Saturday, November 21, 2009

Holiday Gift Giving


Hi there, blog peeps! Happy Saturday! Have you guys started buying gifts for the holidays? I can't believe it's already that time! Well, here's a great gift guide for the crafters in your life {yourself, included, I'm sure - *wink!*}. You can check out the full guide here and you can shop anytime on my Demonstrator Website - just click on the Shop Now button in the upper right corner. There are a lot of great ideas, for all the different groups of people in your life, and a variety of price points so you can stay within your budget! Plus, from now til January 4th, when you spend $50 from this gift giving guide, you also get to pick a Decor Elements piece (valued up to $16.95). What a great deal, huh?! Enjoy the shopping from the comfort of your computer!

I'll be back in a bit....need to work on some chores! Bye for now.


Friday, November 20, 2009

Yay - it's Friday! And it's time for a Freebie!

Hi all! How was your week?! I don't know how it happens, but lately, time just seems to find ways to go faster and faster! Except, of course, when I'm on the freeway. I've been on the road quite a bit this week {literally - on the 405, for you Southern CA locals} and for whatever reason, traffic has been absolutely horrendous! Thankfully, the weekend is almost here! But even more importantly, it's a Freebie Friday! I was trying to figure out what to do this week, and what I ended up doing was a quick little ornament that was inspired by many I've seen on the Splitcoaststamper's website. Here's my version, and this week's giveaway! It's quick and easy, and uses strips of paper, a hatpin and a few embellishments from the Pretties Kit! Hope you like it! (I'll share directions this weekend, when I have a bit more time to put it all together!)

Are you ready to play? All you need to do is leave me a comment with your email address or blog URL (enough info for me to contact you!) by November 22nd, Sunday at noon, Pacific Time. You can comment on anything or you can tell me about something you are thankful for this year. I would love to hear about it. I, personally, am so thankful to you all for keeping me inspired and motivated to keep on creating. I am also so thankful for my dear hubby, my wonderful family, and great friends - old and new. And, of course, my new job ;) Looking back on 2009, I'd say it's been filled with mixed blessings and surprises. And, I am very grateful for it all.

Oh, I also wanted to give a quick shout to my last 2 Freebie Friday winners...I want to apologize to you both for my super tardy delivery of your goodies...I haven't forgotten about you. Let's just say it's been a challenge to get to the Post Office. I will get your goodies to you soon! Thanks for understanding :)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Bye for now!


Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Baby Gap Inspired Gift Card Holder

Hi there! In keeping with the Christmas theme and traditional Christmas colors, I thought I'd share a quick and simple Gift Card Holder, inspired by the one from Baby Gap. The 2 samples in the picture above are my remodeled take of the gift card holder style. Here's a look at where the inspiration came from. And here's the inside:
I designed the ribbon closure to secure the gift card closed, and as a biproduct of this design, it turns out that the giftcard can also be adhered to the ribbon using glue dots. Here's a look at the inside:
It's super simple and so cute! I created the Real Red one first, and as you can see, it's cute as is in solid red and an accent ribbon in Old Olive. I then created the snowflake one and stamped the snowflake from the Patterned Pines Hostess Stamp set, and wrapped it up with the Real Red Polka Dot ribbon. Wanna know how I made it? Here are the instructions:

1. You will need to cut a piece of cardstock or DSP to a 9 1/4" x 5". Embellish as desired (ie stamp or leave plain).
2. Score the cardstock at 2 1/2" and 6 1/2" and crease at the score lines.
3. Using your paper trimmer and cutting blade, go back to each of the score lines and cut a half-inch long slit along the score line from 2 1/4" to 2 3/4"
4. Using the Scallop Border punch, punch the border along the edge of one of the flaps (this is the flap that is 2 3/4" from the scoreline).
5. Take your 1/2" or 5/8" ribbon and feed it through the 2 slits you created.
6. Fold your gift card up and assemble it, tying it closed with your ribbon. The finished size of this little project is 4"x5".
{Baby Gap Inspired Gift Card Holder}
All supplies Stampin'Up!
*Cardstock: Real Red, and Whisper White
*Stamp Set: Patterned Pines
*Ink: Real Red Classic Stamp Pad
*Accessories: Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Border punch
Now, go and try it out! It's handy to have on hand for those extra gift cards you may need to give out during the holdiays. Have fun!

