Spoiler Alert To Family--Christmas Gifts Below!

It's that time of the month where Papertrey Ink challenges their customers to participate in the Blog Hop. This month the Blog Hop asks us to share our Christmas cards, gifts, and packaging ideas. Unfortunately I didn't receive my Papertrey Ink Package yet that had tons of packaging and gift ideas inside (nugget tins, tea tins, take note pads, etc) so I thought I would share with you what I have started on. The post is a little long today, but please enjoy.

First of all lets start with my Holiday Inspiration Table. I take all my Christmas themed stamps, paper, and embellishments and lay it all out so I can see what I have. It helps sparks inspiration and reminds me of all the items I have.

This basket contains nuggets (finally found some here in town); peppermint patties, snack bags, plastic card boxes, candy canes, recipe book, and PTI holiday stamps. Underneath is a huge package of paper, along with more holiday paper behind the basket.
Here you can see my other stamps; a Santa bag filled with kraft gift bags to decorate; vintage buttons; jingle bells; PTI ribbon; punches; and tons of holiday embellishments I found at Micheal's.

Now onto some gifts:
Snowmen Peppermint Patties

I took my scallop punch and punched out white scallops for both the front and back of each peppermint patty. I used my single hole punch to create the black coal buttons and the eyes. The hat is punched using SU 1 1/4" square punch and the word window punch. I then drew on the nose and mouth using copics. The punch art idea came from various people who shared on Splitcoaststampers, so thank you.
I then took the little snowmen and placed two in a small glassine bag from PTI. I then wrapped some PTI Enchanted Evening Ribbon around the bag, added a top note die topper in Enchanted Evening which was stamped in Fresh Snow (PTI) using a snowflake stamp set from SU. To finish it off I added a tag (sentiment To: From: comes from PTI's Halloween Tag set), and a marvy extra jumbo (yellow) snowflake punch with a Enchanted Evening Vintage Button, and a little Noel sentiment, stamped onto a punched marvy extra jumbo scallop square, from Dawn McVeys handwritten Signature Christmas set.
Here they are all packaged up!

Now onto some hot chocolate & other drink gifts:

As I posted the other day I made Trendy Tubes Hot Chocolate gifts. You can find the post here. These are individual gifts but I plan on using PTI's Tea Tin to create a family version along with some other treats to eat and drink on a cold Northern Canadian winter's day! All the treat ideas will be packaged up into a nice basket. If you also look at the post below this one you will see a PTI plastic card box that I have decorated. I have placed some drink items inside.

Now onto reusing PTI Stamp boxes:

I have a soon to be SIL whom I have just met. The two of us went to Sweet Flour in Toronto where you can create your own cookie and have it baked in front of you. Now my brother is Vegan so can't eat this sweet delicious treat, so I have put together a Hot Chocolate, Peppermint Patty, Gift Certificate package. I am reusing a PTI Stamp box to put together this package.

To create the Gingerbread Peppermint patty I used my scallop punch again, and just added some small circles to create the arms and legs. The sugarcoating is created using a white ballpoint pen. Added some hole punched red circles for buttons and a small ribbon as a bow. The box is wrapped in dark chocolate paper which has been stamped using a gingerbread stamp in Fresh Snow Ink (PTI). Ribbon was then wrapped around the box and jingle bells were added to the bow.
On the right of the above picture is a Gingerbread man created from the Top Note Die, marvy oval punch (blue), 3/4" circle punch, and the 1 1/4" circle punch cut in half to create the eye lids. The gingerbread man's edges were inked with Fresh Snow to make it look like icing. Then on the back of the gingerbread man I die cut another top note die, but cut it in half. I adhered just the edges so that it becomes a little pocket and the gift certificate to Sweet Flour will fit inside.

Here are two other Top Note Die Gift Certificate holders I made. Another gingerbread one and a snowman.

Do you see the gift that is illuminated???? Alot of people are making these these days. It is simply a glass cube (this one is repurposed from a lady's house here in town, but you can buy them at your local hardware store). You tie ribbon around it, tie a bow and decorate, drill a hole into the back side, and feed a small set of Christmas lights into the back. Neat huh???
Here is what I haven't gotten to. My to do list:

1. Nugget Tins

2. Alter Tea Tin into Family Hot Chocolate Package

3. Pillow Box gift certficate holders

4. Note Books

5. Christmas Crackers (heres last years picture) This year the items inside wont be cheesy

6. Still need to decorate my kraft pages.

Stay tuned for views of all of these, plus my Christmas Cards. I am not posting my cards here as I did not use any PTI supplies on them (as I made them last year).

Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Packaging Ideas

Here is a sneak peak at two ways I am gift wrapping this year. All my gifts have to be mailed and shipped quite a distance, as both our parents and the rest of our family live across Canada. With that being said most of the gifts are small, so I want the packaging to be chic so that they forget how small the gift is they are opening.

You can also see in this picture my colour scheme for this Christmas....Enchated Evening, Scarlet Jewel, and Vintage Cream (all PTI).

Gift Box
The first gift idea uses a plastic card box (PTI) to place the gift items inside. I can't tell you what is inside as my family reads my blog; however there is tons of room to put something to take the chill off a winter's evening ;) I simply added ribbon, snowflakes and an image panel.


Ingredients:
Stamps: Warm happiness (PTI), Signature Christmas (PTI)
Ink: Enchanted Evening (PTI), Scarlet Jewel (PTI)
Paper: Enchanted Evening (PTI), Vintage Cream (PTI),
Accessories: Marvy Circle Punches (GIGA & MEGA), Enchanted Evening Ribbon (PTI), Marvy Snowflake punch (extra jumbo), Martha Stewart Glitter.

Stocking Gift Bag
This is a template by Lauren Meader. They can be purchased here. It is perfect for chocolates, candy, or small items like a pair of socks ;). I simply followed the template directions, added some stitching, and done!

Ingredients:

Stamps: Guide Lines (PTI)

Ink: Enchanted Evening (PTI), Scarlet Jewel (PTI), Fresh Snow (PTI)

Paper: Enchanted Evening (PTI), Vintage Cream (PTI)

Accessories: Template (PTI); Embroidery Floss, needle, pop dots

Christmas Ideas

Here is a simple Christmas idea. Fill some Trendy Tubes with Hot Chocolate, add some fancy ribbon, a label and a tag. Voila a simple Christmas idea in 5 mins.

Yes that is snow in the background, and yes it is only October 11, 2009!!!!!!!

I'm still working on some more Christmas ideas. When they are finished I will share them.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Ingredients:

Stamps: PTI Holiday Treats

Ink: Enchanted Evening and Scarlett Jewel (PTI)

Paper: Vintage White (PTI)

Accessories: Enchanted Evening Satin Ribbon (PTI), Extra Jumbo Scalloped Punch (Marvy), embroidery floss

Apple Gift for Parents

Well Tuesday is the first day of school, so I have put together a little gift for the parents. This is their child's first year of school and I thought the parent's needed a little something.

I had hoped the card would have been smaller, but by the time I made it cute it was a little bigger than anticipated. Oh well. The child can eat the apple and the parents can keep the cute little reminder that they are just as much as a teacher as I am

Ingredients:
Stamps: Apple from SU Tart & Tangy
Paper: U Real Red; green scraps; DSP (SU)
Ink: SU Real Red; SU Old Olive
Accessories: ribbon; buttons; embroidery floss; circle punch; binder clips

August Papertrey Bloghop

Hello Everyone...time for another Papertrey Bloghop. Thanks for stopping by!! While you are here why not check out the rest of my postings. Unfortunately I cannot post to the PTI Gallery. I don't have a photo program to resize my pictures, so the gallery wont let me upload any. :(

My inspiration for fall was a kraft gift bag and remembrance of twig frames created as a kid.

The sentiment reads "Nuttin' is better than saying thanks so much".

All I did for this gift bag was cut the DSP down to size; Stamp the PTI Guide Lines background stamp in Chocolate Chip ink; stamp the tree then cut it out; stamp the images and cut them out; punch a fence; print off the sentiment; find some twigs and twine the ends together and voila my simple yet cute fall gift bag.

