Hot Chocolate Gift Pack

One of my all time favorite Christmas gifts I've made! A little time consuming, but a cute and inexpensive gift for teachers, neighbors, etc. And of course another reason to keep drinking/hoarding those Frappuccinos!

Hoarding: Buried by Frapp bottles!

Hopefully, you won't see me on a Hoarding episode. But since I've been hoarding Frapp bottles for awhile, I decided to decorate and fill some to sell! I made some with peppermint balls and some with hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Deer Friend

Another craft sale item. I've made these for my son's class party before and the kids loved them!

I cut the pillow boxes out of plastic report covers that I bought at the copy counter at Office Max. I think I paid about .15 per 8 1/2 X 11 sheet and I was able to get 2 from each sheet. Much cheaper than acetate! I added red Stickles to Rudolph's nose to give them a little sparkle.

Got Merry?

Another craft sale item I made. I thought these turned out so cute!

I filled them with red and green m&m's.

A Little Something

I also made these to sell at at school:

 The gift card holders have a velcro dot to hold them close and give it a wallet-like effect.

The matchboxes have Hershey nuggets wrapped in coordinating paper.

Peppermint Patty Sandwich

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've had computer problems and I've been busy making Christmas goodies to sell to raise money for my daughter's band trip to Disney World. Here's one of the things I made:

 Peppermint Patties are sandwiched between scallop punches. They fit perfectly in Wilton pretzel bags to make a cute treat. I've also cut the bags down and added only 2 or 3 if I was trying to save time and money.

Blessings

Thanksgiving cards and a bottle with Blessings mix that I'd made in the past. The mix is made with Bugles, small pretzels, candy corn, craisins or raisins, and peanuts. Here is the saying that goes with it:



                       Blessings Mix                                                              

The Bugles are a symbol of the Cornucopia, a horn of plenty.

The Pretzels represent arms folded in Thanks & Prayer.

The Candy Corn reminds us that during the first winter,

the pilgrims were allowed only five kernels of corn per day

                    because the food was scarce. 

The Fruit is a reminder that Thanksgiving is the celebration

                             of the harvest.  

        

The Peanuts represent seeds, the potential of the bounteous

harvest of the next season if they are planted and well-tended

Smurfy Halloween!

All the staff had to decorate a pumpkin for a contest sponsored by the PTA. This is the Smurf pumpkin I made!

Eat, Drink and Be Scary!

This is a Sonic drink carrier I decorated for a Boo box and filled with goodies.

I included a wrapped bag of popcorn, decorated Frapp bottle w/candy corn, orange soda that I wrapped and decorated as witches brew, and a cello bag w/Peep smores. I saw the smore idea online. It includes 2 graham crackers, a Hershey bar, and a Peep!

All the papers are from Heidi Grace Designs. The stamps are from Studio G and Stampin' Up!

Trick or Treat!

More pic's from the past. The first is a pillow box filled with m&m's. After cutting the pillow box on my Big Shot, I embossed it with a spider web embossing folder. Then I rubbed a white pigment ink pad over it to make the web stand out.

The card in the middle was made using the "ghosting" technique. You stamp the sentiment in Versamark ink on glossy cardstock. Stamp the haunted house in Stazon. Make a mask for the moon and brayer ink from a Spectrum ink pad over the image. Rub with a tissue to remove the ink from the sentiment, leaving the ghost image. Remove the mask from the moon and add yellow ink to the inside of the moon.

The Frankie matchbook treat holds a fun size bag of m&m's that is stapled inside.

Frapp Bottle Treats

One of my FAVORITE things to do when I need a little, inexpensive treat, is to decorate a Frappucino bottle and fill it with goodies for any occasion. All you have to do is wrap paper around the bottle (red tape works best for adhering) add a label, cover the lid with a punched circle or embellishment, and tie some ribbon around the neck. One man's trash....is another person's treat!

You've been "Boo'd!"

This is one of the small, clear, paint cans you can buy at the craft store. I made this one for my son's teacher and filled it with candy. I used strips of paper to decorate it so that you could still see what's inside.