Thanks for stopping by today :)


Monday, November 16, 2009

Friday the 13th Freebie Friday Winner

Happy Monday, all! Ready to start off the week? I'm ready - it's the start of week #3 for me at the new jobbie job! WooHoo! Half way to a month already {heehee}. Well, enough of my random morning chatter...let's find out who the winner of the treat holder is! Drumroll please. The lucky winner is... Lucky number 4, who happens to be Aubri!! Congrats, Aubri! Thanks all for playing!

I'll catch up with you guys in a bit. Off to work I go.


Sunday, November 15, 2009

Christmas Cheer PPA challenge

Hi all! Are you enjoying your weekend? I'm trying to enjoy every bit of mine...and catch up with all the household chores and errands that have seemed to pile up during the past week. {How does that happen?!} Well, amidst all of that, I found a quick second to create a card for the PPA Challenge 16 this week, which is a Theme Challenge for Christmas Cheer. As you can probably tell from my blog postings these last few weeks, I've been mostly creating cards with Christmas Cheer in mind! So, along those lines, here's the card I created for the challenge:
I LOVE the real red cardstock and the polka dot grosgrain ribbon. They scream Christmas to me :) ...in a happy way, of course. The Snowflake punch has also been one of my favorites for this season, embellished with some sort of button. For this card, I threaded the corduroy button with a sliver of the real red cardstock. The only stamping on the card is the "Christmas Cheer" postage stamp, from the Christmas Punch stamp set, so this card is pretty quick to put together! Here's the recipe:
{Christmas Cheer Card}
All supplies Stampin'Up!
*Stamp Set: Christmas Punch
*Cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White, Merry Moments DSP, and Christmas Cocoa DSP
*Ink: Real Red Classic Ink
*Accessories: Jumbo Snowflake, Scallop Square, and Scallop Border punches; Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon, Kiwi Kiss corduroy button {retired}, Button Latte button, Linen Thread, dimensionals (to pop up the scallop squares)
What do you think? Hope you like it!

Since I've been MIA most of this past week, I have a backlog of things I'd like to post, so I will try and catch up on some of these this week. Plus, for tomorrow, I'll be announcing the Freebie Friday winner. Til then, I'm gonna say bye for now.

Thanks so much for visiting me today!


Friday, November 13, 2009

Happy Freebie Friday the 13th!

Hello blog peeps! Hope you all had a good week. Me? I've been a busy girl still adjusting to my new schedule. Boy, has it been a busy one! {I didn't even realize it was a Friday the 13th until I heard it on the news this morning!!}So, sorry for the lack of posting this week. One great development this week is that I've found a carpool buddy, so that does help with the commute factor by a LOT. Once things get settled down, I'll try to post more often. For now, let's get on with this week's Freebie Friday, shall we? Here's a full view: It's a 2 Tag Treat holder! This idea was shared by a fellow demonstrator and I thought it was just too cute! This week's winner will get this Treat Holder and a kit to make 3 more (kit includes 6 tags, ribbon, 6 buttons, twine, 3 cello bags, 3snowflake punched images). The treat holder is made from the 2 Tags Bigz die and actually uses 2 of the wider tags on the die. Super easy peasy! Very simple to assemble - just crease the 2 tags, and adhere the bottom flaps together with Sticky Strip to create the base. Then, weave the ribbon through the pre-punched hole at the top of the tag, tie it off with a button and twine, and the holder is assembled! All you need to do is put the treat in, {you'll get the treat in the sample, and you can supply the remaining 3 ;) }
Here's the side view of the Treat Holder - it's got 2 Snickers for you!

Are you ready to play? All you need to do is leave me a comment with your email address or blog URL (enough info for me to contact you!) by November 15th, Sunday at noon, Pacific Time. You can comment on anything or you can tell me about any Thanksgiving traditions you have. Looking forward to reading your comments and finding out more about you!

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a great day! Bye for now.


Monday, November 9, 2009

Time to announce the winner...


Morning all! Hope you guys had fab weekend. I love the weekends and I'm glad I got to catch up a little and relax. But, here we are again - already Monday! The good news is, it's time to find out who our winner is for this Freebie Friday Joy Frame. So, without further adieu, the lucky winner this week is.. Lucky number 6, who happens to be Martha! Congrats, Martha! Please send me an email with your contact info, so I can get your goodie over to you.

Thanks everyone for playing! I'll catch up with you guys a little later on...have a great day!