Joy tag with Phrase Play #8

When I was on my crafty retreat last month I got to borrow this fabulous Phrase Play #8 die and the coordinating stamp set. I love it! It's my favorite one and I'm going to have to buy it for myself.



I cut the die from Raspberry Fizz cardstock and mounted it on Vintage Cream. I then trimmed around it (I looked in my stash for a mat that would fit or work and didn't have one so just used the good ol' trimmer. :) )

I added a bit of shimmer to the star with my Wink of Stella pen. Love that thing. My intent is to use this as a tag - punch a small hole in the top corner and thread it with some pretty baker's twine.

PTI SAF

It's time for Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire celebration. Regrettably, I won't be able to play tomorrow because my son has a soccer tournament out of town. But you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be playing on Sunday!

Here's me and my crafting "kitchen".






My stamp storage (basket is busting at the seams!) and cardstock.


Happy crafting!

Salsa gifts

There's an unwritten policy at my DH's work and that is that you have to buy a Christmas present for your boss(es) and employee(s). Ugh. He spent as much on his bosses and employees as he did on me. As you can tell, I'm less than pleased with the dent this made in our Christmas budget.

Anyway, enough of my complaining. My DH is known for his salsa. It's good but it's hot. And I don't mean a little bit hot. I mean A LOT hot. Like, make-you-cry-and-sweat hot. Too much for me even though I beg him each year to make a batch that's milder. He tries. He really does. But I think his taste buds are all burned off and he can't tell what's mild anymore. So, along with a Target gift card, all his work recipients got a jar of "medium hot" salsa. And he asked me to fancy them up a bit.



I punched a 2" circle from Pure Poppy, stamped it with some old Christmas stamps (don't recall the mfr but the designer is Danielle something - helpful, aren't I?). Tied a bow of black and white plaid ribbon around the neck of the Mason jar, cut a small length of leaf ribbon, a Tiny Tag die cut, and a bell that I had previously spray painted. I bought a bag of bells at Michael's and they were bright gold so I just spray painted them white. It took quite a while for them to dry.

Used a glue dot to stick the snowman gift card to the top and voila! A cute gift left on many desks at DH's work.

Supplies:
Stamps: Tiny Tags (PTI)
Other: plaid ribbon (Michael's), bell (Michael's), leaf ribbon and white twine (PTI)

Teacher Gifts

Holy cow! It's been a long time. Funny how life has a way of prioritizing itself for you, isn't it?! We've been so busy lately with ball games (soccer, t-ball, and softball) and I've been working most Saturdays so all that seems to push blogging right down to the bottom of the priority list. I have managed to get some crafting time in though.

I know the end of the school year has passed for most folks but I wanted to show you the gifts I made for my kids' teachers. I took this idea directly from Betsy's blog. I loved the idea the moment I saw it and I must say they turned out quite darling. I'll definitely be trying this one again - so cute for holding gift cards! Even DH said they were neat, which is much higher on the compliment list than, "that's nice, dear." lol

I used the PTI large glassine bag and folded it in half. Then I measured the tag that my gift card was going to be on and sewed two straight lines so that they form a pocket on the front of the card. I then cut a piece of paper for the front; this ruler PP is from Cosmo Cricket. Seemed appropriate for a teacher card. :)

Here you can see how the card looks from the "back" (this is the other style I made.) You can also see the stitching on this one a little easier since I used red thread.

Here's a close-up of the pocket for the gift card to slip into. I used Top Note and Text Style (you can barely see it but it's there on the bottom of the circles.) You can also see a bit of the inside of the card.

Here's the inside of the card. I had some leftover "school" PP so adhered that to the inside and had the kids write a note to their teacher. We were in a hurry and against my better judgment I had my kindergartner just start writing without thinking it through and writing it on scratch paper first so that he could just copy it. This is what I get - lots of scribbles! :) Hope his teachers don't mind!

Lastly, I put the card inside a large glassine bag, topped with a scalloped strip that had been stamped with arbitrary letters from Outline Alphabet. Doesn't that look like chalk on a chalkboard? I know teachers don't use chalkboards anymore but, alas, I don't know how to make it look like a "smart board." :~) A pretty gingham ribbon and it's good to go.

I don't know if anyone is still checking my blog since it's been so long but, if you do, thank you so much! I hope to post again soon - many cards and even a few scrapbook pages I'd love to share with you. Have a great day!