Gift Card Holder

Teachers play such an important role in our children's lives.  And, being a former teacher, I know how great it feels when a parent acknowledges my effort.  So, I bought gift cards for my sons' teachers this year and wanted to present them in a pretty way.
I made good use of my Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge and cut out almost everything with it.  Here's the super easy gift card holder I created:

Here it is opened up.

I used the Believe bulk paper, Topiary, Holiday Red and White Daisy cardstock.  The stamp set is Holiday Cheer, B1381.  To create the card, use the Card feature and cut .  I cut mine at 5 1/2 inches so that I could get two from one piece of cardstock.  I cut out at 1 1/4 inches for the Happy Holiday sentiment and again at 1 1/2 inches for the contrasting color.

Just add some adhesive or glue dots and attach your gift card inside, write a personal message and you're done!

Thanks to Carolyn Wheeler, www.cropcandy.com, for the idea for this cute card.  You can see her YouTube tutorial for more info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAEdgLkiR8U.

Merry & Bright

I just love that saying...Merry & Bright.  Kinda hard not to smile when you say Merry & Bright.  I've been baking cookies this morning, listening to Christmas music and looking at my sparkling tree...all of it's making me feel merry and bright.  So, let me share with you a gift tag I made to swap with my Let's Get Fancy teammates at our annual Christmas Party last Friday.

I used paper from the retired Jingle set with Creme Brulee and Juniper card stock.  Generally, I like my Christmas colors in traditional cranberry and green but these colors jumped out at me.  I used my Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge to cut the circles and the scalloped circles.  I used my paper piercer to pierce little holes in the scalloped parts.  Then I put a little Liquid Glass on the light bulb.  Liquid Glass tends to make reds a little orangey, not sure why since it doesn't do it to other colors.  But, I think it blended nicely with the Creme Brulee.  I added three brads, put some Silver Glitz Glitter Gel on them and then a little Liquid Glass atop that to make them stick.  The new Glitz sticks great to paper, but being a glue, it can slide off metals when dry.  Finally, I added a little ribbon and voila, a simple but Merry & Bright gift tag!

Check back on Thursday to see tags made by my fancy friends!

Christmas Gift Tags

It's December 1st!  I'm so excited for the season leading up to Christmas.  It just seems a joyful time: bright lights, decorations and lots of excuses for crafting.  As much as I love making gifts for family and friends, I think I love wrapping the presents even more.  And, showing thoughtfulness in the gift wrap just builds the anticipation to the gift inside.

As a thank you to my customers who bought the Holiday Wishes stamp set last month, I invited them over to create several gift tags.  I created seven different tags, most of them using the Holiday Wishes stamp set.  Here's the bunch:

I set up four stations, one with the snowflake and the others with two gift tags each.  Here's what my dining room looked like:

We listened to Christmas music and even some Christmas "musak."  Later that night my husband told me he created a "good" playlist that omitted the Manheim Steamroller and slow jams Christmas songs.  That would have been helpful info about three hours earlier.  Oh, well!

Here are a couple of my favorites.  They're simple, sweet and will look great on traditional Christmas wrapping paper or Kraft wrapped gifts.