Happy New Year! Three Cheers!

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you had a fun holiday break and enjoyed spending quality time with family and friends.  It's hard to believe it's 2015 already!  Our local radio station stopped playing Christmas music and soon it will be business as usual... but there's still a weekend ahead of us!

So... I'd like to share a few new card designs to ring in the 2015!  I will also have a few other goodies to report this month, so check back often!

For these cards, I used the same materials and made three different layouts.  They're related, yet unique.  This is a great way to stretch your supplies too!

Materials:

• Kraft card stock base - 4.25"W x 11"H, scored at 5.5" mark
• Blue card stock base - 4.25"W x 11"H, scored at 5.5" mark
• White card stock base - 5.5"W x 8.5"H, scored at 4.25" mark
• Three white card fronts - 4"W x 5.25"H
• Strips of patterned patterned paper in varying sizes
• Strips of purple and kraft paper to balance out the patterned paper
• Mama Elephant Happy Script die cut
• Sequins
• Ribbon
• Adhesive Tape Runner
• Glue Dots (Micro)

Directions:

• I did not have a "new year" stamp, so I printed "NEW YEAR" on some white card stock and cut it down to size
• Cut the "happy" die cut from three pieces of patterned paper and the three pieces of white card stock pre-printed with "new year"
• Insert the patterned paper "happy" into the white card insert and add back the white loops and holes from the letters (i.e. the loops in the 'h' and 'y') to fill the negative space.
• Cut the patterned paper strips to fit the width or height of the card, depending on your layout.  Frame with the solid paper (purple or craft).
• Add ribbon to enhance the strips of paper.
• Adhere everything to the card base.
• Sprinkle sequins and adhere with glue dots

Super fast, simple and easy!  Happy New Year!  May your 2015 be filled with fun, laughter, good health and good times!

Halloween Goodness: Trick or Tea!

Greetings everyone!

This is a project from last year, but I thought I'd share it given Halloween is just around the corner.  It seems fitting that Halloween is synonymous with candy (or in my case, bubblegum).  I hosted a party back East for my parents.  There really wasn't a theme for the party -- it was just an excuse for old friends to gather together and eat (a lot) of food.  Considering my parents and practically 99.9% of their friends don't go trick or treating on Halloween night I figured it would be a nice touch to surprise all the guests with a trick or treat party favor.

I wanted to give them something practical and since we're Asian, I decided to go with these wicked cute mini teapots which can double as soy sauce holders (or cream or oil or vinegar), but I like to call them soy sauce teapots.  Aren't they cute?

Teapot with Pumpkin Tag

Teapot with Black Cat tag

I made a tag using my awesome Sizzix Big Shot machine, added some cute Halloween stickers I picked up at a scrapbook show, added some baker's twine and voila!  They look like little teabag tags hanging off the side.  The ribbon was an extra bonus to add color to the overall display.  The back of the tags read "Happy Halloween! Thanks for coming."

Materials used:

• Mini Teapots (approx 2.5"H x 4.5"W, available at my favorite site for favors: beau-coup.com) 
• Orange grosgrain ribbon (1/4 inch wide)
• Sizzix Big Shot (scallop circle framelit dies)
• Cardstock (orange, black and kraft)
• Baker's Twine in Mandarin Orange (from The Twinery)
• Halloween stickers (sorry, don't remember the brand of stickers...)
• 1.25" circle labels for the back (from Paper Source - one of my favorite paper stores)
• Glue and tape

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Teapot Mania!