Gift card

Here is a quick gift card box I decorated for a friend coming home with our son for the holiday.  Love these GC boxes from Taylored Expressions as they come with the insert and have so many possibilities.  The reindeer from this Paper Smooches "Santa Paws" set make me laugh!

A fuzzy cupcake!

My last gift idea was a fuzzy, cozy pair of socks wrapped up as a cupcake! How cute is this? I've seen this idea on several blogs and had purchased the cupcake containers from Taylored Expressions a while back so decided to give it a try. Took a couple attempts to get the sock to look like icing but, with the help of a rubber band to hold the bottom, I think I succeeded! I found a template to make the cupcake liner, tied a little ribbon, added a label, and it's ready to give to my friend who loves cupcakes AND cozy socks!!

Gift card holder

A cute idea for those you may be giving gift cards to this holiday can be found here - http://addinkandstamp.blogspot.com/2010/12/snowman-gift-card-holder.html.   This would be something easily mass produced as you could have all your circles cut and then assemble quickly. I made mine to fit into a legal sized envelope and will use to send a December birthday gift card!

Holiday gift idea

Now that my friend's and I have had our monthly Craft Night, I can share the few things that I made.  Our theme was to bring a gift idea ... so here's my first one. 

I can't tell you how much I love this idea!  I saw it on the link below and just modified for the holidays. Hurry as Bath and Body Works has these little soaps five for $5! Her directions are awesome and something easy to mass produce for teachers, friends, etc. (The only change I made to her tutorial was for the oval where the soap slips in - I used my oval nestie and it worked out perfectly.)

http://pinkbuckaroodesigns.blogspot.com/2010/08/halloween-soap-holder-tutorial.html 

I'll post another idea tomorrow!


Thanks for looking,
Cindy

TESC149 Challenge

Here is this week's sketch from Taylored Expressions ...

I admit that generally I steer clear of anything with banners with maybe the occasional exception of a small one with a sentiment on it!  For some reason I just don't do well with them ... but I thought I'd give it a try.  I have this new reindeer stamp that has been waiting for a little attention so thought it would be pretty embossed in red with a twinkly little nose!  Well ... sadly she was a little bigger than my sketch really needed so after a few different "tries" I cut her out, popped her up, and added the snowflake! 

SSSC139 Challenge

This week I am using the new TE nativity set - isn't it darling?  I love the donkey!

Here is the sketch for this week ...

Christmas Tree cards

A special holiday edition of a craft magazine I'd ordered came so I got inspired to play with a couple new stamp sets and die cuts that I'd ordered.  It also works well with the Christmas Card Challenge this week ...

This card is more elegant in person than the picture shows but this JustRite stamp set ("O Christmas Tree") is definitely one I'll use many times in the weeks to come.  The background is embossed with the Cuttlebug "Allegro" music folder.

Then I noticed some scraps from a Christmas paper pad I'd used last year so put them together and cut out a tree from a new triangle die set I just got from Spellbinders. Not as cute as I had in my head but can't always be successful!

Holiday gift idea

During the Southern Cal Shop Hop, my friends and I stopped into a fabulous quilt shop - Fat Quarters in Vista - where we could have spent the whole day!  I saw this candle wrap made of felt (by Bareroots) and thought it would make pretty gifts for Christmas.  It was a little more time consuming than I expected so honestly don't know how many I will end up  making!

Snowflake card for SFYTT challenge

I really like this sketch challenge and it worked well with the snowflakes I wanted to use.  While I was headed to traditional Christmas colors, I came across this "Cappella" paper pad and went non-traditional.  Give this sketch a try - http://www.iheart2stamp.com/. 

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge

I was just recently introduced to the PS line of stamps (http://www.papersmoochesstamps.com/) and love their whimsical look as it's so different from anything else I have. I am entering their challenge with some cards I made for this month's Craft Night!

This card used the "Santa Paws" and "Birthday Buddies" sets.

March Craft Night

I won't have time before I leave to photograph and add the other great creations from this month's Craft Night but will add when I come home.  This month's "challenge" item was a sheet of cork and I chose to die cut flower note cards from them.  The cork is fabulous and very easy to work with.

The theme for cards was Christmas as well as Christmas tags.  I saw this, and the snowman, card in one of my monthly publications.  They were too labor intensive to make many of but I think the collage one would be a great way to use scraps.

My favorite tag ...

Because we have been creating tags each month, I thought a tin box would be a good spot to keep them ...

The tags I made on craft paper and had inside the box ...

A Homemade Christmas

There are several gifts I need each year outside of family so decided to be creative and have them be homemade. It's taken me a while to finish them up and this weekend most of them got completed and are ready to go. Here we go ...

A very crafty friend and I decided to make cupcake-themed aprons and include tubes of sprinkles. Several -okay six! - sets later I am finished. Of course the outside wrapping had to keep in theme so the tag has a felt cupcake too!

The gal who has done my nails for the past 17 years loves anything with a peace sign on it and always wears an apron over her clothes. When I saw this fabric I knew I had to use for her! This one was much more involved so there would not have been six of these!

The school Mark has been working at does a Secret Santa Exchange. There were to be five days of $1 items and a final day (their party) with a $10-15 gift. Here are the items I started with (I substituted the gift tags with a bag of cookies) and how they look now...

The baking dish had the three cookie cutters arranged inside so chose the gingerbread man to use as the theme - love the tag!

She likes quilting so chose a magazine for her ...

The flower CD case you saw in the "group" picture is actually a calendar that stands up on your desk and displays each month. Here it is ...

I found this darling box at Michael's so put some cute sticky note pads inside. I had a stamp with a snowman that went so well so colored it to match the box. When it looked a little plain, added some sparkles for the snowflakes! Love the non-traditional colors...

My least favorite is the cookies (the decoration, not the cookies!) but that's okay...

And the final gift is a gift card to Michael's inside a tin with a gift card insert. The berry leaves are actually 3-D with red rhinestones although it doesn't show up very well ...

Now if he can just get them all to school intact!

I have more things to share but will have to wait until after the holidays as they are going to family members who actually read this blog! Don't want to ruin the surprise ...

Holiday card

I made a couple improvements today so here is the final product:


Before...

Despite thinking it needs something for "snow" inside the globe, I'll post my first holiday card anyhow! Perhaps some dots of glitter as snowflakes...