Snowflake Card and Gift Card Holder

I just made these cards and a gift card holder.

I used the Silhouette Cameo to cut out the gift card holder, and then used a traditional snowflake punch to punch out a snowflake.

I glued some turquoise cardstock under the lid, and trimmed it with scissors, just following the shape of the box.

For the cards I used my good old Big Shot. 

I still love that one, too.

I used an embossing folder to emboss the snowflakes,

and a die to cut out the snowflake.

Am trying to decide which version I like better,

if you look closely, there is a difference.

On the left, the kraft cardstock is debossed (imprinted),

on the right it is embossed (snowflakes are sticking out).

Shared at Blue Cricket Design.

It's a party - Party invites

Although we have celebrated a lot of birthdays at our house, this one is a first for me and my 6-year old:

a birthday party with only Kindergarteners. 

They are all girls, and my daughter and I decided to go for a flower-theme again.

I kept the invites pretty simple, by printing the text on the front and the inside, and then used a stamp for the stem and punches to make the flowers.

Simple but sweet...

Recipe Organizer

Don't know if anybody recognizes this kind of 'pile' in their kitchen. 

(I hope so, please tell me I am not the only one!)

Anyway, that is how my recipes have been 'organized' for years!

When I needed something, I would just dig through the papers till I found it.

But just recently, I couldn't stand this sight any longer.

So I decided to finally tackle it. 

I just took an old binder, made a simple cover from scrapbook paper, and put it in the transparent sleeves on the cover. Next, I put all my recipes in page protectors. The recipes that were smaller than a standard 8.5 by 11 I just glued on some white printer paper. Nothing complicated, but it looks SO much better!

Just wonder why this took me years :)

I linked up to I Heart Organizing.

Bead Cup Tutorial

I was washing some clear plastic cups to put in our recycling bin, but then it occurred to me that I could use them for a cute little craft. So instead of throwing them away, I kept them.

Today I made them a lid and filled them up with beads. These make cute party favors, or work nice as little gifts on a trip, or when your little girl is sick.

I have a shoebox around that I fill with little gifts and fun things like this, and things I find at the dollar store. When the kids are sick, or when we go somewhere where they need to be entertained, all I need to do is get something out of that box. It works great!

Anyway, back to the bead cups! I made these bead cups and took some pictures during the process. Have fun!

The containers I used were empty containers from Crystal Light and yogurt.
Basically any small clear container with a flat edge on top works.

Wash and dry the containers thoroughly.
Some of them may have an expiration date printed on them, make sure you remove that too.

Trace the top of the container onto cardstock.

Fill the container with beads. I put bigger beads (for smaller hands) in the big cup, and small beads in the small Crystal Light cup.

Then, I added some pipe cleaners to the big cup, and different lengths of wire to the small cup. I found that pipe cleaners work GREAT for little kids. Once the bead is on there, it doesn't tend to slide off so easily.

Next, I decorated the cardstock circles I cut.
(Wait to put on the rhinestones, or other bulky embellishments, you'll see why.)

I used Elmer's white school glue to attach the lids to the cups.
I found that it helped to put the cups upside down while drying, to make it stay in place.
In order to do that, I had to peel off the rhinestones I already attached in the picture above.
So that's why you had to wait on those!

And there is your adorable little gift!

I linked up to:

Pocket Calendar Transformation Tutorial

I like to have one of these little pocket calendars in my purse, so that I can keep track of appointments and stuff when I am on the go. This one was pretty plain, so I thought I'd give it a make-over. It's fast, fun and easy, and this is what I came up with:

Supplies needed:

• Pocket Calendar (duh)
• Patterned scrapbook paper (one large enough to cover the whole outside, plus a little extra so that it can be folded around the edges)
• Paper trimmer
• Glue
• Ribbon
• Clear nail polish to finish ribbon
• Optional: other materials, like flowers and rhinestones to embellish

First, remove the plastic cover of the planner. If you plan on decorating with several layers of paper, trim the outside edges of the original planner cover a tiny little bit. This will give you more room to work with, and makes it easier to slip the cover back on.

Then, cut a piece of paper the same height as your planner. Lay the planner open as pictured, and make sure you cut the width a little larger than the planner, so that you can fold the edges around the original cover.

After that, take a piece of ribbon, about 1.5 times the height of the planner. Glue it to the paper you will use as the cover as shown in the picture.

Then, glue the paper around the cover.















Finish the end of the ribbon with some clear nail polish to keep it from fraying.

Use other papers and embellishments to decorate your planner.

Then you can slip the cover back on, and you're done.

I linked up to:

Emery Board Holder

I used this tutorial at Sherry's Simple Blog to make this cute emery board holder. This would make a nice little gift. They are easy to make.

I made a couple small adjustments. I used velcro as a fastener instead of buttons. Also, I decided to decorate it with flowers. Love this quick, cute craft!

Dry Erase Board Tutorial

Today I made this cute mini dry erase board.

It is very quick, simple and fun.
And, you don't need a lot of supplies either.

So, let's start!

I used a simple plastic 5x7 frame from the Dollar Store.
But you can adjust this to work for any size frame you like.

Other supplies needed:

• Dry Erase Marker
  
• Background paper, same size as frame
• Burlap, a little smaller than frame (Or other paper. Make sure it is light enough that you can see the text you write on it with a dry erase marker.)
• Other patterned paper, flowers, ribbon, rhinestones, what ever you can come up with to decorate the frame
• Adhesive (Glue dots)
  

Begin by trimming the background paper.
Just cut it the same size as the paper that was in the frame when you bought it.

Next, cut the burlap a little smaller than the frame.
Then, pull out some pieces of burlap to create a fringed edge all the way around.

Adhere the burlap to the background paper.

Now the fun part begins.
Decorate the background with patterned paper, ribbon, etc.
Just make sure that you keep the 'bulky' parts, like flowers, rhinestones, etc. out.
You will glue these on top of the actual frame, not on the background.

Other things you could use are:
* fabric
*lace
*buttons
*beads
etc.

Put the background paper in the frame, and adhere the bulky items to the frame.
I really like to use mini glue dots, they seem to hold up pretty well!

Enjoy your work!

To make sure you will have your dry erase marker always handy, you could use a marker with a magnet in the lid, like the one pictured. Just glue a magnet on the frame, and you will have a place to keep the marker!

This works great to leave little messages for people
(or yourself, if there is something you don't want to forget)

Also, this is something that kids would enjoy to make, too.
They can just pick their own papers and decorations, and use it to draw on.
(Or leave messages for you.)

I linked this up to: