Snowman Christmas

Like many crafters, when I find a new project I love, I tend to make it a few times before I do other things. Well, the K-Cup gift box I designed has been my current muse :)

I had a card in my stash from a couple of years ago and was inspired to create a box to go with it!

The snowmen in this stamp set remind you of marshmallows. Marshmallows, cocoa... K-Cups of cocoa!

• Stamps: Merry Winter (retired), Greetings of the Season, Borderlines (retired)
• Ink: Whisper White, Early Espresso, Poppy Parade (retired)
• Paper: Naturals White, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Poppy Parade (retired)
• Other: 2½" Circle and 2-3/8" Scallop Circle punches, Poppy Parade ribbon (retired), Paper Piercer, dimensionals, Paper Trimmer, Bone Folder, Sticky Strip

I wasn't sure if I would like the polka dots on the box until I finished it, and I love them. It is so satisfying when an idea works out :)

OK, on last shot of the box all the way open. I can't wait to give this to one of my co-workers for Christmas!! We have a Keurig in our department. Some of our doctors are just like kids, always have to have the newest toys, and one of the docs got the Keurig for our department for Christmas last year. At least they share some of their toys with us ;)

Merry Soiree

How about a funny story with this card?! I had gotten up on Wednesday afternoon and started putting together a card design. I planed to knock out a pile of cards and get them out in the mail the next day. So I am busily getting glittery and cutting out components of my card when the phone rings at 5:10PM and caller ID says it is my work. I hesitate to answer because I don't want to pick up a shift as I will be working a long stretch soon. The conversation goes something like this:
"Hey Tanya, whatcha doing?"
"Oh, not much."
"So, did you know you are on the schedule to work today?"  (I work 5P-5A shifts)
"No I'm not. It's Tuesday, right."
 "Nope, it's Wednesday. .....Are you going to be a little while?"
"Oh crap! Um, ya, um, I'll be right in!"

I had not showered yet as I was going to wait until I was done doing glittery things, and then was going to go do some Christmas shopping. Well, I live 12 minutes from work. I showered and dressed, ran back upstairs to grab my glasses and remembered to close all of my ink pads, and raced to work and made it there at 5:43pm. But I forgot my name badge.... sigh. Some days! It all worked out, but dang! I have only done this once before, and that was about 5 years ago!

I did come up with a cute and fairly flat card though :) I think I need to run to the Post Office so I can buy some more of the 64¢ stamps! I use way too many dimensionals to use the standard postage stamp.

• Stamps: Snowflake Soiree, Christmas Messages
• Ink: Coastal Cabana, Illuminate, Silver Encore
• Paper: White, Winter Frost DSP, Silver Glimmer
• Other: Big Shot with Circle framelits and Experssions thinlits, Crystal Effects, sequins, Signo white gel pen

Here is a peek inside. I sure am getting a lot of use out of the Christmas Messages set this year :)

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Silver and White

Ready for more Christmas cards! I know I should make more Christmas cards throughout the year, but it is really hard for me to be in the mood to make Christmas stuff after say, February! Usually I get into full Christmas mood in December, wish I had made more cards and rush to finish them up. Then all I can think about for the next 2 very snowy months is all the Christmas card ideas I say and want to make! Maybe, I'll just go with it this year and continue to make Christmas stuff in January and February to stash for next year :)

This card was inspired by the Paper Players challenge this week. There is a little more silver on mine than just the sentiment, but I love it!

Growing up, we had a Percheron/Arab cross mare named June. A Percheron is a draft(work) horse and they are very large! She was too :) We could fit 3 teenage girls on her back, and our feet came about 1/2 the way down her belly! She was an amazing horse that my father got when he was 13 and the horse was 3, and she was 32 years old when she died. I lived with her until I was 18 years old and she was 29, and still miss her nearly every day. We had so much fun with this horse. She loved to pull our big red sleigh, which we actually took to church one day during a snow storm! We even had bells on her harness, which I can still hear in my memories. We would also tie a toboggan to her tail (below the flesh), and she would spend hours happily pulling us around the pasture! Oh, the days before snowmobiles in every home :)
Well, I had to buy this stamp set just because of that dear old mare, and this year, I wanted to make a Christmas card remembering her, to send to my dad.
The tree is embossed in Iridescent Ice over the sentiment and the silver glimmer and foil papers highlight the main image so well!

• Stamps: Christmas Messages, In the Meadow (PTI)
• Ink: Silver Encore, Versamark
• Paper: White, Silver Foil, Silver Glimmer
• Other: Bog Shot with Woodgrain embossing folder, Deco Label framelits, and In the Meadow dies, Essentials Paper piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Embossing Buddy, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Heat Tool, dimensionals, 1" Square punch, sewing machine and thread

 I tucked the greeting in the lower corner on the inside to leave plenty of room to write a message inside :)

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K-Cup Box tutorial

As promised, I am back today with a tutorial on a box that will hold 4 K Cups! We do not have a Keurig at our house, so I bought some hot chocolate cups so I could take them to work. They are also a versatile gift for a family :)

See all those lovely little cups, just waiting to be given to someone. As you can see, I couldn't resist that bunny and friend image again.

