Holiday Checklist

Tags for gifts are my focus at this point in the season. I am missing the tag challenges there used to be as we counted down to Christmas. It was a great place to be inspired by others' ideas. A few days ago I got out my CZ Design Noted Holiday stamp and die set again to use more of the fun phrases.

What I used: 

• Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Noted Holiday stamp and die sets, Be of Good Cheer die set
• Sizzix Christmas Minis die set
• Hero Arts Infinity Tags die set
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Red glitter cardstock
• Silver cardstock

We can never have enough gift tags at Christmas. I needed a pink one for the pretty box in the photo. The red glitter paper is not dark like it photographed, but bright and cheerful. Now to check on wrapping paper supply, then make a few tags with any new or old papers I find.

Here's hoping the week ahead is a memorable one for everyone!

Carol

A Gift for You

Another gift card holder is complete and I am sharing this one over at Freshly Made Sketches #717. As soon as I saw the sketch I pictured these elements. This scene could depict someone hugging their gift or the gift exchange game where people pick a gift under the tree, then others can "steal it" three times before it stays with the last person who had it. Everybody wants that exceptional gift and this could be two people fighting over it.

What I used: 

• My Favorite Things Craft Hands die set, tag sentiment
• Stampin' Up! inside sentiment, ribbons, patterned paper outside
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Spellbinders silver gems
• Tear tape (to make the bow)
• Foam tape (to pop up the gift)

Just a couple of notes: I added tiny gems to the gift paper for festive fun and I made the miniature bow like ones we used to make years ago. I die cut the hands but didn't put the cutting plate all the way to the arm end of the die so that I could make the arms longer by using scissors to cut the forearms. The tutorial for the bag is here and Amanda Mertz made a very clear and concise way to make these inner bags. I sneaked in my sentiment as the gift tag on the box to go with the FMS sketch and the arms are the elements that come in from both sides like the cute Santa belt by DT Michelle Langley. Just love the DT cards for this challenge.

Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year! I'm so glad you visited here.

Carol

Sending a Dash of Gingerbread Magic

Are you doing some (or a lot of) baking these days? I just made some frosted sugar cookies for a neighborhood gathering the other night. We took our beach chairs and sat on the sidewalk across the street from an amazing house light display that one neighbor sets up each year, synched to music. We brought treats to share and BYOB beverages...and it just happened to be chilly here that evening. I made hot apple chai (spiced apple cider with chai syrup). Christmas in a cup!

Yesterday I saw that the Inspired By Challenge #IB367 was about Gingerbread. I immediately thought of this cute die set (Sizzix Christmas Minis) and sat down to make a card today that hopefully gives a decorated cookie feel. I love candy dots on cookies so I added Tim Holtz Idea-ology droplets to the card. The sentiment is Spellbinders Stay Snuggly Stamp and die sets using Altenew Obsidian black ink pad.

Here is the finished project after much die cutting! I do want to make some gingerbread cookies now but I'll wait until our daughter gets here so we can decorate them together.

Below is a photo from the light show the other night. The colors and songs changed over and over again with no repeated songs. There was mostly Christmas music but also pop and other genres. It is so well done!

Here's to a fun holiday season and lots of good food before the dieting starts in two weeks! 

Ha ha!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carol

You're on the Nice List

I made a masculine gift card holder today as a fun way to present a present. This is the third one of its kind this week! What's extra fun is that the gift-card-gift-bag pops up when the recipient opens the card. Then the actual gift card is inside this fun bag! The bag matches the pajamas too!

What I used:

• Spellbinders Cozy Toes die set, Betterpress sentiment
• MFT Jingle all the Way stamp set
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Patterned paper scraps and ribbon

The bag folds flat when the card is closed. That's the beauty of it. Here is the tutorial for it from my previous post created by Amanda Mertz.

I am playing along at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Simon Says Anything Christmas /Holidays as well as Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Wrap it Up! It's a great way to wrap a gift card right?

It's so nice to make things now that are not pressing for time. If only I could say that about my shopping. I'm very close.

Happy Holidays!

Carol

Tree of Ribbons

It is time again for the Instagram CASE It Hop! Once a month some cardmaking friends each choose a card they like on Instagram and CASE it...make a similar but not exact copy of it. I chose the @sammakescards beautiful version of this Alex Syberia Build a Bow Christmas Tree die set. See her card after these two photos of mine. Her colors are so bold and beautiful! It is such an elegant tree, isn't it? I actually ended up with two cards after I felt like my first one seemed too similar to hers. Here is my card for the hop.

I added this gift card holder (below) inside my card that I've seen for a while but never tried. I love it! Here's the link to Amanda Mertz' tutorial. It folds flat when you close the card.

This is Samantha's gorgeous card below. I love how she used black to contrast the bright colors of her gorgeous bows. The gold bows are just beautiful!

My card above Samantha's is the one I am using for the CASE It Instragram Hop. It is the "pinks and oranges" one on a silver tree. I doubled up some of the bows by using a smaller bow on top of a bigger one to add dimension. I added silver rhinestones to the center of the bows too to "fancy" it up. Our Christmas tree when I was a child was a silver one with a color wheel sitting nearby that rotated through the primary colors to shine on the tree. I loved that tree so much. I enjoyed helping put it up each year.

I am also playing along at Inspired by Challenge #IB366 Bright Christmas with my card. I love their graphic with the gorgeous colors!

The card below is the first one I made after getting the dies. It has an acetate window that peeks in at the pink tree inside. The bows are on top of the window. My daughter loves gold with pink so that was why I used my dies with those colors.

