Christmas Gift Box/House

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I'm baaaack!  I had seriously thought about quitting crafting and selling all my scrap supplies, but I am so glad I came to my senses.

Anyway, here's my newest paper crafting gift box.  I bought the kit from SVGcuts.com mainly for this gift box, but there are other cute items that come in the kit and it is so reasonably priced!

All of Mary's designs are well thought out and come with video tutorials.  It really couldn't be any easier.  The top half of this house comes off so you can use it as a gift box, or you can do what I did and use it as part of your Christmas decor.  Since I kept this for myself, I added a string of 20 white lights to the inside (yes, Mary allowed for a hole on the back of the house to poke a string of lights inside).  I absolutely love it!  

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year's holiday!

Christmas Ornament Exchange!

After receiving an invitation to a Christmas ornament exchange party, the hunt was on!  I had to find an ornament that would be easy and cute, so where did I go to search??  You got it!  Pinterest, where else?!  I knew I wanted to do some type of snowman and there were lots of ideas. I finally decided to give the sock snowman a try.  I bought some infant crew socks, stuffed them with cotton balls, used hot glue here and there and this is what I came up with.  I'm thinking about making a couple for myself!

Deco Mesh Wreath

In October, I was in Kentucky and saw Deco Mesh Wreaths.  What, you've never heard of them?  Well, I hadn't either, but from what I understand they are huge in the southern states.  I didn't buy one because I thought I could make one.  When I got home, I was so happy to find out that one of the local colleges was going to be having a class on making these wreaths! Me, my daughter-in-law, her mom and a couple of other ladies all signed up for the class.  This is one of the wreaths I made.

I love these wreaths!  It looks so much better if you could actually see it.  For some reason, it just doesn't photograph as well as it looks 'in person.'

Drum and Tissue Box

Christmas is right around the corner, so I've been making more tissue box covers.  Yes, I want one (or two) for every holiday!  Of course, I had to see what Mary had at SVGcuts.com, and found this cute little drum.  Yes, this drum is made from scrapbooking paper!  You know you want one!

Christmas Chargers

Love these chargers!  I bought the Santa and Snowman files from Kim Bright (google her for awesome .svg files) and after carefully weeding the vinyl, attached each to a charger along with snowflakes...instant cuteness!  Is cuteness a even a word??

Gift Card Holder

My Pink Stamper is having her annual 12 Days of Christmas, and each day there is a new project video.  One of the ladies on her design team had a video showing how to make gift card holders and this is one I had to try.  I don't think I'll ever give a gift card in those plain white envelopes ever again!

I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to cut out the tag, and then used my handy dandy ATG gun to tape the gift card onto the tag and it just slides inside the card.

This is something I think I'll make 
several of to keep on hand!

All Night Crop!

Three friends came over last night and we had so much fun scrappin' till four this morning!  Yes, I said four this morning!  We started at around six last night and this is just some of the projects we completed.  

These are svg files from SVGcuts.com.  Let me show you the inside of one of the the Christmas trees.

After you remove the top portion of the tree it 'explodes' with several panels.  There is a template that comes with this file to let you cut out your favorite photos and insert them in the panels as well.  We decided to just use decorative papers for each of the panels and love the way it turned out.  Now, you see that very center part with the cute little snowman on top?

Well, it opens up and you can use that to hold candy in and give this as a gift, maybe to even a favorite teacher!

Christmas 'Candles'

These are home made candles Mark made to line our sidewalk and they turned out great!  For this project he used PVC pipe and then wrapped each one with red electrician tape and ran the electrical wiring through the pipe.  For the tops, we used Marzetti salad dressing jars and I etched snowflakes on each one.  After a little cutting and reattaching the wiring, he was done!  I love our outdoor candles!

Let the Christmas Season begin!

Christmas Goodie Bags

This is a simple goodie bag that is quick to put together and the kids love it when it's given to them by Santa.

Christmas Gift Card Holders

I made another 'visit' to SVGcuts.com and found these great gift card holders and a star ornament, so I had to get busy and make them all!

As you can see, the tree opens up and you just slip your gift card inside.  I know who's getting this one for Christmas!

