Hershey's Nugget Boxes!

I really wanted to do those Hershey's Nuggets that everyone has been making, however I never ordered any of the tins and really didn't want the extra expense of the tins. While at the store yesterday I bought a couple of bags of the Nuggets and figured that I would decorate them and just put them in some decorated bags to give as little gifts for the holidays.

While running through my supplies in my head trying to think of which bags I might use to put them in, it dawned on me that I have all of these little plastic boxes that I have saved from The Angel Company's gift with purchase (GWP) stamps. If you don't know what the GWP stamps are, they are the ones you get free with every $30 in orders. I always save the boxes that mine come in because they are great for storing little embellishments, etc. Turns out they work well for nuggets too!

Here is the outside of the box. I just cut a piece of cardstock to fit the top which is about 2 1/2" x 2 3/8". For this one I embossed a piece of cream cardstock with one of my holiday Cuttlebug embossing folders, punched it out with a scalloped circle punch, and added some Crystal Stickles to the snowflakes to give it some sparkle. Easy!


I used Papertrey's Holiday Treats stamp set to decorate the nuggets by stamping on the Avery address labels. Just stamp your label and wrap one around each Nugget.

I also made a small card to attach inside the bottom of the box. This was cut to the same size as the piece for the lid. I stamped a little holiday message on the bottom. For this one I used stamps from Tis The Season. My inks for the labels and the card on the bottom were Palette Moulin Rouge and Jardin Moss. These two colors are beautiful for Christmas!

And there you have it...so, don't forget to save those little GWP boxes!

Reindeer Joy

Here is the card that I made for this week's sketch over on the 2P's board. If you want to see the sketch that Dawn posted, just click here. I'm always keeping all of those little scraps of paper and I hardly ever use them. This particular sketch provided a great way to use them.
I embossed the front of the card with the Snowflakes Cuttlebug embossing folder. The Reindeer and the "Joy to the World" stamps are from the Tis The Season stamp set. The reindeer was colored with Prismacolor Pencils.

Swap Card & Blog Candy Winner!

Here is a little card that I made for a Snowman swap that I got into. This one was just for a single card, so it was nice and easy...which is about all i'm up for right now so this was perfect!

The snowman on this one is from the Tis The Season stamp set, I used the Snowflakes Cuttlebug folder for the snowflake background.

And, random.org picked the #20 as my winner for the Blog Candy! The 20th post was from linda ss, so please send me your address so I can send out your prize.

2-4-6-8 Joy

Here is a little 2-4-6-8 box that I made for Christmas. These are a really good size for putting some little candies in, or maybe even a small ornament. All of the stamps on this one are from the Simply Christmas stamp set, and the cardstocks are from the Amelia collection.

Be Jolly Magnet

Here is a really simple Christmas magnet that I made today. I colored the hat with Prismacolor Pencils, and added some white Liquid Applique on the trim of the hat to give it some dimension.

This one is a magnet, but you could punch a hole and tie some ribbon in the top to make it a gift tag, or a little ornament, etc.

Winter Flakes

I made another card this afternoon using my sketch as a template for it. On this one I rounded all of the edges, and used circles for the main image just to change it up a bit. The white and light blue papers were both embossed using the Snowflakes embossing folder for the Cuttlebug. Plus I added a little gem to the snowflake to give it a little sparkle!

My First Card Sketch

I volunteered to do this weeks card sketch over on 2P's. I've never made card sketches before, so this is a first for me. My hubby was good enough to recommend using PowerPoint to make the sketch, and that made it a breeze - thanks honey! Being my first sketch and all, I wanted to keep it simple. Here is what I came up with...

And here is the card that I made based on the sketch...

Give the sketch a try, they are always so fun to use and are great to get the creative juices flowing. If you do make something with it let me know, I would love to see it! You can also check out the Stamping Board over on 2P's for more sketch challenges every week.

Embossed Snowman Gift Bag

I'm up to two gift bags for this Christmas now...man, i'm on a roll! I was playing with embossing some punched circles in my Cuttlebug and decided to put them together for a snowman. I used the Marvy scalloped circle punches. I can't remember the names of the three sizes, but I used the Pink, Blue, & Yellow punches. After I punched them I just ran them through my Cuttlebug with the Snowflakes embossing folder.

To decorate him I used small brads for his eyes and nose, medium brads for his buttons, and I used Scrapper's Floss for his mouth and arms. Oh, and I added a little red flower brad on his hat.

The flakes in the background are from TAC's Snowflakes stamp set, and the "Merry Christmas" stamp is one that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

Santa Gift Bag

Since Thanksgiving is over now, I guess it is time to actually get serious about Christmas. I'm going to try to make more of my own gift wrap this year. This gift bag is the first of what will hopefully be many!

