Just made a batch of treats for the workers at the Tim Horton’s that I frequent.  I need to pick up a basket to present them in but I’m well ahead of schedule to get these to them before Good Friday.

I bought some marshmallow Easter treats at Dollarama (5 in a package) and fancied them up by making little holders.  Rather than decorate directly on the holder, I made separate panels which act as  an extra “leg” to keep the treats standing upright. (I made the panel a half inch longer than the holder so it sticks out on the front).

I used the same papers I’d selected for the batch of notepads I made last week – it looks like a little Easter Boutique in my craft room at the moment!

I stamped the image on a 3X4″ panel and added a 1 1/2″ strip of cardstock at the bottom using the word thanks from one paper smooches set and the word chickie from the sentiment “hey chickie” that went with the bird image I used.

After adhering the sentiment patterned paper I used a border die to create an interesting strip from coordinating paper and cut out thin (1/4″) strips from another coordinating paper to hide the join.

I kept the colouring simple (only 2 shades of yellow and I didn’t shade the beak or feet) so I could power through the mass production and embellished with some sequins that a co-worker was kind enough to procure from me so I could try out that trend without heavy investment in supplies.

Here’s a side view so you can see what I mean about the “leg”:

…and here’s what’s inside (they come in assorted colours and styles):

I whipped up 20 of these in less than 2 hours and that included the planning stages so it’s not too bad for time if you’re looking to mass produce a little something for Easter.

We did get the pantry project finished last week.  Surprisingly, there’s “less” space in the pantry now that we’ve added a shelf but it’s organized and we’ve majorly reduced the risk of breaking a toe via falling canned products…on to today’s post…

The sun has been shining for a few days now in St. John’s – while we still have snow on the ground, the sunny (but cold!) weather makes me gravitate to the more colourful cardstocks and papers in my stash.

Enter Echo Park.  I find the Echo Park line of paper to be fun and whimsical.  The colours are so fresh and you are guaranteed to have one or two patterns in a paper pad that you just can’t bear to cut into.

I matched up some EP paper with a package of stickers I purchased at Dollarama a few weeks ago.  I also picked up a few of my favourite Dollarama scratch pads (sometimes you can’t find them there and sometimes the paper is more grey than white but I scored some brilliant white pads there last visit) and decided to make a batch of colourful notepads just in time for Spring:

Step 1 – Cover the scratchpads with cardstock in fun, Spring hues:

Step 2 – pick out coordinating patterned papers to decorate the front of the notepad (I kept it simple this time and cut a piece large enough to cover the entire front):

Step 3 -  Find some fun stickers for the front panel – or stamp and colour images for the front panel (I placed a piece of white cardstock that I was using to cut panels behind the stickers so you could see them more clearly):

Step 4 - Stamp a sentiment on a white cardstock panel and adhere a sticker above the sentiment.  Use a few pop dots to adhere the panel to the front of the notepad – I chose to place mine off-centre:

…repeat:

…and repeat:

…and keep going until you get a stack of notepads perfect for gift-giving:

This layout would be great for a set of notecards too (I’d probably change the orientation to landscape for a notecard).

DH and I are going to a little dinner party tonight and I wanted to bring a hostess gift.  The go-to is not very imaginative – I go to the liquor store and ask someone there for a nice, popular red wine (I don’t drink so I have NO idea what to buy).  However, our hosts have just announced that they are expecting a baby so I don’t want to give alcohol as a gift.

We debated getting some sparkling cider etc. but the ones I’ve had just taste like carbonated apple juice so I wasn’t too keen on that idea.  A trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond last night did little to inspire me so I decided to make some cards and package them up nicely as a gift.

I used MME Miss Caroline papers to create a birthday, baby, thank you and “could be for anything” card.  I decorated the inside but left the inside blank so our hosts can write their own message inside.

Here they are:

BIRTHDAY:

BABY:

THANK YOU:

ANYTHING:

Once I made the cards, I was going to create a cardstock folder to package them up in but decided to slip them into a glassine bag and decorate the front with some hand-dyed seam binding, a doily and some Prima roses that I’ve had for a while…I also quickly decorated a clothespin to use as a fastener.  Handy things those wooden clothespins!

…and here’s a close up of the detail on the packaging:

I was tempted to distress the doily and the tag but the cards are not distressed/shabby so I resisted the urge.

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday – I’m off to visit the beagles at www.beaglepaws.com and donated some dog food, soft treats for the senior beagles and a dog bed in honour of my cousin’s birthday this week.

I picked up some treat sized bars (kit kat and coffee crisp) and wanted to make some cute holders to package them in to give out to my department at work for Valentine’s Day.

I know some people find this difficult to do but I’ve always enjoyed creating my own little custom boxes/holders for gifts and I enjoy sitting down with a piece of paper and a pencil (I always use a pencil!) and drawing out the dimensions of the packaging.  Sometimes I alter the dimensions in order to get the most out of a sheet of cardstock and today’s holder is no exception.

