Glassine Bag Gift Card Holder

  Are you still enjoying the Christmas season?  Me too.  This is my last gift to wrap :)

  I have a few glassine bags in my stash, but I had never used them.  Our daughters' Godparents are so good to our girls and they both love P.F. Chang's restaurant.  We are giving them a gift card to P.F. Chang's when we see them tomorrow, so I wanted to create a gift card holder.  This size is perfect for a gift card!

  I ran the glassine bag through my Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" embossing folder.  I cut strips of My Mind's Eye "12 Days of Christmas" papers and cut a couple of tags from the scraps too.  I ran the two paper strips through my Xyron, then placed the polka dot one on first, then the Merry Christmas strip second.  The little Christmas tree tag and brad are from the My Mind's Eye "Winter Wonderland" collection.

  My papers, tag, and brad all came from Shop Pumpkin Spice.  All of the prices at Shop Pumpkin Spice are 30% or more off retail, so it is my first stop when I am looking for a specific theme or a favorite brand.  You can also check out more inventory at the Shop Pumpkin Spice ebay store!

  For inspiration, please stop by the Pumpkin Spice blog.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Artful Delight December Kit- It's not just for Christmas!

  I have had oodles of fun working with this month's Artful Delight kit (December 2013).  All of my creations so far from this kit have been Christmas/holiday in nature, but I had not yet tried to make my self-imposed challenge: a masculine card.  I think perhaps this card could be for either a man or a woman, but I also wanted to show the versatility of the kit; it's not just for Christmas.  Especially the Paper Smooches "Group Hugs" stamp set that is included in the kit...fun fonts, terrific sentiments, and fun hearts.  Wanna see for yourself?

  Everything I needed to create this card came from the kit: kraft card stock, patterned papers, ribbon, stamp set, and a Hero Arts black ink pad!  I only added some sewing machine stitching and a smidge of adhesive (my Xyron for the ribbons and to mount the stitched layers onto the card base.)

  For more inspiration, please check out what my talented design team sisters have created with their kits on the Artful Delight blog.

Happy Sunday!

Best Wishes in 2014!

  There is a new challenge up at Cut It Up...New Year Celebration!

Create your card or project, include a die cut, and link up at Cut It Up for a chance to win the Celebrate die set from Your Next Stamp.

I was able to create two nearly identical cards because the Cricut die cut image I used cuts two champagne glasses.  This is from the Sweethearts cartridge; I cut @ 5.25".  All of my supplies are from really old stash.  I used gold moire metallic paper for the champagne and bows, heavy vellum for the glasses, and silver mirror paper for the background.  The sentiment and numbers are Class-A-Peels stickers; do any of you seasoned crafters still own those?  And the confetti stickers are equally ancient (from Creative Memories.)

Here is a card I made using some of the same supplies in 2012:

Now go create!  You know you want to win this die set:

  See you at Cut It Up!

Happy Friday!

Wish Big!

  Wish Big and perhaps Santa will bring you a subscription to Artful Delight's monthly kit club...

  It is my turn up on the Artful Delight blog.  Paper Smooches stamps one of my two current favorite stamp companies.  This month's Artful Delight card kit includes the "Group Hugs" sentiment stamp set and I love it!  The red gems and the glittery twine are also included in this month's kit, along with the grey snowflake paper and the red and green card stock.

  I hope you are enjoying the holiday season!  I am looking forward to having fun with my husband and our two sweet girls.

Happy Sunday!

Upcycled jars- Teacher gifts

  I purchased the box of one dozen mini mason jars for the teacher gifts (from this post), but I could not forget to make something for our sweet bus driver and her assistant!  Every morning and afternoon Micheline and Terry greet us with a smile and keeps my precious girls safe.

  I had exactly two jars in my craft stash; the tall one was an oyster jar; I am not sure how it came to be in my possession.  The shorter jar was from an artichoke dip that I bought from a local gourmet kitchen store.  It had a different square paper and tag attached to the elastic band; I switched them both out.

  Once again my Xyron made the tags easy to layer and the Santas circle adhere easily to the oyster jar lid.  All of my papers are from the 6x6 American Crafts "Hollyday" collection that my friend Sally gave me last year for Christmas.  The twine is "Peapod" by The Twinery and the mittens badge is Crate Paper "Bundle Up" included in this month's Artful Delight kit.

  I am entering my projects in the current challenge at Shop Pumpkin Spice:  "Anything Holiday"

Happy Saturday!

Sequins at the end of the Sequence

   The six month term for the current Little Tangles design team has come to an end.  This is our final post and challenge, but it is not goodbye!  I eagerly await the inspiration by the new design team.  Neat and Tangled remains one of my two favorite stamp companies, so I know I will continue to support them.  In fact it was Neat and Tangled that started the sequins trend, did you know that?  For my card I used a few sequins from the "Winter Wonderland" pack and the current fortnightly challenge is: 

SEQUINS!

(Winter Wonderland sequins pack)   

My sentiment is from this new fab set called

 "You + Me":

This could be my new favorite stamp set.  LOVE.

For my card I used punches and card stock by Stampin' Up!  I liked the little blue circles in the designer paper (BasicGrey "Eskimo Kisses" 6x6).  The blue card stock was a little bolder (see scalloped oval compared to the hexagon die cut piece (a PTI die).  To tone down the blue hexagon die cut piece, I also cut a scrap piece of vellum with the hexagon die and glued together with glossy accents (which I also used to adhere the sequins.)  Then I glued both hexagon die cut layers to the BasicGrey patterned paper.  The paper was a little wavy for my perfectionist taste, so I ran the entire piece through my Xyron.  This also enabled my to easily adhere my ends of the scrap ribbon I used on the sentiment oval as well as adhering the entire panel to my base card.

Please stop by Little Tangles to say goodbye, play along in the SEQUINS challenge, and welcome the new team in two weeks!

Happy Thursday!

Mini Mason Jars - teacher gifts

   What a wild ride this fall has been.  My twin girls started middle school, and they both have had a difficult transition.  This school is out in the country, and they have never had children with Autism as severe as my girls...especially Julia.  Kathryn is doing well now but the academic work load is draining; we work with Kathryn at least 4 hours each night, and more on the weekends.  Both girls are earning all A's and B's.  Julia is still training her teachers ;)

  I wish I earned frequent flyer miles for the number of times I have driven to the school so far this year, e.g. Julia needing a change of shoes, socks, and pants for jumping in mud puddles!  And I have never been so far behind preparing for Christmas.

  I don't even know if the middle school teachers appreciated my K-cup teacher gifts from Halloween, but I managed to pull these gifts together this afternoon.  I filled each mini mason jar with five peppermint patties.   I used my Cricut Imagine "Imagine More Cards" for the two circles.  I used my Xyron to layer the circles and adhere them to the lids.  I stamped the center of each circle with "North Pole...certified" from the Neat and Tangled "Santa's Notes" stamp set.  Finally I printed out and punched the to/from tags and layered on Core'dinations "Glitter Silk" card stock.  I used a little baker's twine on each tag and screwed the lid on over the ends of the twine.

  I am entering this project at My Craft Spot for the "Wrap It Up!" challenge.

Happy Wednesday!