Christmas Gift-Giving Gift Set

Today's set is designed to make gift-giving easier. Combined with a roll of white wrapping paper, the tags and gift cards and ribbon (not shown) will easily coordinate, and the little Christmas List book fits easily in a purse for handy reference while shopping!

How cool is this!?!?



The genesis of this set began with the tiny little envelopes that have been lurking in my stash for about five years. They are from Hero Arts and only hold a 1" square card.



In the same drawer as the envelopes were some pre-made tags. I used Faux Ribbon, a silver metallic marker (in two nib widths), and various snowflake stamps to make the design, and accented each snowflake with a bit of silver Stickles. A bit of sheer white ribbon tops each tag.



The next element was a bit more involved. Using my Bind-It-All, I made a small book with simple white matte-board covers stamped the same way as the tags. This little book is a great way for my friend who will receive this to keep track of her Christmas shopping.



A final element of the set (that I didn't photograph) was a package of two rolls of blue and silver ribbon for adding to the gift-wrapped packages.

The next step will be to make a coordinating card to accompany the set.



Hope you like it!

Grady Update on Questioning

If you want to see Grady's recent portrait, visit my other blog, Questioning my Intelligence.

More Ornaments...

because, you know, I have a problem stopping when it comes to ornaments. It's a sickness, I assure you, but the following ornament cured this particular bout of the obsession.

It took an embarrassing number of attempts to get it right:

Finally! And the result really isn't hard at all. Sigh. Sometimes, I'm a dork and try to make things too complicated. KEEP IT SIMPLE, SUSAN!

And the ornament is fab, isn't it? So sparkly and fun. I punched out a smaller circle from a sheet of adhesive, adhered it to the turquoise scalloped circle, and put turquoise glitter on the top. Then, using glue dots, I adhered the snowflake circle over the glitter. That was it. And I am SO DONE with ornaments for this year.

Maybe.

I made the following red-and-vanilla ornament last year. It's very much in the spirit of my recent bling post, don't you think?



The stamp is from Etruscan, a long-ago retired SU set that I love. It's on very vanilla cardstock, then mounted on real red. The photo fails to capture the sparkle of the gems, but I'm sure you get the idea!

Tomorrow, hopefully, the sun will come out and I can get some decent pictures of my latest gift set. It's not got any ornaments in it. What in the world could it be?!? *wink*

Backtracking a Bit

A few weeks ago, I messed around with a teal and orange color scheme and PTI's Sign Language to make this card, which Jen chose as a sketch challenge for the CAS Design Team Challenge. I am so honored! If you have thought about entering the challenge but are hesitating, please jump right in. It's a great challenge, and no matter what, you'll have fun. I promise!

Here's another card that came out of that day of experimenting:

Sorry for the weird lighting. Sunlight is a fickle thing through my window!

After yesterday's bling-fest, this looks shockingly blingless to me. Still, it's a pretty card, with the scallops and curvy font of the sentiment balancing the straight lines of the squares. And the colors just make me happy.

I hope they make you happy, too!

Supplies
stamps: PTI Sign Language, Birthday Basics
ink: Versacolor
paper: taken with teal, PTI white
accessories: square punches, scalloped square punch, dimensionals

Fun with Bling and Border Stamps

Late Sunday night, I was trying (mostly in vain) to make a card with PTI's Merry and Bright trees, so I pulled out the snowflake trio in the set and started playing. Using Brilliance Sky Blue ink, I repeatedly stamped the snowflakes to form a border.

I liked it.

Then I stamped Merry Christmas from Peaceful Poinsettias in black.

Lovely.

Then I added blue rhinestones to each snowflake center.

OMG! CAS and BLING! The bling totally makes this card sing!



The Christmas version of this oh so classic and unoriginal layout looked so good, I decided to try the same layout with PTI's Background Basics: Retro. The next card was even easier!



Don't you just love all those tiny purple rhinestones? They are so happy to be ON A CARD instead of in my hoard where they sat, all sad and lonely and useless. Now they have a purpose, a new life. Bless their sparkly purple souls!

The third version uses an ink I learned about from JulieHRR: Brilliance pearlescent beige. Beige does not sound like a great color, but oh, my, trust Julie. It is. These rhinestones are champagne colored and blend perfectly with the pearlescent beige. So simple, so elegant!



If you're anything like me, you hoard bling, thinking that it's too special for everyday cards. Well, I challenge you to USE some. Actually, use A LOT, like I did here. Don't be afraid. Just go right ahead and bling generously. Then, you can buy more bling.

"Bling is good."

Let's call that Simplicity Wisdom. Go forth, Grasshopper, and bling.

Razzleberry Butterfly

This year, I decided to buy StampinUp's multipack of In-Color paper and the pack of markers so I could have all the In Colors as inexpensively as possible. I will not do that again. Basically, markers are GREAT for coloring in stamps with multiple colors (which I only occasionally do), but they are NOT a great replacement for pads (which I use all the time!). I don't even LIKE all the in colors this year, either. Penny wise, pound foolish.

I have felt sad every year before that I couldn't justify spending so much to get all the in-colors, but there have been a few I've regretted purchasing (like True Thyme). Add to all this my frustration that Cool Caribbean and Wild Wasabi are NO LONGER AVAILABLE (whaaaaaaaa!), and the sum of my attitude toward In Colors is ambivalent.

Now that I got all that off my chest, it's time to talk about today's card. The butterfly is from SU's retired Natural Beauty. The sentiment came after the panel was stamped: the butterfly looks lonely, doesn't it? The darker color scheme reinforces the miss you sentiment, and I intend to send this to the troops for their use.

Rich Razzleberry is my favorite of the In Colors this year. Next, I plan on using it on a predominantly white card because it should really pop prettily, don't you think? I tried that with Crushed Curry, and the resulting card is so sad looking that it's getting recycled. Blech.

Have a great Monday, everyone!

Supplies
stamps: Natural Beauty, PTI Simple Little Things
ink: Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede
paper: Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede, white
accessories: ribbon, dimensionals

More Extreme Papercrafting

Here are two more book ornaments from four years ago.



I remember having fits trying to make books with this patterned paper. I couldn't get the snowflakes to balance out nicely at all, so I kept this one and used other paper for the ones I gave away. But the idea of this book makes me so happy, I thought I'd share anyway.

The book content was created in MS Word using text boxes (I cut each page by hand using a quilting ruler and craft knife just inside the text box line...little wonder my wrists hurt so bad!). This book contains my favorite version of the Christmas story: Luke 2:1-20, King James Version. The text color coordinated with the color of the cover. I read it every year as I decorate the tree to remind me what all the hoopla is all about.





The last book I'll share is really different, as it's a triangular accordion book.



The patterned paper is so pretty, I just had to use it on an ornament. The quotation inside is from Shakespeare, handwritten over a random stamped and stippled background to mimic the paper of the cover. It says, "At Christmas I no more desire a rose / Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth" (Love's Labour Lost).

This was one of the last ornaments in my ornament-making marathon, so its fastener is a band of gold elastic cord, which is much easier than a bow.



I hope you've enjoyed this little trip down Extreme Papercrafting memory lane. Tomorrow, I'm posting a CAS card...cross my heart!