A Gift from Alejandra

 I just wanted to share a gift I got from my nurse Alejandra- She rocks as my nurse and she told me she was "into crafting" but I was not sure what she was into and she made me this for my birthday/Christmas gift and I just Love It so I wanted to share it with you. 

I noted that I love the mauve/lavender/blue purples and this is what she made for me and it sill be on my wall in my office ...

25 Days of Christmas- Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas!  This is my Christmas card from this year.  My nurse Mary Lou had given me birthday cards with this mechanism in the past and I even took one apart to try to reproduce it but Lawn Fawn came out with a metal die A2 version which just made it so convenient to make all the cards I needed.

Base of card is thick white cardstock because I wanted it to be really sturdy . Diecut all the pieces- you need 2 base pieces to make the front and back piece and 2 of the T pieces for the popups to be glued to. I bought the extra piece to make the backdrop which I diecut in Dapper Denim cardstock (retired stampin' Up). 

The sentiment is from Peaceful Deer stamped in real Red and Tuxedo Black memento inks

The Moon was punched using the 1 3/8 inch circle punch from stampin' Up and stamped using the background stamp from Perched in a Tree using Smoky Slate to create some texture of the moon. 

The santa and reindeer was diecut using a coverplate die that had santa and reindeer on the top of the plate and I just diecut this part- not sure who makes it- I took it out of the packet and I can't remember which company  (My apologies)  mounted with dimensionals

I chose Dapper denim as the background color as when I tired Night of navy my DH complained it was hard to tell what was flyin across the sky - 

I used Stampendous chunky white embossing powder- you have to heat it from below to make the starry sky - I used the Glimmer Heat foil system as a heating base for it which was perfect.

The house and trees  diecuts are bring home the holidays set from PTI. - hardest part was taking out all the chads from the windows....  

The little snowman and the tree to his right is an old Stampin Up Village die that I cutand colored with black pen and flamingo marker fine tip for the nose .

I used the Snowfall Accents puff paint to make the snow- but sprinkled the dazzling diamonds glitter right after I applied the puff paint and heat set it and it makes it like candy coating hard which I really like- and not as puffy and bubbly -  I bought a bunch of these thinking I would use it for all my cards and even though I made almost a 100 cards I barely used up one bottle - they were on sale so i bought a bunch - I will now have enough for the next 10 years I think of puffy snow to use.  Put a strip on the side to add a little glittery accent.

25 Days of Christmas- Pizelle cookies

Every Christmas I make pizelles for my family, friends and neighbors. I make dozens and dozens using the pizelle maker I have had for gazillion years.  

 You have to stand there and make and remove the cookies as soon as it is cooked which can take anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds and you don't want it getting too brown.

after I make it I put them into the large cellophane bags I got from Stampin Up years ago - I knew I would use them so bought a bunch when they were available- they were perfect for bread and large items.

I tied the double stitched real red ribbon and a piece of silvermetallic mesh ribbon with a tag I made in my class and a gorgeous gift which does not cost much but just takes some effort and time which is the greatest gift of all.  

25 days of Christmas- Card kit - a gift for a friend

 

My friend Evelyn who I see everyday at work is leaving for a better job which is great for her but I will miss seeing her every day so I wanted to give her a gift of - what else- cards I have made- You can find lot of different tin boxes - you want to find one big enough to hold lots of cards -  I tied a bunhc of ribbons on the one side of the handle and put a label with her name on it- I normally would decorate the tin box with some DSP but I liked it plain red so I just kept it red.

I put a selection of cards I thought she would like and use and matching envelopes and piled it in. 

I also got a good magnet with clip and I got a book of pretty stamps and put in a Stampin' Up pen so it is a all ready to go mail center.  She can take it with her to one of her son's events, fill out some cards with a message, stick on a stamp and she is all good to go.  I also told her I can do refills whenever she needs.  This is a kind of gift that you call can do since I am sure you have BOXES of cards you are hoarding - I think it makes a lovely gift that is so useful, thoughtful and has the added benefit of decreasing your hoard which should make YOU feel good too.   

25 Days of christmas- Cracker Treat Box with Eos Lip balm inside

I am giving my staff a little Christmas treats  of Eos Lip balms which I really like. It fit the Cracker Treat Box perfectly but with the different flavors i wanted people to be able to choose the flavors they wanted so i put a little window to make sure they could see what they were getting.   I also did not need to make a 5 sided box ao I just needed the 4 sides with one overlap- for that I just needed a 4x6 inch DSP which also saved me paper.  First few I made whole and then had to cut out the last panel so by using a 4x6 paper and setting it up this way I was able to make 6 treats out of eatch 12x12 DSP which saved me paper - a win win!

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I tied a bow on each end and hooked a little candy cane on it so it was dangling off the treat- it was super cute!

I set it up so people could choose the cover and the flavorof the lip balm and the window made it super easy to pick out what they wanted.

Happy Holidays!

 

25 Days of Christmas- free standing shopping bag using same template as pop up

 

For a free standing bag you can make it one of two sizes.

