We are knee deep in the holiday season and Christmas is my very favorite of all holidays! I love to serve, love, and share with my family and friends during the holidays. The reason for the season is the Savior, Jesus Christ and He has shown us how to love and serve others. We have opportunities every day to do things for others to bring happiness and joy, but during the Christmas season it becomes more of a focus. This December we are trying to make Christmas more meaningful by doing service each day. You can join in by going to mormon.org to find many wonderful ideas for service that you can do. #LIGHTtheWORLD
A gift card is always an easy gift for a friend or even a stranger, but if it's given in something that's handmade, it makes it more than just a "last minute" gift.
Take a small Kraft Tag a Bag gift bag and fold it in half. That leaves two small pockets-one for a note and one for a gift card (or two different gift cards)! Add some details like a ribbon or baker's twine to hold it together.
Our Envelope Punch Board makes a perfect size pocket for a gift card. Use one of our Designer Series Paper or Stacks and punch out a bunch of these and keep them on hand...you never know when you might need one!
This idea came from my upline Jill Olsen's get together! Using some fun coordinating papers ties everything together and makes even the smallest gift card seem more thoughtful.
From simple to extravagant, these gift card pockets will make your gift card giving cheerier!!
Hand one of these to your server at lunch, your hair stylist, or your kid's teacher and see how they react!
Please stop by and say hi to my blogging friends, a kind word is always meaningful.
Enjoy your holiday celebrations! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2017!
It's here! The holiday season! I love to spend time with family and Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorites. While it's been abnormally warm here for fall, the leaves are changing and there is a crispness in the air--sweater weather is here.
I had a fun time in St. George at my second upline Jill Olsen's stampin' get together. We made some fun projects and had some great mini classes. It's always a fun time at Jill's!
Just a few of the many projects that were displayed at Jill's get together.
Since life has been a bit crazy, I didn't do a stepped up or stepped over project but this project is so simple, it only takes a few minutes to do several of these cute boxes.
I took a sheet of the DSP and cut a 2" x 8"strip and scored it every 2". Place the strip in the box and add your goodies and DONE! I love walking the aisles of Target looking for little things to put in these cute little boxes--there's lots! Chocolate is always a good choice.
I finished it off with a tag using the tag punch with a couple of stamps from Oh What Fun photopolymer set. I embossed the sentiment and added some tiny dots of white craft ink on the berries with my stylus (thanks Jeanna!!). I also love the Candy Cane Lane baker's twine, adding a little shimmer to the package. Since each sheet of this DSP is 12" x 12", you can get about 8 of these strips out of each sheet, that's almost 100 box liners from one pack of DSP! That's a great value!
Head on over to Tanya and the rest of the bloggers! I love what they come up with!
While I'm excited for the holidays, in the retail world I know it will start getting old in a couple weeks...wish me luck!
Well, before I get to the fun project for today, I just have to share something I think is amazing! Last week my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!! I know, can you believe it? I'm so not old enough to celebrate 25 years of married bliss (ok, yes I am) but in truth, we have been a couple for 26 + years and I am more in love with him today than all those years ago. In an age where temporary and convenient is the norm, having someone who has promised to love me for eternity as well as making that covenant with God, makes me try harder to be a better person. Marriage takes a lot of work and both people need to give all they have to that relationship.
Well, enough of these lovebirds!!
It's time for Halloween! And Stampin' Up! has some absolutely adorable Halloween stamps, paper and accessories in the Holiday Catalog. I have this super cute set for today's project:
This set actually has a Framelit set that goes along with it, which also includes a "BOO!" Framelit for fun!
This is the original version. I used the Fry Box Bigz die and the Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper and then also used the scallop die from the Circle Card Thinlits die for the tag. Fun for a party favor or a treat for your neighbor kids (not all trick-or-treaters, just the special ones!!) I found these cinnamon roll pretzels at Winco--yum! This is a simple, cute idea that you really can use for anytime, just change out the paper and stamps and go!
Here is the stepped up version! Don't you just love the Black Glimmer paper? It is beautiful in person! I took my Heart punch from the Itty Bitty punch pack and punched out 6 hearts and glued them to the inside of the box for a scalloped edge, added the BOO! and the cute jack-o-lantern and then I took a Vintage Faceted Designer button and inked it with the new Basic Black Archival ink pad and glued it on my spider! So fun!! I love the look of the Glimmer paper!! I love to add a bit of sparkle whenever I can.
Time to check out what Tanya has stepped up this month!
I'm getting all my decorations out for Halloween, how about you? I love fall!
I have to apologize for taking such a long break, I started my new job at Crate & Barrel and working several evenings a week have put a damper on my blogging time. Luckily, I had a open house last week and had prepared some packages for my displays. Stampin' Up! has so many packaging options, the hardest part is selecting which is your favorite! (Or...you can just buy it all!!)
Our wonderful Gift Box punch board is a fabulous tool for making boxes up to 4" x 4" (using 12" x 12" cardstock or Designer Series Paper). Our Take Out box, Window box and Tag a Bag box are great pre-made boxes that just need a bit of stamping or embellishments. Cello bags come in 4 different sizes, but my favorite is the 1" x 8" you can add pencils, pens, candy, and more. We also carry Big Shot dies in box shapes, just like my fry box. To top it all off, we have our new Festive Designer Kraft paper rolls and a plethora of beautiful ribbons and trims to tie everything up. You can order anytime, there is still plenty of time to receive your products before Christmas, but don't delay!
I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with this month! It's always fun to see different ideas that I can CASE! (Copy and Share Everything...as long as you give credit to the designer!!)
I'm so cold right now! I'm glad I can curl up under a blanket and use my laptop in bed. It will be below freezing here in Vegas tonight (and the rest of the week) and that's not a very common thing. And I know it gets colder where just about everyone else lives, but when your summers reach 117º in the shade during the summer, 25º is pretty dang cold! I'm trying my best to stay warm!
