Santa Bag

This is a little Santa bag we made for my 4-H club girls. I found the idea here, but when I made one, first the measurements were all metric and second, the bag was only big enough to fit one of those nugget sized chocolates.

So, I made up some new measurements and got some help from my Cricut.
Here are the directions:
Cut a piece of black paper 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. On the long side, score at 3 inches from the end on both sides and on the short side, score at 1 1/2 on both sides. Cut the score lines on the long side until you hit the opposite score line. Fold up into a box and glue together. Then cut a piece of black 3/4 x 8 and staple it on the tall side.
Then I used the tags, bags, boxes and more cartridge and cut 2 tags out of red at 4 1/4.
The belt (black) is another tag cut at 2 3/4 and the buckle is on the same cartridge at 1/2.
The back tag is left plain. I only decorated the front side. The white pieces were just ripped and then glittered.

They were pretty easy and super cute.

Christmas Ornament

This is my favorite ornament and I seem to make a few every year. I always intend to make some for my family and never get around to it. Maybe next year. I'm sorry the picture is sideways. I am in Arizona and don't have a way to edit it. Just tilt your head. BTW you can always click on a picture and make it bigger to see more detail.

These are the instructions:
1. You need an acrylic ornament base. These I bought at sparklensprinkle.com. They are 2.5 inches with a hole pre-cut at the top.
2. Stamp an image on the back with Staz-On ink. Do not stamp any words! Let it dry.
3. Color the image in with Galaxy Markers by American Craft. Let dry.
4. Press the side you've been coloring on into Versamark ink and sprinkle with a light colored embossing powder and heat. Keep the heat gun moving so the acrylic doesn't buckle.
5. If you want words on the ornament, flip it over and stamp the words on the front with Staz-On ink.
6. Now, take red line tape (also called Terrifically Tacky Tape by Provo Craft) and tape up the edges of the ornament. Then take the backing off and press it all down, then roll the edges in ultra fine glitter.
7. Then, just thread a ribbon through the hole.

It might sound complicated, but it really isn't and they end up looking really cool.

Christmas Card

This is a simple little card using an SU! set called Crazy for Christmas. It was another project for my 4-H club. This is the end of my Christmas projects, but the 4-H clubs start up again in February, so I'm busy working on projects for them. Stay tuned.

Neighbor Gifts

This is what I made to give out to all my neighbors. I ran the paper bag through my cuttlebut with a scallop circle nestability, then added acetate (transparencies) to the back and cut out bigger circles with the nestabilities and Christmas paper. I made 20 of them, plus the cookies and fudge that went inside. Yummy and suprisingly, not to hard with all the right tools.

Money Holder

This is the money holder I made for my brother for Christmas. He's 16 and incredibly difficult to shop for and with all the stores going out of business, I didn't want to risk a gift card, so money is a great option.
I got the instructions on how to make it here.

Gift Card Holder

I've seen a bunch of these gift card holders online and wanted to try them, and this weekends challenge was to make a gift card holder, so I tried it.

It's pretty cute, unfortunately, I don't think I'm giving any gift cards this year. I'll just keep the idea for next year.

Non-traditional Christmas

This card is two challenges in one for the Stamp Simply Celebration. The first is a sketch which you can see here.

The second challenge was to create a Christmas card, without using a traditional Christmas image (i.e. Santa Claus) or Christmas design paper. We could use a Christmas sentiment.
The paper is all scraps from my stash, including the silver metallic. I cut the ovals using my Cricut. I embossed the star with silver ep and there are three rhinestones on the bottom. I really like this card.

Stamps: In the Stars and Snow Swirled; both SU!
Ink: Versamark, Night of Navy

Day 4 Challenge

Today's challenge was to make a quick and easy gift of notecards and package them up pretty. This is the box I made and now that I look at it, I should have taken the picture from the side so you can see that it is a bottom and lid. (the bottom is solid purple, just so you get the idea). I even scalloped the edges so it's super cute. Oh, well. I used a wheel to create the top because I didn't have any purple dp.