The bigger version would be cute to "Boo" your neighbors. If you don't know what that is, you anonymously leave a container of treats on your neighbor's porch. If you've got critters about, you might want to ring the doorbell and run so that it isn't sitting out all night! They would then "Boo" another neighbor and each would hang a ghost on their door stating that they had already been "Boo'd". It's a lot of fun when it travels all around the neighborhood. You can find instructions, poems, ghost cut-outs, etc. online.

The papers, stamps, etc. are from Stampin' Up!

Halloween Treats

I've been under the weather and haven't done any stamping lately. Here's a pic of Halloween treats from the archives. The first is a Frankie treat holder, a Batty treat bag, Jack-o-lantern card, and the last is a take-out box decorated to give treats or "Boo" your neighbor.

All papers, rub-ons, punches, and Batty for You stamp set are from Stampin' Up!

Happily Ever After

I made these wedding favors for a coworker last year. Her colors were hot pink and black and the napkins had a black & white swirl pattern with an "M" monogram. I thought they turned out really nice and she was really happy with them. They could be made to match any wedding theme or color.

The matchboxes were made with the Sizzix matchbox die from Stampin' Up! The box sleeve was embossed with a Sizzix Swirl embossing folder. I stamped the "M" with monogram stamps from Martha Stewart, then punched and layered them. The box holds four Hershey nuggets that I wrapped with patterned paper. The "Happily Ever After" ribbon is from Michaels.

Cute Critters

I bought this stamp set for $2 at Big Lots! It also has an owl, bird, tree, mushrooms and several sentiments. I thought the animals were soooo cute and they remind me of some of the critters I see in our backyard. Our latest critter is a cute little armadillo. I don't mind him digging up the dirt in my flowerbeds, but now he's digging holes all over my yard!

The Woodland Friends stamp set is from Hampton Arts and the paper is Twitterpated from Close to My Heart.

The More Candles the Bigger the Wish!

I was going to send this to my sister and comment on how she should have a HUGE wish coming! I decided I better not!!

The cake stamp is from Close To My Heart, but I don't know the name of the set. The sentiment is from the Whimsical Words set from Stampin' Up!

All Star Birthday

I made this birthday card for a family friend who's baseball team went to the Dixie League World Series. Yea Trevor!!

The paper is Fanfare from Close to My Heart and the stamps are from the Sporting and Just Baseball sets from Stampin' Up!

Birthdays, Birthdays, and More Birthdays!!

I have a bunch of birthdays coming up this month so I've been busy making birthday cards.

This card was made using the Party Hearty stamp set from Stampin' Up! One of my favorite sets!

Operation Write Home

I'm going to Cat's Scrapbooks in Mineral Wells to help make cards for Operation Write Home. My friend Allison organized prior card making events and, besides having a great time, we were able to send 1000 cards overseas!

This is the card kit that I made. I hope some deserving soldiers enjoy sending this Christmas greeting home to loved ones !

Hope

I made this card for a coworker who just found out she has stage 2 breast cancer. The prognosis is good, but she has had more than her share of misfortune lately and could use a prayer.

The paper is from Basic Grey and the stamp set is the Hope set that Close to My Heart sold to raise money after the tsunami in Japan.

Pencil Treats

After seeing the idea in a magazine last year, I made these pencil treats for my son and his teacher. Just attach a Hershey's kiss to the end of a roll of Rolos candy. Then cut a stip of yellow paper to fit around and score it every 1/4". Adhere a strip of silver and pink to one end to make the eraser and trim the other end with pinking shears or deckle scissors. Wrap around the roll of candy and secure. I cut the stars out on the Cricut to make a tag and attached with ribbon.

Backpack Box

A friend reminded me about this backpack box I made for my kids' teachers several years ago. I used some leftover scrapbook paper that had our school name and mascot. They are just big enough for several Hershey's kisses, etc. They turn out really cute, but it isn't something I would make in a big quantity! The template and instructions can be found here:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/backpackbox/

Tiki Hut Construction

I recently took a class from Rusty Pickle's Lance Anderson and we made a pop-up tiki hut. He was nice enough to give me an extra hut so I could make this album for my son's Monkey Beach Party. Since my album was made differently, I had to do a little re-engineering, but I finally got it figured out! The first pic is the cover, which I made using a copy of the party napkin. The other pic's show the inside of the cover after you open it up and the Tiki Hut and trees pop-up. I used a copy of the invitation and a cup on this page.

