Christmas tags for the kids

I've had a wonderfully crafty weekend playing with my new Stampin' Up punch. My first project using the punch was this set of gift tags that I'll be donating to Send A Smile 4 Kids (Canada). Each year the BC Children's Hospital sets up a Christmas Village where hospitalized kids and their families can wrap gifts for each other. Last year they used close to 200 gift tags; I've challenged myself to make & donate at least 75 tags this year.

This batch of tags (there are a dozen in total) uses a Tim Holtz Sizzix die for the tags (cut from sparkly gold paper) and the Stampin' Up stocking punch. I used a selection of papers, including some Basic Grey and Bazzil. These were very quick to make - the most time-consuming aspect was tying those itty-bitty little bows.

Challenges:

• 2 Sisters - holiday
• Craft Your Days Away - buttons or bows
• Craft Your Passion - anything winter or holiday
• Crafty Ribbons - tags
• Moving Along with the Times - ribbons & bows
• My Partner in Crafting Crime - Christmas tags
• Paper Creations Ink - Christmas
• Ribbon Reel - anything goes
• Simon Says Stamp - tags
• Simply Create Too - Christmas

Oh Christmas tree ...

Update:  Yay me! These trees were showcased by UnstampaBelles and chosen by My Sheri Crafts.

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I just love the cover project on Paper Creations Magazine this month and so I had to try re-creating it for myself. Well, the tree ended up being so fun & easy that I made 3!

To keep the project super simple and to ensure that all 3 trees coordinated, I used double-sided Christmas paper from "My Mind's Eye" ("The Merry Days of Christmas" collection) along with some inexpensive red cardstock. I topped 2 of the trees with fuzzy green ribbon and a few buttons from my stash. I followed the instructions in the magazine pretty closely for the first 2 trees but got a bit creative with the last one (in front). Instead of looping the paper, I used my Martha Stewart fringe scissors to cut the strips - once the resulting fringe is curled and then layered, the end tree looks almost fuzzy. I'm thinking about doing a couple more - maybe using ribbon instead of paper.

Challenges:

• 2 Sisters - holiday
• Crafts 4 Eternity - Christmas decorations
• Craft Your Days Away - buttons or bows (buttons on tops of the trees)
• Craft Your Passion - anything winter or holiday
• My Sheri Crafts - decorate for Christmas
• Our Creative Corner - include a Christmas tree
• Ribbon Reel - anything goes
• Totally Papercrafts - Christmas
• Unstampabelles - trees

Merry Christmoose

I've been shopping (again) and picked up some great new digital stamps from Bugaboo. These 2 cards are made using Christmoose from their Make It Snappy set. These images are pre-framed with a great sentiment so all you really need to do is colour and stick. And urghhh, I went over to their site so I could hyperlink this post and they've added more images to the set so I guess I'll be shopping some more later today!

One last thing, I'll be donating these cards to Send A Smile 4 Kids (Canada) so they can be shared with kids at B.C. Children's Hospital.

This first card uses Basic Grey patterned papers and a super-simple design.

Challenges:

• Crafty Catz - digital image
• Creative Craft Challenges - minimalist
• Digital Tuesday - Christmas
• Paper Creations Ink - holiday wishes for a kid
• Send a Smile 4 Kids - holiday wishes for a kid

This card uses the latest sketch from Eat Sleep Stamp along with some Basic Grey scrap and die cut trees from a freebie I got last year in a magazine.

Challenges:

• 365 Cards - use only 4 items (digital stamp, cardstock, pattered paper, tree die-cuts)
• Clear It Out - favourite holiday (Christmas, of course, and the trees have been gathering dust since last year)
• Digital Tuesday - Christmas
• My Partner in Crafting Crime - use a freebie
• Paper Creations Ink - holiday wishes for a kid
• Paper Sundaes - digital image
• Send a Smile 4 Kids - holiday wishes for a kid
   
  
  
   
  
  
   

I have a couple of Christmas cards to share today and they are particularly nice since they cost me not a penny! The digital image is a freebie offered at The Outlawz' new Creative Freebie Challenge. The poinsettia is so beautiful that I had to use it twice.

Both cards use My Mind's Eye paper and embellishments that were freebies in Magazine.

Challenges:

• Card Makin' Mamas - die cuts (Quickutz cut for card #2; Spellbinder for card #1)
• Christmas Card Challenges - sketch (card #1)
• Digital Tuesday - anything goes
• Scrap 'n Stamp Challenge - sketch (card #2)



Sketch for Card #1



Pumpkin patch visit

I love working from home because it gives me the flexibility to take time off to participate in things like my youngest son's field trip to the local pumpkin patch. It was a wonderful day - the sun (unexpectedly) shone and all the kids behaved. I even got a couple of cute pictures of my camera-shy boy.

I started this layout using a sketch from The Scrapaholic Blog. Because I always work in 8-1/2 x 11 pages, I converted their 12x12 sketch into a 2-page layout. I chose papers from the K&Co paper pack mostly although there are a couple of unidentified scraps as well. The border punch is Martha Stewart and the die cuts are mostly My Mind's Eye. My favourite part of the entire layout (other than the smile on my DS) is the tiny little pumpkin paperclip holding the journalling spot - I bought a pack of these clips but haven't used a single one as they are just too darned cute.

Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - die cuts
Celebrate the Occasion - Fall (with a pumpkin)
Cooking it up with Katie - anything but a card
Craft Your Days Away - Autumn
Creative Craft Challenges - fancy edges
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - pumpkins
Penny's Paper-Crafty - halloween
Simply Create - pumpkins
Sisterhood of Crafters - halloween
Use it Tuesdays - orange, black or purple (how about all 3! My hoarded supply is the acetate black fence and the little pumpkin paperclip. It was really hard to use these items as they are just too cute/cool to risk using up).