Zipper Gift Card

Whew, it feels good to be home.  We spent 9 days on the Maryland coast, unplugged, and doing, nothing.  It was very wonderful!  If any of you get a chance to spend a few days recharging, I strongly suggest turning your cell phone, lap-top, and tablets off.  The absence of these devices is very calming.

Anyways, now onto crafting.  I celebrated Christmas in July a few weeks ago with my Bunco group.  And I wanted to share a popular item.

Zipper Card with matching Gift Bag

I just love gift sets that match.  To me, its a little thing that shows you put thought into what you assembled.  The gift bags are empty, just decorated with matching pattern papers. 

The zipper cards hold a Starbucks gift card.  To open, pull the tab and un-zip the card front to reveal your gift card!

Unfortunately, once unzipped, the card is ruined, but alot of fun to do!  So, I made an identical zipper card, that is un-assembled, so the recipient of the gift bag set, can add their own gift card/cash, and still give away this gift set.

I also included a post card, with the location, dates, and times of the holiday craft fairs that I will be selling my hand-made paper crafts at, this year.  I'm doing something a bit different this year.  If you bring your post card to any one of my craft fairs, and present it, you will receive an exclusive gift.  It's my way of thanking my loyal customers and friends.

Holiday Note

Welcome.  I hope you are well.  I have been super busy, trying, and trying to get everything done this holiday season.  Wheew!  I think I forgot how busy this season is, and I am still struggling to get everything done.  I don't even have my Christmas tree up.  So, it really doesn't feel like Christmas.  Maybe that's why I'm having so much difficulty.  

I did find an hour few hours this morning to get a jump start on a few holiday thank you notes.  (the stores aren't open yet, anyways.)  

I was shopping at a local scrapbook store several weeks ago, when I saw these papers, and I just had to purchase them.  I knew that I wanted to do something with them, for Christmas, but didn't have any idea at the time of purchase.  Well, I found a  use for them!  Christmas 'Thank You' cards!

The card base is Old Olive card stock.  The pattern paper is from Authentique, it's one of their holiday lines, Peaceful.  I guess the first thing I thought was, green, black and cream for a holiday paper?  uhm.  Well, I have to admit, I just love the simplicity of it.  I used three of the pattern papers (the bird, the stripes, and the flourish) for my card front.  Because the papers were CAS, I wanted my card front to follow.  I used the Tasteful Trim die from Stampin' Up! to make the scallop trim on the card.

The sentiment panel is from Paper Trey Ink, called Stylish Sentiments.  This stamp set, has a variety of holiday stamps that are square (like this one), rectangle tall and rectangle long, with a variety of three different styles.  So, to me, very versatile and easy to work with.  I stamped my sentiment in Basic Black classic ink onto very vanilla card stock.  I distressed the edges with Crumb Cake classic ink and sponge, and swiped Pear Pizzazz classic ink pad across various spots.  I matted the sentiment square onto Old Olive card stock and used foam tape to 'lift' the sentiment square off the card front.  

I used some of my Old Fashion Christmas crinkled seam binding from Prairie Boutique , to tie a multi-loop bow, and secured it to the front of my card with a Recollections pearl brad.  I created two different tiny tags, one is 'Thanks', the other is from a holiday post mark.  Both tags where stamped with Old Olive classic ink, and the edges were distressed with Crumb Cake classic ink.  

The sentiment on the lower right side of the card is from Paper Trey Ink, called Signature Christmas.  The thing I love most about this set, is the small, beautiful font.  These stamps fit perfectly on tiny tags, and other small places.  One says, 'just a little Christmas note' and the other one says, 'A Christmas Thank You'.  

I stamped the envelopes this time, which is something I seldom do.  Not sure why, but I typically don't. I stamped a bird on a holly branch from Stampin' Up!, called Beautiful Season, in Basic Grey classic ink.  I stamped the sentiment that is included with this stamp set, 'thinking of you at Christmas', is stamped in Old Olive classic ink.

Thank you for stopping by.  Now, I'm off to the mall.  Wish me luck! and stop by tomorrow, if you have a moment.  I'll share with you a few photos of a holiday 'thank you' box I have made for the various families we visit on this joyous day: Christmas!  

Happy Holidays & Happy Crafting! hugs, Sharon W.

Frosty Christmas

I have been trying to post a bit more than my usual 3-4 times a week, during these last few days before Christmas.  I want to share a lot of the different things I've made, but also to keep you inspired so you can complete those paper crafts for the holidays.

One of the paper crafts I made this week, is a holiday card for my co-workers.  I give my co-workers a gift card during the holidays.  Last year, I gave each of them a Starbucks gift card.  This year, I wanted to do something a bit more.  I also wanted to present the gift card with a little bit more flair, than securing it to the inside of the card with a glue dot.

Here is the card:

The panel on the front of the card, holds the gift card.  How fabulous, huh?  You just pull down the card stock zipper and the it will open this panel, to reveal the gift card. {smile}

I found this wonderful Winter Frost pattern paper by We R Memory Keepers.  I just love these shades of blue and green, with some grey. I also love the polka dots.  

For the card base, I used Pear Pizzaz card stock by Stampin' Up!.  The first panel is Pool Party card stock by Stampin' Up!.  I cut the pattern papers, so I could get 12 cards out of two 12" x 12" pattern papers.  I cut the grey snowflake pattern paper to 4" x 3".  The green polka dot pattern paper, I cut the paper to 4" x 2 1/2".  I used a piece of white taffeta ribbon to hide the seam where the two pattern papers overlap.

I used a light blue frost texture paper to cut the zipper panel.  I used the Zipper Die, from Paper Trey Ink.  To decorate the front of the zipper panel, I cut the glitter snowflake pattern paper to 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" square.  For the slim pattern paper on the zipper panel, I used the scrap piece of green polka dot pattern paper, I cut it to 1" x 2 1/2".   I have added a pizza gift card under the zipper panel - Dion's.

I used the Tiny Tag die, from Paper Trey Ink to cut the sentiment tag out of white card stock.  I stamped the 'Noel' in Basic Grey classic ink.  I had a package of coordinating crochet doilies, but the package comes with 6, and I needed 12.  So, I cut the doily into quarters.  That way I only used 3.  Now, I still have 3 for other projects.  I added a bow made of Pool Party seam binding.

I added a hand-written message to the inside of each card.  I hope they like them, and thank you for stopping by!  I hope you like them, too!

Happy Crafting!  hugs, Sharon W.