A Quick Gift Idea

Happy Friday, everyone!  I know it has been a while since I posted, but I have been enjoying time with family and friends and I am sure you have too.  I did want to share a speedy tutorial for making a quick little gift or stocking stuffer.  At the DS, I bought a package of 6 tissue packs for your purse…they’re 2”x4” in size, so that’s the measurement I used when I worked this up.  If you have tissues of a different size, you may need to adjust your measurements:

You can use cardstock or DP, whichever you like, just adjust your scoring “heaviness” accordingIy!!

I decorated these with images from Every Little Bit, and punched them out with 1” circle punch and 1 1/4” scallop punch.  You can decorate them any way you like, really!

Sorry for the awful photos, but I was trying to do this before Cassidy arrived! If you’d like to have a written set of directions, just email me and I’ll send you the document.  Please don’t leave your request in the comment section!  Have a terrific weekend!

Thought I’d share this photo of DH, too….I was recycling some SU packaging paper by stamping on it to make wrapping paper, and I corralled him into helping me:

He did a mighty fine job, too….he thought the clear stamps were ingenious!

ColourQ 168

It’s Tuesday---a week until Christmas!  Are you ready?  I am, almost!!!  Just a few more things to wrap, bake and decorate!  Here is an inspiration photo from Arielle, just in time for the holiday:

I had this “holiday” diecut sitting on my desk unused from another project, and thought this would be a perfect excuse to use it:

It wasn’t until my card was completed that I realized it is Real Red, not Riding Hood Red, so just pretend for me, okay?  I used some holiday plaid paper from a big mat stack and mounted it on a card that’s just a little narrower than a standard card….I thought the proportions looked a bit better!  I know, my only white is in the ribbon, LOL!  I used Bashful blue for the “joy” and star punchout and Cherry Cobbler for the tree punchout.  Sweet!   And I got a little punch-happy, punching out a bunch of trees and stars with the Merry Minis Punch Pack, so I used them to make a tag:

 

Hope you can find some inspiration from Arielle’s photo above and make a card or packaging to share with us…..pop on over to the ColourQ blog and play along, and be sure to see what the other designers created with these fun holiday colors!

Cassidy is putting the Three Wise Men (and a donkey) to “nigh-night”!!!

Enjoy your week!

Paper Players 126

Hi, everyone!  Time for another Paper Players challenge, with Ann  as our hostess and this clean and simple challenge:

You know I almost always forget the CAS part of this challenge, and I did remember this time, but it still sort of got away from me!!!  I had an idea in my head, and although it really is simple, I hope Ann will forgive me if it’s not the cleanest or simplest, LOL!

First, I needed a birthday card….just in time for Lesley’s new venture, Seize the Birthday! 

I’m telling you….that girl is a bundle of energy!  But what a fun challenge blog it will be, and who doesn’t need more birthday cards?  And there is also a lovely color challenge at Create with Connie & Mary:

So I combined them all to make this “snowflakes in a jar” card! 

I stamped the jar from Perfectly Preserved on my very last piece of window sheet in Black Stazon and used the die to cut out the jar from the front of my card.  I used some retired snowflake dies to cut snowflakes from the Champagne glimmer paper and adhered them inside, along with a sentiment from Petite Pairs, embossed in Gold Glory:

The jar lid as well as the smaller snowflakes are stamped in Gold Encore ink for extra shimmer!  Wouldn’t it be fun to catch some snowflakes in a jar?  For a final oomph, I sponged a little tiny bit of white craft ink on the outside of the jar and adhered some glitter for a frosty look!

I also heat embossed the birthday sentiment from Itty Bitty Banners and popped it up on a glimmer paper banner too!  I hope the recipient will enjoy it!!!

Now, what you YOU make with some snowflakes?  Even if you live down under, where it is WARM, it’s always fun to play with your snowflake stamps & dies….pull them out and get cracking!  Share them with us over at the Paper Players blog, so we can all enjoy their frosty goodness!  And make sure to check out the designers’ samples as well!!  And we are announcing our new Guest Designer team—woohoo!  What a fun process that was!  Lots of creativity coming your way in 2013!

I promised you a few more pictures from our cookie-decorating day, or maybe I should say cookie-UNdecorating day:

She was FASCINATED by sprinkles, and couldn’t wait to decorate her own special cookie:

Can you tell which one it was?

But I couldn’t get her to stop playing with it….

She wanted to pick the decorations back off and eat them!!!  Oooops!

How can you scold that face, though?! 