I started with a gift bag that I got from the Dollar Tree. They were 2 for $1, so the price is right! I covered the front of the bag with paper from Vintage Holiday, which I believe has just sold out. The red cardstock at the top is from the Bazzill reds pack and the green is from the Bazzill Greens pack. The stamps, Santa and Santa's hat, are both from the Tis the Season stamp set.

Now I am going to have to make a trip to Dollar Tree to get more bags to decorate!

Jingle, Jingle, Jingle!

Here is another Christmas card that I made. I've done a lot of snowman cards lately, so I was trying to stay away from those guys a little bit so I went with this ornament. The background paper is embossed with the Snowflakes Cuttlebug folder, and the sentiment stamp is one of the $1 stamps from Michael's that I picked up. The ornament is a TAC stamp from the Tis The Season stamp set.

Card Candy Swap Pieces

I got into a swap over on MWS called a Card Candy swap. I had never heard of card candy before. Turns out it is where, instead of making an entire card, you make and trade smaller pieces that can be added to a card or other project. Here are the four pieces that I made for the swap.
These were fun to make. It was a nice change thinking in terms of smaller embellishment pieces instead of a whole card. I can't wait to see what everyone else has made.

More Square Christmas Cards

I made two more Christmas cards with my leftover Simply Square Notecards last night. They really don't get more simple than this. On both of these cards I used the Cheers stamp set. If you don't have this one in your collection yet, you want to get it now! It has been one of my favorites for the last 2 years and it is about to retire in December.

In this first card I just stamped the "Joy" stamp from the Cheers set in black ink. Stamped it again on paterned paper and cut out the ornament to piece over the image on my card.


In this one, I stamped the tree stamp from the Cheers stamp set with black ink. I used Green and Red Stickles to color the tree and Icicle Stickles on the star.

Using Up My Stash

I have been cleaning up my table today and I came across a bag of Simply Square Notecards that I have had sitting around for a very long time. Time to use them up! Here is the first one that I have done...
I'm pretty sure that the Simply Square notecards have been discontinued by DCWV. I used the snowman stamp from the Hello Seasons stamp set and colored him in with my Prismacolor Pencils. Super quick and easy!

From Our House To Yours

This is a card that I made for a challenge over on 2Peas that I forgot to post. I love this set of stamps that I got from Papertrey Ink. It is called Holiday Treats. I used Hint Of Pesto and Red Magic VersaMagic Ink to do the background. These two colors go together beautifully and they are a nice change from the traditional Christmas red and green; I really like it!

Holiday Notes

I'm getting started making little Christmas gifts. Here is one that I have so far. This is a Post-It Note holder.

This first picture is the outside. I used the little snowman from the Seasonal Scribbles stamp set. I pieced his scarf with a piece of green cardstock and colored his buttons with the black Souffle Gelly Pen so they are slightly raised. The paterned paper is from Merry Wishes. To cut the notch, I used the Basic Grey Notch & Die tool. I know that a lot of people bought that and didn't care for it a lot, but I have to say that I really like mine!


This second picture shows the inside. The Post-It Notes are from the $1 section in Michael's they were selling these last year so I bought several of them. I will be keeping an eye out for them again this year. They came in a package of 2; not bad for $1!

Had A Great Weekend Stamping!

I got to spend the whole weekend stamping! I packed up some papers, stamps and goodies and headed to my sister's house for the weekend. She lives about an hour from me so it's just easier to stay a couple of days. So while the kids all played together, we spent the weekend playing! She had invited some friends over on Saturday to have a TAC workshop, which was a ton of fun!

Here are a few of the cards that I made over the weekend...

These first three cards are all made with stamps from the Tis The Season stamp set. I'm really loving this stamp set. I just got it last month and it's one of those great stamp sets that has everything you need all in one. I could easily make all of my christmas cards, tags, & bags with just this one set!



In this last one, the 'Joy to the World' stamp in the background is also from Tis The Season. The little tree stamp is from the Cheers stamp set. I colored in the tree with Christmas Red and Green Stickles. Around the bottom I tied some Red and Green Scrapper's Floss. If you haven't heard me say it already, Scrapper's Floss is one of my favorite embellishments. And talk about bang for your buck...you get 30 yards of it for $2.95. It just doesn't get much better than that! I really like how this card turned out; so sparkly and fun!

Double Stuff Embossing Part II

Well, I have done some more playing around with this double embossing with the Cuttlebug. Maggieliz over on GW posted some pictures of some backgrounds that she made with Alcohol Inks and the Cuttlebug embossing folders on her picture trail site: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=18149906&uid=750005 . They are gorgeous! She wrote me and asked if I would play around with what she had done and do a tutorial. So, here goes.

For this one, you will use white glossy cardstock. I do not have any Alcohol Inks, so instead I used my Palette Hybrid Inks. Here are the general supplies for the card I ended up making: Snowflakes Cuttlebug embossing folder, Brayer, Embossing Stamp Pad, White Embossing Powder, Prussian Blue Palette Ink Pad.


