Baby Elephant Gift Bag

There's just something special about elephants and babies...and elephant babies!  We had an elephant baby born here at the OKC Zoo and it has to be right up there with the cutest thing I ever saw!

This baby elephant stamp is pretty cute, too!  I thought a little gift bag would be the perfect backdrop to show him off.

I'm just amazed at what can be done with the Envelope Punch Board.  I have to think they wish they had named it something else - because it does way more than just envelopes!  This bag is so sweet.  You can see a video on how to make it HERE.

The elephant stamp comes with the baby sentiment and two hearts.

And it just happens to be available in my etsy store!  I'm thinking he would be really sweet as a valentine (Love you a ton!) and for a birthday (Have a ton of fun on your birthday!).  I bet you can think of even more...

So glad you stopped by - hope you're having a wonderful week!

Gold and Silver

Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold.  Did you learn this little song as a child?  I can remember singing it in Girl Scouts as a round.  Silver and gold do go together amazingly well.  And they are oh-so-popular right now.

I came across a fantastic set of gold and silver papers from Lilly Ashley.  Then I used some assorted goodies I've had around.  Like the embossed chipboard butterflies that I picked up - yes, you guessed it - from the $1.00 bins at Mchaels!

These fun little banner pieces are the free stamps and punch  - Banner Blast - available right now at Stampin' Up.  For Sale-A-Bration you get free goodies with every $50 spent.  It's an awesome thing (not just a good thing)!  Several of you have already benefited - thank you for your orders and I know you're going to enjoy those envelope punch boards.  I have some more projects using it coming up soon.  See the Sale-A-Bration brochure here.  Banner Blast is on page 14.

Check out this really cool chevron tag.  It is from the Chalk Talk Framelit Set also from Stampin' Up.

Speaking of old and new friends - thank you to all of you who offered wonderful ideas for the Tall House stamp.   The ideas include: house warming gifts with restaurant or garden store gift cards, a Halloween Boo, and a village.  LOVE all these ideas.   All the Tall House stamps have been sold.  If you missed getting one for yourself, email me.  I'm planning on placing an order with Woodware this week. 

 My mom sent me an article all about how wonderful it feels to get a hand written note in the mail.  Apparently it feels way more special than email.  I should probably send these gold and silver cards off - one to a new friend and one to an old friend!

Have a wonderful week!

What A Cute House!

One of the very first stamps I ever bought (back in the 80s) was a house stamp.  I've always been drawn to sweet little houses.  Well, this one is not little, but I do love it!

And it is sweet, too!  It measures 5 1/2" tall.  This is another new image from Woodware Stamps called Tall House.  I have four available in my store.  I think this house can be used all year long.   I can see covering the topiaries with little Christmas trees, adding snow, a little wreath...  Wouldn't that be darling?

I added the image to a cute little box that I made on my new Stampin' Up Envelope Punch Board.

I found a video that gives you great instructions.  You can see it here.  Her box is 1" x 4".  I needed a box that was 2" x 4".  So I've figured out the differences.

Cut cardstock to 6 1/2 x 6 1/2".  

On the first side, line up the left side at 1 3/4".  Punch and score.

On the same side, slide the cardstock over to 3 1/4".  Punch and score.

Do the exact same thing on the opposite side.

Use the score guide to line up for the other two sides.

Line up the two points at 4" and cut off a little bit of the two side points.  

Cut slits on top and bottom vertically.  You will make 4 cuts.  Fold on all the score lines.

Fold it up and glue.  You can see why you need to cut a little off the sides.

I've colored up the house again, but it's not finished and I haven't done anything with it yet.  Just playing around.  The colors are a little different, but I kind of like it.  Kind of Dr. Suess-ish. I think the topiaries need  something - not sure what yet.   Those pearls are just too pale.  

I've had another thought:  This house would be great for Mother's Day.  The sentiment could be "Home is where Mom is."    Okay, give me some more ideas.  I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Introducing Zentangle Butterfly and Envelope Punchboard!

Hope you had a lovely Valentines Day!  We did stay home - nice not to have to deal with crowds -  had a wonderful steak dinner.  Dennis sent me the prettiest lavender roses and he got a HUGE heart box of chocolates.  Everybody's happy...