Use the template for the pop up bag but turn it upside down (be mindful for the pattern on the DSP)   

Do not cut out the panels but just make vertical cuts.

the dimension is 4 x 12  NOT 6x12 - unless you want to make a 4 1/2 inch tall bag then you can use 6 x 12.

The top part of the pop up will make the base of the bag and you turn in the bottom part of the template to make the top of the bag.

I took 2 strips of 1/4 inch expresso cardstock here and ran my fingers through it to create a soft curve and attached it using glue dots to create the handle.  Added a little piece of tissue paper- I cut up the ones I get from Paper pumpkins into thirds for this.  I rolled some crisp money for my kieds so this is how they got their cash  but it will also fit a gift card or a small trinket.  The finished bad is 2 1/2 x 4 1/4 using the 4x12 inch DSP

25 Days of Christmas- Pop up Shopping bag and Peaceful Deer

I LOOVE this paper- I have used it so many way- love the bright colors- so modern- Celebrate Everything was the hostess DSP from the holiday mini and I hope to buy another pack before it is gone!

cut 2 pieces of DSP  2x 5 1/4 as shown. Take a piece of gold Festive Foils and cut a strip to show the dots - so sparkly pretty- 

Take a piece of circle diecut from Stylish Shapes and stamp the trees in pool party and sentiment in black. Stamp the deer in Soft suede onto piece of scrap whisper white and punch out and mount with dimensionals - now that is the front of the card.- pretty all on its own. but of course we can't leave a good thing alone- we are going to make a pop up shopping bag on the inside - this is a great way of getting rid of all your 12x 12 pretty double sided DSP - each sheet makes 3 bags- cut them into 4 x 12 inch pieces keeping in mind the direction if you need to-

Score along the 12 inch side at 4 1/4,  5.  5 3/4  and at 10, 10 3/4, and 11 1/2 inches as shown.  Score on the 4 inch side 1/2 inch from one side and 1 inch from the other.  

in order to make the pop up bag you will cut out the side panels as shown above in hatchmark. you can angle the bottom part ot make it sit more pretty.

 Glue the last 1/2 inch onto the other side to make the bag side.  Fold over the 1 inch top to the inside (important if you want to make a handle with eyelets or holes and put ribbons in for handles or if your paper has an ugly inside- to cover it up like I did for this one- who wants fireworks for Christmas?)

Put tape on the bottom part both front and back and put the bag close to the crease and tape down. when you open, the bag will pop up. put some tissue paper and gift card and you are good to go- You can also tie the handles to keep the card secure.

25 Days of Christmas- Cracker Treat box and tag

 

This is such a sweet box - We used to make it by punching the panels  using a punchboard or using other punches- You can make 4 out of 12x12 sheet so it very practical-  we all know how much Christmas paper we are all hoarding.   Diecut the cracker treat box using DSP.  I saved the diamonds that popped out to decorate a tag stamped with sentiment from Christmas to Remember. Tie with Evening Evergreen Open weave ribbon.  It has 6 sides and when you glue it together you can make it a 4 or 5 sided cracker.  It fits one of the Eos Lip balms  ( the ones that look like Chapsticks) perfectly  which is what I am making for my staff this year- who does not love a yummy flavored lip balm for the blistery winter weather?

25 Days Of Christmas- Design a Treat Box and variations

 

The Design a treat box is so funny- Love the tiny box but more so I love the antlers and bunny ears it came with.   The only thing is once you put the ears on and glue it down you cannot open the box without ripping it - and I like to store it flat when I am making it so what to do?

 

the Kit is really clever- I like the little lines stamp that mimics ribbons on the box - although I wish the ribbon was more delicate. The deer is made using soft suede cardstock. The antlers were made using Early Expresso. Punch out circles using crumbcake and cut in half and stamp the bottom of the face on the half circle and 2 small matt black dots for the eyes. His ears were diecut using crumbcake cardstock.

Doing it this way you can squeeze the ears and antlers between the 2 half circle tabs on top and still be able to open the box.

I did the rabbit ears the same way - used thick white cardstock to make the box, stamped the face on it and diecut the ears and colored the center with light flamingo stampin blends. Now the only issue is the center falling out because it was diecut all the way through- so what I did  was to punch a large daisy punch (retired now) using white cardstock and colored it in with same flamingo stampin blends and glued it to the back- it is just large enough to hold the center piece i n place- just add a fluffy white bunny tail to the back and you are good to go for Easter!

These tiny boxes do hole one piece of Lindor chocolate bonbon as shown on the left - what a sweet surprise- 

details of the rabbit ears

details of the present with the ribbon stamped in real red

on the original sample I had the eyes on the top half of the circle with another piece of 1/2 crumbcake piece - although the face was split it looked better than having that big hump on the top- but I think I like this version - Margery came up with - better since I can still open the box using this method.

 Details of the card variation for those who did not want to make a box- sentiment from Brightest Glow set. Used a rhinestone gem colored in with real red stampin blends to make it red.  You could also use a small red pompom1

25 days of Christmas- Mini Pocket Envelope Die and Leaves of Holly

 

One of the dies from the Annual Catalog that has been overlooked is the Mini Envelope die- it fits a gift card perfectly and is just adorable with the scalloped edge- you could potentially put windows into it using other shape dies that are included.

here I just diecut it using Evening Evergreen cardstock. Using leaves of Holly diecut the panel using whisper White cardstock.   Stamp the sentiment from Brighest Glow with versamark and heat emboss with Gold embossing powder and heat set.

