A Touch of Grace

For a really spooktacular treat for the older trick-or-treaters, I made these coffin boxes and stuffed them with bite size candy bars.  I found the templates for the boxes on the Martha Stewart Crafts site.  The inside of the box is lined with Halloween paper I purchased from Stampin’ Up! a couple of years ago.  I placed the mummy tag on a foam dot and adhered it to the top of the box similar to what I did with the broomstick treat bag.  The mummy tag was created with the JustRite Stampers Witch Way to the Treats set that I got from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store. 

The boxes are quick and easy to make.  The Martha Stewart Crafts site provides an easy to use template that you can download with instructions for making the box.  Use your imagination on how you want to design it! 

Shopping Links:

A Touch of Grace:  Zip Dry adhesive, Foam Dots, Quickie Glue pen, SU circle punches, Martha Stewart mouse and bat punches (Michael’s), black pearls, Old Paper and Antique Linen Tim Holtz Distress inks, Prismacolor pencils, black and ivory cardstock, lunch size paper bags, Genesis Paper Trimmer, cutting mat, craft knife, skeleton bones and accessories (Michael’s), glitter, SU Halloween paper, Basic Black cardstock,

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:  Witch Way to the Treats JustRite stamps, cording, Versafine black ink

Joan’s Gardens:  Martha Stewart leaf punch

Last week I was thumbing through a magazine at the check out line in the grocery store when I came across a picture of treats stuffed into a broomstick made with small paper bags about 3″ x 6″.  My creative mind immediately went to the treat bags I was making with the JustRite Stampers Witch Way to the Treats set that I got from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store.  I couldn’t resist making a broomstick treat bag on a larger scale using the theme I was going with in my Halloween project to give to my great-nephew for Halloween. 

In this close up you  can see that I used the same tag that I made for the treat bags I posted here.  I cut a limb from an oak tree in our yard for the broomstick.  To make the lower portion of the broomstick I used two lunch size paper bags.  On the first bag I cut strips about 1/4 of the way down from the top of the bag and filled it with chocolates.  I then cut strips in the second bag from top to bottom of the bag.  I spread out the cut bag and placed the first bag filled with chocolates on top of it, I inserted the oak branch inside the first bag, and pulled the strips up to cover the bag and oak branch.  I used brown floral wire to secure the paper strips.  Once the strips were secured, I trimmed them to about 1 1/2″ leaving plenty of room for the broomstick to show.  I then took thick cord (the same cord I used on the treat bags yesterday, see link above) and wrapped it around the floral wire to hide it (see picture below).  I adhered the mummy tag to the brown cord on the bag using Zip Dry adhesive.  

I found a skeleton garland on sale at Michael’s and used it throughout the Halloween project.  The garland had five skeletons and was marked down to $2.40, can’t be that! One garland completed the entire project of treat bags, broomstick and coffins (come back tomorrow to see those, so adorable!).  I cut the skeletons from the garland and disassembled the bones.  You can see the hands above the mouse on the tag (Martha Stewart mouse punch).  The mummy’s head was paper toled and placed on a foam dot for dimension.  I adhered the legs and feet to the first bag and pulled them through the strips (see right side of bag).  I adhered the skeleton torso to the front of the bag and glued a mouse crawling across the ribs. 

My eight-year-old great-nephew is going to flip for this broomstick treat.  It works like a pinata, but instead of hitting it with a bat, you rip it open and the candy spills out.  How fun is that!  The broomstick is a perfect treat for a Halloween party and it makes an adorable presentation on your table. Using smaller bags would make great treat bags for a classroom party at school.

This photo shows the back side of the broomstick to show how I wrapped the brown cording around the floral wire.   I adhered both ends with Zip Dry glue, it dries fast and the hold is unbelievable!

Thanks so much for dropping in, I love when you stop by for a visit!

Shopping Links:

A Touch of Grace:  Zip Dry adhesive, Foam Dots, Quickie Glue pen, SU circle punches, Martha Stewart mouse punch (Michael’s), black pearls, Old Paper and Antique Linen Tim Holtz Distress inks, Prismacolor pencils, black and ivory cardstock, lunch size paper bags, Genesis Paper Trimmer, cutting mat, craft knife, skeleton bones and accessories (Michael’s), glitter, floral wire, oak branch

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:  Witch Way to the Treats JustRite stamps, cording, Versafine black ink

Joan’s Gardens:  Martha Stewart leaf punch

I made these Halloween treat bags for our table decorations.  They’re quick and simple to make and add so much to tabletop decorations.  We invited my mother-in-law over last night for dinner and she loved the Halloween treat bags, the ghost ballroom centerpiece and other goodies I have set up on the table.  These treat bags would be adorable for a school party. 

