Christmas Gift Tags

I don't know about you, but I'm looking for creative gifts for this holiday season. The moment I saw the tag box on pg. 14 of the IBC, I knew I had to make it and the tags. The stamp set I used is a level 2 hostess gift, Christmas Punch. There are seven stamps in this set including a to: and from: that I stamped on the back of each tag. (Remember you can hold a workshop and sales reach $300 this set can be yours)

As I said I got the idea from our Idea Book and Catalog, but then it was finding he pattern for the box. My box is actually made from three parts - the box is a very simple box I got from a pattern from Stampin' Up! The dividers are from a tutorial from Valerie Stangle - see her entire box tutorial at http://valeriestangle.blogspot.com/2009/07/whispy-blooms-tag-box.html. Her design for the dividers is fabulous and uses a minimal amount of paper. In fact, wih my box pattern and her dividers I made my box only using one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of card stock and I got three tops from one sheet of designer series paper! The only other part of the box top is a 4" piece of clear window sheet for the box wrapper. I cased the wrapper idea from our Match box die - really easy to make. I wanted everyone to be able to see what was in the box, thus the window sheet and four squares made with our 1-3/8" square punch.

I stamped the tags using pads for the solid colors and markers for the red and green, adding a touch of orange to the snowman's carrot nose. I punched a 1/16" hole and used silver elastic cord with two of the designs and linen thread with the other two.

I slid the box into the wrapper and tied a piece of 1/4" real red grosgrain ribbon around the box and added a gift tag of my own. I tied the ribbon in a direction that it doesn't come off when the box is opened.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Christmas tag box and please act surprised if you are one of my friends that receives a little box for Christmas!

Google Follow!

Good Morning,

I've been working on some great ideas for Christmas presents and will have pictues up soon, maybe in a couple of hours, but I just had to tell you that I've added Google Follow with Friend Connect to my blog - check out the right sidebar! This makes it so easy to know what I'm up to on a regular basis. I hope many of you will click on the follow button and become a regular on my blog.

Check back later today for more updates.

Night of Navy Christmas Card

If you follow my blog at all you know I love Night of Navy! Here is my latest Christmas Card featuring Night of Navy and Whisper White. I was fortunate enough to have a new package arrive yesterday (I love Mr. Brown) anyway, it included a few things from the new Holiday Mini catalog (you will be receiving one soon - if not from me, from your favorite demonstrator) and WOW is all I can say!

I love punches! And Stampin' Up! has out done themselves this time. It's an Ornament shaped punch! Now to make things even better they have done a stamp set, Delightful Decorations and rub-ons in silver and white - Merry & Bright. Unfortunately my stamp set is on backorder, but I could still play because I have the rub-ons. These rub-ons are incredible - the best ever and so I rubbed the design on to a piece of Night of Navy, positioned my punch and voila! the rest as they say is history. A perfect ornament with almost no work.

The other two ornaments are from the fun set Tree Trimming (pg. 28 IBC). I used the new impressions folder for the background - it , too, will be found in the new mini - Petals-A-Plenty. I used the debossed side - liked it better for this project - but both sides are beautiful.

Hope you enjoy - now it's your turn to get into the Christmas Spirit and get started on your cards.

Happy Stamping,

Christmas Ornaments

I had an idea yesterday to use the fabulous lattice die (pg. 198 Stampin' Up Idea Book & Catalog) and then punch out a design, well that fell flat as a pancake! But I just couldn't give up - I kept playing with the punched out lattice and began to cut it into shapes. Now I had some great shapes, but what to do with them?

Suddenly I thought of decorating Christmas tree ornaments. So I got out my Circle Scissors Plus(pg. 199 IBC) and cut a 3" and a 3 1/2" circle for the ornament base shape. I ran brushed silver paper (pg. 159 IBC) though my crimper (pg. 188 IBC) and then used the round tab punch (pg. 187 IBC) to make the top of the ornament. I placed my various shapes on the round circle. Glued on the top, punched a hole and used silver cord for the tie. Here are the results. The paper colors are Night of Navy, Real Red and Rich Razzleberry. I think they're pretty cool and I use all handmade ornaments on my tree so this will be a great new addition for this year. Now as a disclaimer, if someone else has already done this, please forgive me for taking credit. I know I've seen the ornament shape, but I think I thought of the lattice design - if not, please let me know so proper credit can be given!

I included a picture of the lattice in the shot so you can see how I cut it. I will be using just the lattice with a hanger as part of my ornaments - it is beautiful by itself.

My next set will be made with the Brushed Gold cardstock (pg. 159 IBC) and some different colors and I'm going to make a card with this design. Check back tomorrow for the next edition.

I will also post a cutting tutorial with pictures soon. Must take the pictures and time is short today!

Happy Stamping . . .

Pendant Park in Bloom

I love this set! I know I've said that before, but here's another reason - the tree is in bloom!

A friend of mine was looking at one of my other cards made with this set and mentioned that it just might be very pretty with some flowers. So I had to give it a try. I pulled out the Branch Out set for the flowers (this set is dormant and not in the 2009-10 catalog, but still available for purchase) and Season of Friendship for the sentiment. The base card is Bordering Blue, the strips are Chocolate Chip textured paper and the base for the stamp is Whisper White. I used dimensionals to pop the bench and the sentiment. Stamp pads and watercolor brush were used for the ground and sky.

Now it's your turn - take a stamp you use all of the time and change it up! Have fun!