I used my Cuttlebug and embossed snowflakes on the cream colored portion of the tree and added some sparkly Stickles.  Gotta have a little bling!

The next one I made was the 'book'.  The inside of the book slides out and is larger than the tree, so you could actually use it if you have a small gift, or use to to give cookies and candy.  I think I'm going to take a pop dot and stick it to the back of a gift card and just place in inside the book.  I also think I'm going to add another piece of Christmas paper on the inside of this book.  Not really liking the glaring white.

Last, is the star ornament.  This ornament is perfect for using up scraps of leftover paper.  I went through my stash and found everything I needed.  I can see several of these hanging on my tree this year.

Santa Letters/Cards

We all know you can write letters to Santa, but sometimes he writes back and these are some of the cards he's sending out this year.

You can find the .svg file for this little snowman at SVGcuts.com.  This is a great website with video instructions on how to put their 3D crafts together.  One of my favorite places to go for great ideas.

Santa's Treats

I've been busy making treats for Santa to take with him when he starts making his visits.  Each cello tube is filled with two packages of Sixlets and then topped with layered Christmas paper.  I then attached a snowman to each topper along with a little curly ribbon.

Here is a close up of one of the tubes.  You can fill these with lots of different candies such as Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, Jolly Rangers...well, you get the idea. Just change the topper for whatever holiday you're celebrating.  

Okay, I know I went straight from Halloween to Christmas.  I'll try to get something together for Thanksgiving real soon.  

Christmas Tissue Box Covers

I'm hooked on making these tissue box covers!  I think I'll leave one here in my craft room and take the other to work...or, I could give one as a gift.  Hmmm,, maybe I'll just 'have' to make another one!

To see a great video and a written tutorial on how to make these tissue box covers, go to:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/tissueboxcover.

Snowman Ornament

I was lucky to be invited back to a Christmas ornament party today.  I had never heard of this kind of party until last year when my DIL invited me to go with her to her aunt's, and it was a great time!  Each guest is asked to bring six handmade Christmas ornaments and they are all hung on the tree.  Everyone was given a bag with a number on it, and that is the order you go in to select an ornament from the tree.  It's a great way to get a different selection of ornaments!  Halfway through, the hostess changed the order of selections.  We went in alphabetical order by first name and the next time, we went by the last name.  

This snowman is one of the ornaments I made for the party.  I used the snowman from the Sure-Cuts-A-Lot program and cut out one snowman on chipboard and two on white cardstock, remembering to flip one of the snowmen for the backside of the chipboard.  (Yes, I decorated both sides).  I ran each piece of the white cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Snowflakes folder.  I know it's hard to see the embossing.  I didn't have my camera with me so this was taken with my phone.  How did we ever get along without smartphones?  I added some twine to the buttons and attached them with glue dots. Poor little guy looks 'cold' without a scraf...what was I thinking! This ornament was also voted the cutest and I won a new tote!  

Snowman

I bought this cute snowman at a craft show and he looked a little lonely on the wall, so I cut out some snowflakes to add around him. Since this was only going to be up for a few weeks, I didn't want to waste my vinyl, so I bought a roll of white contact paper and it worked perfectly! I added snowflakes to my windows and doors, too.

Santa Block

These glass blocks are a great idea for gifts.  I purchased my block from Hobby Lobby (don't forget your 40% off coupon). The Santa face is a file from Kim on the SmartBuyGal forum. After weeding this file, I attached transfer tape and then applied it to the block.  I carefully removed the transfer tape and made sure the vinyl was flat with no air bubbles.  The bottom of the block has a hole to add the white lights and then I tied the green bow.

2009 Christmas Card

This was my Christmas card for 2009. I love the way the Cuttlebug and the differents folders add so much to plain cardstock. I used the snowflake folder on white cardstock and added a piece of ribbon; then I attached this to my card with my ATG gun; I stamped the snow family on a piece of white cardstock, colored it in with markers and attached it to a piece of red cardstock and used pop dots to attach this to the card. I printed out a page full (around 30) of "Let it Snow" titles using Christmas Snow font I found for free on the Internet and attached that as well and then I added just a touch of Stickles on one of the snowflakes.