I had a different idea for the cards, but when I saw this card by Karen Williamson, I knew that's what I would do.

And here's the whole set.


Info:
Stamps: Petals jumbo wheel, Be Happy
Ink: Lovely Lilac
Everything else is random stuff from my stash.

Mass Production

Today's Stamp Simply Celebration challenge was to mass produce a card. I'm always mass producing cards for my card swap and these 12 cards were done in one nap time (about 2 hours).

I used the snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background, cut up strips of an old piece of dp from my stash and cut out the snowflake from the Joys of the Season Cricut cartridge that I just got Thanksgiving day for $30 at Michaels. Go me!!! I attached it all together with a brad and glued it onto a white card. Pretty easy!!

3 birds with one stone

I am so stinkin' proud of myself with this card. It turned out way better than I imagined.


I stamped all the images, then masked them all and added more snow lumps. Then, with the mask on I brayered bashful blue ink. It left a really stark line, so I sponged the bottom of the "sky" to give it more variety. Then I colored with my Stampin' Up markers, stamped the sentiment and then heat embossed the snowflakes with white embossing powder. Then I ran a glue pen along the snow lumps and glittered. The stamp set is "It's Snow Time" by SU!

This postcard satisfies the rules for three challenges.

The first is Limelight paper crafts 12 days of Christmas, day 2. It's an inspiration picture (seen here) of a forest covered in snow.

The second is for the Stamp Simply celebration. The challenge was to make a postcard, which means it had to measure 4x6 and be one dimension, so it would go through all the post office machines.

The third challenge is a RAK (random act of kindness) where you have to make a card which includes one specified item (today it was snow) and send it to someone who could use it. I'm sending this one to a neighbor, who also goes to my church. She is a rather difficult person to deal with and has a tendency to rub pretty much everyone the wrong way. Because of my responsibilities at church, I have to interact with her on a regular basis, so I have been working really hard to have charitable feelings towards her and really see her positive characteristics. I think she'll really like this card.

Are you still reading? Well, I'm done for today.

1st Day of Christmas Challenge

This is a card I made for the first day of Christmas challenge from Limelight papercrafts. It was to create a card with a bird and a tree...(like the song, get it). I've never used this stamp set and it was just perfect.
It's hard to see in the picture but I glittered the tops of the branches, like snow. I got the layout idea from Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch #63.

Stamps: Season of Friendship
Inks: Choc Chip, Real Red, Bordering Blue, Brocade Blue, Ballet Blue
SU! scallop border punch and 3/4 circle punch
Paper and Glitter from my stash

Cookie Exchange

The Stamp Simply Celebration challenge for Dec 1 is a cookie recipe exchange. You had to bake cookies, package them up in something creative and then share the recipe. I had seen lots of these boxes made with the Sizzix envelope die and thought they were super cute, but I don't have the die cut. However, I have a Cricut and using the envelope option on the New Arrival cartridge, I was able to reproduce the look.

I don't love it, but it's not bad for my first try and it's something I will definetely do again. In fact, I'm thinking about making a bunch of these boxes to package up my cookies and fudge for neighbor gifts. I do like the little gingerbread man from the Paper Doll Dress up cartridge.

And here is my recipe for Frosted Pumpkin Cookies. My husband does not like them, which just means more for me.

1 c sugar
1 c shortening
1 egg
1 c pumpkin
2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c nuts

Cream sugar and shortening, add eggs and pumpkin, then all dry ingredients and nuts last. Drop onto greased baking sheet for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

For the frosting:
In a pot on medium heat melt 3 Tbsp marg and add 1/2 c brown sugar and 3 tsp milk. Boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and add 1 c powdered sugar adn 1 tsp vanilla. Frost cookies while warm. You will have to add a little milk periodically in order to maintain the consistency.

I told you...

...I had several baby cards I needed to get done.
These all follow the same layout I found here.


