Favorite Gift Finds at UncommonGoods

*Note: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of UncommonGoods. As always, opinions and words are mine - I only partner with brands that I love and that I think y'all would too! Thanks for supporting MRFB in this way. See my full disclosure notice at the bottom of the page.

I'm always on the hunt for new and unique sources for gifts for folks, so when I ran across UncommonGoods, I knew I had to come share some of my favorite finds with y'all. Considering we're entering a big gift giving season soon (Mother's/Father's Day, graduations, weddings, anyone?!), I'll bet you have some shopping to do in the coming months.

UncommonGoods certainly provides a great source for new and unique gifts, but what I really love about this company is that they're focused on being an online marketplace for emerging artisans, makers in low-income countries, and handmade pieces. Each item has a story behind it and they want to make sure you have a chance to hear it. Also, every time you make a purchase they donate $1 to your choice of one of their non-profit partners. Isn't that cool? You can read more about the company and its values here.

Alright, let's get to the good stuff! I've pulled together a list of my favorites from the UncommonGoods website, including a couple of items that they were kind enough to send me for this post!

1 | Layered Block Print Table Runner

This table runner caught my attention because of its funky mixed patterns, pom pom trim and modern-meets-boho vibe. It was one of my picks for our new dining table and I think it looks great in there!

This would make a great gift for someone who like me who loves to entertain. Perhaps it would even make a great wedding or Mother's Day gift? (P.S. if you're on the hunt for Mother's Day gifts, UncommonGoods has a great selection over here.)

2 | Gilded Branches Jewelry Tree

If you've got pretty jewelry, why not display it on something pretty? This jewelry tree certainly fits that bill.

3 | Succulent Living Wall Planter

I think y'all have probably figured out by now that I have this thing for succulents. They're easy to keep alive and pretty to look at. If I had a wall that got some great sun exposure, I'd be all over this wall planter!

4 | Coral Carved Hanging Planter

Speaking of plants, here's another planter I thought was very pretty. It would be perfect on a front porch.

5 | Free Form Bulletin Board

The organizer in me really liked this bulletin board for an entryway, command center or office.

6 | Neighborwoods Map Coasters

Local art gets my attention every time, and these wood coasters with snippets of city neighborhoods are awesome. They had Philadelphia on their list of available cities and I almost pulled the trigger on them, but realized that I already have three sets of coasters in our house. I probably don't need a fourth. :) I love when gifts have some sort of personalized element (there are more items like that here if you're in the market!).

7 | Woven Daily Crossbody Bag

This is the other item that came home with me. I love crossbody bags and this one goes with just about any casual outfit. I tend to bike a lot in the city and this kind of bag works perfectly for that. It holds the essentials, but has room for extras when needed.

8 | Whale Booties

Another kind of event I'm headed to often these days is baby showers. While it's always great to snag something for those off the mom-to-be's registry, unexpected, adorable little things (like the ones over here at UncommonGoods) are always fun too!


I hope these ideas have inspired you to think outside the box the next time you're in the market for a gift! Do you have a favorite source for unique gifts?

Have a great start to your week, friends!

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Mother's Day Gift Guide

// 1 | The Nesting Place Book // 2 | Cork Jewelry Box // 3 | Rectangle Gem Bracelet // 4 | Infinity Scarf // 5 | Candle // 6 | Personalized Journal // 7 | Hand Lotion Set // 8 | iPhone Case // 9 | Gold Necklace

Just in case you haven't thought about that all important day that's coming up on Sunday (yes, this Sunday!) - Mother's Day - I rounded up a few fun items to inspire some last-minute shopping if you're still in need of a gift. The good news is that many of these items are available in stores so you can grab one without having to worry about shipping it. Some moms love gifts like these and some just love getting a thoughtful card telling them how much you love and appreciate them! Either way, this is the time to give them a little "thanks for being my mom" shout out.

These would also make great birthday or other special occasion gifts as well - I know I'd love to get any one of these!

If you're more into the handmade gift idea, check out this post I pulled together last year with a whole bunch of ideas.

Happy Thursday y'all!

Lovely Links - Handmade Gifts Edition!