The papers are from the Aloha line from Reminisce.

Dog-gone Cute!

My Mother in Law recently got this cute Boston Terrier, Mickey, that she is crazy about! I made this shadowbox frame and scrapbook for her to put his adorable pictures in.

The dog paper and embellishments are from Queen & Co.

Paint Chips

I was looking through some of my craft drawers and found a bunch of paint chips. Does anyone remember when they were all the rage about 5 years ago? They're especially fun to stamp on if you can find neat paint names to go with your stamp. Notice the paint names on my Princess card: Princess Tiara and Fairytale Pink. When I first started making these, I made a Snowman card for my sister who works at Home Depot. The paint chip was shades of blue with names like Frosty Blue, etc. I thought it was super cute and told my sister about how everyone was using paint chips on cards. She said, "We've been wondering why we're going through more paint chips than ever before!"

Got Scraps?

I love this technique I learned from my friend Allison. You cut strips of patterned paper and use any border punch to scallop the bottom edge.  Add pop dots to the scalloped edge, adhesive to the top edge, and layer them. I love the dimensional effect and it's a great way to use up all those scraps of patterned paper. 

The paper scraps are from S.E.I. and the stamp and punches are from Stampin' Up!

Not so sweet!

I had a little mishap while making this card. I LOST THE STAMP THAT MAKES THE CUPCAKE BOTTOM! That'sone reason  I'm not fond of clear stamps, because I've done it before. I've searched my craftroom (and the trash can) twice and cannot find it anywhere. I'm sure it's stuck to the bottom of something and, hopefully, It will turn up.

I improvised and fan folded some cardstock to make the fluted cup. I used Stickles on the frosting to make it match the glitter paper. The stamps are Fanfare from CTMH and the paper is from the Target Dollar Spot.

I scream for Ice Cream!

I made this card to celebrate my favorite treat - ICE CREAM!

The stamp set is Fanfare from Close to My Heart and the paper is from Imaginisce.

U Rock!

I made this card for my great nephew who is turning 13. I started making a baseball card for him and realized I needed to make something suitable for a teenager. I hope he likes it! The paper is Little Yellow Bicycle's Generation Z line. The guitar stamp is from We R Memory Keepers and the Rock stamp is from Fiskars.

Celebrate You!

I made this card for my great nephew who just turned 1. I hope it doesn't look too babyish, but I just love these cute little animals! The papers are from my scraps, but I think it's Nana's Kids from DCWV.

Celebrate Freedom

Happy 4th of July! This card was made using the Freedom line of papers from Reminisce and Let Freedom Ring stamps from Close to My Heart (thanks Julie!) As you celebrate freedom this 4th, be sure to thank a Vet or active serviceman for making it possible.

Get in Shape for Summer!

I was looking through some past issues of Paper Crafts magazine and was inspired to make some shaped cards for Summer. This is probably the only shaping up I'll do this Summer! The popsicle card is hinged at the top so you can open it up. I didn't have any craft sticks, so my son helped me eat the last 2 Eskimo pies. When I told him to save the stick so I could make a card with it, he said, "That's gross, my mouth's been on it!  The margarita card involved some physics to get it to stand up.

Challenges Entered:  My Time to Craft - Yes, Here Comes Summer

Octo Baby

How cute is this Ocotopus?!! More Splash Dance from Imaginisce.

Splash Dance

I bought these adorable papers and stamps in the clearance bin awhile back and finally got a chance to play with them.  It's the Splash Dance line from Imaginisce. It makes me want to go to the beach!

Challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs - Summertime Blues

Mango Luau Album

Here's the mini album I made with the Bo Bunny Mango Luau papers. I haven't added embellishments or stickers since I usually wait until I add my photos. I found out that my sister's whole family is going to Hawaii so I may give this to her and make another for myself.