Made by *B*

These are super easy pen sets I made up for some of the teachers at Cam’s school.  I tied them with retired SU! organdy ribbon I have had stashed away-it seems just the right thing for Valentine’s Day!

 Each pen uses a 1 3 1/4″ strip of patterned paper and each set “matches” since I used scraps of different DSP types. Just unscrew the end, tightly wrap the paper around the ink cyliner and slide back in place. Quick and easy!

Later on I will post the card that Camden made by himself-but I have not seen it yet!

Hope your Valentine’s Day is full of love and happiness!

Here are 2 samples we made at my clubs last week using the set Happy Heart Day from SU!

The elephant is a sweet little 4 1/4″ square card with a Celery base. Look closely at the bg flowers-we stamped those using the baby wipe technique. Take a baby wipe and drop a few drops of reinkers on it and you can use that as your pad. Here I used Celery, Apricot, and Lavender for a springy feel!

Main elephant image is on shimmer white, colored in with markers and a little dazzling diamonds added for some shine.

The next project is an m&m holder made using a cellophane bag. 3 of the mini m&m tubes fit right inside. Fold over and hold closed with a dimensional. The square tag on the front is layered Rose Romance, River Rock, and Vanilla. I stamped the little mouse on teh vanilla as well as on a piece of designer paper. I cut out the heart part from the dsp and glued it on so that the heart has a nice pattern. Highlighted with my white gel pen and added a ribbon tab *rose and river rock grosgrain).

I thought these little bags were fun because you could easily mail them with a little bubble wrap around them-a fun way to deliver a little Valentine’s Day love to someone far away!

Today’s challenge on SCS was to create a Pixie pocket for Pixie sticks. I have made pixie stick holders before and while they are cute, I wanted to try something for Camden’s teacher so I made a pen pouch instead.

I used Cutie Pie designer paper for the pouch-4 x 8″ and folded it at 5 1/4″ and then folded the top part down about an inch to create the small flap. If you use the 4×8″ size you can get 4 out of a piece of designer paper with a 4″ square left over.

The small focal panel is white on more Cutie Pie dp (a scrap I had in my folder) and layered onto Saffron to pull out the yellow from the background flowers.

Large heart is stamped in black from Simply Said, and I stamped the smaller heart inside with Rose Red, and then lightly colored in the small blossoms with Bashful Blue, Rose Red, and Saffron markers. Then touched the smallest dots with new Rose glitter from the SU! Cosmo glitter pack. I wrapped Pomegranate stitched and Apricot grosgrain around, and layered it onto 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ carstock so it would be firmer.

The picture has gel pens inside, but if I can I will find some Sharpies since when I go volunteer there those never seem to be around and we both spend some time trying to find them, LOL.

Today’s challenge was to create a photo wallet. There is a great tutorial on SCS by Bev Gerard, but when I looked at it I saw the base was 4 1/4 x 12″, so you would only get 2 out of a 12×12 sheet. I decided to make mine 4×12 so I could make 3 out of 1 sheet, and tweaked the other dimensions-which I will list here.

The front cover is stamped with Seeing Spots in Bashful Blue and Pomegranate to match the DP. The embellishment is chipboard-the blue glitter is periwinkle (old SU) and the red is rose red craft embossed with irridescent ice embossing powder. It needed something else so I added a rhinestone brad over a 1/2″ banana circle.

<–Inside views  

Base: 4 x 12″-scored at 3 1/4″, 6 5/8″, and 10 1/8″

Flip Strips (that are folded in and you journal and adhere your paper to-in this case Cutie Pie DP) 3 x 7 1/2″

Journaling and picture pieces (here Celery and Bashful Blue) 3 1/2″ x 2 3/4″

The 2 3/4 measurement is 1/4 of 11″, so if you were doing a bunch you could get 8 pieces out of one sheet of cardstock.

I used Cutie Pie designer paper so that when you open it there is color and design. I like this paper because even though it has flowers on it, it is not OVERLY girly-important for me now b/c I need to put pics in of both Camden and Phoebe-this will go to my mom and I will put pics of both kids inside so I wanted something that could be for a boy or a girl’s photos. Pomegranate ribbon is the only embellishment so far until pics are added in.

TFL!

 One of the demo challenges was to use a recycled pantry item and alter it. I used an old Crystla Light container that I have had just waiting for the right time to use it! It is really quite basic but makes a cute way to package up a gift. I think you could put some jewelry (especially if you punched 2 holes in the lid-then you could hang a necklace in it vertically!) or some cute socks (I love cute fuzzy socks) inside. 

The paper is Cutie Pie designer paper from SU cut at 6 1/4″ x 9″ to wrap around the container. I used my coluzzle to cut circles out of Rose Red designer paper for the lid and the hanging card.

The hanging card started out as a 3×3 little note card, but I liked the circle of Rose Red so I freehand cut it into a circle and sanded the edges with my trusty SU! sanding block (which I just found when I cleaned and oragnized my stamping table!LOL).

There is a black scallop and an apricot scallop on top-after I stamped out the apricot scallop I turned it slightly and punched again so there is a more of a jagged edge-like a lion’s mane or flower. I saw the idea on Mary Jo Albright’s blog and thought it was just adorable! I used a daisy stamp from new stamp set Enjoy Every Moment for the Pomegranate daisy and the center has Apricot circles and a tiny little daisy in Pomegranate.

The inside is filled with Coffee Kisses we bought at Hershey Park, and topped off with SU! ribbon in different styles and colors to match the container. I have a workshop in 2 weeks and this will be the hostess gift!

This is such a fun idea-I certainly did not think of it-but I used it quite a bit this year!

The “Homemade Christmas Fudge” poem can be found a lot of places on the web-I tweaked it a bit so they were not all the same (some for school teachers was for “Winter Break” rather than Christmas).

 The cardstock was cut to be 7 1/4″ x 9 1/2″ in Soft Sky.

It was stamped with the stamps from Snowflake Spot in Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Mellow Moss, and Purely Pomegranate.

The cardstock was wrapped in 4 x 11″ SU! Wintergreen paper, and the poem was printed on my computer onto SU! Shimmer White and then stamped inthe same way as the background Soft Sky wrapper.

SU! satin Pomegranate ribbon was tied around the whole thing to finish it off! For the teachers they also got an SU! notecard set with their monograms on them, a small cookbook, and a nice homemade card with a note about what they have done for my son and how much they are appreciated. A class collection was made as well, so they ended up with a nice Visa gift card we donated to plus the homemade goodies from us. I know I am late in posting this, but better late than never!

I really really like Camden’s teacher. She has been teaching Kindergarten for over 24 years and is just amazing. Cam had to get a cast on last week (day after Thanksgiving-he was “breakdancing”) and all he wanted written on it was “I <heart> school.”

I know the month of December was always a bit wacky for me when I taught-the kids were wired for the holidays, weather was unpredictable, and I also felt like I needed a little push. I had been saving Phoebe’s formula cans because I just *knew* I would be able to put them to good use. Tonight I made a “Winter Countdown” can for Mrs. W. and her assistant Mrs. H. Inside are 30 pieces of candy-enough for each of them to have one at the end of the school day. If they eat one each day they will eat the last one on the  last day of school before winter break (ya follow?) . Kind of a teacher’s advent calendar!

I used gift wrap from last year-I also had matching turquoise polka-dotted tissue paper so that is inside the can. The paper to wrap around the can is 5″ high-I overlapped the paper as I went. I used a glue stick and Mod Podge to wrap the paper around the can-although in hindsight I think SU! paper would have been easier since it is not so thin.

I typed up the poem I made up and attached it to the front with curling ribbon I had-the ribbon seemed to hold well to the slight tackiness of the Mod Podge.  I added a little penguin to the top of the can layered over the same polka dotted gift wrap and a strip of Soft Sky designer paper that runs across the lid.

The poem:

When the school bell rings

And the kids go on their way

Eat a sweet treat from inside;

You’re down another day!  When the sweets are finishedAnd there’s nothing more to takeSay, “HOORAY!” & dance aroundYou’re now onWINTER BREAK!!

I love givng note card sets as gifts. We made these little totes at my stamp club in November-each one uses 1 sheet of paper and holds standard (4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″) cards. You can make them using any color/pattern-since we always make 3 projects at club, I had to keep it simple so folks could get through all the projects in the evening.

 To start lay your paper and stamp your design-here I did a very simple one color (Real Red) using the SU! set Snowflake Spot.  Score horizontally across at 1 1/4″ and 7 1/4″.

Then score vertically at 4 1/2″ and 6 1/2″. You will cut up to the other score lines that run horizontally at those points (2 cuts at the top, 2 at the bottom).

I added patterned paper and a strip of red across for the “bracket”. Before I added the brads I used SU! wide grosgrain robbon and created the tote handles.  Once they were on I used folded up the box and used SU! sticky strip for the sides.

VOILA! a cute little tote that can be filled with cards or other goodies!

I am making notecards for the “specials” teachers at Camden’s school (PE, Music, etc.) and will make totes to match each set of cards as a holiday gift.

..small packages.

These tiny little boxes are made from 1 piece of 6×6 paper. I used the Soft Sky designer paper. I scored at 2″ and 4″ both horizontally and vertically (so the score lines look like a Tiv Tac Toe board) and with a few small snips tucked the sides up.

I adhered some of the GORGEOUS blizzard paper over the Soft Sky strip for the handle and added 5/8″ Chocolate grosgrain ribbon.

Quick and easy way to make a little something for a friend! The covered Peppermint Patties fit right inside! But money, a few wrapped cookies, or even a gift card would fit in as well.

 Have you bought the SU wrapping  paper? I bought the Blizzard and the Celebrations. When I wrap for Christmas, we each get our own wrapping paper. Last year Camden’s was laight blue with red and white snowmen, mine was blue with polka dots, and my hubby’s was red with hohoho all over it. Santa of course wraps his with his own picture. (Such a narcissist!)

This year we will be able to add another stocking to our mantle, and some PINK to our tree! I bought 2 packs of the Stampin’ Up! wrapping paper so we each have our own again this year. I am sure it will look fantastic!! I am debating buying all new stockings for us-I just haven’t been able to find a nice pink one I like so I may go for all red for everyone, or just traditional red with monograms.

Here is a pic of Cam and I with the holiday stash in 2006 (note my bleary eyed expression and the coordination, LOL).  Last year we all had Polar Bear pajamas. This year We are going traditional red/white. Phoebe has some 50% Naughty 50% Nice ones (although she is pretty much all nice.) I was excited to find Camden some pirate skull head pants with Santa hats-he will be excited about those! And then we just need somefor Dave and I-but since we are doing the color theme I am pretty sure they will be easy to come by.  

Okay so not TOTALLY the season yet-but since I just bought Phoebe her 1st pair of pink suede boots with pink furry insides I figured I would post a holiday card to help justify my winter purchase!

This card uses one of my new favorite color combinations-Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, and Blue Bayou. I *LOVE* that SU! has coordinating stitched ribbon for all of the In Colors this year. Last year I was not su into the In Colors and only bought Cool Caribbean-but this year I REALLy like the depth of color and variation in the line and have bought all of them! 

Card starts put as a regular 4 1/4 x 11″ card folded in half, then about 1 3/4″ are folded in towards the inside of the card on one end. I used sticky strip to hold those small 1 3/4″  sides down. A panel is added on the front and I cut out snowflakes from Snowfall and adhered them to the panel. White cardstock was added to the inside and I used the Slit Punch to create a tab-which I 1st saw Michelle Wooderson do (adorable idea!). The panel is slid under the tab and adhered down so the card falls open. The little pocket on the inside is perfect to hold a gift card. I used the same layout on the Fabulous Cracked Glass Flower card a few posts down.

QTFM: Always put all of the elements of your card together and THEN add your Crystal Effects and glitter. If not you will be trying to work around the wet glitter and inevitably smear it or smoosh it around (trust me on that one, LOL!).  Glitter is my last step.