On this one, the layout is just flipped over. I like this one the best.

All paper and vellum sayings are DCWV, ribbon is from Michaels and eyelets from Provo Craft

Baby Card for a Challenge

I have a lot of baby cards to make so you'll probably be seeing a lot of those. I bought this stamp set after Adam and Jill had their twins, but I thought I would probably never know another person who had twins and it would end up being a waste. Then, Emily announced she was having twins and I was so excited to use this stamp set. And now, I'm a month late getting it done and sent. Oh well, I'm assuming she is too busy with the babies to read this blog before the card gets to her. The layout idea is from another challenge, which you can see here.

All paper is from DCWV and the stamp is By Ones and By Twos SU!

My First Challenge

This blog is all the fault of my husbands aunt. She was showing me some ideas she had printed off the internet. I was interested and started looking at those websites for ideas for my cards and the 4-H club I teach. Well, a few sites turned in to hundreds of sites and I discovered this whole crafting world out in cyberspace.

On many of these sites, they will post challenges. Sometimes it is to use specific colors, other times certain embellishments, but my favorites are the sketch challenges. I've always wanted to participate, but I didn't think I could come up with a good enough idea. But today, I took the plunge, I tried one. You can see the sketch here.

So what do you think? The picture is not great as the light (outside) is fading, but I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea all by myself. And as a bonus the uses scraps I had in my stash.

Recipe
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Warmest Regards SU!
Ink: Only Orange, Garden Green SU!
Paper: My Minds Eye (dp)
Other: Eyelets by provo craft

Thanksgiving Projects

These are the two Thanksgiving projects I had the girls in my 4-H club make. The

The first is a pumpkin that I originally found on this blog. You can read the instructions there. I stamped the sheet of orange with Versamark ink and Background Basics from SU! before I cut it up. The leaf is cut on my Cricut with the Doodlecharms cart, the tag is from Tags, Bags, Boxes and more cart and then I added jewelry wire and curled it around a pencil.

The turkey is a super cute idea I made at a stampin' club meeting. It uses a scallop punch all folded up and circle punches for the body and face. The hat was cut from my Paper Dolls Dress-up cart and the words were cut from the Mini Monograms cart onto vinyl to make a sticker.

Card from a Sketch

This is a card I designed for the 4-H club based off of these ideas.

I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the black panel and punched the small squares from scrap paper. The flower was something I picked up at the Scrapbook Expo, but I don't remember the vendor.

Birthday Card

This is another card I made for my monthly swap and then I made two extra to give to family.

Stamps: Big Birthday Candle by SU!
Ink: Basic Black by SU!

Baby Girl Card

One of the sisters I visit teach just had a baby girl, so this is the card I made for her.

I liked it so much I also made it for a monthly card swap I participate in where the theme was pink and brown.

Stamps: I'm here by SU! (Stampin' Up!)

2-4-6-8 box

Today's project is commonly referred to as a 2-4-6-8 box, but you can actually change the dimensions to whatever you want. Start with paper that is 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. On this one, I took a jumbo stamping roller with Versamark ink to create that faint flower pattern on the box. Then you score the paper at 2, 4, 6, and 8 inches and then at 2 inches on the bottom. Adhere the side and bottom with good double stick tape, punch two holes in the top and thread ribbon through. The bread tag is cut with my Cricut and chipboard. I used the 'Walk in my Garden' cartridge.

Halloween Revisited

These are some of the Halloween Projects we did in the 4-H club I teach



This is a frankenstein bag that I orinally made at my SU! club night. You can see Loni's blog here. It's a 12x6 piece of paper scored at 5" on each of the long ends and 1 3/4" on the short ends, cut on the long sides and folded up. The eyes are punched from a 1" punch and 3/4" punch and the nose and hair are free hand.








This is a mosaic card first seen here












A 2-4-6-8 box












a card using the masking technique (actually my own idea) and finally











This cute candy corn project I found here. If you want the template I made, let me know and I'll e-mail it to you.