Enjoy your day---hug your kids, your grandkids, your neighbors, your friends, your spouse…..life is precious!

JUGS167 & US189

I thought maybe stamping would help me feel better today….it didn’t.  I thought maybe putting up our Christmas tree would help me feel better today…..it didn’t.  I just had to realize that this Christmas was just not going to be the same for many, many people…..but God is still in control.  I don’t understand it, but I have faith.

I needed some get well cards, and I saw a cheerful color combo at Just Us Girls, where I haven’t played in a looooong time!  Here it is:

I pulled out some pretty papers from my stash and a floral stamp and went to work on this CAS card:

I am still learning how to use this PTI stamp; I can’t quite get it lined up, but it’s close enough!  I used Pink Pirouette,  Regal Rose and Melon Mambo for the florals along with Lucky Limeade for the stems.  I did some sponging around the die and also gave it a little “sprinkle” with my spritzer tool!  Finally,  I used some pretty baker’s twine as my ribbon!

This uses my favorite layout, which also happened to be the sketch from Unscripted Sketches, flipped on its side:

Thanks for visiting today!  Any questions….I’m only an email away!

MFTWSC102 Sympathy

Sadly, I found out yesterday that I needed a sympathy card; the husband of one of my college roommates passed away after a short battle with cancer.  It really shook me up; we have been through divorces and children issues,  but no deaths.  She is seven hours away, so I can’t be with her but I wanted to make a comforting card for her:

Although I didn’t use any My Favorite Things stamps, I did use their layout for this week:

I used a plethora of different stamps with some pretty MME papers from the Lost & Found Market Street line.  An Our Daily Bread Designs verse graced the main panel,

and I did some collage stamping on the back panel.

I also added pearls, crochet trim, velvet ribbon and shabby ribbon, and sponged and distressed some of the edges.  I just love these greens together!  Although it was for a sad occasion, it was nice to stamp something non-Christmas.  As always, if you have questions, just email me!

Well, even though my card is non-Christmas, the festivities are in full swing at the Pugliese household, which includes making cookies, or at least licking the spoon:

My posts may be more sporadic here in the next couple weeks, but I promise to share a few more cookie-making adventures when I do!

RS41

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Just a real quick card today….that’s all I am able to make these days with so many Christmas goings-on!  I used the RetroSketches sketch #41:

and made a sweet little Christmas card:

I used the mistletoe image from Easy Events, masking off the sentiment and stamping it in Basic Gray.  I then colored it with ink and a blender pen, and added a little highlight with my white gel pen.  Some Be of Good Cheer DP gave it a festive look, and a little stitched ribbon and resin flower finished it off!  Any questions?  Give me a holler!

Rock star!

ColourQ167

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Boy, I don’t know what is wrong with me lately, I just can’t seem to maneuver my creativity into anything worthwhile!  It takes me two tries just to get something close to what I like!  Today’s creation is no different for the cute ColourQ challenge that Arielle has for us.  Check it out:

Aren’t these little dudes cute?  I had a bazillion ideas swirling around in my head and nothing was working!  I think I had Live Nativity/rain cancellation/cookie & hot chocolate overload on my brain, LOL!  This is my SECOND stab at this; it’s a little tag for a gift that I made for a local nursing home resident (we sponsor them at our Curves):

I had a little narrow scrap of Naturals White cardstock in my folder, I just scored & folded it in half and added bells in the challenge colors, then “strung” them along with some red embroidery floss!  I added a simple sentiment and it’s all ready to attach to my package!

Now, here is the first attempt at using these colors:

A cute little Penny Black image, but there is just something about it that is lacking; I think adding the Lucky Limeade to the tree made me go “ick” instead of “wow”!!!   I love Sage Shadow, too….one of my favorite colors, and I was so sad when it retired.  I’ll still use the card, cuz I think this image is adorable!

Now….what can YOU create with these colors?  All the design team samples are available to view on the ColourQ blog, and we’d sure love to see yours on there as well!  Can’t wait!  And remember, if you have any questions, just shoot me an email!

Over my busy weekend, my SIL gave my brother a surprise 50th birthday party.  My dad drove the 2-hour ride up and hung out at my house (along with my sister who flew up from SC!) and while we were waiting, I made some sugar cookies.  I decided to put him to work:

Although I believe whatever artistic talent I possess came from my dad’s genes, I doubt very much that his artistic escapades ever included decorating cookies!  But he did a good job and they’re all ready to give out as gifts in the next couple of weeks!  And Cassidy got in the act, “helping” me with wrapping:

Enjoy your day!