Top Note genie bag

Got lots of oohs and aahhs over these last night. I made one for each of my PTA Board members in attendance at our holiday get-together/board meeting. They looked fabulous en masse there on the table. Shoulda taken a picture of that, but alas, in my effort to get everything else into my truck, I forgot my camera bag. Oh well.

Ingredients:
Papers: Baja Breeze and Whisper White cardstock, pearlescent vellum from Hobby Lobby
Sizzix Dies: Top Note, Snowflake #2
Stamp: Snowflake from this year's Country Living Holiday Collection (SU!)
Punches: Scallop Circle, Large Oval, Trio Flower
Ribbon: Silver tulle 'ribbon' (comes 6" wide, but I cut it down to 2")
Bag: #2 white gusset-bottom bags from Sam's Club

My own Top Note die is still on backorder (* S I G H *), so I borrowed this one from my downline. Thanks Carole!

Though this is a simple idea, it wasn't mine. I'm not sure who originated it (using the Top Note), but the earliest example I could find was by Angie Kennedy Juda at Chic n' Scratch.

Thanks for visiting!

Santa bookmark

Gah. I was hoping to take pics for a tutorial on how to make this guy using SU punches, but it's not gonna happen any time soon. So I'm just gonna share the pic, and the supplies list, and maybe you can figure it out!

Ingredients:
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Blush Blossom
Punches: Scallop Circle (beard/mustache), Scallop Square (hat trim), 1-1/4" Circle (skin), 1" Circle (cut out of scallop circle), 1/4" Circle handheld (nose and hat ball)
Other: Black marker (eyes), Stampin' Pastels (cheeks & nose), jumbo paperclip, grid paper

Hat is an isosceles triangle one inch tall, and one inch wide at the base. For the hat trim, I punched a scallop square, then put the punched piece back in the punch to trim it down (you can get two hat trims from one scallop square punch). The mustache is cut from the piece I cut out of the scallop circle for the face (you end up with a crescent shape left over).

Thanks for visiting!

Reindeer Joy

How cute is this?!? This project started with the guy with the snowflake on his nose. I had been experimenting with punches, figuring out how to make a reindeer face with the tag punches, and then how to make convincing antlers without hand-cutting them. He turned out so well that I had to make the others to keep him company. And then I discovered that as a trio, they took up a lot of space. Not to mention the fact that they took a lot of detail time to make. So a card, even a big card, seemed a bit too...disposable...for the amount of work--and the CUTENESS factor!!--that these guys entail.

INGREDIENTS
Cardstock: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Creamy Caramel, Basic Black, Baja Breeze
Paper: Ski Slope
Punches: Tag, Small Tag, Five-Petal Flower, Round Tab, 1/2" Circle, 1/4" Circle, Word Window, Scallop Square
Other: White gel pen, Cricut, frame

Thanks for visiting!

Pocket Card of Goodness

That's what I'm calling it, since Hot Pocket was already taken. This groovy little 'card' has two pockets on the inside to hold a packet of soup and a packet of hot cocoa. I have several set aside for teacher gifts. Here's a pic of the (potentially) warm num-yummy goodness contained in one little card:


I made two prototypes for this thing, one with separate pockets that you glue on, the other all one piece where you glue down a couple of flaps. While gluing the pockets was a lot easier on the one-piece design, cutting it out and scoring it was a royal pain in the rumpus. So I stuck with the three-separate-rectangles design. Gluing the pockets is a little fiddly, but overall it took a lot less time. Here's the cut and score measurements for each piece:


Snowflake stamp is from Season of Friendship. 'For You' stamp is from One of a Kind. D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder by ProvoCraft. Snowflake border punch is by EK Success (same company that makes SU's punches).

Thanks for visiting!

Snowman Cocoa pouch

This is a super-easy project, so much so that our PTA might make these for our 85 teachers and staff. You can get two pouches out of a single sheet of cardstock (and if you're making more than one, it's better to score first, then cut it in half). Here's some measurements for you:

Once you've got your cardstock stamped and folded, you'll only need a stapler, a cocoa packet (or a soup packet), and a scrap of colored cardstock run through your crimper:

Here's some how-to pics on the creation of that paper bow:


Snowman stamp is from the long-retired SU set Let It Snow ('arms' hand drawn). He's colored with a combination of markers and aquapainter watercoloring.

Thanks for visiting!

Countdown to Christmas

This turned out SO CUTE! I don't even LIKE Santa, but I was still tickled with how this turned out. I have a hard time calling this an Advent calendar, because the bearded dude has zilch to do with Advent. So it's just a Countdown-to-Christmas calendar.

And I can't take credit for the idea. I was inspired by Amy Sheffer's countdown calendar here: http://pickledpaperdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/10/here-i-come-wassailing.html

Mine consists of two four-inch coasters (from StampOnThis.com) covered with SU! Ski Slope paper, stamped with Baroque Motifs in acrylic paint, and bound with the numbers 1-24 in a Bind-It-All coil.

I made only three, and it took me about ten hours from start to finish, including dry time for paint and short breaks to stretch my back or pick kids up from school. I sold one at each of my craft fairs, and still have this one left.

Paper and the punches are SU! Number stamps are from The Paper Studio. 'Christmas' stamp is from Stampabilities.

Thanks for visiting!

Reindeer Gift Bag and Tag

I totally snagged the look of the reindeer from some gift-wrap in the Current® catalog. He's made with punches except for his legs, which are just skinny strips of paper. Made with SU punches, this guy is too big for a card, unfortunately, so his uses are pretty limited, but he is danged cute, I think. (FIVE commas in that sentence! *grin*)

The tag is a head (minus the antlers) with another wide oval scored and glued to the back at the top. "To:" and "From:" is/are (?) stamped on the inside.

The snowflake paper is not SU, mostly because I tend to be kind of stingy with my beautiful SU papers and didn't want to 'waste' it on something that in all likelihood will be thrown away. The bag is from my LSS. Inside is a big piece of red tissue paper, folded nicely.

Ingredients:
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Ruby Red, Basic Black
Punches: Wide Oval, Five-Petal Flower, Tag, Small Tag, 1/2" Circle, 1/4" Circle handheld, Ticket Corner
Other: Handled bag, snowflake paper (The Paper Studio), hemp twine, white gel pen, red ribbon, red tissue paper

Thanks for visiting!