2023 Free Holiday Tags

This week I met up with a friend to catch up over delicious green tea, and we both marveled at what a blur this year has been. I can’t, for the life of me, remember much of it. There was the excitement of K’s launch of her first EP, of course. One of her songs from the EP, 1000 Paper Cranes, was featured on KNDD (a local radio station), and we waited with bated breath for her song debut during a segment called Locals Only. Thrilling beyond words.

A big highlight for me was working on a picture book that will be released next spring, and I’ll do some promo activities at the beginning of 2024. If you’re interested, though, Sashiko’s Stitches is available for preorder now! It’s a heart-filling story in a good way (available wherever books are sold!).

In addition to book-making, I taught a bunch of workshops and Creativebug classes (make sure to take advantage of the free ones this month here), and I’ll be teaching more next year. I adore the Creativebug staff, and every filming session in California has been enormous fun.

There were many other brazenly momentous as well as quietly significant situations in 2023. I have been wanting to tell you about an extraordinary health crisis reversal that happened — I had quite a scare in the beginning of the year, and though there IS a happy ending, I’m not sure that I have it in me to describe it in full at this juncture. It was a lot. It seems to me that the fact that I’m still here, fairly intact, is enough. A friend called me a “DIY Medical Miracle,” and I like the sound of that very much.

I have been mulling over this quote:

“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final” 

― Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s a good one.

But let’s bring it back to the main point of this post: holiday tags that I designed. Every year I hope that these little freebies are helpful and that they add some festive flair during this often stressful season. I kept it simple and focused on just tags this year instead of furiously trying to add mini wrapping paper designs as I have done in the past. Simplifying has been my theme for a long while now. I just want to declutter and un-complicate life as much as possible. M and I may move next year once K is off to college, so I’ve been steadily purging. It’s really amazing how much stuff accumulates. Even more amazing is how very little I actually need. 

M occasionally gloms onto the notion of moving into a mobile home (college is expensive, ya know), and though it wouldn’t be my top choice, I do wonder what it would be like to minimize my possessions to fit into a double-wide. Or a beautiful small cabin nestled in a forest near a big lake…I wouldn’t say no to that.

Anyway, I got sidetracked again. Holiday tags! To download, click on the images below.

Please let me know if you have any issues downloading/printing them! I know that little frog is totally random, but I think it’s so cute!

As usual I’m going to take the rest of December off, and I’ll see you back here some time in January. This Christmas is extra special because I’ll be spending it with my Mama. Now that she lives in Japan, traveling has been more challenging so I haven’t seen her in person since 2019! 

Wishing you the loveliest of holidays, my friends, and let’s make The Year of the Dragon a gorgeous one! 2024, I’m ready for you!!!!

Valentine Origami Papers for YOU

Hello, hello! If you’re looking for some last minute, why-did-I-wait-till-now Valentine’s Day craftiness, you’re in the right place. I designed some origami paper for you and had fun folding them into different shapes. The heart above is iconic, of course.

Envelopes are fun – you can write a secret or lovey-dovey message on the back of the origami paper and fold it up.

I am particularly smitten with the origami box. It’s surprisingly easy to fold and is a perfect container for little sweets!

There are several designs included in the PDF that you can click on the image below or download here.

I referenced a bunch of different origami tutorials online and meant to create my own illustrated tutorial, but well, I’m one of those why-did-I-wait-till-now people. If you search on “origami heart” or “origami envelope” or “origami box with lid,” there’s a wealth of video and step-by-step instructions on the interwebs. 

Alright, just wanted to quickly pop in to share this. Have a lovely week whether you celebrate this day or not, my friends!

And check out my Valentine’s Round-Up for more printable goodies:

 

 

2022 Free Printable Holiday Tags and Mini Gift Wraps

Can December 16th still be considered early December? No. It cannot. I erroneously believed and declared that I would have these holiday printables for you many, many days ago, but here we are. Let’s not dwell on excuses or explanations, though. If you need last minute tags and mini gift wrapping paper (ideal for tiny presents — jewelry, perhaps?), I got you.

I’ve designed some fun ones, which I hope will come in handy. Lately I’ve been really, really, really loving the Procreate app and have been playing around to see if I can make my digital watercolors look like the real deal (not that digital painting isn’t real — it’s just a different medium). I’ve sprinkled in some traditional watercolor illustrations amongst the digital ones. Can you tell which is which? I’m actually having trouble differentiating them myself.

For your merry-making and gifting pleasure, simply click on the image to download the PDF file. As always, I recommend printing the tags on card stock or sticker paper or textured inkjet paper like this one. If your printer has a borderless option, please select it; otherwise, you’ll have a 1/4″ border for the wrapping paper, which isn’t too big a deal. I tried to create some designs that could be used all year-round, just because I’m a practical gal and like to have options.

I will one day round up all the tags and wrapping papers I’ve designed and posted on this blog over the years, but if you’re looking for more options, please search on “holiday tags” and a whole slew of them should pop up!

Anyway, here are the 2022 holiday printables (click on the image to download):

TAGS

 

MINI GIFT WRAPS

Alright. That’s it for me in terms of 2022. What a year! I am looking forward to some R&R, and other than a couple of short posts for Patreon, I will log off from the online world to allow for some much needed rejuvenation. I’m going to hang out with my fam, eat some good food, read lots and lots of books and paint up a storm in Procreate! Oh, and I’ll squeeze in some sewing too. Sounds divine.

I am thinking of you all with a heart brimming with appreciation and a sense of wonder. We’ve made it to the end of another year — this alone is cause for celebration! 