The sleeve slides over the box base and holds it perfectly snug. I added reinforcement to the short ends of the box base as there was not enough paper length to fold over on those ends. The extra paper makes the box more sturdy.

I thought a diagram might be the most efficient way to show you the pieces of the box. I love diagrams, you can pack a lot of info into a little space :)  You can clink on the picture to make it bigger and to print it. Or Here is a link to this as a PDF.

1. The box base starts as a 7-9/16"x11-3/4" piece.
2. With the 7-9/16" edge at the top, score at 1-3/4" and 10".
3. Turn the card stock 90° so the 11-3/4" side is now at the top. Score at 1", 2-3/4",4-13/16", and 6-9/16".
4. Cut out the shaded areas and on the cut line to make flaps. There will not be a fold over for the short ends as we don't have paper long enough :) That is what the little reinforcement pieces are for.
5. Cut 2 reinforcement pieces, 1-15/16"x2" each. With the 1-15/16" side at the top, score down the middle at 1".
6. Optional step: stamp the box base, stamp any message you want on the inside of the box.
   
7. Crease all folds well with bone folder.
   
8. Apply sticky strip  to the 2 outer long sections and assemble to box. Add the reinforcement pieces to the short end edges with sticky strip after box base is assembled.
9. The box cover is made from an 8-1/4"x8-5/16" piece. 
10. With the 8-5/16" edge at the top, score at 1/2", 2-9/16", 4-3/8", and 6-1/2".
11. Crease folds well with bone folder and put sticky strip on the 1/2" edge flap.
12. Decorate top as desired. 
    
13. Peel the sticky strip and wrap cover around box, adhere flaps together. Don't wrap too tight or it will be difficult to slide the box base in and out. 

All done!

Please leave a comment and let me know how well this works for you :)

Stamp Review Crew: Perfect Blend Edition

Hey there! Are you enjoying this caffeinated hop? I sure hope so :) We have been brewing up some rich and hearty projects for you to enjoy! If you are following along from the beginning, you just came from Adriana's blog. That woman can really rock a stamp set, can't she! If you get lost or find a broken link (Lord forbid!) just click on the banner at the top of this post and it will take you right to the main landing post for this hop on The Stamp Review Crew blog with a complete blog roll for this hop :) 

Perfect Blend  is one of those stamp sets that can be use for almost anyone. The cup can be used to represent any hot beverage, and you can make it masculine or feminine. Love that! Now, I am a tea-drinking fool. I have an entire drawer of loose leaf tea, and a shelf in the cupboard dedicated to boxes of tea bags. And my kids all love tea too :) But no tea projects this time.

My first project is something I have made before. I have a template and tutorial here. I love this box! I have used it many times :) I hope you love it too.

Here it is open, with four decorated tea lights inside. I did try to use the Silver Encore ink on the candles, but the ink ran with the melted wax when I melted the tissue paper into the candles. Learn from my mistakes ;)

These little babies are fridge magnets. I used the thick round magnets for these so they would be good and powerful. And the colored punched/die-cut pieces? Those are coasterboard! I just applied the ink directly to the coasterboard with my ink pads.  I did have to re-ink the Pistachio Pudding pad after that, so be forewarned, coasterboard sucks up a lot of ink. And because I am not very patient, I used my Heat Tool to dry them quick so I could punch or die cut the shapes. Yes, I said punch! It takes a little more muscle, but not much more. The sentiments are stamped with Silver Encore ink.

And surprise! The magnets all fit inside the little box too! You can also fit Hersey's Nuggets in this box. It's a pretty handy little box :)

Next up is the Pop-Up gift card holder I whipped up. I got the pattern from the Paper Crafter's Library and it is super easy. I stamped my own patterned paper. I love to make my own patterned paper :)

The inside is lined, it makes it feel more luxurious this way. And you can kind of see the stamping through the Whisper White otherwise. The sentiment is stamped in Silver Encore ink again here.

This is what it looks like with the gift card inside. I like that there is lots of room to write a message inside this card.

My last project is a lunch bag turned gift bag. I have a stash of white and kraft lunch bags in my crafting storage cabinet. They come in so very handy :) This little gift bag will hold all of the items in this group.

ETA: Come back tomorrow for a K-Cup version of the box at the top of this post. I whipped up a rough draft this morning, but this night shift nurse needs to go sleep before I come up with a pretty box, and directions you all can understand, lol!

That's it for me! Now it is time to go see what Jill has in store for us! You are going to love it!

Supplies:

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