Last FFF of the year!!

Hiya peeps! It's been a month since I've participated in Unity's FFF; I've been busy with Christmas preparations. If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's to keep your December "to do" list as empty as possible because it's going to fill up to overflow no matter what you do :) I have one quick project to share today...


I made a few of these notepads as Christmas gifts. The owl stamp is from a Unity Exclusive stamp store kit (Nov. I think). The rest of the supplies (papers, buttons, ribbon, and notepad) are from Papertrey Ink.

I hope each and every one of you will experience a SPLENDID holiday!!! We are expecting around 10" of snow here tomorrow in PA so it looks like we will be enjoying a white Christmas! Take care and God bless :)

Diane

STOCKING GIFT CARD HOLDER

Oh WOW, can it be true, Christmas is only EIGHT days away! I'm still plugging away at the Christmas gifts, trying to get everything done before my kids are off for Christmas vacation starting next Wednesday.

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I wanted to do some kind of special presentation for my niece and nephews gift cards from Barnes & Noble, and I came up with this. I used the free stocking template from Papertrey Ink, but I didn't make it into a box. I simply glued the front and back pieces together around the edges using Score Tape and left the top open to slide the gift card inside. It really was FUN decorating these :)

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I know they'll love them, and I'm happy to have 2 more gifts checked off of my list!

Diane

CHRISTMAS GIFT BAGS

I'm so excited to share these gift bags I made! The instructions for these cute bags was included in the SEI November mini kit (along with lots of other great gift wrapping ideas!) I've never made a gift bag from paper and I was surprised how easy these were to make.

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All you need to make them are 2 sheets of 12x12 pretty patterned paper (I used SEI Wintersong papers for my bags), some ribbon for handles, some strong adhesive, and whatever embellishments you choose to use on them.


So here are the instructions if you'd like to give them a try. (1) Score in 1 1/2" on the bottom and sides of both pieces of paper. (2) Cut out the 1 1/2" square in each of the lower corners of each sheet. (3) Use decorative scissors along the top edge of each sheet. (4) Nest the two halves inside one another to form a bag, and secure with adhesive (I used scor-tape). (5) Punch holes and thread ribbon to make handles. (6) Embellish as desired. Easy peasy, right?


Want a shorter bag, or a narrower bag, then you can make these bags different sizes by adjusting the size of the sheets of paper you begin with. The red snowflake bag I made is shorter than the other two. You also don't have to use the same sheet of paper for the front and back of the bag, feel free to mix complimentary patterns.

And of course a lot of the fun is making cute tags and embellishments to compliment your bag. I have to say I've been VERY impressed with the kits I've gotten from Club SEI since I've been a member! They send us some really great ideas, and I'm always looking for great ideas ;)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Since we moved to Peaceful Lane 4 years ago we've enjoyed the annual tradition of a visit from Santa Claus on a Saturday morning in December!


With lights flashing and sirens blaring, he comes via a Lincoln Fire Company fire truck each year, perched up high, waving to the excited boys and girls in the surrounding neighborhoods.


He always brings along a few helpers to pass out the bags of goodies to the good little girls and boys. Below is my husband David, who is a volunteer firefighter for Lincoln fire company, handing Ali her bag. Seems that our dog Missy wants in on the action too :)


With a gentle hug and a pat on the head, Santa's helper says goodbye, and it's on to the next delighted little ones!


Bye bye Santa, see you next year!!

MY FIRST NOTE PAD!

I finally got around to making my first PTI note pad. I don't have the Take Note stamp set yet, so I just had to wing it and come up with something. I wanted this particular pad to coordinate with the thank you notes and gift boxes I made last week, so I used the same colors (Aqua Mist and Ripe Avocado), and the same flower that I used on one of the note cards.


I stamped the top flowers with one of the stamps from Background Basics: Text Style II, to add a little interest. The left border is stamped with the tiny flower border from Limitless Labels. I also used PTI Avocado Green Bitty Dots paper and Aqua Mist card stock.

This doesn't look like most of the note books I've seen others make, but I still like how it turned out. I do want to get that Take Note stamp set soon, that's for sure!

Diane

HOLIDAY BAG AND CANDY

I sure have had fun making these cute little candy labels using the Papertrey Ink stamp sets, Limitless Labels, and Holiday Treats! Aren't they sweet :)


I wanted to make a Christmas gift to send to a friend who lives out west, and time is getting short, so I finished this up this morning. It's already in the mail and on it's way to Nevada, along with some other goodies! I used half of a PTI stamp box as the base, SEI Wintersong papers, and the sentiment stamp is from PTI's Tree Trimming Trio set. I added the glittery strip below the sentiment using double sided tape and prisma glitter. I LOVE how it turned out; I've been wanting to try this idea ever since I saw it on Nichole's blog.

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Below is a picture of the bag and candy together. I really love how this one turned out and I hope my friend loves it too :)

That's it for now, I'm off to work on more holiday projects. Enjoy your day :)

Diane

CHRISTMAS TAGS

When I saw these tags on Betsy Veldman's blog, I fell completely in love with them and had to make some! I love how she used both the positive and negative from her die cuts to double her output! What a great idea Betsy, you clever gal ;)

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I didn't have any of the cute papers Betsy used, so I decided to just go with what I had on hand. Most of the tags are made using Basic Gray paper from several Christmases ago that I'm STILL trying to use up because I bought way too much of it (note to self: do NOT buy tons of any one kind of paper, when you see something you love buy just a bit of it and USE it all up because next Christmas there will be lots of new choices that you'll love just as much lol!!) A few of the tags use SEI Winter Song papers.