Ingredients:

Stamps: PTI My Punny Valentine; PTI Guide Lines; PTI Mega Mixed Messages; SU Season of Friendship

Paper: SU Kraft; SU Chocolate Chip; Martha Stweart fall DSP

Ink: SU Chocolate Chip; SU Summer Sun; SU Pumpkin Pie; SU Really Rust; SU Ruby Red; SU Old Olive; PTI Lemon Tart; PTI Fresh Snow

Accessories: Martha Stewart Fence punch; kraft gift bag; twigs; computer font sentiment; twine

Sail Boat Gift Card Tin

I have been revamping how I store my clear stamps, and since PTI's stamps use CD cases I have now moved all my other clear stamps into CD cases as well. It just seemed more logical to have all my stamps organized similarly. So when I was finished I was left with those little tins that Gel-a-tin stamp sets come in. So I decided to cover the tin, add an image and use it as a gift card holder.

Ingredients:

Stamps: PTI's Men of Life

Paper: DSP The Daily Grind by Michelle Coleman "Sparkle"; SU Whisper White; SU Real Red; PTI Lemon Tart; SU Bashful Blue Textured

Ink: Su Real Red

Accessories: Cuttlebug; Circles Embossing Folder; hemp; pop dots

Little House on the Recipe Box!

I decided to alter another one of Micheal's $1.50 recipe boxes. You can see my other version here. Instead of totally altering the purpose of the box, I just decided to dress it up a little and keep the box as an actual recipe box. Last time I was at Micheal's I found this gorgeous DSP and thought it would work well on the recipe box. I simply wrapped the sides and bottom of the box using the Heidi Grace Design DSP. I then used some felt scalloped ribbon to hide the seam at the bottom of the box. As you can see in this picture it says 'special recipes'. I used PTI's Holiday Treats sentiment "Special Recipe" and added an "S" from PTI's Simple Alphabet since the fonts are the same. The bracket is also from the Holiday Treats stamp set. The sentiment was punched out using SU Curvy Label Punch. I then punched another Curvy Label using SU Pink Passion cardstock, but turned the punch on its side to then mat the white cardstock over.

The top of the recipe box is covered in PTI's Aqua Mist cardstock. The original DSP I had didn't really match the bright ribbon, so I changed my mind at the last second. Here is a picture of the label I added to the top of the recipe box. I started with punching a Marvy Giga Scalloped Square out of SU Pink Passion. I then stamped the curvy label stamp with SU Pink Passion ink, and layered it with PTI's Holiday Treats "Home Made" sentiment (I just cut out the Christmas portion). I thought this went perfectly with the house DSP and the fact that most recipes usually become a special family recipe.

Inside I included some recipe cards and a set of four glass magnets with kitchen themes (green pepper; red kettle; pumpkin; and an oven mitt)

Now, who am I going to give this too??!!!???

Ingredients:

Stamps: PTI Holiday Treats; PTI Simple Alphabet; SU Curvy Label

Paper: DSP Heidi Grace Designs "A Little Bird's Tale/Houses"; SU Pink Passion; PTI Aqua Mist; SU Whisper White

Ink: SU Pink Passion; SU Bashful Blue

Accessories; Marvy Giga Square Scallop Punch; SU Curvy Label Punch; Buttons; Embroidery Floss; Felt ribbon; Recipe box; Recipe Cards; Magnets

Teacher's Gift

This is a altered clipboard I made last year for a colleague. We shared a classroom, with him teaching in the morning, and myself in the afternoon. He always was using clipboards to organize his things, and thought I would jazz one up for him. On the bottom left hand side is a 3X3 sticky note pad. On the right hand side is a calendar for the year. The pen is attached using velcro. The DSP is from Micheal's and I added a piece of solid red across the top. Added some green grosgrain ribbon to hide the seam, and added some teaching stickers along the ribbon. The back was covered in the same paper.

Blueberry Pomegranate Martinis

A friend of mine and myself got some....let's say unfavorable news....regarding jobs today. Things are still up in the air but my friend is quite upset. So I thought I would whip together a quick little gift for her. The bag is a wonderful $1.50 purchase at Micheal's. I made a quick tag using a Stamping Bella sentiment, scraps, and my sizzix square dies.

Inside is a Blueberry Pomegranate Martini mix from Walmart (steal of a deal too!!). Some napkins. Now I know the sentiment is referring to wine, but the colours matched the Martini box, and with everything going on right now I know she'll want to gulp it down. I also threw in four coasters. The coasters orignially came in a package of like 30 for $1.50 (again from Micheal's). I just thought it was a cute gift to help get her mind off of things.

