, I’ve DIYed and embellished store-bought cards, but last year I traveled a bit and wanted to share some pics, so I ordered personalized photo cards from Minted. I loved them so much I framed one! That’s a first. They’ve become my go-to for pretty paper goods. They offer all the fun and beautiful goodies I love about cards, paper, and graphic design–a huge selection of styles and color options, double- and triple-thick paper (my fave), die cut shapes, letterpress, foil, coordinating envelope colors, envelope liners, return address labels, eek!! It makes my heart happy. And now they offering free recipient addressing!! Yup. Free. Huge time saver and just so clever. Well done, Minted. Well done.

Last Year’s Pick

If you’re anything like me and even a little indecisive, you have to see ALL of the options—non-photo cards, photo cards, foil, letterpress, labels, color schemes, etc. before making an informed decision. This takes me hours. Literally. But I’m stopping that indecisiveness right now! I don’t have time for it and I’m sure you don’t either. I’m sharing four easy steps to help you choose the best and prettiest holiday cards for you and your family. They helped me tremendously and I hope they help you too!

How to Choose Your Holiday Cards

Determine your quantity and budget

Depending on the design, Minted cards start at quantities of 15 or 25 and increase by quantities of 10. If you have a small budget, consider ordering a small bunch for close friends and family, especially if you choose a photo card!

Decide if you want to include photos

Trip? Married? Kids? House? New business? Just fun stuff? Don’t forget to include time for choosing and editing the photo(s).

Think about your holiday color scheme and style

What’s your holiday style? Is it rustic? Old-fashioned? Retro? Modern? Minimalist? Shiny? This will help you decide what direction you want to go in choosing a design. The hard part? Every design offers different color schemes!!

Do you want to DIY something?

YES: Think about how much time you have to work on holiday cards. If you want to DIY something but not everything, you could create your own labels, add a cute holiday stamp or seal to your envelopes, or even line your own envelopes.

NO: No problem. Because Minted offers all of those things and they all coordinate with your card design!

This Year’s Pick(s)

Based on the criteria above, here’s what I determined: I only needed 25 cards, I wanted to include at least one photo, and I wanted all the fun details like liners and labels without the extra work of making them myself. Letterpress and foil would be a nice bonus, too. My holiday style is a little old-fashioned, but also modern, and I’ve been drawn to mint and pastel colors lately. These are the last two contenders:

Which one did I pick?? I love the mint and pretty die cut shape, but the floral and foil are beautiful too! I’ll reveal them as soon as I get them. I hope these tips ease your brain a bit–good luck! Thanks for reading! xo

*This post was created in partnership with Minted. All opinions are always my own and I never write about items I don’t love! Thanks for supporting GSW’s sponsors–they help keep this little blog going!

Linking up with Think & Make/ The Pin Junkie / The Handmade Hangout / Creativity Unleashed

Nov302015Sep 1 2019

It’s a Wrap, Yo! #3 (Wrapping Tips): 15 Pretty Holiday Wrapping Paper Picks

This is the third of an eight post series called “It’s a Wrap, Yo!” that includes ideas, wrapping tips and tricks, and inspiration for your holiday wrapping. Check out the introduction, Part 1, and Part 2.

15 High Quality Wrapping Paper Picks (part of It's a Wrap, Yo! wrapping tips series) from Gold Standard Workshop — Clockwise from top left: Paperchase, Rifle Paper Co., Paperchase, Snow & Graham

This week I’m sharing 15 high quality wrapping paper designs for your holiday wrapping plus a few tips for using it. There’s a good mix of pretty, whimsical, and rustic designs, as well as sources for solid colors and kraft paper. I hope it inspires you! Good quality wrapping paper is reusable and easier to wrap with–it will save you a lot of frustration when you’re in the middle of wrapping 536 presents on Christmas Eve. And on that note–be sure to check out last week’s post that shows you what to look for in good wrapping paper, where to shop for it, and how to use it on a budget! For lots of fun, creative, and pretty packaging ideas, follow my Gift Wrap Pinterest board!

Tip: Buy rolls of wrapping paper instead of single sheets

Rolls of higher quality paper from smaller businesses or independent designers can often be bought by the sheet or on a roll. A standard roll has two or three sheets. The roll is always the better value because the sheets are usually considerably larger than the singles. But–if you’re on a tight budget, buy the single sheet and stretch it out by using it as a “belly band” on kraft paper, or use it for one really special gift.

1. Glitter Paper, Paper Source

Paper Source sells rolls and individual sheets of glitter paper. It is as fabulous as it sounds. Everyone’s first question is: is there glitter rub off? Some, but not out of control. They offer 4-5 colors. I’m a sucker for the chocolatey brown with red satin ribbon. So. Good.

