Santa's Pants Wine Bottle Holder

This is my new Santa wine bottle holder! I thought this would be great to bring when you go to a Christmas party and bring a bottle of wine! The suspenders are the handles to the "bag". I knew I would find a use for those little clips eventually!
To get full step by step directions with photos and the template for the hat, CLICK HERE!

Stampin' Up Meeting Swaps!

I go to a meeting every month put on by my Stampin' Up upline, Jen Heffernan, from the Green Mountain Stampers. She is wonderful and so are the meetings. We hear all the latest stamping information that we should know and talk over all the specials and new ideas. Everyone brings their newest projects to show so we can all benefit from everyone's creativity. Usually two of the demonstrators demonstrate a new technique or project that they have come up with so we can all do it with our own customers.
We get to do three cards while we are there that Jen has come up with and provides all the materials for! This is great because we get samples we have done ourselves with stamp sets and accessories that we might not already have. There is no charge for this meeting as long as you are somewhere in Jen's downline. Did you get that, IT'S FREE to attend as long as you are in her downline! If anyone is looking to sign up, this is the group you want to be in! If you are interested contact me and I'll give you the details. If you do not live close by you can get the make and takes and do swaps by mail! Jen also sends out an email after each meeting summarizing what we did with all the directions from the demonstrations!
Jen has over 80 people in her downline but anywhere from 15-30 people come to each meeting. At each meeting we have the option to make swaps, Jen gives us the number of people and we make that many and in return get all the other swaps full of new ideas! I thought I would share a few of the swaps that I got that I thought were great from our last meeting. I asked the ladies and they said I could share them with you! Here they are!

This is by Shanti-McKenna


This is by Pam Tatko


This is one of the make-n-takes that I made at the meeting that Jen designed.


This is Jennifer Heffernans' swap (my upline)


This is Grace Burkins' swap. The center part slides out of the slit punch holder and it is an ornament!


This is with the middle out showing the back of it! I thought if you put your Christmas picture on this removable ornament piece what a great Christmas card for family and close friends! They would get the card and then have the ornament to put on their tree!

Kissing Cardinals

I got inspired after I did my little moose and wanted to see what else I could come up with using the leaves #2 die cut. I decided one of the leaves looks just like a birds body. Why not a cardinal? Why not a boy and a girl in love? Sounds good, here they are!

Here is how to make them.
You will need four of the roundish smooth leaves from the leaves #2 die cut. You cut the stems off of two for the main bodies.
For the wings you put the leaf in the scallop oval punch like below.


Once you punch the end you can cut it around to look like the wing. The head of the bird is the 1" circle punch.


This is what you have left of the leaves. I punched the eyelid for the girl with the 1/4" circle punch and then used the spiky end (on the left) with the rest of the scallops for the feathers on the top of their heads!


I used the heart to heart punch for the heart and the Lovely as a Tree set, the big tree, for the branches of the tree they are sitting on in Handsome Hunter ink. The beaks you can use either star punch.
My two year old said they are me and my husband! So cute!

Leaves #2 Wreath

This was the project that I was doing with the Leaves #2 die cut when I got distracted and made the moose! I love this wreath. There is one on page 92 of the 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog.
I used a variety of green scraps I had of regular cardstock and a bunch of patterned paper. All the ends of the leaves are bent slightly and attached with the green capped Tombow glue around a cardboard base I cut out. The bow is cut paper with the center made out of the wide oval punch. In person this wreath has so much dimension it's stunning!
Here are close-ups of the leaves and the bow.

Christmas Present Moose

I love this moose! This idea was my 4 year old daughters. I was making something with the Leaves #2 die cut and she held up two of these leaves and said, "Look, moose antlers!" Kids are so smart. I of course stopped what I was doing and had to make a moose!

Punches used:
leaves #2 die cut
wide oval - nose
round tap - head
crop-a-dile - nostrils, black eyes
word window - arms
5 petal flower - ears and hooves
old three flower punch - hair
1/4" circle- white part of eyes

Penguin Card with Top Note die

This card is using the top Note die to make the penguin body. Such a good idea! I saw this card on Lisa Takeuchi's blog. If you want to see her version CLICK HERE. I just had to do one myself!

Matchbook Gift Card Holder

This is my slightly altered matchbook gift card holder. This will fit in a standard envelope to mail! I used the All Holidays stamp set and Season of Joy. I also used the Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder.
Here are the measurements.