I'm also happy with this Zentangle Butterfly stamp by Woodware.   It's so pretty embossed or stamped in different colors.

I stamped the butterfly on the fold so it would wrap around to the back.

 You'll want to size your cardstock width to the size of your image.  My paper is 3 1/2 x 6 1/8".  Die cut the edge, if you wish.

Your stamped image needs to be placed right at the edge of the paper.  Score the fold.  Mine is scored at 2 1/2" from the edge.  Then I stamped the sentiment.

Now to my new favorite tool - the envelope punch board from Stampin' Up!

I'm pretty skeptical about new scrapbooking tools.  I always think that I don't really need it.  I thought well, this isn't really that expensive and it does look cool, so...  Well, I really do love it!

I made envelopes for my zentangle notecards from the In Color Cardstock and Stamp Pad set from Stampin' Up.  

The envelope seals are punched from white sticker paper.  I lined the envelopes with a doily. The envelope punch does come with a chart showing size of paper needed for certain envelope sizes.  But you know me, I do things in odd sizes.  My envelope base is a 3 7/8" square. At first I couldn't figure out how to do an odd size, but then I cut a piece of paper the size I wanted the envelope to be and determined where the scores need to be.  It was really easy!    For my envelopes, I started with a 6x6 square of paper.

For my envelopes I needed to line up my paper at the 3" mark to make my first score.  The chart does show where to start your paper if you're using one of the sizes listed.

For all the scores remaining, forget the ruler and line up the paper with the pointy thing (score guide).  And continue scoring and punching around the paper.

You end up with 4 scores and 4 punches. 

The rounded corners look very nice.  Then you just fold it up.  Very nice!  It doesn't just make squares, it will also make rectangle envelopes, too.  Later this week, I will show you how to make a rectangular box.  Yes, box!  How cool is that?

Here's a look at the finished wrap from the side showing all the lovely colors.

Don't forget that Stampin' Up still has the free items for every $50 purchase.  If you like the envelope punch board and/or the cardstock and stamp pads that would be a great place to start!

Have a wonderful week!

Happy Valentines Day!

Do you have plans for Valentines Day?  We'll probably stay home - Dennis usually fixes a steak and potato for us.  I have to say his steaks are pretty hard to beat and it's much easier than going out.  I'm thinking that since Valentines is on Friday that restaurants will be especially busy.  We may go to a movie on Saturday.  Do you have a recommendation?

You already know that I love these kitschy school valentines.  Simply clip a vintage image valentine to a little bag and you have instant valentine wonderfulness!  

Add a few Kisses and/or Hugs and probably a heart lollipop (or two).  I don't think you can beat that!  

In case you need a little last minute Valentine, I've got a sheet of these two below ready for you to download.  All you have to do is print and cut.

I found these at a local antique store.  So fun when I get lucky like that!

For the school valentine download, click here.

Life is Like a (Heart) Box of Chocolates

Life is like a (Heart) box of chocolates.  You never know what you might get, but at least it can come in cute box!  I am in LOVE with this heart image!  This is from a set of other equally in-love-with images called Lockets of Love Messages from Lettering Delights.

Now if you've ever put a heart box together, you might feel like I do:  I hate tabs!!!  So I decided I was going to try to make this box without tabs.  It turns out, that it works!  Very well, I might add.

To make a heart box without tabs, here's what you need:

I sized my hearts so that I could put three chocolates inside:  3 3/8 " across the widest part of the heart.  You'll need two.  If you have a cutting machine (I used Silhouette), it will cut the hearts out for you.  The decorative strip for the side is printed at 1" x 12" from Lockets of Love Borders on 80lb paper.  I used one decorative strip for the top of the box and cut one strip from plain 80 lb. paper for the bottom.  80 lb paper seems to be just right for the sides.  110 lb paper doesn't curve easy enough and 65 lb paper is just too flimsy.

I actually printed 4 decorative hearts so I could create patterns for the plain hearts.  

For the pattern for the bottom of the box, I cut out the word portion of the heart and for the top pattern, I left just a little pink showing.  So little that you can hardly see it in the top part of the above photo.  You don't want to leave a lot, because the top of your box will slip right off!

You will need to cut 4 hearts with the top pattern and 4 hearts with the bottom pattern.  Glue them together.  (I used 110lb paper.  This serves two purposes:  to create a short "wall" to glue the sides to and to create a very sturdy box.)

