12 Days of Christmas - Gift Card Holders

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas! Well, not yet, but there are 6 MORE DAYS 'till Christmas!!!  I've been a crazy holiday craft machine.  I've been stocking my Etsy shop since October with holiday cards, tags, and other paper products.  Now with 12 days left until Christmas, I thought that I would share the best sellers here on my blog. :) I'll be posting once per day until the 25th!

Happy 12 Days of Christmas!

On the 6th day of Christmas I created some gift card holders!

Gift card holders are always a huge seller.  I made close to 2 dozen and they all sold out quickly.  

I'm a fan of the belly band!  Stamp is from a retired Stampin Up set called Tags til Christmas. I got great  use out of this set over the years.

Here is another style.  I also made these with penguins, snowmen, and reindeer on the front.  I used the retired Stampin Up stamp set called No Peeking.

Hope you liked my 6th installment of The 12 Days of Christmas! See you tomorrow!

Entering my gift cards in these challenges:
Craft Your Passion - No cards
Crafting For All Seasons - Christmas;  not cards
Little Scrap Pieces - Linky Party

New Challenge at Lia Stampz - Upcycle or Recycle

We want to see your upcycled or recycled projects this fortnight at Lia Stampz!

Here is my project:

I recycled a used tea tin from Lupicia.

I used the digi called Christmas Flower. I inked it up with copics, cut it out, and popped it up on the top.  I covered the tin with designer paper. Easy peasy!

Can't wait to see what you guys create!

Crabby Patty Portfolio

Hey guys!  I'm participating in a beach bash themed BNR this week and wanted to contribute something beachy.  I wanted to make some note cards with some laser die cuts I had so I started trolling the internet to find some ideas of housing them.  I stumbled upon Mandy's Stampin' Spot and CASED her crab.  He's so stinkin' cute! I put him on a notecard portfolio:

Cardstock, ink, ribbon by Stampin Up.  Cuttlebug swiss dot and swirls and curls embossing folders.

The inside houses 4 note cards, envelopes, and sentiment so the recipient can customize their card!

Entering this in the following challenges:

Sparkles Forum Challenges - Summer

Crafty Sentiments - Summer

The Poodles Parlour - Cute or Cuddly

'Till next time!

Birthday Bag Tag

One of my friends had a birthday and I needed cute packaging to hold the contents... Hello Kitty perfume in a blingin' bottle!  I grabbed a colorful mini bag I got at a garage sale (LOVE garage sales for gift wrap and bags!) and made a cute tag to match.

Retired SU cardstock and paper.  SU scallop trim punch and pearls.  The sentiment stamp is from Impression Obsession.  

Punched on an eyelet with my Crop-a-dile, added some SU linen thread and some cute green striped paper and it was ready to go!

Entering this in the following challenges:

Moving Along With The Times - Birthday

Crazy For Challenges - Tag

How is everyone's summer going?

Saturday Stampin Class!

On Saturday I had my 1st June Stampin Class (this Saturday is my 2nd!).  I have to split my classes into two because I live in a tiny place and my dining table can only house 4 people.  Just wanted to show you the pictures cause we made a lot of cute stuff! 

Me and my gal pals.  That's my bestie on the left. :) First time crafting for her.

We made a simple 2-4-6-8 box.  Filled with chocolates, of course!

More candy! LOVE these cello bags from SU!

We watercolored a bit and did the crinkle ribbon thing...

This CAS card gets a ka-pow! with the super 3D flower.

Something a little more masculine so that gals could use it as a Father's Day card, if they wanted.

So that's it for the Saturday Stampin Class!  I'll post more pictures for the next one. :) 'Till next time!

New Challenge at Party Time Tuesday - All Things Mechanical

There's a new challenge over at PTT! Our theme this week is "All Things Mechanical."  We are generously sponsored this week by The Robin's Nest (who mailed the DT some yummy papers and embellies, including lots of Dew Drops!), The Stamping Boutique, and Robyn's Fetish.

Here's my project using a digi from The Stamping Boutique:

Inked the image up with Copics.  Background paper and dew drop headlights by The Robin's Nest.  Cardstock by SU.