It's Friday! Hooray! I hope you all have had lovely weeks so far. I started my new job this week so things have been a little crazy over here. I've barely had time to get my posts up this week, so sorry if communication has been a little slow...hope to be back up to speed next week. :)

Anything exciting on the docket for you this weekend? Christmas parties? Cookie swaps? Shopping for gifts? No matter what the case may be, I'll bet you'll be thinking about Christmas presents at some point. They've definitely been on my mind, and as I've mentioned in my posts this week, I love a good, handmade gift. If you do too, you're going to love this week's edition of Lovely Links because I've rounded up some of my favorite handmade gift ideas from around the blogosphere to help get the ball rolling if you're in the market for a few handmade gifts this year.

Two things you might notice about this list. First, I like things that come in cute containers. Second, I like food-related items. Ok? Ok.

I figure the photos and links can do most of the talking for this post, so I'll try to keep my color commentary to a minimum this week. If you have any gifts to add, please leave links in the comments so other readers can find them!

1 | Bottled Iced Coffee - great for hostess gifts, co-workers, or any coffee lover.

{A Fabulous Fete}

2 | Soy Candles - use your favorite scent!

{Finding Home}

3 | Homemade Vanilla Extract - the extract takes awhile to make, but would be really cute as a do-it-yourself kit with all the ingredients packaged up together.

{I Can Craft That}

4 | Cinnamon Honey Butter - YUM. That is all.

{Tidy Mom}

5 |  Manicure Kit - pamper someone you love :).

{Tidbits and Twine}

6 | Personalized Lucite Tray - mix up monograms, colors, patterns...the possibilities are endless.

{Two Twenty One}

7 | State String Art - make one with the person's home state!

{My Blessed Life}

8 | Old Screen Turned Jewelry Holder - for the jewelry lover of your friends/family. Talk about an easy project.

{Kruse's Workshop}

To round out the handmade gifts, I thought I'd include a few ideas of my own from the blog...

Clockwise from the top:

• Wedding Invitation Christmas Ornament
• Appliqued Baby Onesie Tutorial
• Vanilla Almond Granola
• Felt and Fabric Coasters
• Appliqued Felt Pillows

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Printable Christmas Gift Tags {With Easy Ways to Embellish Them!}

Happy Wednesday, y'all! I'm so excited to be a part of Nap-Time Creations's "A Crafty Christmas" series this year. If you're coming over from Emily's blog, welcome! I'm so glad you're here. My little contribution to the series is some printable gift tags along with some fun tips on embellishing them using glitter. I love giving simply wrapped packages a little something extra, and gift tags are a great way to do that without breaking the bank!

I've got five tag designs to share with you today. They come in two colorways - traditional red and green, and gold. They've got various seasonal greetings on them like "Merry Christmas" and "Peace, Love, Joy." Download them here (free for a limited time!).

They're designed to print onto blank 3x5 cards, which eliminates the need to cut each one out individually from a large piece of card stock - simplifying the tag-making process! All you need to do after printing is "pretty them up" a bit.

The supplies you'll need are:

• PDF with tag designs
• Blank 3x5 cards
• Printer
• Scissors
• Standard hole punch
• Twine/ribbon/string
• Sheet of blank address labels
• Large 1" hole punch/craft punch (similar *affiliate link)
• Double stick tape
• Glue Dots (*affiliate link)
  
• Glitter

First, print out the designs onto 3x5 cards. Set your printer paper size to "3x5 note card" and they should print out just like these:

Trim the edges of one side of the tag at an angle so that the it looks more tag-like and less 3x5 card-like (for lack of a better term) :). I made one template then used it as a guide for trimming the rest.

This next step is optional, but I think it makes the tags look more finished.

Take a sheet of blank address stickers and use a one inch hole/craft punch to make a bunch of circle stickers. These are going to act as makeshift hole reinforcers. If you have hole reinforcers handy, you can use these instead.

Peel the backing off of one and stick it onto the middle of the end of the tag with the angled edges. Use your standard hole punch to punch a hole through the center of the circle sticker. Tie a piece of twine or ribbon onto the tag so you can attach it to a gift. See the handy step-by-step photos below for a more visual set of instructions...

Purdy, huh?

Now, you could just be done right there and you'd have yourself a good-lookin' set of tags. I left a lot of mine just like that - nice and simple. But why not have a little fun and embellish them with a little glitter? Nothing like a little sparkle for the holidays, right?

For example, to add polka dots, I scattered a few glue dots around the edges of the "Merry & Bright" tag and dabbed on some gold glitter with my finger. By using glue dots, you get nice, round circles, no liquidy-glue mess, and no drying time. Just shake off the excess glitter and you're done.

Love those whimsy, glittery polka dots!

