Caardvarks Holiday Hop: Pretty Packaging!

Welcome to day two of the fabulous Caardvarks Holiday blog hop. The theme is pretty packaging and it is sponsored by Creative Cuts and More, a leader in die cuts. If you came here from Lila’s blog you are in the right place but if you landed here first be sure to start at the Caardvarks blog so you don’t miss out on an exclusive CC&M coupon and your chance to win some great die cuts, this is a 3-day hop with a prize each day and lots of holiday inspiration.  Without further ado here are my quick and easy holiday wraps:

Die cuts: Creative Cuts and More, Stamps: see credits below

I used the mug card, crayon box and short puff box for these and there are so many uses for them. they will each hold a gift card beautifully but Imagine the acetate puff box filled with chocolate covered cranberries, the mug filled with hot cocoa packets and candy canes and the crayon box filled with a mini note pad and crayons to entertain the youngins’ during a trip to grandmas! Another thing I love is how these sturdy boxes can be reused. Fill them with sweet treats for a friend then they can eat the sweets and tuck a gift card in and pass it on…I’m dreaming of a green Christmas

Cocoa Packet Holder: Stamps: Stampin Up (stamp wheels), Inque Boutique/Darice: Label

For the cocoa packet holder I assembled the card with tape then used a stamp wheel to “pattern” my card base. I used chalk to color the images then I stamped the label on cream and adhered it over a ribbon with foam tape and stuck in a decorative spray.

Crayon box: Stamps: The Rubber Cafe, Inque Boutique/Darice

For the crayon box I stamped a flourish and heat embossed it in white, tied on a ribbon and added the label, quick and easy!

Short puff box: CC&M

This was the easiest of all, assemble the box with double stick tape, wrap with a strip of paper and tie on a bow and glue on some dew drops!

Next stop on the hop is the wonderful Pam Smerker, be sure to check out her lovely work. Tomorrow is the final day of the holiday Blog hop and I do hop you will join us again, til then happy crafting!

A stationary set and a freebie!

I made this stationary set for my Mom on her birthday:

I used my Stampin up stuff to make this pretty set for mom!

Most of the stamps I used in this project are from Stampin UP! I love the wheels because they add a lot to a project in little time.

This pretty border was done with a wheel!

I am having a little catalog SU party. If you know me in real life you can stop by and place an order through my Stampin UP demonstrator (the fabulous fellow twin mom Nicolle.) Nicolle does not have a website so if you are a cyberspace only friend and want to order you can visit my friend Cheri’s website to order from her. The cool thing about ordering now is that for every $50 you spend you get to pick a free stamp set! Yes I’m a sucker for anything free but there are some very cute sets this year. I always order in February and stock up on Cardstock (I used Kraft and Certainly Celery in this project for example), stamp wheels (they are compatible with your Rollagraph handles and presses and SU is the only place I’ve been able to find them lately!) and re-inkers. I use SU ink to reink all of my dye base pads weather they are from SU or not. I make my own pigment ink but I buy the dye kind from SU in basic colors and mix what I need for the other pads. Thrifty huh?

Cardstock, wheel and flower stamp: Stampin UP, Ribbon: Dollar Tree, Sentiments: Inkadinkado

My mom LOVED her stationary! I kept the sentiments unattached so that she could customize the cards as she needed them. To make the set I took 3 sheets of Kraft and 3 sheets of celery and cut them down to 7″x10″ and folded them to make the card bases. Then I used my wheel stamp to stamp some of the leftover strips, punched them and added them to the cards. I stamped the focal tiles on a sheet of pink, cut them with pinking shears and did faux stitching, adhered them and stamped the sentiments (inkadinkado) on the scraps. I used 7 sheets of cardstock total for the cards! A also used 4 yards of pink grosgrain ribbon on this set but since I bought it at the dollar store it kept the price of the project down.

Download a file to cut this box with your cricut, or a printable template for free!

