End of Year Teacher Gift Basket - Line Alphabet & Pick a Pennant

They say it is better to give than to receive and I surely enjoying giving.  I hope I don't get any looks from other moms tomorrow as I may have gone overboard here - but I really do enjoy making extra special gifts and our son's teacher is amazing!  (Aren't they all??)

Plus, if you take away the 3 ginormous bags of chex mix, this would all fit in a smaller bag and it wouldn't look as big!  (Sorry.. feel like I need to defend this awesome gift!)

One of the many things I love about Stampin' Up! is the products that make gift giving so fun.  The ribbon, stamp sets, tags.. It not only makes it pretty, it makes it easy!

Our son's teacher told me earlier in the year that she loves all kinds of chex mixes, so I decided to make 3 different kinds.  These will be great snacks for road trips, camping or poolside.  I decided to make little tags with the Pick a Pennant stamp set.  This is a great small alphabet for little labels.  (I even thought some of the other stamps in the set looked like chex, so I made little banners with them as well.

Tucked in the side of the basket are two 8 packs of thank you/note cards.  These were made with the Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper, the Artisan Textures stamp set, Thankful Thoughts stamp set, Wood Words stamp set and some Berry Burst Ribbon.  I made an assembly line and this came together while I watched a movie with my kids. Win, win!

In the back of the basket is my favorite gift that I made.  I had an extra canvas and hoop in my craft stash that someone gave me once so this craft technically cost me nothing!  #thisiswhyIhoard

The stamp set is called Lined Alphabet and is a must have in your stamp collection.  I have seen so many great cards made with this.  A nice versatile set.

I stamped the letters in Memento Black Ink and colored them with my Blends.

I tried not to blend them too much to give the letters a watercolored look.

I dressed the hoop up with coordinating ribbon!  I love that Stampin' Up! is matchy-matchy.  It makes my heart happy!

I am so excited to give this to our son's teacher.  Teachers are such amazing people and they give so many hours and dedication for our children.  We are blessed...

I hope you have a great weekend!  School is out tomorrow! Woohoo!

Blessings,

Holly

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Gift Bag - SU! Artisan Design Team Blog Hop

Hello there!  I'm so glad you stopped by for today's Artisan Design Team blog hop!  We are a group of 20 global demonstrators that represent Stampin' Up! on a monthly basis (hopping on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month).  If you need to translate for your language, I recommend using google translator.  If you have any questions on any technique or product that you see, feel free to ask any of us!

I'm so excited with the projects I made using the (gorgeous) Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set, Happy Birthday Thinlits Die and all of the coordinating products.  You can buy the stamps and thinlit seperately or bundle and save 10%!

Let's take a look, shall we?

While cleaning out my craft room, I found this tall gift bag that I thought would be perfect for a bottle of wine (which I also found in my pantry while packing).  1 - I don't drink, and 2 - I'm pregnant, so win win!  This was a perfect way to regift a bottle of wine for a friend's birthday coming up!

Since the bag was pretty boring on it's own, I decided to decorate the front with 2 different colors/prints of the Foil Frenzy Specialty Designer Series Paper, Happy Birthday Thinlit Die (layering with both Berry Burst and Whisper White carstock), one of the cute Berry Burst Mini Gift Bow, a Fresh Fig Mini Tassle (from the Eastern Elegance suite) and some of the new Gold Mini Sequin Trim!  Lots of beautiful product that really makes this bag special!

I also decided to stamp all over some tissue paper with the cute floral stamps from the Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set using Berry Burst and Lemon Lime Twist inks.  I splattered a little Fresh Fig ink too with an Aqua Painter and tied the bag together with some Lemon Lime Twist 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon.

Now for the coordinating card.  You almost don't need a card with a fun gift bag like this, but you have to write on something, right?

I decided to use the same flower and leaf stamps from the tissue paper.  I stamped on the stitched circle and the background at the same time to give it a cohesive look after adding some dimension with the scalloped circle.  I used the Layering Circles Framelits and some Fresh Fig Cardstock and bumped it up off the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

The "you look gorgeous!" sentiment is framed with a stamp that also coordinates with the Classic Label Punch.  For the gold splatter, I took some Multipurpose Liquid Glue and watered it down with my Aqua Painter.  (You don't want to add too much water - just enough that you'll be able to "flick" the tip of the brush and splatter the glue - otherwise you will get wet spots on your card front.)  Once the glue is splattered, add some Gold Emboss Powder and heat it with your Heat Tool.

I added more of the Foil Frenzy Specialty DSP along the side of the card.  This paper is so gorgeous in person and a bonus is that the back of the paper is just like the retired Kraft cardstock - so I absolutely love it!  I added some more of the Gold Mini Sequin Trim and 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon in Berry Burst.

The final products look perfect together!  I can't wait to give this to my friend!

