Gift Giving Blog Hop

Hello! And welcome to this month's We Create Blog Hop! This month's hop is all about gift-giving. Be sure to visit all the gals in the Hop. We love comments and Pins!

I'm super excited to share my project -- inspired by a recent stamp session with Julie, as usual. I"m teaching 2 Christmas classes in the next few weeks, and I love giving my hostesses a great hostess gift during their parties. This lovely Christmas-themed package will make a great hostess gift. (If you're one of the ladies whose classes I'm teaching, this is what you have to look forward to! Um, Surprise!)

I'm super-duper pleased with how this turned out. It was my first attempt at embossing the acetate cover or sleeve that comes with our Tag-a-Bag Gift Boxes. Even though it sounded intimidating, it was actually super-simple! I'll definitely be doing this again in the future.

After embellishing the box cover, I made a simple belly band for the box. Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, and Crumb Cake cardstock with a touch of bling make for a simple and elegant centerpiece for the box.

Here you can see the box cover/sleeve and the contents of the gift. I love the level of detail that shows up on the acetate sleeve -- so crisp and clear! The ornament stamp is from my favorite Christmas stamp set possibly ever: Ornament Keepsakes. Love it!

 I found a lovely red glass jar at Hobby Lobby, and it fit perfectly in the Tag-a-Bag box! Hooray! I wrapped a bit of our Burlap Ribbon and added 3 simple Basic Jewel rhinestones. The filler in the back is some leftover paper Easter grass -- but hey, it looks Christmas-y, doesn't it?

The jar is filled with homemade relaxing bath salts. They were super-duper easy to make. Here's the recipe! You can use whatever essential oils you like; this citrus-based blend is invigorating, but a touch of lavender makes it relaxing too. Perfect for a nice soak in the tub, maybe with some candles and a great book.

Homemade Bath Salt Recipe 

1/2 cup Epsom salts

1/2 cup Sea salt 

10 drops Wild Orange essential oil 

10 drops Lemon essential oil 

3 drops Lavender essential oil 

Mix in a metal bowl, then store in a glass jar. Add about 2 Tbsp to warm bath water and enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to click on through to see the rest of the fabulous gift ideas the other Hoppers have for you.

Holiday Shimmer Hop! (Plus FM87)

To kick off the holiday season (welcome to December, everyone!), some fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators and I decided to get together and do a holiday blog hop. We've all created fantastic projects to show off some of our favorite products and techniques, so be sure to check out everyone's blogs. Our theme? Shimmer! Totally perfect for the holiday season, huh?

I couldn't pick just ONE sparkly project (how could I, with so many fun options?). So today I have TWO cheerful, festive, and sparkly projects to show you: a card and a gift.

The sparkle on my "Merry" card is just in small bursts, but I really love the touch of "something extra" it gives the image.

Here's a close-up so you can see the sparkle a little better.
Don't you just love it??

Card Supplies:

Paper: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, and Very Vanilla CS; Be of Good Cheer DSP

Stamps: Greetings of the Season, Beautiful Season

Ink: black StazOn (base image), Soft Suede (greeting); water colored with Gumball Green, Basic Grey, Soft Suede; Cherry Cobbler Stamp 'n' Write© Marker

Tools & Embellishments: Scallop Square die (on the Big Shot) and Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, SNAIL adhesive (as always)

This next project is one I made for the Friday Mash Up challenge (FM87), which is to make a gift project and/or to use their inspiration photo. My project is a gift, and I used the silver glimmer paper like they did in their photo, so I kinda got both elements in there! I got the idea for the adorable candy tray from Stuck On Stampin's "12 Days of Christmas" projects from last year. So cute! The tag has a LOT of sparkle, thanks to the Glimmer Paper from Stampin' Up!, the tray is scored & folded cardstock, and the candy is simply wrapped with some of our Be of Good Cheer DSP. Perfect little stocking stuffer or neighbor gift, if I do say so myself!

Project Supplies:
Paper: Cherry Cobbler CS (tray base), Very Vanilla CS (tag), Be of Good Cheer DSP (wrappers), Silver Glimmer Paper (tag backing)
Ink & tools: Cherry Cobbler, Scoring board (tray), Large scallop circle punch, handheld (1/16") punch
Stamp: Tags 'Til Christmas
Other: Hershey's minis & "pretzel" cellophane bags (from the party store), Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, SNAIL adhesive (as always)

Hop Back: Julie Davidse

Hop Forward: Kris Kilkenny

Happy Thanksgiving! (And welcome to Christmas)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you have a wonderful, safe, and delicious holiday with your loved ones.

I am a firm believer that the Christmas season doesn't start until the day after Thanksgiving. No Christmas music, no Santa, no trees or lights go up until after Thanksgiving is over -- it's all I can do to handle one holiday at a time! But I have one exception (other than the occasional Christmas-in-July music indulgence) -- Cards. I LOVE making Christmas cards, and it just makes sense to start them early on to minimize the last-minute hectic rushing to make that one last card before you hurry out the door to a Christmas party. So here's what I've been working on - enjoy!

Card Details
The top two Vintage-inspired card were made with:
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season
Paper: Very Vanilla, Be of Good Cheer DSP and Festival of Prints DSP
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Baker's Twine (cherry cobbler)
Tools: Vintage Lace embossing folder, Ornament Keepsakes framelits dies

The bottom card was made with:

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season

Paper: Crumb Cake, Festival of Prints DSP, Very Vanilla

Ink: Soft Suede, VersaMark (ornament)

Accessories: Silver & Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powders (heat embossing)

Thanks to Julie Wadlinger for the fabulous photos!

More Card Challenges

This week, I decided to participate in the Friday Mash Up card challenge, which has a really fun Christmas-themed project. To make it more interesting, I also decided to do the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. So I took the layout from FMS and combined it with the theme of the Friday Mash Up, and here's what I came up with! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I LOVE the thin Old Olive ribbon (1/8" taffeta ribbon from Stampin' Up!).

Card Details

Stamp Sets: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season

Cardstock: Crumb Cake (base), Old Olive (ornament), "Be of Good Cheer" Designer Series Paper (DSP)

Ink: Versamark (with silver embossing powder), Soft Suede

Ribbon: 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon (Old Olive)

Again, this was for Freshly Made Sketches FMS #57 and the "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" challenge from Friday Mash up. What do you guys think?