I wanted to add something stationery-like that was a little on the masculine side to my Etsy shop, so I turned this into a notepad holder. :)  

Entering this in the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time - Man

Moving Along With The Times - No cards

Can't wait to see what you guys create! :)

Ice Cream Graduation

A friend's little sister graduated from high school recently and I needed a card to house a Cold Stone gift card.  Here's what I came up with:

Used the SU bird punch, ribbon, and card stock.  The sentiment is from Scrappy Moms.  Lol, the husband had to help me tie off the little diploma.  I couldn't do it on my own! He held and I tied.

Used the retired SU slit punch to hold the gift card.  Then hand wrote the sentiments. 

Entering this in the following challenges:

The Ribbon Girls - Ribbon

The Shabby Tea Room - Teal, pink, brown

Krafty Girls - Mission Impossible (the husband had to help me tie the little diploma!)

Little Miss Muffet - Rainbows, clouds, or wings

'Till next time!

Teacher's Appreciation - Day 4

Today's small gift to the co-workers was a pack of Trident gum:

Just did a simple wrap around the gum.  Just cut the paper to size, wrap, and adhere with something strong.  I used Sticky Strip.  

A ribbon, a computer generated corny pun, and some Stampin Up punches finished it off.  Easy!

Tomorrow is the last of the teacher's gifts! Don't forget to thank a teacher this week!  And stay tuned this weekend for:

See you there/here!

Teacher's Appreciation Week Day 3

It's crunch time at the school I work at...final projects, grades, graduation ceremonies, and end-of-year parties.  Quite frankly, the last couple of weeks (and the weeks to follow!) have been uber stressful on my co-workers.  I decided to show that I appreciate them by giving them a present every day this week for teacher's appreciation week.  On Monday I gave them their folder/stationery holders that I made last month (that post can be seen here).  On Tuesday I gave them each a pack of stickers (Lightning McQueen, Hello Kitty, and My Little Pony!) to cheer them up.  Today I gave them some hand sanitizers:

I used the tutorial from Rubber Red Neck Crafter on YouTube.  It's a great tutorial because not only does it hold B&BW hand sanitizers, but it fits the Victoria Secret ones too, which is what I used.  All the materials I used were scraps from previous projects (my scrap pile is getting too big!!!)

Here's a close up of one so you can see the sentiment I used: "You're a scent-sational teacher." LOL.  

A side view.  I'm sure this holder can fit all kinds of different sized bottles!  Little lotions, lip balm, and sunscreen come to mind.

Entering this into the following challenges:

Outlawz - Boxed in

I'll come back tomorrow with what I gave them for day 4! 'Till then!

Teacher Gifts Blog Hop!

Hey guys!!! Welcome to the Teacher Thank You Gifts Blog Hop ! You should have just come from Amy Jo's blog. If you're here to visit me (aw, you're so sweet!), hop on over to Dena's blog and start from there.

Teacher Appreciation Week this year begins on May 7th and ends on May 11th. If you're looking for some teacher thank you gift ideas, you've come to the right place! Each of the designers in today's hop is sharing a wonderful gift idea for a teacher. We hope you have fun hopping with us while picking up some great ideas!

I'm a teacher and I'm going to let you in on a little secret... we like everything! Personally, I'm on a no wheat, no dairy, no sugar (Ok, maybe a little sugar...) diet and while I love getting chocolate and treats, my husband usually ends up eating them. If your teacher is all about the treats though, it makes a great gift!

Another great gift idea is anything that we can use. Teachers usually buy their own stuff for the classroom from lack of funds. I'm constantly buying paper towels, tissues, hand soap, and school supplies like Expo markers, pens, and paper. Gift cards to Office Max, Costco or Walmart would be a good gift idea. All of us in my classroom are coffee drinkers, so Starbucks gift cards will help for those dreadful mornings where we stayed up all night the night before working on lesson plans. Also, hand soap! I had one student gift me with hand soap INSIDE a pink water bottle. Something for me and something for the classroom too! :)

For this hop, I made a few gifts for the teachers I work with. There are four of us in one classroom, and they are the most amazing teachers. I decided to go for something practical (I think we're all sugared out from Valentine's and Easter!). I made them each a notecard book. I got the idea from Angie Juda's site. Check out her tutorials for notebooks and Post-It projects. AWESOME teacher gift ideas in there!

