Super Simple, Yet Thoughtful Gift Ideas....

Hello everybody, Happy New Years Eve!!!! Can you believe that this is the last day of 2013?!?!?!?! Honestly, I will not be sad to leave this year behind. While I have learned and accomplished quite a bit this year, this has been a year of hard trials, both for myself and ones very dear to me. But anyhow, to a brighter topic, today I thought that I would share a gift set that I made for one of my three new sister-in-laws for Christmas. She is an English teacher and her favorite color is blue, so I thought that I would whip her up a nice, coordinating desk set.

For the Post-It note holder, I simply used a clear, acrylic frame from Dollar Tree and decorated it with a 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye, some small white Basic Grey letter stickers, a blue Prima flower and a Post-It note stack.

 

 For the magnetic notepad, I took some basic tan cardstock and layered some patterned papers to add some interest behind the blue paper pad, which I picked up from Dollar Tree as well. (Side note: Dollar Tree is a great resources for picking up base materials for projects, like mini notebooks, notepads, photo frames, etc.) I used some letter stickers I got in the dollar aisle at Target and some gold pearls from Q&Co. The pen is a gel pen from a Fiskars jumbo pack. 

To attach the pen, I took a 1/16 whole punch and punches a little hole in the top left corner of the cardstock and then looped some twine through the hole and then hooked the pen cap through the twine. I used a hard core magnetic strip that I cut off from a large roll I picked up at Ace Hardware a couple of years ago. I do usually have to put some hot glue behind the magnet to get it to stick permanently to the back of the cardstock, but once the hot glue hardens, it does not come off.

 

I also whipped up a mini notebook with patterned papers from the same My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad, used some small white glitter Thickers from American Crafts and some ribbon from my stash (I believe the ribbon was originally wrapped around a pack of washcloths I picked up at TJMaxx a couple of years ago. The scalloped circle was punched out with a Fiskars punch.

While I did make this as a gift set for a Christmas gift, it could easily be replicated for a gift for just about any occasion.

I hope that you all have a wonderful New Years!! See you in 2014! ;)

This Post Needed a Title.... and a Giveaway!

*** I forgot to add a title to this post, sorry if anyone had any trouble linking to this post!

Hello All, can you believe it's Thursday already??? (For that matter, can you believe its almost the middle of October?!?!?!!?!) Where does the time go?!? I just thought I would pop in and share a project that I whipped up a few weeks ago for my new sister-in-law (my brother's wife). She is in the midst of student teaching, so I thought that she might enjoy some office cute office supplies to stay organized. She really loves canning, so I thought I would use a Dear Lizzy paper from a 6x6 pad I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I also used some old Amy Tangerine papers  from a 6x6 pad a dear friend sent me a year or so ago and Dear Lizzy Fifth and Frolic paper pad, as well as some labels from Heidi Swapp and some October Afternoon Butterfly and small doily stickers. I finished off the projects with some white Basic Grey mini alphas, Q&Co rhinestones and pearls and My Mind's Eye Cut and Paste enamel dots. I used some small flowers that my cousin sent me to finish off the clothespin magnets I made. So that the paper would not peel off the magnets, I used some Modge Podge Acrylic spray to finish them off.

(If you stick with the pics to the bottom, I'm sharing a small giveaway!)

I also wanted to do a small giveaway. I put together a small kit for making Christmas tags and a small card making kit. For a chance to win, become a follower and let me know in the comments and for a second chance blog about the giveaway and put a comment with a link to the post. The giveaway will be open until October 25th and I will post a winner on the following Monday, October 28! I will be picking two winners, one for the Christmas tag set and one for the card kit!

Record Month... Two postings in a row!

Well, as I mentioned in my earlier post, Wednesday evening I couldn't take it any more. I HAD TO CRAFT! So I probably spent 3 hours at my desk crafting away that evening while hubby studied. I took the pictures and edited them all at once, but decided to spread the pictures out over a few days, so I could highlight the different projects. I finished up 5 mini notebooks, which I have been slowly working on for probably the last 2 months (It's been a crazy year.) So I was very happy to have a project completed (I also finished up and sent out a project I have been working on with translating assistance from one of the ladies at church too last night, so I am on a role this week!). I hope to get some better pictures in better light and post them to my etsy shop this weekend, but we have a visiting minister so it might get pushed back a little.

Anyhoo, Below are the notebooks. I tried to make them all varied in appearance so I could have a broader selection to offer, plus I wanted to play with some of the new paper packs that I got in the goodie box I bought earlier this year from my cousin. One of the notepads I finished up on Wednesday evening, but modified it last night because it just didn't look right to me (Last 2 pictures shown below).

Supplies:
Paper: Recollections single sheet papers from Michaels, K&Company 4x6 paper pack, Cosmo Cricket paper pack
Embellishments: Ribbon from stash, Making Memories chipboard letters, patterned tape (don't know brand)

This one just didn't look right with only the thin narrow strip of tape - it was see through and just looked unfinished, so below is how I modified it last night.

Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed weekend!

And this wraps up the Holiday Expo pics...