I hope that you make your way around the entire hop!  If you came from the wonderful Dani Dziama, thank you for continuing on to me!  Next up is my talented friend from New Jersey - Jennifer Sootkoos!  Click the next button below to see what she has created.

And as always, you can find the full list of products used and the entire lists of the Artisan Design Team members blogs below.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

-Holly

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Photopolymer Bundle

[145301]

$36.75

Big Shot

[143263]

$110.00

Big Shot Die Brush - New Configuration

[144262]

$12.50

Layering Circle Framelits Dies

[141705]

$35.00

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

[145372]

$30.00

Berry Burst Classic Stampin' Pad

[144083]

$6.50

Berry Burst 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[144243]

$8.00

Berry Burst 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon

[144133]

$7.00

Lemon Lime Twist Classic Stampin' Pad

[144086]

$6.50

Lemon Lime Twist 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon

[144135]

$7.00

Fresh Fig Classic Stampin' Pad

[144082]

$6.50

Fresh Fig 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[144242]

$8.00

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[100730]

$9.00

Foil Frenzy Specialty Designer Series Paper

[144125]

$13.00

Classic Label Punch

[141491]

$18.00

Gold Mini Sequin Trim

[144128]

$6.00

Mini Gift Bows

[144127]

$6.00

Mini Tassels Assortment

[144154]

$7.50

Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109129]

$5.00

Heat Tool

[129053]

$30.00

Aqua Painters

[103954]

$17.00

Liquid Multipurpose Glue

[110755]

$4.00

Fine-Tip Glue Pen

[138309]

$7.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.00

Allison Okamitsu
Aurelie Fabre
Cathy Caines
Dani Dziama
Holly Stene
Jennifer Sootkoos
Jessica Winter
Katy Harrison
Kimberly Van Diepen
Louise Sharp 
Maike Ulbrich
Martha Inchley
Mercedes Weber
Mindy Bingamon 
Miriam van Eyden
Paula Dobson
Rochelle Blok
Shannon Lane
Sylwia Schreck 
Tanya Boser 

Creation Station: Boxes, Baskets & Bags - Oh My!

Welcome to this month's blog hop with The Creation Station.  We are a global group of demonstrators that blog on the first Sunday of each month.  We're so glad you are joining our hop today and I'm excited that you are here to see my creations!  If you came from Denita's blog, thanks for continuing on to me.

Yesterday I sat down to create something for this post and was really debating on what to make.  I'm pretty weak in the "creating boxes" category.  I really like packaging and gift giving, but I like when the basics are made.  Now don't get me wrong, SU! provides some pretty awesome tools for this theme like the Gift Box Punch Board, the Gift Bag Punch Board or the new Window Box Framelits Dies.  However, one thing I really miss that a year or two ago are these long kraft boxes.  Lucky for me, I have a lot in stock.  

I took one apart, made myself a template and voila!  I made a replica! :)

I was also inspired by Val Moody's masculine card made with Nailed It.  I had CASEd this card earlier in the week and decided to make the box match the card.

I made the box with Basic Gray Cardstock and covered it with the tools from the Nailed It stamp set.  I added some basic black splatter using reinker and an Aqua Painter.  I also used my Fringe Scissors and cut up some Smoky Slate cardstock for some filler.

You can see how neatly the bottom folds in to secure the box.

For the belly band I used a piece of Urban Underground DSP and some Urban Underground Washi Tape.  I also added the hexagon (cut with the Build It Framelits) and embossed with the Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  The hammer was also cut with the coordinating framelits and colored with a Blender Pen.  The sentiment is stamped on Watercolor Paper - the Delightful Dijon wash was made with an Aqua Painter.  To top it off, I added one of the screw heads from the Urban Underground Embellishments.  This are the coolest embellishments!

I sure hope you enjoyed my creation!  You can head back to my lovely friend Denita or on to the talent Sara!  Be sure to check out the entire hop and pin your favorites!  Have a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Holly

Gift Card Envelopes for the GUYS!

This week is super busy for me as I am still working on 175 wedding favors for Saturday.  I'm basically swamped.  But I did have a moment the other night to play with some new goodies that I received last week and I wanted to share with you what I made.  I don't know why I waited over a year to buy the Gift Card Envelope & Trim Thinlits.  They made these projects so simple and quick!   

You might not recognize this Designer Series Paper (DSP) either - this is a new paper stack coming out in the SU! Holiday Catalog called Warmth & Cheer DSP.  It was love at first sight!

I actually bought two packs.  One I plan on using for Christmas gift tags and the rest for masculine cards.  The colors and prints are so great - especially for guy cards!  So here I decided to pair the DSP up with two "guy" stamp sets - The Wilderness Awaits and Feather Together.

I used my blender pen to color the animals...

If you like this DSP you can order Sept 1st as a customer, or join my team today and order before the catalog goes live to the public!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

-Holly