I started out by measuring the length and width of each bar.  As they are slightly different sizes, I had to come up with two sets of dimensions.

I knew I wanted the front panel to be around three inches high and this actually worked out quite well for this particular design – you can get 8 treat holders out of one sheet of 12X12″ cardstock (I used Bazzil but any cardstock will do).

I’ll show you the finished product first and if you want to try making your own, I’m providing some instructions below (but didn’t take pictures along the way so I’ll try adding a sketch or two to help you visualize the concept):

The batch above used a cute Whimsy stamp set (Playful Kittens) and Authentique papers that I purchased from onecrazystamper.com and I actually submitted this project as part of my design team committment.   I made a second batch using the paper scraps I had left from all the Valentine’s Day cards I made over the last few weeks (all papers are from onecrazystamper.com as well) and, while I still have a few scraps, I was pleased to use some up on a cute project.

The above “scraps” of paper came from Echo Park “Love Story” and American Crafts “XOXO” paper packs.  I actuallly like these a little better because I prefer whimsical patterns over the more elegant patterns from the Authentique “Lovely” collection but you can see that you can easily go elegant or cute and still get a great finished product.

Here’s a side view so you can see how the treat is packaged inside the holder:

You’ll see in the picture above that the bar actually slides into the back of the holder but if you wanted to reverse it so the bar is up front and then decorate a smaller area up top, you certainly could.  I just enjoy working with a 3X3″ area – it’s so easy to decorate such a small surface and I love making square cards as opposed to rectangular ones.

If you want to try these for yourself, you’ll need to cut a piece of cardstock that measures 3X6″ for each holder.  You’ll just score a little differently for each type of chocolate bar.

The Kit Kat holder needs to be scored 5 times at the following distances:  3″,  5/8″,  1.5″,  5/8″,  1.5″ .  I’m adding a little sketch as this is how far apart each score is, not the length at which you score:

The Coffee Crisp holder is scored at 3″,  3/4″,  1 1/4″,  3/4″,  1 1/4″

This will leave you with a 1/4″ tab that you’ll add some score tape to so you can adhere the box together.

The only tricky part is making sure that the “box” area of the treat holder is relatively square (I found it helpful to place the bar inside before adhering the tab in place.  I also viewed the holder from the side to ensure it was somewhat square).

The Coffee Crisp bar fits inside snugly enough that it won’t fall out but I couldn’t make the Kit Kat holder too snug or it wouldn’t stand on its own so I put a glue dot on the back of the bar, slid it into place and then lightly pressed on the holder to stick the bar to the inside of the box.  I used mini glue dots and it is not hard to remove the bar from the box since only a teeny bit of the wrapper is stuck to the box.

I made 20 of these over two days – I coloured half the images one day and cut them out and coloured the other half a day later.  My attention span is not quite long enough to colour 20 of the same image in one sitting!

Another little tip if you’re making a bunch of these, cut the cardstock in half (6″x12″) and do all your score lines before cutting the 3″ width.  That way, you’re scoring 4 boxes at a time instead of doing them one by one.

I’m sending my niece (who turned 1 in December) a little Valentine gift next week so she’ll have it in time for the 14th of Feb.

Since she’s a bit young to send chocolate, I thought a couple of baby headbands would be a cute little gift and I know they’ll come in handy as her mom loves to take pictures of her little girl.

I found a cute set at Claire’s for $6.25 CAD but they were on really UGLY packaging so I decided to repackage them to send along with the card I made for her.

I couldn’t make a box because I want the gift to fit in a padded envelope and any cardstock box I make would be crushed by the time it made it halfway across the country so I decided on a glassine bag and a cute tag:

The paper on the tag matches the card I already made a week or so ago and I found some bits and bobs in my stash to embellish the tag with.  The metal tag is from Making Memories that I got on clearance at Michael’s – I peeled off the backing and stuck it to my arm several times to remove most of the tackiness and then I used some dimensional foam to adhere it to the tag.  I also found some felt hearts left from last year and some Maya Road stick pins that were perfect for the job.  A clear Basic Grey button found its way onto the tag as well (perfect with the sheer ribbon!) and the finishing touch was some Washi tape along the bottom of the glassine bag.

Here’s a closer look at the tag:

Of course, I didn’t want to just place the headbands in the bag as they might have gotten wrinkled or crushed so I cut a piece of red cardstock, rounded the corners and slipped the headbands over it:

…and here’s what it looks like all packaged up:

Happy weekend!

I unexpectedly carved out an evening of “me” time as it’s very stormy outside so that removed some of my obligations for the night (my Mom is still in hospital and I visit her every other day).  DH did the laundry, supper was leftovers from last night and that all added up to 3 free hours for me!