This close up provides a better view of the tag.  You can better see the dimension of the mummy’s head and the glitter on the leaves and mouse. 

To make the toppers for the treat bags I used the Witch Way to the Treats set by JustRite Stampers that I got from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store for the mummy tag.  I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils.  I sponged Antique Linen and Old Paper distress ink around the edges of the paper and placed black pearls on the tag.  The mummy’s head was colored and cut out a second time and placed over the image using a foam dot.  Using punches, I punched a black circle and adhered the mummy image to it.  I used a Martha Stewart leaf punch and punched three leaves (two black, one ivory) and covered them with glitter and adhered them to the tag.  I added skeleton bones over the leaves.  The mouse is a Martha Stewart punch as well.  I glittered the mouse .   .   .  LOL .   .   . he’s so elegant!  Setting the tag aside, I filled a bag with candy and wrapped the topper around it.  I cut a black strip of paper 3″ x 8″ and used the Martha Stewart mice edge punch across the top of the black strip.  I scored fold lines and wrapped the black strip around the bag and stapled it on the sides.  I cut a 2″ x 8″ strip of ivory paper and randomly stamped black spiders from an Inkadinkadoo $1 stamp set I purchased at JoAnn’s and adhered it to the black paper using Zip Dry adhesive (Zip Dry was used exclusively on all the Halloween projects, including the ghost ballroom centerpiece).  I then adhered a black 1/2″ x 8″ strip of paper around the center of the topper and over that placed a 1/2″ x 8″ strip of ivory paper punched with the Martha Stewart mice edge punch.  Zip Dry is by far the best adhesive I have found to work with.  It dries very quickly and gives you a good firm hold, which is important in Florida with the high humidity.   I attached the mummy tag to the bag using foam dots, wrapped cording around the topper and tied a knot.  I love the little mice on top of the bag .  .  .  so adorable! 

Shopping Links:

A Touch of Grace:  Zip Dry adhesive, Foam Dots, Quickie Glue pen, Scor It, SU circle punches, Martha Stewart mice punches (Michael’s), black pearls, Old Paper and Antique Linen Tim Holtz Distress inks, Prismacolor pencils, black and ivory cardstock, Halloween bags, Genesis Paper Trimmer, cutting mat, craft knife, skeleton bones and accessories (Michael’s), glitter

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:  Witch Way to the Treats JustRite stamps, cording, Versafine black ink

Joan’s Gardens:  Martha Stewart leaf punch

Happy Halloween!  This week I have several Halloween projects (including JustRite treat bags, broomsticks and coffins) to share with you beginning today with this first design.  Using stencils I have designed a ballroom filled with vintage dancing ghosts. 

The scene you see in the design is from The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World.  At the end of the post, you’ll find links to the stencils I used as well as other products I used.  The total size of the ballroom is 7″ x 10″, a perfect centerpiece for our small round kitchen table.

I printed the image onto white cardstock and paper toled the ghosts.  Using stencils, I embossed and cut six pieces; the overall frame with the topper, two pillars, two side panels, and the row of six columns that span across the bottom.  The row of columns was made using the same stencil as the pillars by turning the stencil upside down and using only a portion of it. I sponged Tim Holtz black soot distress ink onto the pieces to give my ballroom a dingy appearance. 

The design has a lot of dimension which I’ll try to illustrate in the photographs below. 

The flowers were made with punches and prima paper flowers.  Two stencils from the Star stencil collection were used to design the ballroom. 

In this view you can see a little of the dimension.  If you look closely, you’ll see a bar of the white foam on the right side of the frame, approximately one inch in length, as well as white foam behind the columns.  The foam dots raised the frame and columns off of the paper toled ghosts.   The pillars stand out 1/2 inch from the focal image. 

I used a Martha Stewart leaf punch, as well as Fiskars flower punches, and prima flowers for the floral decorations attached to the design.  The leaves were hand drawn and cut with a craft knife.   To add a little elegance, I added black, gold, and green glitter to the the flowers and leaves.  The black stamens in the center of the roses were made using a small flower punch.   

I embroidered the pillars and columns using black sewing thread.  I attached black silk bows to the side panels and placed roses in the centers of the bows.  The ribbon is 1/8″ white May Arts silk ribbon that I dyed black.  The bows were made with the Bow Easy. 

This picture is somewhat of a teaser.  I purposely made it dark and small to give you just a glimpse of the all the Halloween treats I’ve cooked up.  For some fun Halloween ideas,  come back tomorrow to see which treat I’ll be featuring.  While the ballroom took some time to complete, the treats were simple, quick, and easy to make.

Shopping Links:

A Touch of Grace:  PD0004 Star Collection - Pillar; PD0002 Star Collection; Scor It; Zip Dry; Foam Dots; black embossing paper, silver grey embossing paper, stylus, glitter, sewing thread, needle, light box, Genesis Paper Trimmer, Fiskars punches, self-healing mat, sponge, dauber, graph paper, black pearls,

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:  Bow Easy, May Arts Ribbon, JustRite Halloween stamps (featured tomorrow)

Joan’s Gardens:  Martha Stewart Leaf Punch

Welcome to Day 2 of the JustRite Stampers Font Blog Hop. JustRite Stampers is celebrating a Mega Font Blog Hop, a two day extravaganza with 54 designers, in style with a Super 7-Day Font Sale.  If you’re looking for some fabulous font sets, you won’t want to miss this sale, they are offering 30% off all JustRite font sets and the Horizontal and Vertical font stampers.

The sale begins September 17th and ends September 24th.  And to add some fun into the blog hop, Mystery Blog Candy is being given away during the Two Day JustRite Font Blog Hop!!  Why is it a mystery?  .  .  . Well, there’ll be three blog candy giveaways on each day and you can only win by leaving a comment on the right blog!  The real surprise is you won’t know which blog has the candy .  .  . even the designers don’t know!  So, as you visit each of the 54 designers over the two day event, take time to leave a comment  .   .   . You may be one of the lucky winners!  You have until 12:00 noon on Sunday to leave comments for your chance to win.  You’ll want to check back at the JustRite Blog on Sunday evening to find out if you’ve won.

Ladies, go grab a cup of coffee (you’ll want a large cup  .  .  . LOL), a yummy danish,  sit back, relax and enjoy the blog hop.  I hope we’ve provided you with lots of inspiration for your holiday crafting and decorating!

For the designs below I used the above products from JustRite Stampers:  Special Occasion Uppercase Font set,  Small Letter Font set, Horizontal Wood Stamper set, Autumn Blessings Borders and Centers, and Wood Stamper  Oval (large).

I decorated a jar of Pecan Pumpkin Butter and a bag filled with ingredients to make Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread to give away as a Fall holiday gift set.

A group picture of the bag, the jar, and the pumkin bread that I baked for my family. Every Fall I receive a loaf of pumpkin bread from a dear friend.  She packages it up so beautifully.  I’m forever in awe of her thoughtfulness, kindness and talent. This year, I’m giving her this gift set in appreciation for all she does to make me feel special.  

A close up of the front of the jar.  I covered the jar with the Harvest collection designer paper from Me & My Big Ideas, as well as the lid.  I used Petite Ovals and Petite Scalloped Ovals nesties for the pumpkin image, a Spellbinders tag die for the tag, and Circles and Scalloped Circles Nesties for the jar lid.  The three strips were cut at 1/4″ and wrapped around the jar. I edged the strips, as well as the oval and circle with a gold Krylon pen. The pumpkins were water colored with Stampin’ Up!’ re-inkers.

I placed a bow on top of the lid with a tag attached.  The bow is made of green taffeta ribbon from May Arts.  The leaves were punched with a Martha Stewart leaf punch.  The tendrils were made with Chocolate Chip cardstock.  I used the Bow Easy to make the bow and encircled it with the gold cord I used for the tag.

I made two more taffeta bows and attached them to the butter spreaders, so pretty when you’re having guests.  They were very easy to apply, I simply attached them with a Glue Dot close to the ceramic edge.  For clean up, simply remove them from the utinsel.