Another way to add some sparkle is to use double stick tape to make a stripe. I placed a strip of tape straight across the bottom edge of a "Ho Ho Ho" tag, dabbed glitter on again with my finger, and shook off the excess. By using double stick tape, you get a nice crisp line - again with no messy glue involved!

Those two glittery tags go together quite nicely :)...

...but they really shine when tied onto a pretty package!

Here are the red and green versions all together - some embellished, some left in their natural states:

And here are the gold versions, which I think look best left un-embellished, but feel free to add to them if you'd like!

Just for good measure, here they are all together!

These would make great additions to your holiday packaging repertoire, or they'd make a great gift for a friend who also loves pretty packaging!

Check out ALL the awesome projects in this series over on Emily's blog (click the graphic below). There are lots of different themes...from gift-wrapping ideas to crafts to recipes. You don't want to miss this series. Thanks again to Emily for inviting me to participate in this!

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base, Naptime Creations, Southern Hospitality, Living Well Spending Less, Remodelaholic, The Happy Housie

Book Page Gift Tags {5 Days of Book Page Crafts: Day 5}

Today's our last book page craft for the week (tear!). Have y'all enjoyed this little series? I'm thinking it might be fun to do another similar one sometime in the future. What do you think?

If you missed any of the other book page craft posts, catch up here:

• Day 1: cone garland
• Day 2: flower pouf
• Day 3: pleated tassels
• Day 4: wreath

If you'd consider yourself creative, today's craft is for you. These book page gift tags leave lots of room for all kinds of embellishing and customizing. And if you're not "creative" (although I'd say I don't believe you...we've all got a creative side just waiting to come out), these tags are beautiful in their simplest form as just book pages cut in the shape of a tag.

Supplies needed:

• Book pages
• Gift tag template (free printable! see below...)
• Exacto knife
• Pen/pencil
• Scissors (or you can use the exacto knife again)
• String/twine
• Sharpie (optional)
• Items to embellish (I used some washi tape)

Step 1: Print out gift tag template and make stencil.

I created a gift tag template for y'all to make this easy to create a bunch of identical tags. All you have to do is download and print it from here, then use an exacto knife to cut out the tag shapes to make a stencil. I printed it on a piece of card stock to give the stencil a little bit of structure, but you could use a regular piece of paper too.

Here's what the template will look like when you cut out the centers:

Step 2: Lay the template on top of the book page, trace the tag shapes and cut them out.

You can orient the book pages however you want for this step. The template fits nicely on top of a standard sized book page with the text going horizontally. If you need to make a bunch of tags, I'd stack several book pages together (five is a good number), trace the tag template once, and then cut the stack all at the same time. You can easily cut out 15 tags out by only actually cutting out three! (See how I did that math there? I know, you don't have to tell me how smart I am. ;))

Here are the tags after cutting them out:

Step 3: Add a string on the tapered end and then make 'em pretty!

This is definitely the most fun step! Punch a hole into the tapered end and string a piece of embroidery floss or baker's twine through it (or use a needle and thread for this). That'll make these tags ready to attach to a gift so if you make them ahead of time, all you have to do is tie one onto a bag or the ribbon on a gift box. 

Then add whatever you want to make them pretty! I lined the fat end with a piece of chevron washi tape in a fun green that complimented the yellow embroidery floss.  

In terms of labeling, you can leave them blank for a later time, add the recipient's name, keep them generic ("a gift for you"), or put a simple "to"/"from" to fill in later. I had fun using using this technique to make my handwriting look like calligraphy. Thanks to Emily for that!

And now you've got a set of simple, fun tags to add to gifts in a flash. The simple black and white of the tags makes them super versatile, gender-neutral (unless you choose to make them go one way or the other), and very inexpensive. I'll bet you have plenty of craft supplies on hand to embellish these guys without ever stepping foot in a craft store. Unless you want a good excuse to step into a craft store. Which I, um, might want...I don't know about you :). Anyway. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it sure beats spending $2-$5 on a card at Hallmark!

Hope y'all have enjoyed "5 Days of Book Page Crafts" this week! Did you have a favorite? Have you made any of these? Plan to take on any crafty challenges this weekend? Please share!

P.S. Thanks to all who entered the onesie giveaway over the past weekish. I'll be choosing a winner this weekend, so come back on Monday to see if it was YOU!

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, House of Hepworths, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base, The Chicken Chick, A Peek Into My Paradise