I got a Lawn Fawn set of stamps for Christmas (thanks, Dad!) and finally got to ink it up tonight.   I chose some Carta Bella patterned paper and cut a sheet of pale pink cardstock in quarters to make a set of punny Valentine’s Day cards:

Here are the 4 cards individually:

The banana is my favourite image and it was the most fun to colour.

Each card measures 4.25″ X 2.75″.  Of course, I didn’t have envelopes that size so I made some to go with the cards using some K&Co patterned paper that was in my stash.  I had to use 2 sheets because I needed a 6.75″X6″ piece of paper for each envelope.  I could have made smaller cards in order to get 4 envelopes out of one sheet but I’m not exactly short on patterned paper so I didn’t mind cutting into a couple of pieces.  I used scor-tape as a closure:

The cards are embellished with some Doodlebug twine and a small plastic heart that was in my stash (probably from Dollarama but could have been Michael’s).

Off to enjoy the snow…we’re getting between 70-80 cm in the next 24 hours so I’m hoping for a snow day tomorrow!  If I do get to stay home, I’d better wake up with some crafty mojo.

With just 2 more sleeps until the big day and a work day in between (boo, hiss!), I’m running out of time to finish up everything I *want* to do for Christmas (I’ve done all I *need* to do…it’s the wants that kill me!).

The situation in my craft room was dire.  Christmas paraphernalia everywhere (including glitter!) and no space for other projects that need to be done.   I had to box up my craft supplies and put them away but still had a couple of projects to  do.

I decided to keep out only the scraps of paper that I used this season and some stickers in the event I needed to whip up a quick card (they’re 3D stickers – I do have SOME pride!).

Once I’d packed everything away I remembered that I needed to make a couple of hot chocolate pouches to go with a little gift I have for my cousin’s 2 daughters. 

Here’s what I came up with using the limited items that were left out:

Not too bad all things considered.

Anyway, now that the room is a bit tidier I can hem my jeans and a pair of pants I bought a couple of weeks ago and I can alter the new dog coat we got for Jack. (he doesn’t normally wear clothes but it can get pretty wet walking him in the Winter)

Not spending a ton of time stamping also freed up some time today for me to make my desserts for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:

The cake is a Cherry Cake (very traditional for NL Christmas) and it reminds me of when I was younger and Mom would make cherry cake at Christmas – she wasn’t much of a baker but she did a good job on this cake every year.

The dessert in the pan is something I never made before so I hope it’s good.  I couldn’t decide between making one of my two “traditional” desserts – apple crisp or pear torte.  This is kind of a compromise – Apple Crisp Cheesecake bars.  I hope they’re good!

Okay, it’s actually boxed moose but who ever heard of that?

WARNING – I don’t think my Aunt reads my blog but if she does and she’s reading right now, please come back after December 25th as one of your gifts is in this post.

Is she gone?

Good…

So, I needed to make an ornament for my aunt even though there is a handmade item in her Christmas gift this year as I make her something for the tree just about every Christmas.

I didn’t really have anything new to whip up this year so I had to come up with an idea from scratch.

I decided to make a felt ornament but didn’t know exactly what I could do that I hadn’t done before.  I finally went with something pertaining to life in Newfoundland so I made a moose ornament. (you could just as easily say it’s a reindeer – when you make them from felt they don’t really look that different)

Here’s the little guy I came up with:

Of course, I had to make a cute package to put him in so I quickly whipped this up:

…and here’s what the little guy looks like on MY tree (though he didn’t get to stay there…why don’t I ever make ornaments for myself?)

NOTE: If you want to try your hand at felt ornaments, it’s pretty easy.  I just drew on some paper until I got the right shape/scale that I wanted and then glued the shape to some cardboard that I cut out for tracing.  I then googled how to blanket stitch and found a helpful tutorial.  I kind of garbled up the antlers but I think it’s pretty good for a first attempt!

Another quick update.

I’ve just finished making the last of my gingerbread ornaments (yes, I’m procrastinating on the glass ones!) including 6 sets that have to be shipped to another province.

As the packaging wouldn’t survive mailing, I’m sending the ornaments and the components to “gift wrap” them separately on arrival.  Instructions for assembly are written on an index card tucked in with the packaging. 

I hope my little gingers make it in good condition!

Just a quick post as I don’t really have anything “new” to show.  Lots of the same thing over and over again as the last week and the next few weeks are all about quantity.

I’ve been doing things like taking a stack of glass ornaments that look like this:

and covering them with copious amounts of glue and glitter so they look like this:

That’s phase 1. 

After that I have to cut out acetate circles, stamp and emboss images on said acetate (tricky…it slips and if I’m not patient with the heat gun, I wil warp the circles).  Then there’s colouring, more embossing and the final assembly.  This is my LEAST favourite craft to do but I’m hoping to get all the glass ornaments finished by the end of November.

I will leave you with a picture of an actual finished project – love the little touch of pink with the more traditional colours!