I attached another water colored pumpkin panel to the lower corner of the bag and added berries that I purchased at Michael’s.  The Michael’s in my area is having a 50% off of all Fall items.  I purchased several beautiful pieces for my home as well as a few sprays to use as embellishments for my crafts. The two metal pumpkin tea lights pictured above in the group picture were purchased at Michael’s.  So pretty, I can’t wait to light them at the dinner table.

I cut a portion from the Fall spray and adhered it to the bag top, together with a tag that reads, “Spiced Pecan Pumpkin - Quick Bread.”  I used bows throughout the project, I’d be lost without the Bow Easy.

You’ll want to head on over to Taylor’s blog from here.  If I know Taylor, she’ll have something that will knock your socks off!

Shopping:

JustRite Stampers for Special Occasion Uppercase Font set,  Small Letter Font set, Horizontal Wood Stamper set, Autumn Blessings Borders and Centers, and Wood Stamper Oval (large).

A Touch of Grace:  Gold Krylon Pen, Scor It, Zip Dry Adhesive, Scotch Removable Tape

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:  May Arts Ribbon (HM56), Bow Easy

Products Used in Design:

Paper:  Me & My Big Ideas (DP); Old Olive, More Mustard, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Naturals Ivory

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Re-inkers; Stampin’ Up! Markers, Staz On (brown)

Accessories:  Krylon pen, double sided tape, ruler, Scor It, Nestibilities: Petite Ovals, Petite Ovals Scalloped, Circles, Scalloped Circles, Tags, Megabilities, Spellbinders Leaf, Bow Easy, May Arts tafetta ribbon, gold cord (Stampin’ Up!), Glue Dots, Dimensionals (All Night Media and Stampin’ Up!), Martha Stewart leaf punch, berries and Fall foliage (Michael’s), Zip Dry adhesive, coffee bag, Scotch Removable Tape, Pecan Pumpkin Butter and Spiced Pecan Pumpking Quick Bread (Williams Sonoma).

Good Luck with the Blog Candy and enjoy the hop!

JustRite Blog
Debbie Olson
Jerri Jimenez
Taylor Van Bruggen
Holly Simoni
Barb Schram
Terre Frye
Michelle Kovack
Kim Moreno
Catherine Doucette
Kellie Fortin
Kimberly Crawford
Kathy Jones
Michelle Giraud
Angela Barkhouse
Heather Pulvirenti
Tami Mayberry
Jennifer Buck
Keri Lee Sereika
Jami Bova
Laura Davis
Stacey Kingman
Bonnie Sharp
Stephanie Severin
Janine Orchard
Debbie Seyer
Margie Higuchi
Lauren Bergold
Anja Curvers
AJ Otto

Thank you for stopping by to visit, I always love to see you here!

Happy Easter and Passover!  I wish you a blessed celebration with family and friends.  We’re headed to my parents’ home to spend the day with them.

Today I’d like to share an Easter triptych card that I’ve been working on this week which happened to fit in with the ssnotime #84- Hang It Up challenge.  If you’d like to participate in this fun challenge, head over to Sharon Johnson’s blog to read all the details.  The card consists of three panels connected with aged copper hinges.  The center panel is 7″ high, 6 1/4″ wide, the two side panels are 7″ high, 4″ wide.  I hand embossed the three white panel fronts and used a craft knife for the cut out work.  I adhered the panels to True Faith Vellum that I purchased from Our Daily Bread. The panels are adhered with dimensionals onto white card stock.

For your convenience, shopping links are provided at the bottom of this post.

This photograph of the center panel shows you the beautiful luminosity of the vellum when placed on  dimensionals.

Okay, I’ll admit I’m a braggart . . . LOL!  I included a close up picture of the bow to show you how gorgeous it is!  Look at the center knot, isn’t it fabulous!  It’s the most perfect bow I’ve ever tied.  I’d like to say I did it all on my own, but I can’t!  Nope, I had help.  I was bemoaning my lack of skill with tying bows to my friend, Sharon, and she referred me to Jenny Gropp’s blog, One Krafty Kat, and this beautiful card Jenny designed.  If you haven’t visited Jenny’s blog, you’ll want to hop over, you’ll be in for a fabulous treat!  Jenny’s one phenomenal designer!  I immediately wrote to Jenny and she shared her secret.