Start off by applying the ink directly from the ink pad to the glossy cardstock. Just keep working the pad across the entire surface until you have the look that you want. When the ink is completely dry, place it in the embossing folder and run it through the Cuttlebug. Letting the ink dry is very important to keep the embossing powder from sticking to it later.

Note: You can speed up the drying process with your heat gun!

Next, ink up your brayer with the Embossing ink. I have used a regular embossing pad, but you can also use a VersaMark pad to do this. Roll the ink over the entire surface, until you have all of the raised design inked.

Sprinkle on your white embossing powder. After you have completely covered the area, dump off the excess. You can clean off any excess embossing powder with a small paint brush.

Heat the embossing powder with your heat tool until all of the powder is melted.

When you are done embossing, your paper will look like this. Not only do you have those beautiful, bright white snowflakes, but if you look at the blue in the background, you can see all of the swirling color. In real life you can see all the gloss of the cardstock and it is gorgeous!

Here is the card that I went on to make with my paper. I put it on a white card so that the blue would really pop out. Because the background is so pretty I tried to keep what I was adding on top of it very simple and small so that I didn't end up covering too much of it up.

Things to try: Definitely try the alcohol inks like Maggieliz did, if you have them. On this one I just used a single color. Play around with more ink colors to create different looks.

~Michelle

Double Stuff Embossing!

Well, I have been playing more with the Cuttlebug embossing folders. These things really are a lot of fun to use! This one I have decided to call Double Stuff Embossing, as it involves embossing twice, in two different ways. Dry embossing with the Cuttlebug, and heat embossing with regular embossing powder.

Here are the general supplies that I used for this project: Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder, Scrapper's Floss, Sparkle Embossing Powder, Embossing Stamp Pad, Noir Palette Pad, Prismacolor Pencils, Snowflake Brads, For All Seasons stamp set, Anti-Static bag, small paint brush, Heat Embossing Tool. In this particular card I used white, dark blue and light blue cardstock, but you use whatever you want!



The first thing I did was run my blue cardstock through the Cuttlebug using the Snowflakes embossing folder. Rub the anti-static bag across the paper. Give it a good coat so that you will have minimal excess embossing powder sticking to the paper.


Next, I used the Embossing Stamp Pad and ran it across the top of the embossed design. Be careful not to press down too hard, so that you do not ink the areas inbetween the design. You will be able to see when you have a good coat of ink because it will look wet.

Sprinkle the Sparkle Embossing Powder over all areas that you want embossed. Shake off the excess and use a small paint brush to clear any areas that have unwanted embossing powder. I did find that a lot of excess stays inbetween the designs. Most of it was easily gotten rid of with the paint brush, but some will inevidibly stay.

Heat the embossing powder with a heat gun until all of the powder is melted. This picture shows you the end result. If you look closely you can see the stray embossing powder between the designs. Since the Sparkle Embossing Powder is just clear powder with glitter in it, the strays just add a little extra sparkle! I am going to play with some colored powders as well, to see how they turn out.

Now that it is done you can trim it down to the size you want and use in on a card or other project. Here is a card that I made with mine. Glitter doesn't show up all that well in pictures, so this is much more sparkly in real life. It is really beautiful!

This is my first real attempt that this double embossing, and I really like the way it turned out. Those sparkly blue snowflakes are gorgeous and really add a lot of "wow" to the card! I can't wait to try different powders and different embossing folders to see how they will turn out.

~Michelle

Not Your Traditional Christmas Card

Spoiler Alert: If you are in the Non-traditional Christmas Color card swap over on MWS, then you probably don't want to be peeking at this card!

For everyone else, this is the card that I made for a Non-traditional Christmas Color card swap that I joined. The rules of the swap are that you are to make a Christmas card where you do not use the typical red and green. I tried to stay away from the blue and pink snowflake themes because I figured next to red and green, those would be the next most common. So I went with brown...

Now that it is done, it looks like a cowboy/western Christmas to me. Something about the browns and the inked edges; it just has a really rustic look to it. I used copper brads, which really adds to the effect. I'm going to pull out some gingerbread stamps and use this same color scheme, that should be cute!

For this card I used the new Ornamental Joy stamp from the fall supplement and the background is stamped with a flourish stamp from Curls & Swirls. The card base is basic Brown, and the Joy is stamped on Kraft cardstock. Everything is stamped and the edges are inked with the Burnt Umber Palette pad and I used the corner rounder to round all of the edges.

SOF Bird Challenge

Ok, here is my last challenge project for Stamptoberfest. The challenge for this one was to use bird stamps. I used the new stamp set from TAC's Fall Supplement, Birdie Holiday, which is very pretty if you haven't seen it already. If you haven't checked out the Fall Supplement yet, you should...It is full of brand new stamp sets for the holidays! The background on this one is done with the Cuttlebug Swirls embossing folder. It is on matchmakers cardstock which has the white core so I sanded over the embossing to give it a distressed look. I'm loving the look, so I will be playing with it some more!