More from Santa's Workshop

Here are some ideas for quick and easy gift packaging.

The four little bags on the bottom are gifts for my Primary class. They're celophane bags with a few pieces of candy and some Oriental Trading Company toys. The topper is made from Top Note die cuts of Dashing Designer Paper (retired) and Real Red and Old Olive cardstock. They're decorated with the snowman from Deer Friends inked with markers and punched with the 1 1/4" round punch mounted on 1 3/8" round punchies of Old Olive and scalloped punchies of Real Red.

The tins on the top are sold at Michael's in several different sizes. These are filled with yummy chocolate candy, but you can put all sorts of things in them. I covered the sides of the bottom with strips of designer paper and the top with cardstock. I use Stampin' Up's glue sticks when I alter tins like this, it works very well. I cut the cardstock for the top a little bigger than the top and clipped the corners so it would bend over the edges easily. Then I put sticky strip all around the edge to make sure the cardstock would stay down, and put ribbon over that. The tops are decorated with stamped images cut out with the Coluzzle Cutting System and colored with markers, with a line of Gold Stickles on the outside of the image. The one on the left is Elzybell's Sleeping Angel, on the right is Fluffles Stocking.

Hopefully I'll be able to get to church on Sunday to give the kids their gifts. They had to cancel church last week because of bad weather and unsafe road conditions, and its only gotten worse since then. Here's a picture from a coworker's house. You have to remember, we live in northwest Washington state. We generally have one or two snowy days a year, and often don't get enough to build a snowman. There's enough here to build a snow army, but it's too cold and dry to build anything!

Christmas in the Black

Long before I discovered stamps I was a knitter and crocheter. I haven't done much for years, but started again this fall. I will be keeping it up, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it, and the results.

I'm doing a Christmas stocking secret sister swap with a group on SplitcoastStampers. The gal that I sent to requested a black stocking, I couldn't find one at the store so I decided to make one. I fell in love with this yarn when I saw it in the store, it really turned out well. She's also a Twilight fan, so I altered a journal and pen set with a Twilight series theme. The journal is covered with black cardstock sprayed with glimmer mist, the rose, from Wild Rose (retired) is stamped on Shimmery White Cardstock and "Sparkle" from Warm Words (retired) is embossed in silver on it. I cheated on the pen, no stamping. It's covered in black cardstock with a rose sticker on it, then covered with Stampin' Up Micro Beads and Sticky Strip.

I still have more stamping and crocheting left to do, so back to Santa's workshop for me...

Shimmery, shimmery Christmas

I love Shimmerz! So far I only have two colors, Golden Wheat and Burgundy, but those are perfect colors for some elegant Christmas gifts. They twinkle beautifully in real life, my scanner just doesn't do them justice. Shimmerz are so easy to paint with! They're already liquid, easily colored with a paint brush. Unfortunately, I don't have a good paint brush (yet). I used a Stampin' Up blender pen and it worked beautifully.

Stamps: Stampabilities House Mouse - Mouse Elves. Stampin' Up accessories: Purely Pomegranate (retired), brushed gold and whisper white cardstock; gold organdy ribbon (retired); Watercolor Wonder Crayons, aquapainter, blender pen. Other: Shimmerz paints, Palette Noir Black ink.

Now, back to the workshop to work on some more gifts...

Snow, snow, snow...

A good portion of the country is having some pretty severe winter weather at the moment. We even have an inch or two of snow here in balmy Skagit County, Washington. Wait, did I say balmy? According to the weather station on my computer it's 20 degrees outside. (That's -6 Celsius.) Brrr!

This card isn't going to warm anyone up. But, it's simple and elegant, and great for a last minute card. It also works with many different color combinations, so if you are in a hurry and need to make several, they don't have to all be identical.

The stamp is from Stampin' Up's Punches Three hostess set, which will be retiring on January 17th. Don't miss out on your chance to earn it! The stamp and the background squares are punched with the Stampin' Up Scalloped Square punch. Other Stampin' Up supplies used were Pacific Point, Whisper White and Brushed Silver cardstock; Pacific Point Classic Ink and Versamark Ink with Clear Embossing Powder and an embossing tool, and my favorite new toy, the Sizzix Big Shot. The snowflake brads are non-Stampin' Up from my stash.

The embossed background is done with the Cuttlebug Snowflake Embossing Folder. This is the first time I've tried embossing folders in my Big Shot and I love the results. It makes a great impression in just a few seconds. I'm really hoping Stampin' Up will have some exclusive embossing dies in the new catalog. Only a few weeks and we'll know!

With the coming new catalog we also have a new retirement list. If you haven't seen it yet, hop on over to my Stampin' Up to see it, or let me know and I will email you a .PDF of it. For the first time ever, Stampin' Up is having a sale on retiring stamps, too, so don't let any of your favorites get away. All retiring stamps are 10% off, and Stampin' Up is also giving all orders of $70 or more free shipping. It's a great time to stock up on stamps or supplies!