The bow is made with beautiful taffeta ribbon that I asked Sharon to special order for me.  I’m greedy, I actually ordered several rolls of the luscious May Arts taffeta ribbons, they’re absolutely fabulous!  You’ll be seeing a lot of them in my future posts.  I also had Sharon order 1/8″ white silk ribbon.  The 1/8″ ribbon is very easy to work with, so soft and dainty.  I attached SU’s “Pretties” pearls and gold beads that I purchased at JoAnn’s to the ends of the ribbon.  I love working with the gold cord, it’s so pretty to see it through the teardrop.

In this close up, you can better see the embossing on the scrolls, as well as the Kaiser Pearls that I liberally used on all the flourished panels.  I used Nestibilities’ Labels Four as a base for the crosses on the side panels that I just got in from Joan’s Gardens.  Joan will also do special orders, scroll down to the shopping links below to see what I’ve had Joan special order for me.

• Paper:  Prism, Whisper White, True Faith, Water Color - 140 lbs. cold pressed
• Ink:  Versamark
• Accessories:  Light Box, Embossing Stencil, Stylus, Craft Knife, May Arts Ribbons and Cord, SU Pretties, Gold Beads, Tombow Markers, Water Color Brush, Gold EP, Heating Tool, Self-Healing Mat, Prima Flower, Dimensionals, Karen Foster Aged Copper Hinges, Kaiser Pearls, Cross Punch, Nestibilities Labels Four, Gold Krylon Pen, Tim Holtz Ruler

Thank you for stopping by my blog to visit.

Hi everyone!  Easter is fast approaching and to celebrate I made this card for Sharon Johnson’s Stamp Simply#81 Edible Egg challenge.  The Easter egg is stamped and water colored.  I stamped the flowers and leaves from the same stamp, cut them out and adhered them to the two side panels.  The background paper was dry embossed using an Anna Griffin corner embossing template.  Peach Kaiser Pearls I purchased at Joan’s Gardens were placed on all three panels.  The side panels were dry embossed with an embossing stencil I purchased from Stampfest last June, a craft knife was used to do the cut out work.  After cutting the side panels, I drew a template about 1/8″ larger than the cut out pieces for the darker peach colored paper and then traced the lines onto the peach paper and cut that with scissors in the larger areas and a craft knife in the tighter areas.  I stamped a large cross from Our Daily Bread’s Cross of Christ stamp set as well as the two smaller crosses, verse and sentiment.  The large cross was stamped on vellum card stock, cut out with a craft knife, placed on small pop dots and adhered on top of the painted Easter Egg.  To keep the pop dots from showing, I placed them under the gold embossing.

I used shimmery peach silk ribbon to make the two small bows on the side panels.  The larger bow is Taffeta, a beautiful medium-to-dark olive green in color.  Due to my poor photography skills, it appears a dark gray in this photo.   I purchased the ribbons from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store that Sharon Johnson has on her blog.  I e-mailed Sharon and described ribbons I was looking for.  She found exactly what I was looking for and got back with me very quickly.  I made my ribbons choices, they were ordered and I received everything within a few days.

Please see the bottom of my post for shopping links.

This close up of the left side panel shows how large this design is as well as a better view of the detailed embossing and cut out work.   I used a lighter peach directly underneath the cut portions and a darker peach for the background.

This profile image shows the dimension of the design.  The connection between the panels is 3/4″ in depth.  The egg was placed on pop dots for added dimension.

A close of the Easter egg for those who may wish to paint it.  The egg was painted with Pearl Ex and Gum Arabic.  The picture is pretty dark and the colors of the water coloring are very distorted, but the photo gives you an accurate view of what the Pearl Ex and Gum Arabic look like in real life.

While this picture is accurate as far as the true colors are concerned, the effect of the Pearl Ex and Gum Arabic is lost in the shot.