And I had all these items stored away in my 'tickle trunk' which were all purchased at separate dates. Funny how they all go together so well. I just love cheap steals...I mean deals. :)

Ingredients:

Stamps: Sentiment from Stampin Bella

Paper: SU Whisper White; SU Brilliant Blue

Ink: SU Brilliant Blue
Accessories: Square Sizzix dies; cuttlebug; dark blue embroidery floss; burgendy wine bag; napkins; four coasters; blue tissue paper

Here's to Sailing into Retirement

Well I just came back from a retirement party and the theme was Cruise into Retirement. The organizers had done an amazing job. Since it was the principal retiring all the students were involved. They each created a passport with their personal information and best wishes for the principal. They had these posted on the way to the gym along with a cruise ship advertisement. The hallway to the gym is actually on an incline (ramp like) so they created a dock out of the ramp and even had a cruise ship horn and marina sounds repeating on a stereo. The gym itself was decorated like a beach and had more cruise themed items. It is hard to describe, but was absolutley fabulous. So when I came home today I used the idea of a retirement to finish my project I started yesterday. I started this gable type box yesterday and was working with the sailboat from Men of Life but was stuck on what sentiment to use. So after my inspiration from tonight's retirement party I decided on "Here's to sailing into retirement".

I did find the box a little harder to create than anticipated. It was a little more flimsy than I thought to put together and I struggled to cut out the handle and the sides. Next time I make this I think I use an oval punch for the handle instead of free handing it. Anyways, here is what I whipped together.

Ingredients:

Stamps: PTI Men of Life; PTI Mega Mixed Messages

Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie Textured; SU Bashful Blue; DSP

Ink: SU Only Orange; SU Brilliant Blue

Accessories: Cuttlebug circle embossing template; hemp; ribbon; pop dots; computer sentiments

Father's Day Cookout

**Update** This post was written a long time ago hence Hockey Playoffs. However I haven't been able to get the scrapin' done like I hoped this week. So I have decided to post my Father's Day card and gift ensemble. My dad doesn't look at my blog unless my mother shows him things, so no harm in posting it early.

So...I finally caved in and purchased my first pack of Copics!!!! We just wont tell the DH exactly how much they cost. Anyways.....while I was watching Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals I decided to start my Father's Day card (I am only posting this now, so my father didn't actually see the card before the day). This was the perfect opportunity to try out my new copics. I find that the copics actually work better than the SU Write Markers. I love how the copics allow you to blend, and the colours don't smear. So far so good, I can't wait to try using them again. My father loves BBQing so I thought I would alter the sentiment on the card to say "Father's Day Cookout". I also used a portion of the "Happy Father's Day" sentiment from PTI's Men of Life stamp set, and then added the cookout word using PTI's Simple Alphabet. The dots on the bottom are from the Men of Life stamp. I just repeated them for some balance. I don't have the new Riley BBQ stamp, so decided to use the campfire one instead. His gift includes some BBQ sauce from Buster's Barbecue in Vermillion Bay Ontario (world famous), and a Brisket BBQ salt and pepper shaker. When I saw the salt and pepper shaker I just had to get it. One of our local gift stores had a whole bunch of neat BBQ items, but my father lives in Southern Ontario...and I am in Northern Ontario, so whatever I buy needs to make the trip in the mail. So I chose something small, but still cute.

I tried to stay very masculine with the colour combination of browns and blues, and I used up some scrap lined paper and argyle ribbon. I was thinking patterns on men's ties, shirts, and sweaters when I was putting this together. Clean lines, patterns, and neutral colours. I think it turned out quite well considering I rarely make masculine cards.

A close up look at my copic colouring. I am still learning and playing around with shading and highlighting, but think I did a pretty good job for my first time working with the copics.

The famous Blueberry Buster's BBQ sauce from Vermillion Bay, Ontario. It also comes in hot, but since my mother hates anything hot and spicy I decided to give my dad the regular BBQ sauce. They also sell a spice rub, which I haven't tried yet.

These are all the copic colours I used to colour in Campfire Riley.