So this is a 1.5 day work week... SAWEET! We are leaving tomorrow for Erie, where my family lives. I can't wait!!!

Anyhoo, I just thought that I would wrap up the rest of the pictures I have to share of some close ups of the rest of the crafts I sold at the Holiday Expo last week. (Holy cow, was it only last week??? The last two weeks have been soooo long and yet flown by at the same time...)

Supplies:

Paper:Basic Recollections card stock, patterned paper from scraps, some are from a friend,some are from a K & Company mini paper pack, and the other snowflake paper (the paper used for the card sets) was handstamped by me.

Embellishments:Ribbon from a friend and from gifts that I saved the ribbon from, Used a Recollections edge puncher for some added dimension on some of the magnetic notepads, buttons on gift bows froma friend

Sentiments: All sentiments from a sticker pack that came with a paper crafting magazine last Christmas, typed out on my PC and the Season's Greeting snowflake is a digi image that I will have to post the origin of later...

Holiday Expo

Hullo all! Sorry I've been AWOL, but I was in some major last minute crank these crafts out mode for the last two weeks before the Holiday Expo I participated in on Tuesday. I have a bunch of pictures to share what I made, but today I thought I'd just share a couple of pictures I took and a friend took of my table. :) I didn't too bad. The only table that really sold a TON was the lady selling scarfs that she imported from Ecuador. I didn't want to spend money on my table set up, so I just grabbed my green table cloth that I use for the holidays, a orange leaf serving tray to display my paper pumpkins and a small basket to hold the little candy pouches. I just whipped up a sign with the name of my Etsy shop in Word and put it in a frame I already had. I also managed to get my business cards all printed out too. Sweet :)

(Sidenote: The chocolate candy didn't sell, but that's okay, I'll just use it as small gifts for co-workers, and some little cousins and friend's children. :) )

And you thought I'd forget again......

So, last night hubby had to work late... and I used the opportunity to clean out one of our office boxes and use what we have on hand right now to get things a little more organized until we can get a filing cabinet... In so doing, I found both the laptop and the USB for memory cards... So I made sure I uploaded the pics of my latest project and got them edited to put up on my etsy shop and the blog. :)

I put together three mini-notebooks. I am thinking of making up a few photo albums next. Enjoy :)

First notebook - front

First notebook - back

Second notebook - front

Second notebook - back

Third notebook - front



Third notebook - back

A gift I haven't been able to send out yet...

Still haven't been able to get back to work yet... but last week I was able to finish up a gift for a friend's children during my lunches at work. I hoped to send them out at the beginning of the week but I haven't yet. Hopefully hubby will be able to tomorrow or I will get them out this weekend. The names are blurred out for privacy sake.

The above pictures are for my friend's daughter. The brown envelope on the back is full of stickers, scraps of paper, and pictures to color in to create any type of story they want. I thought it might be a nice activity for them to enjoy over the summer.

There pictures are of the notebook set for my friend's son.

Finally, some crafting.....

Good Morning all. I don't know about you, but I had a super productive weekend! I was able to work from home from Friday, so I was able to get all of my laundry done (well... it was done, have a couple of loads to do again...it piles up fast!) and my sheets changed and the kitchen cleaned/dishwasher emptied... and I was able to start on a couple of cards/gifts for some co-workers birthdays.

Saturday I got the dry cleaning and did grocery shopping. I decided to try something new this trip. When I got home I cut up all of the fruit (except for the apples - I don't like it when they get all brown) and made a giant fruit salad and then put the extras in their own individual containers (trust me - ONLY way to fit a watermellon and mellon in our fridge!!!) then I cut up most of the veggies and made a giant salad.  We get home so late during the week, most day's I am whipped and don't feel like cutting up the veggies to have salad's so I think this is going to help us eat more salad during the week. We had chicken salad last night and I didn't have to cut a single veggie for it!!! (score ;) ) This helps with the lunch making during the week too. Between the salads and the veggies already put in individual baggies, it will be much faster during the week to put together lunches for hubby and myself.

I was also able to finish up the cards/gifts for my co-workers.

For one co-worker, I made a card and for the other (who is my supervisor) I made a card and a small gift. I gave her the gift in her office though so that the other co-worker wouldn't feel bad. I also made a red velvet cake for the team to enjoy for their birthdays. (I forgot to take a picture of the cake - but it was pretty much the standard red velvet cake, with cream cheese frosting and red sprinkles!)

Supplies:

Paper: K&Company patterned paper

Embellishments: Ribbon from Michaels, Chipboard letters from the dollar aisles at Target

Supplies:

Paper: K&Company patterned paper, scrap cardstock

Embellishments: Ribbon from Michaels, Chipboard letters from the dollar aisles at Target, Letter sticker from dollar aisle at Target, pearls from acMoore, green rhinestones from Hero Arts, flowers from Prima

Sentiments: The sentiment on the pink card was from a vellum pack that a friend gave me and the blue card sentiment was from a Birthday stamp pack I had  - first I stamped in yellow and then stamped over the yellow in black to give the sentiment a little dimension.

This was a thank you gift for one of my previous co-workers that recently placed a large order with me for several cards and gift tags.