NOTE ABOUT GLITTER PAPER: You MUST use special adhesive with this paper or else you’ll hate me, Paper Source, and the people you’re wrapping the gift for. Like, forever. How do I know? I used to work at Paper Source. Trust me. I know. No other regular tape (to my knowledge) will work. It just doesn’t stick. Here is the tape you need–it’s called Super Tape, and appropriately so:

Here’s the deal with the glitter paper: it will take longer to wrap your gifts (read: you’ll need more patience) because of the tape—it’s double-sided and you have to remove the red backing from both sides. Both the paper and tape is a little more expensive, so I’d save it for the really special gifts.

2. Reindeers Wrap, Snow and Graham

Nov242015Sep 1 2019

It’s a Wrap, Yo! #2 (Wrapping Tips): Gift Wrap 101

This is the second of an eight post series called “It’s a Wrap, Yo!” that includes ideas, wrapping tips and tricks, and inspiration for your holiday wrapping. Check out the introduction and Part 1.

It’s a Wrap, Yo! is here! Your weekly wrapping tips from the workshop is packed full of goodness. I’m sharing tips for finding quality wrapping paper, where to shop for it, and the best ways to use it if you’re on a budget! Plus, tips for finding and using good kraft paper because I love me a good kraft package.

How to Find the Good Stuff: Things to Look for in Good Gift Wrap

It's a Wrap, Yo! #2: Tips to Find Good Gift Wrap, Where to Shop for it, and How to Use it on a Budget by Gold Standard Workshop — Holiday Snow Scene Wrapping Paper, Rifle Paper Company

Essentially, you want to find paper that is thick and won’t tear on the corners of a gift box when you’re wrapping, and won’t show every line or crease from regular handling. The key here is quality over quantity. You don’t need to stock up on gift wrap. Yes, you can find loads of wrapping paper everywhere at low prices. But most of it will be poor quality, and for some reason you’ll be compelled to buy 15 rolls and have it around for 10 years or more. We all do it (I swear my mom still has wrapping paper from 1993 that she uses)! Quality gift wrap will be a little more expensive, but you don’t need to buy a lot of it, and you can buy new designs every year! It’s worth the cost because:

People notice!

And they appreciate that you took the time and expense just for them.

Nov192015Sep 1 2019

3 Ways to Personalize Your DIY Terrarium

DIY Terrarium 3 Ways - Gold Standard Workshop

It’s all about succulents and terrariums today! I’m a succulent lover (who isn’t?) and I’m constantly drooling over terrariums all over Pinterest and Instagram. In fact, I’m surprised I haven’t given them a whirl in the workshop yet! But the time has finally come and I’ll tell you, I pretty much had the best time ever. I’ve partnered with Growing Home, who create beautiful terrariums and share DIY succulent projects, tips, and tricks (Twitter/Instagram), and I’m going to show you three ways to personalize your DIY terrarium to match your decor! And yes, there’s gold, copper, and more gold.

Bonus–terrariums would be adorable holiday gifts—think about how you could personalize one for your friend, co-worker, sister, or teacher! So hey, if you know me, you all know what you’re getting for Christmas. 😉

Basic Materials

There are tons of tutorials for creating terrariums online, so I’m posting a simplified version here, but check out my Pinterest board for more inspiration and some great how-to’s. In a nutshell, you’ll need rocks or pebbles, sphagnum moss or bark, a container (I love glass!), proper soil, succulents, and decorations.

Generally, the order of your terrarium will be (from bottom to top):

Rocks (you can find basic colors at your craft store or go to the pet store to find a rainbow of options!)
Sphagnum moss (to keep the soil from slipping through the rocks)
Soil
Succulents
Moss, bark, or rocks
Decorations (be creative! They could be anything from your standard gnome to costume jewelry, travel trinkets, kid’s toys, anything that fits your decor)

#1: Globe Terrarium

Add white rocks, gold decorations, and a gold base to create a clean, modern terrarium. The color of your rock changes the entire look and feel of your container (see #2 to see what I’m talking about)!

Nov172015Sep 1 2019

Copper Pumpkin Place Cards

The countdown to Thanksgiving is on! I’ve had a vision of grey and copper pumpkins in my head for over a month now and I thought that they were going to be Halloweeny but as soon as I tried the copper leafing pen and saw the beautiful color, I knew they would be perfect on our Thanksgiving table. I found cute pumpkins at the grocery store (Fred Meyer) with curly-q stems and printed free downloadable tags from Girl Friday Paper that are beautiful and simple to add as an accent. These copper pumpkin place cards would be pretty as place cards or in a grouping on a Thanksgiving table!

Materials

Pumpkins, real or fake
Grey acrylic paint (I used Martha Stewart chalkboard paint I had on hand)
Foam brush or paintbrush
Copper leafing pen
Downloadable place cards, Girl Friday Paper (you can get these free by subscribing to her newsletter here. Lotus makes beautiful art prints–check out her Instagram too! )
Paper to print place cards, Paper Source (I used superfine white, text weight)
Scissors or paper cutter
Hole punch, 1/8”
Baker’s twine
Ticket corner punch (optional)