• Paper:  Prism, Water Color
• Ink:  Versamark
• Accessories:  Craft knife, Paper Snips (SU), self-healing cutting mat, heating tool, water color brush, Tombow markers, Ranger EP, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Dazzling Diamonds, pop dots, Zip Dry adhesive, May Arts silk and taffeta ribbons, Kaiser Pearls, embossing stencils, Stamp A Ma Jig, Scor It, Tonic Paper Cutter, Pearl Ex and Gamsol, light box, gold cord, Swarovski Crystals, SU Pretties Kit for pearls and crystal tear drop beads

Shopping:

A Touch of Grace:  Stencil

Our Daily Bread:  Cross of Christ

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:  May Arts ribbons

Joan’s Gardens:  Ranger EP, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, pop dots, Zip Dry adheseive, Kaiser Pearls, Scor It, Tonic Paper Cutter, light box

Thank you for stopping by to visit, I wish you a wonderful weekend with your family.

Hi Everyone!  I’d like to thank each and every one of you for helping us make Stamp Simply Celebrates a fabulous success!   A quick reminder that my blog candy is open until Wednesday, December 17, 12:00 noon, click here to check it out and read the rules for playing.

Today Barb Schram’s Featured Project is a useful Holiday Home Decor item for YOU if you please, or it makes a fabulous gift item that will knock the socks off your friends!  It comes completely packaged with a card to match!  I KNOW you won’t want to miss out, so be sure to visit today over at Barb’s place and lap up the inspiration!!!

Today is Sharon Johnson’s - notimetostamp regular Stamp Simply Challenge.   It promises to result in some great layout options for you to use for quick projects.  Hope you can play! 

Be sure and check out samples made by:  Julie, Janine, Jennifer, Tammy, Dee, LeAnne, Becky, AJ, and Darlene.

Leslie Miller and Sharon Johnson have some BLOG CANDY for you today!

Sharon invited me to play along in her challenge today - ssnotime65 - We were to create a simple layout for a Christmas card using just a 2″ strip of designer paper, but only this one strip of designer paper, NO MORE.  We were allowed to border it or do scallops, or anything else we wanted, just no more designer paper. 

Okay, so here is my card that I made for the challenge:

As I’m photographing this photo, a bell - no pun intended - goes off in my head and I realize that I’ve used designer paper on the 2″ strip, as well as the background.  Doh!!!!! A Homer Simpson moment to be sure! 

Soooo, I run back upstairs at 9:00 p.m. and disassemble my card and come up with this card.  I’ve totally stolen Sharon’s layout as I have no time to design one of my own . . . hence . . . Sharon’s alias notimetostamp truly applied for me . . . LOL

And I like this card so much better!  Thanks Sharon!!!

• Stamps:  Flourishes (sentiment)

• Paper:  Watercolor Paper, Prism, The Paper Company

• Ink:  Versamark

• Accessories:  Tombow markers, Ranger Gold, Gold Tinsel EP, heating tool, watercolor brush, Kaiser Pearls, gold Krylon pen, gold ribbon, dimensionals, glue glider, glitter, Cuttlebug embossing die, Wizard, craft knife, glue dots

Hi Everyone!  Gee I feel like I’ve been missing in action!  Well, not so, I’m here, just incredibly busy. 

Today is day 11 of the Stamp Simply Celebration and I’m giving away blog candy to two lucky winners. One lucky winner will receive a Countdown to Christmas Bo Bunny scrapbook kit and a new, unmounted, Stampin’ Up! sentiments stamp set entitled:  ”Lots of Thoughts”.  Pictures of my completed album are shown below.  The kit consists of complete instructions, together with all materials, including a 6″ x 6″ linen and chipboard album.  A second lucky winner will receive four new, unmounted, Stampin’ Up! stamp sets entitled: “Blooming with Happiness”, “Friendship Blooms”, “Oh, So Lovely”, and “So Many Scallops”.

Okay ladies, here are the rules:  To win this blog candy comments will work like raffle tickets.  For every comment you leave on any Christmas design I’ve posted in my blog, you will be entered for a chance to win the prizes, your comment is your raffle ticket.  Leave only one comment per post please, duplicates will be deleted.  If you click on Christmas under Categories in the bar on the left side of my blog, or click here and all Christmas posts will appear.  Please comment only on the six posts that have designs that I’ve done, including this one.  You are NOT required to comment on all of them to qualify for the blog candy; however, the more Christmas posts that you leave comments on the better your chances of winning, i.e., you can have anywhere from 1 to 6 raffle tickets.  I will use Random.org to choose two names from each of the six posts.  Once I have the twelve names, I will then use Random.org to choose two names from the twelve finalists to determine the two lucky winners.   You have until December 17, 12:00 noon (Wednesday) to post your comments.  I will announce the lucky winners on the morning of December 18. 

