A Little Upper East Side For Your Gifts!

Have you had your head been in the clouds
dreaming and scheming
about ways to make your gifts look extra-special this year?
Well ... It's Ooh La Frou Frou Gift Time!

Each Christmas, as my gift to you,
I create some free downloadable and printable
holiday gift tags that you can use to
make your packages pretty magical.
It's my way of saying
THANK YOU
for being such awesome followers and clients!

You're probably aware

that much of my inspiration comes from

the glamour, luxury and beauty of New York.

What inspires me, you ask?
Well ... to name just a few:
Upper East Side townhouses;
the golden windows of the city at night;
the city's magical hustle and bustle;

elegantly-dressed doormen opening tall, grand apartment doors;

doormen raising whistles to their mouths,
hailing cabs for guests of luxe hotels;

taxis lined up like toy cars all in a row ...
I could go on ... and on ...

Is it any wonder that from early childhood

my favorite Christmas song has been:

Silver Bells
(it's Christmas time in the city)?

What is more iconic than elegant city townhouses?

Do you love them as much as I?

~ TOWNHOUSES AND TAXIS ~
Last year I created a sparkling pile of Upper East Side Magic

to hang on my Christmas tree:

Townhouses hung by ribbons all over my tree in rows,

as if they were on streets

and taxis ran all over the tree, carting imaginary townhouse residents

to the fancy parties, plays and restaurants in my imagination.

Sometimes I placed the white lights on the tree by townhouse windows,

making it look as if the windows were glowing

or in front of the townhouses to look like the glow of streetlights.

The tree was a smash hit with everyone that visited.
So, I thought that
YOU
may like a little
Upper East Side city excitement
to attach to your holiday gifts this year ...

YAY
UPPER EAST SIDE
GIFT TAGS!

Note:

As I retain the copyright on all of my illustrations,
these gift tags are for personal use only.
They may not be used for resale in any way.
(c) SANDY M ~ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

______________________________________________

Upper East Side Townhouses and Taxi
Gift Tag Downloads:

Click HERE to go to the free printable townhouses & taxi downloads.
_____________________________________________

To Create Tags:
After downloading and printing off the tags on white cardstock,
cut out the tags along the grey lines on each sheet.
Once tags are cut, punch a hole at the top of each tag
to eventually insert a narrow ribbon through to attach to your gift.

MAKING TOWNHOUSES ON TAGS APPEAR 3-D
AND EMBELLISHING WITH GLITTER,
IF DESIRED:
The gift tags are beautiful simply used flat as they appear in the downloads
~ OR ~
if you'd like, you can make them look three-dimensional
by folding back the sides, as I did for my ornaments:

The three-dimensional effect
is achieved by folding back approximately just 1/4"on the sides of the
townhouses, making it look as if it's the beginning of townhouse sides.
(as in the photo above).

If you like the three-dimensional effect,
first, just grab a little pair of scissors
and your tags.

(1) For the GREY TOWNHOUSE WITHOUT STAIRS
(the one on the LEFT in the following image):

you don't need scissors.
Just fold back a little on each side of the complete tag
(approximately 1/4" or so as shown in my ornaments),
folding back even the white area above the townhouse.

(2) for the GREY TOWNHOUSE WITH STAIRS
(the MIDDLE townhouse in the image above):
Start on the left side of the tag:
Fold the edge of the left side of the tag back 1/4" or so,
just as you did in the previous townhouse,
right up to the top of the tag.
For the right side, take your scissors and make a horizontal clip
at the top of the staircase rail just to the right of the door.
(it will be obvious where this is by looking at the tag.
Fold back the right edge of the townhouse and upper portion of the tag
(folding back the edge of the entire right side except the stair portion).
Leave the stair portion flat.

3. On the GOLD TOWNHOUSE tag, you'll notice that it has a taller roof,
so for the ornaments, I made a tiny
1/4" incision on the bottom of the roofline at the sides
to separate the edges of the body of the townhouse from the roof.
I then folded back the townhouse sides first, 1/4" like the grey ones.
For the roof of your tags, just as you did below the roof,
cut a small incision on each side on each side at the top of the roofline as well.
Now you can fold the tiny edges of the sides of the roof back too.

If you look at the photo of my gold townhouse ornament above,
you can see where the roofline has been snipped between the
building sides and the roof in order to fold the roof back too.

Your gift tags will be the
"talk of the town ... or city!"

~ GLITTER ~
If you'd like to get even more sparkly,
you can add touches of clear glitter along
window panes, etc. to your tags.

Have a marvelous Thanksgiving, everyone

and a fabulous kick-off of the holiday season!



OOH LA FROU FROU
is the blog of illustrator
SANDY M

Want a custom illustration?
Send a message to Sandy
here.

Image Credits:
First image of girl with gifts via

All of the townhouse photographs above
were via Pinterest or from a previous
Ooh La Frou Frou post.
All townhouse and taxi illustrations
are the work of illustrator
SANDY M