Free Printable Homemade Goodness Tags

Free Printable Homemade Goodness Tags from B.Nute productions

Yesterday I spent the morning at a wonderful Christmas boutique at Filoli, a historic country estate in the Bay Area. The old mansion was decked out in all it's holiday glory, trees festooned with feathers, glitter and ornaments; gifts and goodies strewn about waiting to be purchased. At the end of the tour,

Let the shows begin...

The holiday craft shows have begun... now it's time to get out there and shop!

I just had my first show of the holidays last night. A small show in Belmont, CA that went very well. Lots of great feedback and of course sales!

I unveiled my new line of tags: goodie bag tags, personalized tags, holiday tags, the works! They got great reception-- Now it's time to get the line up on my website... Stay tuned, and definitely get yourself to a holiday show this season!

Valentine Countdown

When I saw this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Thou art to me a delicious torment," I just LOVED it. Anything with the word delicious in it that isn't referring to food is just brilliant... Then to top it off, the word delicious is describing a torment. How intriguing! This quote just had to go with a Marie Antoinette inspired image I had. I can only imagine what a torment that woman was... and a delicious one at that.

So, to kick off your the Valentines brigade, here are some delicious, glittery tags to check out. For more details, check out the Valentines section at bnute.com.

Also, take a look at the upcoming Marie Antoinette book from the folks at Somerset Studio... should be quite inspiring.

Celebrate National Handwriting Day

It sounds like a "made by marketeers" kind of day, but I must say, I do like the idea! In honor of John Hancock's birthday (January 23), the Writing Instruments Manufacturers Association came up with National Handwriting Day. For some reason, when I saw this it struck a chord with me...

In our household we are knee deep in handwriting... not only am I a "list girl", but both my kids are writing fiends. My son is just learning his letters, and he LOVES it. He's writing letters daily to his daddy (mostly) and occasionally to Santa or his sister. He pretty much forgets poor ol'Mom, but I'm OK with that... really...
My daughter who's in the first grade is writing up a storm too... It's not perfect spelling-- she's working on that-- and occasionally a b and a d get mixed up-- but there's lots of writing happening. Many times she writes stories, illustrates them, and then staples and tapes all sorts of goodies to her book. Hmmmm, I wonder where she gets that craftyness from?!
And now for me... well, as you can imagine, I do like the day since it promotes people to write letters and cards, and of course, I have many of those I make at bnute productions-- here's one of my latest additions to bnute productions' personalized stationery line...

But also, the day is inspiring me to do an art project I've been meaning to do for sometime... perhaps I can even get the kids involved. (We'll see how that goes...) A while back I picked up this Klutz book on Lettering. It's meant for kids, but it totally inspired me to do something I've wanted to do for a long time... come up with my own designed alphabet.


Ever since my graphic arts days back in the beginning of the 90's, I've loved fonts. I worked with a great designer who also loved them and she shared all she knew about them. Now, there are so many to choose from that it can be a bit overwhelming, but I when I'm into a project, it just must have the right font to go with it, so I love to hunt around and get ideas. Then there's also the dream of making my own, that's where this book comes into play. Check out some of the cute ideas:


(images from photos taken of the Klutz Lettering Book)

So, once I've created my own letters, I'll definitely post and show them! I hope this has possibly inspired you to celebrate National Handwriting Day... typing on the computer, as much as I love it and do it often, is just not the same!

Here are some more websites about National Handwriting Day:
Details of National Handwriting Day
Ideas on How to Celebrate National Handwriting Day

More Holiday Shows...

It seemed a little insane, to try to pack in one more crafty affair... just as the holidays are ramping up, and my daughters bday party was on the horizon... but ya know, ya just got to do it some time! So, just a little stress, and some table arranging magic, and a pot of coffee and voila, it was holiday coffee/open studio time. All said and done, it was well worth it. Here are some shots from the show.

Santa cards topped with a candy cane.

I need to find more glitter in my house... Ah, there it is.

Cards and Tags galore...

I threw in some baby cards too... just for fun!