So our theme this month was either calendars or printed projects...well, I have a bunch, but I will show you a few that I have done.
On this small card, I was able to "wrap" the ribbon around from the front (doesn't it look real?) using the Smart Guide tool and I used the 1 1/4"square punch to remove the center of the frame after I received it from the printer. The best way to do this is to add the punch to the card on MDS (the Stampin' Up! punches are true to size in MDS) then size your other components accordingly, like the frame on the front (you can remove the punch after it's sized if needed). To see how I wrapped the ribbon on the the card, you can check out this video:
When I received this tag from the printer, I just added a little rhinestone to the present on the front and the string on the balloons on the back. It's wonderful to have these tags available on the print products menu from Stampin' Up! They are just the perfect size to add to gift bags (they are already cut and punched for you) I add a few of these little gems to my order often! Now, I have to admit, on occasion I run to the local print shop if I need one or two print items right away (or use my home printer in a pinch), but if I need more than that and I'm not in a hurry, I don't hesitate to have Stampin' Up! print my MDS projects--they are such high quality! They look very professional and many times my friends and customers have asked if they were store-bought!! (GASP!!) Also, as you can see on the tag, the colors are calibrated to coordinate with our Stampin' Up! products (the Tempting Turquoise trim on the bag is our retired Designer Series Paper). Check out all the different products you can print through Stampin' Up! Go ahead and try making a few small projects like cards or tags when you get started with MDS, you'll never buy cards at the store again! Oh, and I have to thank Erica for the inspiration for my tag! I knew I had to case it...in MDS of course!
Head on over to Julie L.'s blog for her project--I'm pretty sure it's colder where she is!!
I'm ready to pull the blankets up over my head now! Brrrrr!
It's gift giving season and I love to make small gifts for my friends and family! It seems that there's always an opportunity to give gifts to people whether it's birthdays, showers, thank-you's, holidays, or "just because". This fun gift can be given for any reason. I've had the clear marbles for a while (are you a crafting hoarder?) and I thought I would try to make some cute magnets! I used Fabulous Phrases stamp set and Stazon ink on Polka Dot Parade DSP and attached them to the marbles with Crystal Effects. The box was made with Basic Black card stock, Polka Dot Parade DSP and the Simply Scored scoring tool. The tag is from Hello Lovely and Whisper White taffeta ribbon.
The dimensions of the box are 4 x 5 x 1. The size of the DSP and card stock was cut to 6 x 7 and scored at one inch on each edge. To figure out the size paper you need to make a box, measure the length and width of the finished box you want, take the depth and double it and add that to the length and width--does that make sense? So in my example 4 x 5 x 1 box, the 1 is the depth so doubling that would be 2. I add 2 to the 4 (6) and 2 to the 5 (7). I hope I didn't confuse everyone!! (I'm really not that good at math!) With your Paper Snips, make a small cut on the score from the edge to the 1" score line, only on two parallel sides not all of them (you don't want to completely cut out the corners, just allow them to fold). I used Sticky Strip to hold my corners together. I absolutely love being able to make boxes to coordinate with my gift, it just brings the whole thing together! And it looks cute, too!
Now you can head on over to Michelle and see her beautiful gift box. ( I think I will have to try out her bath salts recipe!)
This Pop and Place book is such a great starter piece! This is for anyone who thought about doing handmade tags but didn't know where to start and thought you needed too many supplies--yep, this is for you! Look at some of the things you can make!
And that's just a start! You will have 70 pieces to add to any holiday treats or gifts. I love how Brandi suggests in this video to purchase an additional book along with the bundle because you can never have enough tags, right?
You can purchase each of these products separately- Pop and Place book 134975, Christmas Tagables stamps 134623; or as a bundle of the book and stamps together 135921; or a starter kit with the book and stamps along with the Soft Suede ink spot and acrylic block 135290. You can purchase these and many other fun holiday stamps and supplies and even download the holiday catalog on my website.
It's here!! The 2013 Holiday Catalog! You've got to see all of the beautiful creations inside!
It's overflowing with stamps, paper, bundles, kits, gifts and more! Check out this fun bow die for the Big Shot die-cutting machine:
Won't your gifts look darling with those bows on top? And how about this fun album and pocket cards:
All you need to add is the photos and journaling!! But if you like something a bit more creative, you need the new Season of Style This and That planner kit! You can customize it just the way you want!
And that's just a small taste of what we have for you in the Holiday Catalog! If you would like a copy, please e-mail me your address and I will put one in the mail for you, or you can see it online!
I can't wait for you to see all the festive projects and fun products inside! For more information, please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment here or on my website, you can also order from my website anytime. Now is the time to schedule your workshop, so check your calendar and let me know when you would like me to show you and your friends some of the great projects from the catalog in person!
Ok, there wasn't much dancing going on at the shower, but Tangerine Tango and Melon Mambo were the bride's colors, so I went all out! My friend Mary and I went in on the gift together, so she handed over all the stuff and gave me full reign! I used the extra rubber pieces left over from the clear-mount Daydream Medallions stamp set (don't throw those pieces away!!) and stamped both the drink carrier (yes, it's a Sonic drink carrier) and the background of the card. I used Brights collection DSP for the Melon Mambo polka dot and then embossed die cut circles in chevron and houndstooth (I sponged those with coordinating ink) finally I added the "love & happiness" from Fabulous Phrases stamp set and topped it off with a small rhinestone, for a little bit of sparkle (Janey LOVES sparkle!!).
The bride loved the gift and the card! She especially loved that they were her colors! I'm just happy that she has found a wonderful man she can share love and happiness with!!
