Gift Card Holders 2011 - Round 2

As promised here are some more gift card holders with another one of my favorites!

I love baker's twine. It is the perfect accent when ribbon is just too much or too girly. I have seen similar twine covered items in magazine and other blogs and knew I wanted to try this out. Funny how both of my favorites this year use the Stampin Up ornament punch!

I punched my ornament from red (above) or green (below) cardstock. The color choices are so that if the edges don't quite get covered it would blend with the background. I ran it through my (or should I say my mom's lol) xyron FACE UP. It really didnt matter for this shape but for other shapes it would. I needed the top to be sticky.

I don't know how others have done this, but I started at the outside and worked my way in. I figured it would be harder to try to figure out where the center was to start. I just took my twine and started at the bottom point and using my fingers and occasionally some tweezers just kept going in circles. I did take a little bit of time but I LOVE the end result and will definitely be doing this again. Maybe in an upcoming class? Hmmm......

:)

I also love this ribbon folding technique I saw on Tim Holtz blog way back when. You have seen me use it on other projects if you have been following me all year.

 Some of the DCWV paper is so pretty all I had to do was add stickles! The one in the upper right is a perfect example :)

The law office I work at has a heavy Jewish population so we make sure to include some Jewish gift card holders every year as well. I really liked the way these turned out this year.

Still some more to go so check back tomorrow for more goodies! And see what lovely frame my mom made for the handmade Christmas gift from the crop party!

~Liz



Christmas Ornament Gift

Hi all!

I have had a BUSY couple of weeks! I think I am finally feeling all better and have had some time to do some crafting. Yay!

I have had this wood cut-out ornament from Archiver's since LAST YEAR! I forgot I had it last year so I pulled it out to do a handmade gift at our crop's handmade gift exchange. You don't know who will get your gift until you get there so I thought an ornament is always a great idea. My mom and I have a tradition that we get each other at least one ornament every year. So I have a very full Christmas tree full of ornaments going all the way back to my first Christmas! Someday I want to make a scrapbook of all my ornaments so I can try to remember where I got each one and why it was special that year. 

When I was trying to think of what to wrap it in, I remembered I got these cute little pouches with a tag from the Mega Meet last year at Melissa Frances' booth. They were super cheap since they were punched wrong (you wouldn't know that since I covered the punch holes) :)

So here is my wrapping and my ornament. I am entering this in a couple of challenges this week.

Over at Papertake Weekly they are having an Anything Goes challenge with the additional option of adding something dangly :) Right up my alley. Wee Memories is also doing a Free for All! Woopie! Lastly For Fun Challenges is challenging us to make Christmas Sparkle! I love sparkle! Let me show you what I did

I love this reindeer from the Cricut Christmas solution Cartridge. I knew immediately I wanted to use him on this. I pulled out my DCWV Christmas stack and found some paper I liked. I choose this pattern since it already looked layered so I didn't have to do anything more to it. I inked the edges with QQ Powder Puff ink in Mocha Mama and added hand stitching Stampin Up! Close to Cocoa.

 I cut a random shape to put the Noel on (I don't remember which cart that is from). I used my liquid pearls to add the white dots to the word. I cut strips of green paper and folded them to look like a ribbon behind the phrase. I used glimmer mist (graphite), my first Christmas sparkle, on the reindeer, the whole phrase with ribbon and the flowers. I used a different glimmer mist (brick) on the chipboard swirls. I love glimmer mist to make everything sparkle!

One you pulled out the tag, which I covered in red paper, you see a white pocket with the ornament inside

Here is the ornament I did. It came in a pack of 2 from Archiver's. They have all kinds of different shapes to choose from. I painted it all white so you couldn't see the brown wood of the cut out. Then I used modge podge across the top and with Martha Stewart glitter, my second Christmas sparkle! It doesn't get much more sparkly thank that! I sprinkled the silver randomly, then I took the red glitter and covered everywhere else. I took some silver bells, my something dangly, and tied them with twine to the ornament so you can hang it from the tree!

I had a TON of fun making this gift pouch and ornament. I hope the recipient enjoys it for years to come :)

~Liz

Quinceanera Centerpieces

Hi Everyone!

This weekend I made some samples for a friend's niece's quinceanera. She wanted something unique and different that none of her friends were going to have and could use as gifts to some of the girls and close family. I sent the picture and she loved them! I was so excited. I'll know tonight if she decides to have me make them for her.

Her theme is black/white/yellow with zebra print. Her name is Clarissa. hence why I used a "C" of some of the sides. The block is made out of CD cases. I found it a long time ago on a blog somewhere and can't seem to find the link now..... There will be a short vase in the middle with a calla lilly arrangement another woman is making (I stick to the paper crafts! lol) She also did not want to use pictures on them which created a challenge for me. I scrap without pictures all the time, but I always have photo mats to put pictures on. I had to figure out how to make the mini-layouts look finished without a picture.

I got most of the supplies at my local Archivers Store along with a couple of things from Joann Fabrics. Got out the cricut and went to work! I made 6 samples, but these are the 4 that she likes best (and I completely agree)

 

This one has to be my favorite. 

 

Here is a side view. You can see that the rose and ribbon are not glued down yet. They are going to go on the outside of the cube once I put it all together. (more pictures on this later)

 

This bling swirl will go on the outside of the cube. I added a feather to this one to tie in another theme. Some of the tables with have tall vases with large yellow feathers, and other tables will have these ones.

 

 This one is a lot of other people's favorite. The 3 yellow glitter dots will go on the outside of the cube

 

 I made this one with a fabric flower I learned how to make at the Quick Quotes private reserve last year. I love the way it looks with a paper rosette on top of it. I flocked the brad myself (it was white to start with) and used some bakers twine.

 Here is a side shot of the fabric flower. It will also go on the outside of the cube.

 

 This is what the cube will look like put together. You can see that some of the elements from the pictures above are missing. Those are the things that will get glued to the front/outside of the CD case. I didn't want to fully glue them until I get the go-ahead from the client.

Another shot of the put together cube. You can see one of the samples I am not using in this one

I really couldn't be happier with how these turned out, especially since I got all of them done in 1 day! I hope they are a big hit at the party!

~Liz

Phase II

Wow, I keep starting out strong on here, then falling off the edge!

So I am vowing to try to start up once again. Although, you may have to deal with less-than-great-quality photos since I lost the cord to my camera months ago and still haven't ordered a replacement. Crazy, I know. It is on my to-do list for this weekend.

Also on my to-do list is to create the sample and kits for my March class which is a wall clock. Should be very fun to do. And my boyfriend will quit complaining about how loud my current living room clock is when I replace it with my oh-so-cute home made one.

This was the January page. "All that Glitters is SNOW" I thought it came out very cute. It uses Bo Bunny's new Midnight Frost line which I just fell in love with when I saw it. The "Glitters" font is from Hannah Montana cart. Never would have guessed that one would you? Turns out I LOVE that cart. Lots of great fonts and really cute if you know anyone into music.

Here is the first page of my layout for February. I used an actual ruler on the page which I saw someone do online. I thought it was great to use some everyday stuff on a layout. I used bakers twine to string the banners onto and then tied them right onto the ruler. The calendar page was something someone was throwing out at work that I confiscated! lol

I added more things to this page after I took the picture. I will have to get them back out tonight and take a proper finished picture

Hopefully you will be seeing more of me again soon!
~Liz