I made A LOT more tags than I have pictured here, and I plan to package them up and give them as Christmas gifts.

So I hope you enjoyed seeing how Betsy's tags would look done in different papers. You should try making a few yourself; they're FUN!

Diane

THANK YOU CARDS WITH GIFT BOX

When I saw this post on Dawn McVey's blog I fell in love with this color combination of Aqua Mist and Ripe Avocado and Dawn's beautiful card designs! I duplicated some of her cards, and made a gift box from a Papertrey Ink stamp box to hold the cards. I actually made six sets of these and will be giving them as Christmas gifts to family and friends.


I made some slight changes on some of the cards, for example on the card pictured above right I used Background Basics Text Style II instead of the vintage book print Dawn used. And on the card below I used Giga Guide lines instead of Damask Designs. But other than that I copied Dawn's designs because I think they are just BEAUTIFUL!


For the card below I was inspired by a card I saw on Nicholes blog here (the 4th card down). I don't own the stamp she used to make the circles for her "flower", so instead I punched my flower from Aqua Mist Bitty Dots paper and mounted it onto card stock I cut using Spellbinders Label 1, and stamped with Vintage Labels. The green strip is stamped with Background Basics: Diamonds. All of these cards feature Dawn's fabulous Signature Greetings stamps. I really love that set and the wonderful sentiments in it!


Here is the box, empty, decorated with Ripe Avocado Bitty Dots paper, Aqua Mist card stock and ribbon, and Ripe Avocado buttons.


And here is the box filled with the cards and envelopes (the funky looking crease on the lower right side of the box is simply shadows, not a creased card).

I really love how the finished project turned out, and I hope the recipients love them too.

Diane

STAR ORNAMENT

I'd like to share an ornament with you today. I made this several years ago for an ornament exchange I was participating in (I actually made 20 of them!) These are really quiet easy to make and I think they look lovely hanging on a Christmas tree! The idea for these came about because I wanted to share several of my favorite Christmas quotes on my ornament, and this is what I came up with.


This is a fairly large ornament; the star measure about 5 1/2" across. I used a large, star shaped cookie cutter as a pattern. I traced the star onto some thin chip board, and then traced the same star 2 times onto patterned paper. I cut the stars out, and glued one piece of pp to the front of the chip board and the other piece to the back.


Next, onto the little book. It measure 2" x 2" square when closed. You could use card stock to make the book; I used heavy weight patterned paper. To make the book I cut 2 pieces of paper measuring 2" x 4". As you can see in the photo below I stapled my book in the center to hold it together; you could also stitch down the center on a sewing machine.


For the Christmas quotes, I typed them on my computer, picked the fonts I wanted to use, sized them, and then printed them onto vellum paper. I then cut the vellum paper to fit the book page. To decorate the pages you could use stamps, die cuts, really any type of embellishment that is not too bulky and will allow the book to close properly.


Next, to hold the book closed, I punched a hole on either side of the book and threaded ribbon through the holes from the back. Then I tied a bow on the front. Punch a hole at the top of the star and add ribbon as a hanger.


So what do you think? These were really fun to make, and the recipients seemed to love them. I used a variety of different Basic Gray papers from this line to make the stars, so each person could pick a pattern they liked. The one in this post was what was left over so I got to keep it :) Not my favorite of the patterns, but I like it nonetheless. Can't you just see these made with some of the really gorgeous papers that are available on the market right now?! Hmmm, makes me want to make more of them.

Diane

LABEL 8 BOX

Do you ever see a project that you just HAVE to make immediately? That happened to me on Friday when I saw this cute little box tutorial on Tosha Leyendekker's blog!


I used the largest die in the Spellbinders Label 8 die set to make these boxes. I used the second largest die to cut the patterned paper, although on Tosha's box it looks like she might have cut the pp with the largest die and trimmed it down. I think when I make more of these I'll try that. I used PTI Aqua Mist card stock to make the base and Aqua Mist ink to stamp the tree, and the pp is from the SEI Wintersong collection. I stamped the center tree image and "to/from" using PTI's 2009 Holiday Tag stamp set. The ribbon is CTMH. The red strip of paper was embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss dot border folder. To finish these I glittered them up a bit with my gel clear star glitter pen and added the little gems.

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Although Tosha shows candy in her box, a gift card will fit in these and that's what I plan on using mine for (edited to add that a gift card won't fit in this size box, however, if you use a piece of paper that is 3 1/4 x 4 1/2 to make the base, then a gift card will fit in it as long as the card is the same size as a regular credit card. Sorry for posting the wrong information originally). Hope you enjoy Tosha's tutorial, and that it inspires you to make some of your own :)

Diane

A couple more tag ornaments

Happy Friday my friends! I have a couple more chipboard tag ornaments to share today. The first one features that adorable little gingerbread man from the PTI Holiday Button Bits stamp set. He's holding some holly leaves (PTI's 2009 Holiday Tags), and the Cosmo Cricket chipboard tag is stamped with another PTI stamp, "merry christmas", also from Holiday Button Bits.

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I love this next tag; the sleeping children are just so sweet and represent one of the things I love most about Christmas :) (the image comes from Flair Designs paper). The background paper and chipboard letter "C" are from Cosmo Cricket. The text that is cut from Spellbinders Label 1 is from a copy of the book Little Women that I saved from my childhood. It's got a nicely aged color to it because, well, I'm pretty darn old lol!

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I finished yesterday working on some cards and gift boxes to hold them, I'll post those later today or over the weekend. I have several projects I'm itching to work on today, gotta get busy!

Diane