Sending you so much love and wishing you the most glorious holiday season and the loveliest start of 2023! I’ll be back at the end of January. Stay cozy, my friends.

 

2021 Advent Calendar + Free Printables!

Hello, hello my friends!

If you’re in the US, I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend to kick off the holiday season. Mine was quiet and very low-key, which is exactly how I like my my celebrations, especially celebrations about gratitude.

One of the things I’ve been working on over the long weekend is the annual Advent Calendar. It’s going to go on top of the piano, and this tradition is a much beloved one in our family. As I was cutting and assembling, I realized that this will be my 10th Advent Calendar. 10 years!! Isn’t that mind-boggling? As always, I’ve listed all the calendars I’ve made to date at the bottom. 

 

It’s always a challenge to come up with a different concept, and this year I designed a bunch of patterns, then I folded them into triangular boxes (I followed the tutorial from here, but made my own template of quatrefoil shapes). Aren’t the patterns cute? Can you find the boba tea and volleyball ones? You can tell that I had a lot of fun trying to make them holiday-esque! I created about 30 designs total but obviously only used 25, and tried to include a few motifs that represent K’s favorite things. I had a “doh!” moment, however, when I noticed that I forgot to include a music-related pattern. Music is at the top of her favorite things list! That and true crime podcasts, which I also didn’t include. What would I have drawn? Knives and blood and dead people? Crime tape?

So I started by cutting out the shape…

Then folded in the “petal” edges…

Then folded each triangle inward to create the square base…

Added the filling and punched a hole in each petal tip…

Threaded a cord through and attached a little circular label (for the countdown numbers 1-25)….

And voila!

I was especially proud of the idea of including a puzzle piece every day. I got one of those DIY puzzles from an art store and painted it with watercolors. I love that she’ll be able to slowly put together the puzzle throughout the month.

 

 

Fun, right?

Here they are…adorable triangular gift boxes, ready to be opened (sorry for the image quality — I was rapidly losing natural light):

 

Every year I like to offer up some free printable holiday tags for YOU, and realized that I could simply reduce the size of the quatrefoil shapes into sweet little tags. You know how much I love tags! If you’d like to download some tags from years past, scroll down after the list of Advent Calendars.

For this year I selected 12 of the designs that felt more generally appropriate (you probably don’t want a volleyball themed tag, right?) and arranged them onto one sheet as tags. Click on the image or here to download the file. I recommend printing them on card stock or textured paper like my go-to Inkjet paper for best results. 

I’m so excited for K to see the calendar tomorrow morning (December 1st)! That’s the most thrilling moment for me: when she wakes up and beholds the whole shabang.

By the way, if you’re subscribed to receive blog posts by email, I’ve switched email services and will be sending the blog posts from a different email address (sanae[at]sanaeishida.com), so you may find the blog updates in your promotions tab or in your spam folder. Please have a look there if you notice that you haven’t been getting updates from me. Thank you!!!

Oh, and here are the past Advent Calendars:

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

 

And here are tags from years past for your convenience if you’d like more options:

2020 Tags

 

Cat Wreath Tags

More Cat Tags

Bleu Tags

 

 

Animal Tags

 

 

SUMO COUNTING + SUMO OPPOSITES!

Wow, August just vaporized and I’m reeling from the fact that September will be upon us in a matter of hours. How are you, my friends?

I’m doing a quick check-in today for a couple of reasons:

  1. I wanted to say hello – August has been somewhat rough for me and my monthly ritual of updating my blog has a helpful, grounding effect. Though I’ve been pretty overwhelmed especially in the last week, there’s a chance that life will calm down very soon. Whew. My favorite autumnal season is just around the corner, and I’m excited to savor it. Things are starting to look up!
  2. I have new books coming out:

Oh my goodness, aren’t they CUTE?????? SUMO COUNTING follows a typical day of sumo wrestlers with little rhyming couplets. SUMO OPPOSITES is just that — opposite words, plain and simple. I did try to incorporate lots of Japanese cultural elements in the  illustrations for the OPPOSITES book too, though. Plus, there are Japanese words accompanying the numerals and English terms. I always love it when board books are informative and interesting for adults as well as for the littles, and I kept that in mind as I created these.

The official release date is next Tuesday, September 7th! They are available wherever books are sold (you can click on the book images on my sidebar or click here), and pre-orders are always awesome!

I am particularly in love with this spread from SUMO COUNTING (the most elaborate one):

The Japanese garden I painted is a mash-up of three local gardens: The Seattle Japanese Garden, Kubota Garden and Bloedel Reserve. All three are incredibly beautiful and it was such a delight to incorporate various aspects of the three gardens.

This is the opener for the SUMO OPPOSITES book:

I loved trying to balance the minimal and complex illustrations for the series.

So! I like to include fun extras whenever possible, and to celebrate the forthcoming launch of my adorable sumo guys, I designed a little repeat pattern, which can be used as gift wrap for small presents. Click here to download the printable PDF file.

I taped two sheets of the sumo paper to wrap both books. As you can tell, I’m very into blues and greens lately.

Here’s what’s even more thrilling: there are TWO more Sumo books in the pipeline! Like all of my kids’ books, the next two will be published through Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch Books. The entire set will be a great addition to any library, and these make excellent baby gifts. The best way to describe how I felt making these books is “joyful,” which was much appreciated since I was working on these during the height of the pandemic lockdown last year. I’m so grateful to have had these sumo books to keep me company during these uncertain times.

Yay! Please order these joy-boosting books for every baby/toddler you know :-)!!!