Ingredients:
Stamps: Hana Stamps "Campfire Riley"; PTI Men of Life; PTI Simple Alphabet

Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate ;SU Creamy Caramel; SU Whisper White; lined scrap paper

Ink: SU Chocolate Chip

Accessories: brads, copics (B); argyle ribbon; pop dots

Still Craving Chocolate

So I am still desperately craving Chocolate and Ice cream. When I was creating my cards yesterday an old song "Sweet like Chocolate" by Shanks & Bigfoot came into my head and I haven't been able to get rid of the lyrics since. Hence the new song on the blog. Anyways, since I still had sweets on my brain I was trying to figure out a cute gift that could go with one of the cards. Then I remembered I had saved a baking magazine that used small mason jars to create cute little individual cupcakes as party favours. I thought they were so cute and have been wanting to make them, but just haven't had a reason to. Well I just came home from work and was about to post my great idea when I came across Papertrey Ink's new releases. They have just started introducing their new releases today and Nichole Heady has introduced a new cupcake stamp set, and then on Lauren Meader's blog she shared her new template that holds a cupcake in a jar. So, my idea isn't so new any more. Oh well...but it is kinda eerie that we are all on the same cupcake craze...or should I say crave???

Bouncing Baby Boy

One of our colleagues just had a Baby Boy Thursday night, and the lady who bought my card yesterday asked me to make a baby boy card for our colleague. I thought I would try out this months PTI Design Team Tip using the reverse punch idea. This is what I came up with.

In addition I used a small Dollarama pail, covered it with a BabyBoy sticker and added a pair of yellow socks.

Unfortunately last time my mom came to visit I sent her sewing machine back home with her. She had given it to me 3 years ago, and I had never taken it out of the box. Now I was wishing I had it back. Since I do not have a sewing machine I decided to punch holes around the circles and use a white gel pen to faux stitch around the circles. I then continued the faux stitch around the outside of the card.

Ingredients:

Stamps: PTI Mega Mixed Messages

Paper: Kraft cardstock; SU Bashful Blue DSP (hostess set)

Ink: SU Very Vanilla

Accessories: PTI Lemon Tart Saddle Stitch Ribbon; buttons; redline tape; various circle punches; pin; white gel pen.

On the inside of the card I used the circle negatives, added the faux stitching and added simple sentiments in the center.

Newfie Night Lobsterfest

So this weekend was our Newfie Night Lobsterfest. A group in Dryden put together this annual lobsterfest to support the local community. This year the money was going towards the Red Cross. One of our best friends is actually from Newfoundland so we went with them last year. We were invited again this year so drove into Dryden for another fun filled Newfie Night Lobsterfest. Tickets were only $30 and you ended up with a 1 ½ pound lobster, mussels, baked potato, 5 types of salads, buns, and dessert. There were silent auction items, ticket door prizes, an ever-flowing bar, and a dance. The music was mostly Atlantic Canada music (like Great Big Sea or the Rankins) with a touch of country and a few other older hits. The night went well for all of us. We had a huge group this year, so it was nice to socialize and dance. However, the organizers unfortunately ran into a huge situation. Apparently the consumer sent the lobsters by pound. When the organizers requested lobsters by numbers. So this discrepancy left 50-60 people without dinner..YIKES! We were lucky that our table was in line second.

Since our friends were letting us crash at their place, and they purchased the tickets for us a head of time, I thought I would put together a little thank you gift. I was thinking Newfoundland, ocean, lobster, so beach.

I took an plastic orange pail and shovel, added plastic reusable ice cubes, two plastic cups, some cute napkins, and added a bottle of rye. I also attached a bottle opener on the side of the pail that is attached with a chain. I had a vision of a beach party in my mind and was thinking the pail could be used for ice and you could scoop the ice out using the tiny shovel. Or you could place a few beer in the pail with the ice. Anyways, I thought it was cute, and I absolutely fell in love with the napkins I purchased at a local gift shop. The colours worked perfectly with the pail.

The colours were so great they matched a card that I already had on hand. The card uses SU Pick a Petal stamps to create surfboards. I also brayed and sponged the background colours to form the sky, water, and beach.
Ingredients:
Stamps: SU Pick a Petal; EZ Success Sentiment (part of one..the word "hang"); PTI Simple Alphabet (#10)

Paper: SU Whisper White; SU Tempting Turquoise; SU Only Orange; SU Chocolate Chip textured

Ink: SU Real Red; SU YoYo Yellow; SU Only Orange; SU Creamy Caramel; SU Chocolate Chip; SU Tempting Turquoise; SU Bashful Blue; SU Brilliant Blue

Accessories; Brayer; sponges; white gel pen; brad