The main part of the card (Certainly Celery) is a 4 1/4" x 11" piece scored at 1 1/8" and then 6 1/2" from one edge.
To learn how to get the oval frame with the embossing folder CLICK HERE!
The part that holds the gift card (Certainly Celery) measures 3 3/4" x 4 1/2" and is scored at 1/2" and 4" from one edge.
For the part that the gift card goes on, the Certainly Celery back is 4 1/4" x 3". The white piece on top is 4 1/8" x 2 7/8". To get the slit punch semi-circles in the right place to hold the card, put the card down on the white paper.
Trace lines on the long ends of the card, this will be the back so you won't see them.


Put the slit punch just past the line and punch.


Use the tab punch to make the part you pull to get it out (Real Red).


The only other part to think about is if you don't want your brads to show on the back of the card, put them through the top layer and the gift card sheath and not the back layer of the card. Then tape down the card holder to make the pocket. Make sense?

Serene Coffee Cup

I loved my Serene Snowflakes Easel card so much I just had to do something else with this design. I decided, what would be better then a coffee cup! This is one of those cups that you can take out the insert and put another in. Makes such a great gift! You can even keep changing it out for other holidays and events!
Here is the insert flat, done with Real Red and Bashful Blue.

Serene Snowflake Easel Card

I finally decided to try an Easel Card! I love it! I used the All Holiday Stamp set and Serene Snowflakes. The snowflakes are embossed with white on Bashful Blue paper and then sponged lightly with bashful blue ink to darken the edges. The words are stamped in Basic Black ink.



The measurements of the Real Red cardstock base pieces are as follows;
1. 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
2. 4 1/4" x 11" scored at 5 1/2" from one edge (for the inside of the card) and 2 3/4" from the other (to make the easel part move).
3. The last little piece that is popped up to hold the easel part is 2 1/4" x 3 1/4". Use Dimensionals on this part so the easel stays up.

The rest of the papers are just cut 1/8" smaller to layer on top. This card fits in the standard envelope to mail!

Huge Origami Cube

After doing the other photo cube I thought it would be great to do a big one. I used 12" x 12" paper to make this and got a huge 6" cube that holds 4x6 photos! Looks great as a table center piece or on a desk for the holidays. Switch up the paper for any occasion!
To get the directions for this project,
CLICK HERE!

Use of the Backpack

Just thought I would share what my kids did with the backpack right after I finished with it. Even better then what I had planned for it!

Christmas Backpack

Here is the link to Splitcoast to get the templates and step by step directions for the backpack!
CLICK HERE!
Such a great gift for teachers for the holidays! So easy to make!

Oval Template with Embossing Folders

Learn how to make this oval embossing technique at home! On these cards I used:

Dasher (#116816)
Serene Snowflakes (#115438)
Embossing Folder Petal-A-Plenty (#116824)

I used the On Board Book Basics from the catalog, the small size (#110712). This comes with four pieces of cardboard so you can make an assortment of different size and shape cut outs. I used the Top Note die and cut that out of the center using the big shot. Then I cut an oval out of the center of that. Now with one piece of cardboard I have two different shapes I can use!


To make the oval shape I just put the top note back into the outside. I have lines drawn on my oval template to center my embossing folder easily.


Put your paper inside your embossing folder.


Put down your spacer in your big shot with the big part and the floppy plastic down, not the top piece.


Then put your cardboard template down.


Your embossing folder goes on top of that.


Then the black impressions pad. You are now ready to run it through.


This is what you get. A blank flat oval frame where the hole was with embossed images around it! A blank slate to design on!

Lovely as a Christmas Tree

I saw a card like this and just had to try it!

I stamped the tree from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set with Handsome Hunter ink and then stamped over it with Versamark and embossed it clear. I stamped Merry Christmas from the All Holidays stamp set with Craft Black and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I punched the holes with my piercing tool and the mat pack and then sponged Craft White inside a cut out template inside my punched rectangle. I stamped with the small snowflakes from Serene Snowflakes on top of the sponged white. Before it could dry too much I wiped the white off the tree and the Merry Christmas embossed images. I punhcd the holes with the 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches and used a jumbo eyelet with some kraft ribbon.

How to Tie the Perfect Bow!

Learn how to tie this perfect bow in just a few simple steps!

The dot on the left is just for reference.


Loop left (dot) over right


Tuck top right (dot) down into hole keeping it flat.


Put in extra piece of flat ribbon under loop.


Pull tight to tie! This takes a lot less ribbon then making a bow and makes it easy to center on your card. Then just tuck the ends around the back of your card and tape them down!

Origami Photo Cube or Gift Box with Album

This is a great project to give as a gift for any holiday or a great little album to carry around. The cube is great for a desk at work to show off your photos! All it takes is some creative folding!

The accordion album is approximately 3" x 3" for each square and the gift box is slightly larger so it fits inside. The cube is also made out of the 3" x 3" pieces.

To purchase step by step directions with photos for this project CLICK HERE!