Three notecard books.  Each one is personalized with a monogram and the teacher's favorite colors.

Ms. S has an Art History background.  I figured the brocade paper was a good fit for her.  

Inside.  Each folder has 2 small notecards, 2 larger notecards, and 4 envelopes.  

Ms. J likes orange!

Inside.

Miss. M love all things cute and pink.

Inside.

I'm going to package these up in cellophane bags and probably add a pen and a topper.  They can use the cards to send a Thank You to the kiddos that gave them something for Teacher's Appreciation week!

 How about some blog candy???

I'm giving away 12 sheets of 6x6 Making Memories Brocade paper and 7 spools of adhesive ribbon.  Add 2 sheets of black card stock and you can make your own teacher appreciation notecard book!  All you have to do is 1) Be or become a follower of my blog 2) Leave a comment with a way to contact you if you win.  That's it!

Thanks for hopping with us! Head on over to Jearise's blog for the final stop!

Below is the complete blog hop lineup in case you lose your way:

1)   Dena :  http://missdjones.blogspot.com/ 

2)   Cyndie : http://cyndiepaperboutique.wordpress.com

3)   Mindy : http://papercreationsbymindyblog.blogspot.com/ 

4)  Jamie : http://thesassyprincess.blogspot.com

5)  Amy Jo: http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com

6 Cely: http://hawaiipaperparty.blogspot.com <<<You are Here>>>

7) Jearise: http//lorbysworld.blogspot.com

RAK's from last week!

Last week was my lucky week, I swear!  I got so many cute things in the mail! 

 My FIL and his wife sent us a beautiful gift basket from KY for my husband's birthday.  We used the "Sissy Sauce" (barbecue sauce) tonight for our dinner, BBQ pork chops!  There were all kinds of other things in there too... Derby pie, candies, bath products, KY blue grass seeds, and a mini Louisville Slugger! LOL!

My pal living in Turkey sent me about a half a pound of SAFFRON!  Oh my goodness! I did an exchange of pickled mango. :)

Susan from Cricut and Grasshopper sent me this awesome blog candy.  A gift card holder with a Michael's gift card in it!

Closed!

Opened!  Can't wait for my trip to IN/KY/TN in August so I can use it! Wheeee!

Thank you girlie! :)

Also got my Shirl swap from Leanne at Finding My Groove.  How adorable is this?!

Love the stenciling! And she's colored perfectly.

This was in the box too!  A decoupaged photo frame!  She looks like me!  I have those glasses and everything! LOL!  

Leanne also put in a cutie patootie stamp.  Can't wait to play with it!  Thank you girlie!

I'm very blessed to have all these wonderful people in my life.  LOVE things in the mail and LOVE you guys! :)

'Till next time!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :) I've been very crafty over the past few days, due to zombie toe. :) I made some St. Patty's day treats for my co-workers and students.  They won't receive it until Monday, but who turns down candy?! LOL. 

Here's a teacher treat.  I just filled some SU cello bags with some See's candy pops.  The stamps are some cheapy ones I got last year on clearance for 13 cents! Cardstock and punches are SU.

These are for the kiddos.  I made it out of brown paper lunch sacks, because lets face it, they don't care about the packaging, just the candy.  Stamped it a few times and made a quick 'lucky' tag with another SU punch.  Sealed the bottoms with my crimper.

Entering this into the following challenges:

Decorate to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Kaboodle Doodles Green

Easy peasy St. Patrick's Day projects. :) 'Till next time!

Starbucks cup gift card holder

How was everyone's Christmas?  Hopefully Santa brought everything you wished for.  I know Santa was very generous to me this year.  I got a brand new HP color laser printer for printing out my digis, Copic markers, so much designer paper that I don't know where to put it all, and a new camera!  I'm having a hard time figuring out the bells and whistles of my camera, so I'm using my old one for now (until I can watch some pointers on YouTube!)

Anywho, there was a birthday in all this Christmas hoopla, and I totally forgot about a gift.  Eep!  I went to Starbucks to pick up a gift card and remembered someone posting on their blog that they simply put it in an empty Starbucks cup as a gift card holder.  So I asked for an empty one!  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.  I wish I remembered where I saw the idea from... I feel really weird posting projects without giving credit.  So if this is your idea, please let me know and I'll edit my post.

