What's Inside?

 This is a photo of the gift bag I made for my PIC and I will show what I put inside for her Christmas gifts... 

I used the front of a greeting card from the Dollar Tree for the front of the bag with striped card stock from HobbyLobby. Made the silver poinsettias using IOStamps dies. Snowflakes are very dies from the stash. Made the red satin bows using the Bow It All. "Merry Christmas" is a die from the stash and I used red mirrored card stock for that. Here are photos of some of the treat holders I had made for inside the gift bags:

I have shopped enough of the stamp shows with my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) and taken enough card making classes with her to know what she may like.... many stamp shows we get back in the truck for our trip home only to share what we ended up buying at the stamp shows and more times than not we have the same items be it stamps or dies or card stocks or bling.... We have not been able to shop the stamp shows last year due to cancellations and we have not been able to get together for shopping or classes or anything.... but I knew when I saw things I wanted to buy for me that it would be safe to order one for her. Since I could not be with her when she opened my Christmas presents I decided to make her samples of her gifts using the items I had also ordered for myself.  My samples were made using scrap white card stocks and inks that were on the craft work table at the time. Here are photos of the stamps I bought for us both:

This is a Christmas background stamp from Taylored Expressions. This next photo is the ShipLap background stamp from IOStamps - Impression Obsession:

Early in the season Sizzix had a release video on YouTube of their new products and this next product of theirs is exclusive to HobbyLobby. I figured it would sell out quickly at the stores so I bought ours from their online website -- and with my order I qualified for free shipping so that was a good thing:

The sample for this product I used red mirrored card stock and even with the 3D Impressions embossing folder my sample did not crack:

This next photo is of a stencil from Taylored Expressions -- Folksy Firs:

and my new favorite snowflake stencil is the Nordic Snowflakes from Taylored Epressions:

I also gave her a holiday stamp set:

This die set from MFTStamps:

I had bought it for the traditional colours:

but after it arrived I saw on YouTube a crafter used blender brushes for the colours behind the letters:

To wear on her jacket or ugly Christmas sweater I made her a pin:

For the pin I used things from the stash - chains, charms, and beads. On the right side is a snowman with a mittens charm and at the bottom is a snowflake charm. On the right side is a bells charm, an angel, and a heart at the bottom. 

For BOO Day my PIC had made this Ferrero Rocher holder for me:

She gave me the info where she had seen this idea and I tracked it back to the originator and I made a HO HO HO Ferrero Rocher box for her - this is what the first one I made looked like:

Here is a photo of the box I had made for her:

For the poinsettia on the box top - Sunny Studio sends you a small die when you order from them and I wanted to use that small die for my poinsettia and I used the two smaller dies from the small poinsettia die set from IOStamps -- the Sunny Studio die is the flower and center die in silver:

I used red mirrored card stock and for the center I used gold glittered card stock:

The solid circle piece for the center of the flower fills it in nicely and the glittered card stock gives it some sparkle against the red mirrored card stock.  Fun flower to put together and just the right size for this box top project. 

While packing up holiday products I came across a new die I had ordered Black Friday week. It has clear packaging and no photo with it so before I put it away I made a sample die cut of the die:

Used card stock scraps for him and put him together with glue dots so it was quick and easy to put him together. Many small piece dies like he has I keep the die set as one piece rather than to clip it apart. I put the label from his packaging on the magnet sheet and I put him on the sheet using glue dots and put him in his storage envelope for next year:

This way next year I have a sample of what this die set is, what it looks like, and the size it makes. The red present in front of him die cuts separately so he can be used without that piece. Happy to finally see the top of the craft workroom table again... but probably that won't be for long.... haha

End of Season . . .

 Cleaning up the mess in the craft room and here are the last of the Christmas projects in a baggie:

Putting them away for next year in the Christmas trims and bling box. Nice to see the top of the work table again!! When I put this photo on the computer I decided to show some progress photos of projects I did for this year. Here are photos of the Snuggets in the works:

First I cut all my white card stock pieces 1" x 3 1/8" for the nugget wrappers. I cut them 1/8" longer so that I can have the adhesive stick to the card stock rather than to the candy wrapper. Once they were all cut I stamped then small Snowman face stamp on them using black ink. Using an orange marker I added orange to the noses:

To help the wrappers fit on the nugget candies better I run each one over the edge of a bone folder so it will curve around the candies easier:

I put the wrappers around the candies and used two glue dots to adhere them. Once all the candies were wrapped it was time for their hats -- I used the fingertips of the bath gloves sold at the Dollar Tree:

I made a light blue card stock tray for my Snuggets and put them in pretzel bags sold in the candy making aisle at the craft store. Closed the bags with twine and tied silver bells on them. Next for the Santa Belt nuggets I used red card stock for the wrappers -

The wrappers are small so to make this an easier assembly project I cut a piece of red card stock 3 1/8" wide by 11" long. I used a pencil and a ruler and marked the center of the length of the card stock. I cut a piece of black card stock 1/4" wide by 11" long. Used the ATG and put the black card stock stripe down the center of the red card stock:

