My final Christmas gifting idea can also double up as decorations! I just decorated these mdf Christmas trees with posca pens I had left over from my autumn shows.
I’m very fond of sticking to a simple set of colours, so as well as using black and white designs I’ve also done some black, silver and gold trees. It’s about as bling as I get. Both of these would go with black wrap or metallic gold and silver papers.
As you can see I’ve used my laurel stem design (how to here), and simple star, snowflake, heart and tinsel motifs.
Another of my go-to motifs is my simple flower design. Like my other Scandi-style shapes it’s really easy to recreate as you’ll see by my how-to below. 
Simple flower how to step 1: Make a three curved marks one at the top and two at the bottom. 
Simple flower how to step 2: Add two lines between the triangular shape so the shape resembles a dancing man.
Simple flower how to step 3: Draw curves around the lines to make petals and add a dot in the middle. 
Simple flower how to step 4: Colour in the petals and make little dots around the shape.
Tag: tags
Christmas wrap ideas part 3: Super simple black and white
I’ve deliberately kept it simple for part three of my Christmas wrap ideas with these easy black and white designs.
I’ve opted for a lovely iridescent white paper and teamed it with simple black tags and co-ordinating ribbon. The gestural stem designs are based on my laurel stem illustration, see the step by step here. The Christmas tree and garland are really simple; I used a white Posca pen to create tiered jagged shapes for the tree, waited for the paint to dry and overlaid it with gold dots. For the garland I drew some simple thin lines with a silver Posca pen then added white and gold dots.
Christmas wrap ideas part 1: Totes trad red and green
Over the next four days I got some top easy gift wrap ideas for giving your Christmas pressies that extra pizzazz.
Idea number one is inspired by the totes trad red and white festive theme as outlined in this Christmas trends post. As I might of mentioned, this red, white and green colour scheme is one very much favoured by Dr B. So I always do something every year that’s a little concession to his yuletide preferences (although in fairness he’d have penguins and robins and Santas everywhere if it were up to him).
This is my concession to tradition. I have loads of gift tags and Posca pens left over from the craft shows I did this autumn so I thought I’d get busy with some quick and easy wrap revamps. I used two different nib sizes (5M and 1MR) to create different sized dots on the wrapping paper and some of the tags. I then finished it off with a trad twine bow. I also completed some of the gifts with a bespoke wreath tag. It’s dead easy to do, so much so I’ve got a little step by step for you below for you to try.
You don’t have to be a fantastic drawer to create this wreath, I’ve shown loads of people how to do it; if you can make a mark you can make this wreath. You’ll need a circular tag and Posca pens in dark and light green, gold (or silver), red and blue.
Step 1: Make a dark green circle using a rough layered zig-zags.
Step 2: Overlay the dark green with a lighter shade.
Step 3: Once your wreath is dry (the pens are paint based so you can use them as such) use the gold pen to draw lines around the ring as above, like it is wrapped around the wreath. Once you have covered the wreath with gold lines draw circles along the lines to make a string of beads.
Step 4: Add coloured baubles in-between the gold bead garland.
Step 5: Write a little festive phrase in the middle.
#Stationery made with love
As you know I’ve been blogging a lot about stationery this week for National Stationery Week. It’s really got me thinking about my own work over the years. Shown above are my illustrated greetings cards, handprinted notelets and tags, plus a 40-page notebook.
My ranges so far have consisted of detailed illustrative motifs and individually handprinted pieces. Whatever style I plump for at a particular time it’s important to me that my stationery offers something that you can only get from me.
So the handmade, handcrafted, hand-drawn element is essential to every collection I create. All the time I’ve been creating stationery I’ve put a little bit of myself in every collection. I really want each piece to be made with love. 
You can take a look at my most up to date stationery collections on my Not On The High Street, Folksy or Etsy shops.
#FreebieFriday! Stationery Giveaway
In honour of National Stationery Week I thought I’d giveaway some items from my favourite stationery collections (plus some little extras) via Twitter and Facebook.
I’ve gathered a set of my garden bird postcards wrapped in twine, a cute little Thank you notelet, and my last remaining set of screenprinted blue tit writing sheets and black and white bird greetings featuring a scops owl and redshank. In all the collection is worth more than £25 and I’m packing it all up in a handmade box for an extra special gift.
For your chance to win, go to my twitter page @ellajohnstonart and tweet me with the hash tag #loveellasstationery and what you love about stationery. If you’re not on twitter you can visit my Facebook page and post onto the wall what you love about stationery with the hashtag above.