Every year I take a lot of pictures at Christmas and never seem to find the time to scrapbook them.  I’m very challenged at scrapbooking and that’s why I absolutely love the Bo Bunny kits.  I adore the Countdown to Christmas kit, it was super fast and easy to put together.  I’ve made one and embellished it a bit more than what is in the kit.  I’m showing the entire scrapbook album and the pages so that you can see my “more is more” version.  I’m all set to go, I’ll fill it with my Christmas photos the week following Christmas when everyone is busy playing with their new “toys”. 

Album cover and back.  The zig zag stitching is Kaiser rub ons.

Inside covers, front and back and the front page of the album.  I’ve added brads, the little Christmas tree and some brass hardware.  Each page will be filled with pictures of the 10 things I love about Christmas.

Pages 1 and 2:  I have changed the designs a bit from what is in the kit and have added brass hardware.

Pages 3 and 4 are so adorable!  I used a quickie glue pen to draw on the holly leaves, ornament, and gingerbread man and added glitter.  I used SU’s mat pack to create the faux stitching on the large circle and photo corner on page 4.

I added a lot of extras to pages 5 and 6.  I love the stars, I entwined gold cord around the largest one and added glitter to the embellishments. 

I added the oranments, ribbons, stars, and a boot to pages 7 and 8.  Again, I didn’t exactly follow the instructions that came with the kit, most of the layouts have been altered.  I added faux stitching and glitter.  I like to take these kits and do a “more is more” version.

Pages 9 and 10 were fun to make, I can’t wait to fill these pages with photos of my family.

The final page wraps up the scrapbook. 

Other scrapbook samples can be seen by checking out:  Barb, Jennifer

AJ Otto - The Willow Garden - Are you wrapping gifts yet?  Probably!  I’ll bet you need some pretty tags to dress those packages up — well, be sure to check in on AJ’s Featured Project today to see all her gift tags.  And then play AJ’s challenge so you, too, can have some nice gift tags on hand!!!  Be sure to stop in at AJ’s today!

I love the idea of making gift tags.  Below are tags I designed for gifts for my girlfriends, showing both a close up and a group shot of them.

I was shopping the other day and came across a box of notecards that had a beautiful wreath on the cards.  I bought them, came home and cut the wreaths out using a circle nestibilities.  I used my JustRite stamper and embossed the monogram in gold using Gold Encore ink.  I used a refill bottle of Encor ink and placed it in the JustRite Small 1-Reversible Ink Pad.  I cut the gold and Rose Red scallops using the petite scalloped nestibilties.  I drew around the edge of the monogram and wreath with a pale gold Krylon pen.  I tied gold cord bows and adhered to the front of the tags.  A super simple project that didn’t take long at all.  It’s hard to see in the picture, one of the tags is adhered to a Gold Christmas tree filled with chocolates.  There’s a larger gold bow and red ornament at the top of the tree. 

You can see more tag samples by checking out the blogs of:  Heather, Janine, LeAnne, and Sharon.

Deb Saaranen of  Dream in Color is also offering Blog Candy for us today!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hi Ladies, I’ll try to be back later today to post my design, I got in late last night from Chicago, totally exhausted.  We had a wonderful time, my son took this picture of me in the snow.  Now I know being out in the snow is no big deal to many of you, but this is only the third time in my life that I’ve seen the stuff and I thought it was absolutely positively wonderful and oh so beautiful!  I so wish it snowed in Florida.  We got snow flurries the first day we were there and a couple of inches the second day.  Daniel and I wanted to make a snowman and soon realized you can’t with fresh snow, it’s too powdery.  Daniel did, however, make a snow ball that landed square in my back.  I could totally be a kid out playing in the snow.  I never got cold . . . maybe it was the excitement.

Today is Day 8 of the Stamp Simply Celebration.  While I don’t have a design to share with you today, I want to let you know that the party continues and hope you visit everyone to see their fabulous designs, join in Julie’s challenge and enter to win the fabulous blog candy that Julie is giving away.

You can see more great examples today from Julie’s designers:  Leslie, Deb, Joan, Barb, Jennifer, Sharon, and Tammy.