Didn't have much time, so I just made a quickie tag and slapped a die cut from the Love you a Latte Cricut cart. 

Can't wait to read about all of your crafty Christmas presents that Santa left! 

One more project before all the hoopla

So got my last bit of Christmas crafting done before all the hoopla tonight and tomorrow morning.  Every year I do Christmas eve with my husband, Christmas morning with my God kids, and Christmas dinner with my parents.  :)  I'm so blessed I have all of them in my life.  

Here are more gift card holders!  I wanted to make something different than the other ornament ones I made a week ago so I found Rubber Redneck's 2010 video to make these FABBY santa suit gift card holders.  You can watch her YouTube video to make it here. 

So stinkin' cute! Love her design! Everything is SU except the buttons.

Hope everyone has fun this weekend!  I'll check in tomorrow with my final Christmas post!  Mele Kalikimaka to you all!

My Good News!!!

So, many of you have seen that I've been struggling a lot lately, mostly due to my injuries from work.  On top of that, my work environment was toxic, my boss retaliative,  and my health was deteriorating slowly due to stress.  I'm too young to be going through all of these health problems!  Anyway, with the advice from 3 doctors, I finally found the courage to QUIT today!  I put in my 2 weeks notice.  I have a NEW job starting next month, where I'll be a lot happier,  be making more money, will use my degree, and will give me time to do what I love to do -- my art.  Thank the Lord!  I've been praying for something to happen for the longest time.  The extra good news?  I've been out of work for about a week and a half now due to Christmas break and I've been healing rapidly.  It's amazing how much my body heals without the added stress.

With all of that said, here's a new Christmas project!

Here's a gift certificate holder I made for my in-laws.  They live in another state, so the hubs and I like to find a cool new restaurant close to them via Yelp.com and purchase a gift certificate over the phone for them.  We found a nice Italian place this time and I packaged it up so I could mail it to them. :)  Everything is SU!

I love love love LOVE my blogging friends! Thank you so much for supporting me and giving me so many loving comments while I've been healing.  You guys definitely gave me the strength I so desperately needed! More good news coming in January! :D

Andrea Walford's gift card holder ornaments

Hey guys!  Since my back is still really sore, I haven't done much shopping.  I can't walk for long periods of time and browsing a store isn't fun after 15 minutes!  So a lot of my gifts to friends and family will be gift cards.  I wanted to jazz them up, so I made these gift card holders.  The idea and specs came from Andrea Walford.  I love them because they can be hung on a tree, like an ornament!

Everything is by Stampin Up!  I really got a good use out of this stamp set : Warmest of Wishes.  And finally I've used my (hoarded) waffle paper!  It just makes the whole thing POP!

'Till next Christmas project!

Starbucks hot cocoa sliders

I wanted a quick and easy gift for co-workers so I decided to go with a hot cocoa slider which can be found anywhere on the web.  I wanted to up the glam factor a little and go with Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa.  Unfortunately, there are no tutorials for the dimensions of this cocoa pouch, so I had to make em up.  Here they are:

Cute right?  If you want to give away Starbucks cocoa this holiday season, the measurements for my holder is 8.25"x 8.25" scored at 1" and 4.75."  Just add sticky strip to the 1" side and close it up with your cocoa packet in the middle.  Easy peasy!

When I made my gum sliders for teachers a few months ago, they had a hard time figuring out the sliding mechanism and just untied the bow.  So hopefully this little "pull" sign will make it a little easier to understand! Everything is SU except for the stamps, which are from garage sales.

Till next Christmas project!

Blessing Mix

I wanted to make a little treat for my co-workers for Thanksgiving.  I came across Angie Juda's Blessing Mix idea.  Her website is Chic n Scratch and she has many different boxes and bags that she's come up with to package the blessing mix over the years.  I chose this style from 2008.  I wanted something where I didn't need anything to put it together, as these will be eaten without regard to the packaging!  In these two bags, I used brads to close them shut, but I stapled the majority of the bags. 

Each bag used one sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper.

A side view.

This mix was so yum!

This was so easy and fun to make that I think this is going to be my Thanksgiving tradition from now on.  :)  How was everyone's Thanksgivings?