I die cut the tree opening on a white panel that is smaller than A2 size. Then I added the acetate behind the tree opening. I popped up this panel with foam tape on the front of the A2 card base. After die cutting lots of bows, I placed them on the tree. Last, I added the rhinestones for sparkle!

What I used for the two cards:

• Alex Syberia Build a Bow Christmas Tree die set
• Pink, gold, orange cardstock scraps
• Gold and silver glitter cardstock
• Spellbinders rhinestones
• Crate Paper patterned paper for the gift bag
• Stampin' Up! sentiment stamp (older)
• Ribbon

You can start the hop at my account: @sawithadtomakeit if you wish. This is a fun hop because you see two card ideas per person, their own card and the one they CASEd. Hope to see you there!

Happy Holidays!

Carol

2025 Gift Tags

I am trying to finish up my papercrafts for 2025 and I have these NBUS dies that were begging to be used. I like the ease of small tag projects like this in addition to making bookmarks year round for our neighborhood Little Free Library. With tags I can do a few per day leading up to wrapping packages. I am playing along at The Paper Players with their PP767 Gifting theme.

The die are all from Simon Says Stamp and the stencil is Tm Holtz with Stampers Anonymous. I used Distress inks to stencil. These little dies are so easy and fun to use...mixing and matching colors and adding gems and a stenciled background. The brims of the hats got a touch of Wink of Stella for sparkle. I love colored twine and have quite a collection. It is easy to tie onto packages, so it is my go-to ribbon for the most part.

Are you "wrapping up" your holiday drafts at this point? I'm enjoying Christmas music while I craft. 

Happy Holidays and Merry Everything!

Carol

Sending Frosty Hugs Tag

It's time again for the Gorgeous Tags Instagram Hop and the last one for 2025. The optional detail is Christmas-themed. I CASEd a Simon Says Stamp die set with things I already own. It was fun to try using my dies in ways they weren't meant to be used. I am in tag mode now for the most part and many will be CASEs of tags I have seen and admired over the past couple of years. 

What I used to make the tag:

My Favorite Things - Stitched Tall Triangle dies

Spellbinders - Festive Friends dies, Stay Snuggly Stamp set

Sizzix - Be of Good Cheer die set (stars)

Silver cardstock (stars)

Altenew Obsidian Black ink pad

Twine

Pom pom

I had to build little tabs on the triangles to hold three of them together. I decorated the outside of them first, then added the tabs and twine, then adhered them together to form a pyramid. I added the stamped/die cut sentiment on one side and the silver stars on all three sides. Then I die cut a mini tag and wrote the name of the recipient of the gift with this tag on it. I threaded it onto the twine.

Be sure to hop along. The ladies have prepared such nice tags and hope you will visit them to see what they've created. You can go to my instagram @sawithadtomakeit if you wish to begin there.

We'll be back in January 2026!

Carol

Winter Cheers

At Time Out Challenges #303 we have a pretty inspiration photo for you! The photo is our teammate Ishani and her daughters wearing beautiful dresses. I took the colors mauve from the dress on the left and blue and white from the lights in the ceiling to make a wintery interactive card. The cup of cocoa (or coffee, tea) slides down and off the gate fold card base. I have used this card style quite a bit and this die set once before. When I recently saw that Heejung Hunsberger used both together (here), I asked her if she minded me making one like hers. She quickly replied and said "of course" so here is my card.

Photo Credit: Ishani. Dharamsala, India. Date 16 Apr 2024

Our wonderful sponsor is Birch Press Design with a generous offer of a $20 store credit as a prize for our Challenge Winner, who will also be invited to join us as Guest Designer for a future challenge.

We are joined by talented cardmaker Trina Pham of Phamtastic Design, and winner of Time Out #298 as our Guest Designer.

What I used:

• Spellbinders Mugs & Mittens die set, Stay Snuggly stamp set
• Hero Arts Hero Hues ink pad in Espresso
• My Favorite Things Inside and Out Stitched Circle dies (slider mechanism)
• Sugar Pea Designs ard Front Element Builder dies (inside scalloped rectangle)
• Archival ink pad in Cobalt
• White glitter cardstock (mug)

This card starts with a gate fold card base. The photo of the mechanism for the slider piece can be found here at the bottom of the post. If you are interested in the measurements just comment and I can give them to you along with a couple of hints. Here is a video of how it is made. It is in Spanish but you can see exactly how she makes it.

Decorate the "gates" of the card with patterned paper or embossed panels. Slide the mechanism up the middle of the  card when closed. It is a fun interactive card to make and give to others.

Be sure to check out all of the team's blogs and that of our guest Trina. I learn new techniques all the time from their stories.

See you in the gallery!

Carol 

Christmas Postage

These Alex Syberia postage stencils are super fun (even though the postage die is sold out currently) and the samples on their website encouraged me to use non-traditional colors. I put together a few different companies' products and chose my colors to be jewel-toned. I decided to play along at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes with my card on this first day of Diecember for them.

What I used:

Alex Syberia Christmas Stencils

Waffle Flower Postage Collage die, Postage Collage stamp Love set

Pink Fresh Studio Festive Grid

Stampin Up! Winter Post stamp set

Rhinestones

Altenew Obsidian black ink pad

Concord & 9th min ink pad set

Ranger Distress and Distress Oxide ink pads

By changing the colors that you stencil with you change the whole look. I popped up my postage on foam tape on top of the fun festive grid cover die. Red rhinestones were added for some sparkle!

Happy Holidays to you all,

Carol