Be sure to glue the larger hearts to the backside of the top decorative heart and the smaller hearts right on top of the words of the other decorative heart.

Run a pencil from the middle out to the ends of the decorative strip to curve it.  

Here are a couple of tips to make sure the side fits perfectly.  Put one end of the strip at the top of the heart stack and wrap it around (without gluing).  Hold you finger where the point is and mark it on the strip with a pencil.  Score the point and erase your mark.  Next (without gluing), place the scored point in place and wrap the other side to the top.  Mark where it matches the inner dip on the heart.  Score and make the tab.  See bottom two photos above.

Glue the tab side on first, placing the glue (I found Aileen's to work best in this case) on the short wall of your stacked hearts.  Then glue the remaining side the same (add some glue to the tab).   Repeat with the top.  

The first one took me a little while to figure out, but then I made six more and they were a snap!  Trust me, these are really easy to do.   Do you see how smooth the sides are and fitted perfectly to the bottom - no icky tabs to deal with!  

 I pinked a piece of vellum to cover the chocolates.

I placed the chocolates in gold foil mini cupcake liners.  They look yummy and smell good, too!

That is definitely the way I want my chocolates (and life) - in a cute box!

Llama Love + Winner of Valentine Giveaway

Hi there!  I've had Panda Love, now how about Llama love?  I think this is a very cool alternative to a traditional type Valentine.   The other thing that is cool is that once the valentine lollipop is removed, the recipient has an awesome decoration!

The llama pattern is from Kitschy Digitals.   If you've never been there - go - it is a fun place to visit.

I put this together just a little different than is suggested.  I printed three copies of the llama.  One on 110 lb paper.  Then I flipped the llama image and printed it again on 110 lb paper.  The third copy I printed on 80 lb paper.  You could probably do all three on 110 lb.  This made for a very sturdy llama.  It has no trouble holding up the lollipop.  

Now for the winner of the Valentine Giveaway!

The winner is:

Diane Fernandez

(Diane - email me with your address and I'll ship your goodies to you quickly!)

Panda Love + Valentine Giveaway

I came across this darling Panda and all the other goodies that match at Shabby Miss Jenn's Designs.  I had to have it - had to make a Valentine.  I LOVE the hearts included in Panda Love.  In fact, it's all adorable!  There are also the cutest Panda Love Cards which I also have and I'm putting them on my list for some cute 2015 Valentines!  Nothing like thinking ahead!

The word art is also included, making this super easy to put together.  I made a heart shaped card from heavy duty cardstock and adhered this heart to the front. I noticed when I was making the links for this set, that there is a Valentine Shoppe set up with lots of cute things!

I do have a giveaway for Valentines and I'm so sorry I didn't post it sooner.  The time has certainly gotten away from me!  You might have to be like me and plan ahead to 2015!   There's a set of 17 stamps, 4 heart cut out tags (2 pink, 2 red), 4 cupid medallions, and red and white twine.  

Just leave a comment between now and early Friday morning that you would like to win and  I'll announce the winner (by random selection) on Friday morning around 7:00 central time.  If the winner will get back with me quickly, I'll be happy to send it out on Friday. (I will ship outside the US.)

So glad you stopped by. Be back on Friday!

Vintage Image Valentine to Share with You

My favorite valentines are vintage and I must confess, I lean toward the cheap boxed ones that kids used to give to each other and their teachers.  They are just so cute!  These two are no exception.  Don't you just want to pinch their sweet cheeks?

If you would like a copy of this vintage valentine, you can download it below.  Did the gold stripe vellum on this card happen to catch your eye?  It is lovely!  It's from Stampin' Up and comes in a pack with gold dot vellum and gold heart vellum, as well.  (It is also available in silver.)

I have one Candy Filled Arrow kit left to give to the first person today through Tuesday who spends $50 at my Stampin' Up store.  Click HERE to go to the Sale-A-Bration brochure.  On pages 11 - 17, you can see all the cool things to choose from for your free gift.

The things you buy do not have to come from the brochure - your items can be any Stampin' Up products.

Click here to download your copy of these cute Cherubs.

If you make a card or other project using these cuties, let me know.  I'd love to see it!