Diecut the leaves back panel using evening evergreen (somebody at Stampin' Up is thinking!)   Stamp the berries in real red and accent in Cherry Cobbler and diecut and mount using dimensionals. 

so that is the mini pocket tag or bag however you interpret it.

Now some of you wanted a card instead so here you can mount it onto Cherry Cobbler base card. Use a whisper white cardstock embossed with Merry Melody Embossing folder and mount it as shown to make a card.

Enjoy!  Lynda

25 Days of Christmas - Celebrate with Tags in Pool Party tag

This is such a super cool tag set - I was surprised that they retired it - I thought it could have been showcased more- how versatile it is with a valentine or all year stampset alternative would have been super great- this is one dieset I plan to keep around to use year long!

 I used the smaller folded tag die for this one - love the scalloped bottom and stitch detail. Used wonderful snaowflake embellishment- I was so happy to see it back this year- so useful and pretty! and love the sparkle side.  Stamp in real red and diecut 2 mittens and attache basic jewel to the center of the snowflake.  stamp Be Jolly using stamparatus to stamp it more than once to get the saturated image using Tahitian Tide.  the tag to the left. 

you can put a special message inside but it you want a card instead mount it on a base real red cardstock with  3 1/2 inch square whisper white CS -stamp message from Christmas to Remeber set (in annual catalog)  in red 

25 Days of Christmas- Celebrate with Tags in Real Red

 

My December Class has always been Tags, Bags, and Boxes class. Who could not use some extra tags, bags and boxes during the holiday season of gift giving?

The Celebrate with Tags set I thought would be perfect for this - although it got on the sales list and is no longer available through Stampin' Up it is a really great set and love the dies that go with it- the larger tag die is what I used here- it comes with hearts circles and rectangle so you can cut out a window from the die as shown here.  Sentiment is from Brightest Glow set stamped in real red onto a piece of whisper white. diecut the snowflake from the same set and put a rhinestone basic jewel in the center to add some sparkle. Add bakers twine and that is the tag.

For those who want more cards than tags you can mount the tag onto a base real red card base A2 size and cut a piece of whisper white slight smaller - I think here it was 3 1/4 x 4 1/2 and embossed it with Wintry 3D snowflake embossing folder before mounting the tag for a simple and elegant Christmas card.

25 days of Christmas- Splendid Thought swing card

I really love the simple line images from the splendid thought stampset but just didn't have much opportunity to show it in my classes but with the Framed Florets die it was a fun play card to make. take a base petal pink cardstock 5 1/2x 8 1/2 and score at 4 1/4 to make the basic A2 card.  cut a piece of DSP from the Splendid Day for the front panel 4 x 5 1/4 with upright image. You can adhere it around the margins to secure and run through with the diecut to cut the heart border and the oval frames.  Diecut a piece of white for the insde oval piece.  (You will have a whole mess of sparkly hearts and left over ovals which you can save for another project)

this mechanism is super easy

just take a piece of cardstock 6 inches by 4 1/2 and score at 2 and 4 inches to create a trifold as shown on the left.  you just want to tape it on the back panel only so that it is big enough to cover at least half of the oval opening. 

stamp flower and sentiment on the white oval.  I then close the card and adhere the oval frame and the white oval panel on the front panel of the mechanism on the right side only so that it will slide back and 

forth.  

take a piece of white cs 4 1/4 x 5 3/4 for sentiment panel for the inside. You can also stamp the mechanism panel with leaves as shown.  The DSP had a petal pink version and a seafoam green version and I just did not have enough for the whole class so some got pink and some got green- they are pretty either way. Super easy mechanism but big impact.

Enjoy! Lynda

25 days of Christmas - Framed Florets Z-fold

I was intent on having 4 projects for my November class and then when I saw this set I could not resist adding it to our class so this ended up being our 5th card- a bonus!

take a base card of Polished Pink cardstock - one piece 5 1/2x 8 1/2 like the usual A2 card and another piece :

1 1/2x 8 1/2 and score both at 2 1/8 and 4 1/4. flip the 1 1/2 inch piece so that it makes the z fold mechanism.  stamp the sentiment on the front of the smaller piece and emboss with white EP and heat set.

cut two  4 x 1 7/8 inch pieces of DSP 

for the left front and right back panel and same size pieces of white cardstock for the inside panels.  stamp with sentiment of your choice. diecut the ovals panel and frame from the Framed Florets set. Stamp the flower image in the smaller oval piece and color as you wish- the colors from the DSP is what I chose- Polished pink, evening evergreen, blushing bride, soft succulents. take some scrap pieces of white and stamp the small flowers and leaves and diecut to use as accents

Mount the pink strap piece making sure to only tape the left half of the font panel.  mount the left half of the oval panel to the left half of the card as shown.