With that in place I took this to the trimmer and cut it at every inch - this gave me my wrapper pieces that measure 1" x 3 1/8":

For the Snuggets I used the solid chocolate Hershey Nuggets. For the Santa Belt nuggets I used the solid chocolate and also the Almond nugget candies. The Almond nuggets are wrapped in gold wrappers so for those I did the Santa belt buckles in gold to match the wrappers. For the belt pieces I used glittered card stock and a circle punch. The center is black card stock and I used a small circle punch for those. I made a black card stock tray for the Santa Belt nuggets and packaged them like this:

Again I tied these closed with twine and tied on red bells. Both the Snuggets and Santa Belt nuggets can be done quickly in an assembly line style and everyone always smile when they see them...

Easy peasy --- Candy Cane Seeds:

Here are some photos of other HO HO HO boxes I had made for the Ferrero Rocher candies:

Favorite season for holiday projects but certainly am thinking I pulled out everything in the craft room to make them because the craft room is certainly a mess!! But fun to use older and not so old items to make the treat holders. But for now... back to cleaning and organizing as I go.... again.... or is that still??? 

Last of the Christmas-ing!!!!

 Finished everything I was making for the holidays -- will post more details for projects later but just finished decorating the gift bag fronts... Every holiday I use paper gift bags and I decorate them for the holiday.... Here are photos of past Christmas gift bags:

Here is the bag I decorated for this year:

This year for holiday projects I tried to use only projects or supplies that I already have on hand in the craft room. The white gift bags are left from a Hobby Lobby purchase of a large amount of the white bags. I dug through the holiday card stock stash and had enough of the red and white striped card stock from Hobby Lobby to use for the bag fronts. For the snowman picture I used the front of greeting cards from the Dollar Tree. I wanted to have a snowman on the front of the bag and when I saw the box of the cards at DT I decided I would use that for the bag front. I used red mirrored card stock and die cut out "Merry Christmas" and put that on the snowman piece using liquid glue. For the silver poinsettias I used the Poinsettia dies in different sizes from Impression Obsession/IO Stamps. Used the M Stewart sprig punch for the sprigs behind the Poinsettia. Used a border die and die cut two pieces of decorative scallops for the top and bottom of the snowman piece. Used silver mirror card stock for the three snowflakes I die cut and then added red crystals from the stash to. 

Used ribbons from the stash:

Tied triple loop bows using the Bow It All for the top of the bag by the handles. Here are photos of some treat holders I made this year:

Triangle Hershey Kiss Holders:

Used the Taylored Expression die for this holder for the Ghirardelli candies. I cut trim apart from the Dollar Tree and added that to the bow fronts:

Santa's Belt Nuggets:

As usual my Snuggets using the small Snowman Face stamp from Morningstar stamps:

This year I made a sectioned tray to hold the Snuggets on. Their hats are the fingertips from the bath gloves sold at the Dollar Tree. Added a pompom from the stash to their hats. 

Star pillow boxes made using the Star Pillow Box die from My Creative Time:

Ferrero Rocher HO HO HO box:

Will post soon the Candy Cane Seeds holder and a few more details on things I made. Happy it is almost finished and craft room is a tad messy..... for sure!!!  But fun....

Black Friday Sales and Projects

 Have lots to share -- shopped a few of the online stores Black Friday sales and have been able to finish a few new projects. First is the order from SimonSaysStamp:

I picked up a few die sets and a hot foil plate for Valentine's Day. This weekend I made up some of the Christmas tree tags using scrap card stocks:

To make the tags more sturdy I used solid card stocks for the tag backs. I can stamp "to and from" or just write on the back of the tags:

Also bought the Present Treat Wrap from Taylored Expressions:

I made "sides" for my treat holder to make it into a box. I used a piece of 2 1/4" x 1 15/16" and scored it on the two long sides and bottom at 1/2". This gave me the sides in the size I wanted to make this into a box - my holders hold 3 of the Ghiradelli candies:

Made another gift card holder:

Had seen Emma from My Creative Time on her video making her Star Pillow Box die treat holder and it was too cute not to buy -- she had put a window in the front of her box but I did not do that as I wanted to be able to use the front of the box to decorate it:

For my pillow boxes I used double sided card stocks from the stash as they are a heavier weight and it makes the box sturdy. This die cuts the heavier card stocks with no problem and this little box can hold a lot of chocolate treats. The "Merry Christmas" is a stamp from Trinity Stamps and their stamp set "A Sentiment for Almost Everything" set. I stamped it onto scraps and used a banner die from Pink & Main to cut those out. Used a Fiskars tree punch and green glittered card stock for the tree. Added a red crystal from the stash for the tree top. Here is a photo of the stamp set:

Busy weekend in the craft room but always a fun time... Working on a few more things for holiday treat holders and then the holiday projects will be done. Glad to have saved some monies at these holiday sales adding new products to the craft room..... More photos: