Gift Card Holder

Is it too far past Christmas to post a Christmas gift idea? :-) I couldn't post this before the holidays as this was for my in-laws and my MIL reads my blog each day (hi Mom!) Speaking of holidays, did everyone have a lovely time? We enjoyed a house full of relatives on Christmas Eve and then had a quiet day at home with just our kids and my 90-something year old Grandmother on Christmas morning. It was a wonderful few days of celebrating!

So onto the gift card holder!! I got this idea from SCS, which is a wonderful source of inspiration for anyone looking for ideas. In the forum section there is a search option and I just put in "gift card holder" to look for some ideas on how folks packaged gift cards.

This is a super easy project, made out of just two pieces of patterned paper. I had a few pieces of this lovely holiday paper in my stash from a year or so ago. I love the colors and patterns! To create the holder I just measured around the card and scored the paper to fold around it. I then added a coordinating piece of cardstock to the front flap. (This paper is double sided so it was easy to get the pattern on both sides). As for my flap image, this is from a Just Rite holiday stamp set that has yet to see ink so how could I resist using it for this project! A big 'ol bow was the finishing touch!

Well two pieces of velcro, to hold the flap close, was the true finishing piece! And I think that's all the holiday projects and/or cards I have to share in 2009...Can you believe 2010 is just around the corner? Amazing how quickly (and not so quickly) this year has gone by! Wishing you all a wonderful New Year!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Today's Tip: Use a small and simple designs as the main focal point on cards.

This might be one of the quickest cards ever created! LOL! I recently made a scrapbook album (will share more of that later in the week) for a friend who is expecting baby number two in a few months. They know that they're having a girl so I was able to go crazy with the pink in the album and on the card. Love that since I have two boys and everything is our house is in blue!

Not much to explain on this card it's so simple! I have multiple layers of white and pink and my non-traditionally colored pea pod image and sentiment is from the Green Thumb set by Papertreyink. I finished off the card with four tiny rhinestones in each corner.

My album and card will go home with my Grandmother, who is headed back to NY tomorrow afternoon, so she can forward the gift to our friends. And then we'll look forward to hearing of the new arrival!!

Enjoy!

SALT Challenge - Joy in Jesus

This week it was Ruth's turn to set the SALT challenge and she chose Joy in Jesus. Her comments are below:

"We often sing these words at this time of year, I would like to take time to reflect on what this actually means. And how the reality of the joy of knowing Jesus can dramatically change the direction of your life.It's my turn (Ruth) to set the theme this week, we're slowly getting back into a routine after the birth of our daughter Mae.

I have recently been introduced to the Christian speaker Louie Giglio. If you search for him on You Tube you will find clips. One of his talks is headed Indescribable, he goes into great detail about the Universe, our Galaxy and the size of the stars. They are inspirational messages, that have made me appreciate how great and awesome God is, indeed how indescribable he is. It has reminded me of the humility of Jesus - God's son, in taking on humanity - being human. The even more amazing thing is, he take on 'being human' for a holiday, or for the 'experience' - he did it for a purpose. He had to become human in order to pay for the punishment we deserve for the things we do that we shouldn't, and the things we don't do that we should. Although Christmas isn't a day we are told to celebrate in the Bible, it is a time where we as Christians can stop and ponder and be thankful to God that he came in flesh all those years ago. A time to be truly JOYFUL for JESUS.

Have a blessed and peaceful Christmas, from everyone on the SALT team."

OK...I know, the word joy is no where to be found on my card! I was so lacking in time and, as it turns out, a scripture verse stamp with the word joy in it that I went searching for something else that would work. This great verse stamp from Verve made me think of one of the reasons that I have joy in Jesus...He brings rest. Not rest like getting a good night's sleep but rest from the heavy burden of sin. When feeling overwhelmed, wondering why I've yet again lost my patience or spoken in a harsh way, I know that I can bring my burdens to the Lord and tell him how I'm struggling and ask for His help. And I know that help, strength, and encouragement will be delivered. That feeling of comfort, like having loving arms wrapped around you when you're upset, is cause for great joy! If you're walking around today with a heavy burden, I would encourage you to seek Christ in prayer for real, lasting comfort, peace, joy, and rest.

Wishing everyone a very blessed Christmas!! Please stop by the SALT blog to see the DT's beautiful work!

Fabulous!

I was recently inspired by some cards created by Dawn McVey and decided to follow her lead to create a few CAS (clean and simple) cards....this is the first one. I'm finding that I am really gravitating towards a simpler look, not only on my own cards but even what I see on other blogs and galleries. There's always a place and time for the multi-layer, pierced, sewed, and distressed cards (and TAGS!) but for the every day, I love this style.

And it seems Papertreyink cards are the perfect stamps for these looks! This card is showing three of my favorite sets; Polka Dot Basics II, Text Style, and Signature Greetings. I'm also really digging these bold, bright colors paired with kraft cardstock. I'm in the midst of creating a scrapbook for a friend who is having a baby and decided to use kraft as an accent color vs. white and I love it! The kraft cardstock is just where it's at! ;-)

And...I did add just a wee bit of distressing on the edges of this card...I just can't help myself! Well, just a few days until Christmas and I can't wait!! I LOVE Christmas! My husband went to NY last night to pick up my 90-something year old Grandmother and I expect them back home after lunch. So looking forward to spending the holidays with "Nona" as my kids call her. That and seeing my boy's faces on Christmas morning when they see what's under the tree! Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Today's Tip: Take it all off (layers and embellishments that is) and go for one layer!

Let's have a show of hands of how many people are ready for Christmas?? I'm in pretty good shape...only one more present to purchase but a whole lot to wrap! I am so looking forward to spending the next two weeks enjoying visiting relatives, friends, and my hubby not working!

Today's card is a tribute to the one layer look...perfect when one needs to mass produce! I created these two cards for a few of our neighbors that we're friendly with. The cards accompanied a bag of yummy sugar cookies!

The images used on both cards are from Taylored Expressions and were stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copics. A bow made with lovely Papertreyink ribbon was the finishing touch!!

And now I'm off to enjoy a warm evening at home, after watching the snow fall for most of the day. Here's a shot looking out of our living room window...there's a driveway under there somewhere!

Enjoy your night!

Mini Card Gift Set

A few months ago some friends of ours told us that they'd like to watch the kids once a month so the hubby and I could have a date night...yippee! Seeing as we haven't been out alone in about eight months, we were more than anxious to take them up on their offer!! A few weeks ago, we finally found a day that worked well and headed out...alone...Turns out we really do enjoy each other's company, it had been so long we forgot how much fun we have together. Guess that's a good thing, seeing as we plan to live together until "death do us part." :-)

I put together a small thank you gift for them. This mini card set (cards were a little larger than ATC size), which I picked up at Wholly Scrap, was a perfect gift for my friend and her hubby got a batch of some yummy sugar cookies, ala Pioneer Woman style (recipe is from her new cookbook and are the best sugar cookies you have ever eaten!). Since the cards were small I needed to keep the design simple...that and I am forever pressed for time so I needed something I could quickly produce!

Four cards were covered in navy polka dots (background stamp by SU!) and layered with a thank you sentiment from Papertrey. The double navy circle is also a stamp from PTI. The second set of cards were embossed with a SU! embossing folder and sported a best wishes sentiment with a leafy background, also from PTI.

I then stacked the cards and envelopes, and wrapped them up in a piece of beautiful green ribbon from PTI. A tag, stamped with and SU! image and PTI sentiment, finished off my little gift. Now to start planning our next outing...humm....do you think they'd notice if we left the kids with them for a week?

Sand It, Tear It, Emboss It!

Have you heard about Core'dinations paper yet? Fabulous stuff! It has a colored core so when you tear it or emboss and sand it, like I did on my card, you see a different, coordinating color. And the papers are double sided so if I flipped my black piece over to the pink side and sanded, I would get black sanded edges.

You know you're ready to use a product when you're day dreaming about a card design! That was me all day yesterday, thinking about a design and how to incorporate the Core'dinations, which I purchased at Wholly Scrap, paper into a card. I opted to go with a small circle vs. an entire card back. The circle was embossed with an embossing folder and Cuttlebug. Then I just sanded the top of the embossed areas. The black came off very easily to reveal the pink below. Cool, right?

The background decoration of the card is just different colors of cardstock and patterned paper, wrapped with a big 'ol ribbon and bow. The butterfly is from Papertryink, as is the sentiment (they're part of the same set, Butterfly Kisses). I added some glossy accents to a few of the dots on the butterfly and stickles to the swirl. And how about that black sparkly circle paper? It was a random scrap I found...love that paper!Next I think I'll try tearing the paper to see what I can come up with! If you can find this paper at your local or online scrapbook store, pick some up, it's very fun!!

Enjoy!