Now for the freebies! I used the Cricut Cartridge Tags, Bags Boxes and More to make my box but then I thought “Hey, I could make a similar box on George or Plantain to share with my cricut pals” so I did! I got rid of the annoying tabs that bugged me in the TBBM version. I designed the boxes with the carts native to that machine so it can be cut with the free trial version of Cricut Design Studio.

Click here for a Baby Bug version using the George Cartridge (6″x12″ mat).

Click here for the Expression version using Plantain Schoolbook (12″x24″ mat)

Click here for the SVG version good for any cricut machine if you have sure cuts a lot software. Scalable to any size!

Click here for a printable version.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time happy crafting!

Bridal Shower Set!

I threw a Bridal Shower for my sister yesterday (she’s getting married next weekend!) and I made this for her:

Bride wordbook and favors

a pocket in the back to hold advice from shower guests.

I’ve been playing will SCAL again. I made a bride wordbook with it and you can grab my files here. You will need to have the font Georgia installed for it to view properly. If you are a Design Studio user (free trial here) you can make this book by welding the rectangle form the “george” cart to the letters from “base camp”, of if you only have the free trial version of DS you can do it all in George!

Instructions: Using my files or make your own by welding a rectangle to a letter (make sure each progressive page has a longer rectangle so when the book is closed you can read the word) cut out each page of your book on pattern paper. Cut out each page again with the paper pattern side down on the mat to cover the back of each page.

Raid you cupboards and grab some cereal or cracker boxes (I used a big Goldfish cracker box from Sam’s Club) and trace the fronts of your cut paper and cut with an x-acto knife to make your “chipboard. *note: you can cut the cracker boxes in you Cricut with the regular blade, you may need to cut it a couple of times to go through but it will dull your blade. I’m frugal and x-acto blades are cheap so that is why I did mine that way!

Glue the pattern paper to the “chipboard”. I use yes! paste for all of my bookbinding projects because it dries slowly and it never winkles my paper plus a jar lasts many years! I apply it with a cut up credit card and squeegee it across my surface. Make sense?

Now the fun part! Decorate it! I inked the edges and printed funny bridal advise on big clear lables, cut out and inked (looks like vellum) and stuck them on, added vellum stickers, flowers brads and ribbon. I also but a pocket on the back to hold “bridal advice” recipe cards I made and gave to the shower guests to fill out.

To bind the book punch with a crop a dial or drill two holes 1/2 inch from the edge and slip a binder ring through each hole. Add ribbons and you are done!

For the favors I used Stampin up stamps, ribbon, and my Sizzix flower dies. For the instructions click here.

You can download the bingo card here. to play bridal bingo give each guest a card and have them fill in the squares with gifts they expect the bride to receive. The first to get 5 in a row wins!

BTW the party was a blast and she loved the book! Tomorrow I’ll show you how to bind a book without a bind-it-all. Get ready to save!

Happy crafting!

Lindsay

Back to School!

I scrapbook a lot, it just occured to me that I don’t post many pages (mainly because they are waiting to be published or under consideration somewhere) but I thought I would today. My 3 kids started school for the first time! Here is the page. I wonder who is more excited, them or mom?

See this Layout, "Back 2 School" in the December 2008 issue of SNR!

I cut the title using the fonts Elfon and Times Nw Roman with my Cricut and SCAL software. Stamps are from Stampin Up except the circle one (Inkadinkado), paper is Stampin Up. Thanks for looking and have a great Friday!

12″x12″ Shaped paper with your little Cricut!

Hi there, I learned a neat trick with my Cricut recently and all you need to have is Design Studio (trial version is fine) or Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL). Say you want 12×12 shaped paper (and you don’t want to cut it by hand) but you only have the original Cricut that cuts 6×12. What do you do? Easy. Open the shape you want in your preferred software and rag the corner sizing arrows until it fills the page. You will be enlarging the shape off the mat so don’t release the mouse button until it is the right size. Cut two shapes and piece them together. you can add a piece of card stock on the back for support or hide the seam in the front with a strip of paper or ribbon. Here is mine.

Stamps: Stampin Up, Chipboard:Colorbox, Cricut and SCAL

Have fun playing with this technique!