Tea Dispensers - Final Craft Show Part

Last but not least, another great gift idea that can be easily done. I have done these boxes before, but this time I figured out a way to insert the complete tea box to make the dispenser even more stable than before.

Before you start building your box, make sure to buy the tea first. I got to find out the hard way that all these tea boxes might look like they are the same size, but they aren't!!!! Go figures!

In any event, I stayed with the Tazo tea that I used for my tea books. Advantage of this tea is ...they have a perforated area on the one side were you can open the box and pull out single packs of tea. The opening fits perfect into the one I created, so you buy the tea, open the box in the perforated area and place it in the dispenser....Done!

The lid of this dispenser box comes off for easy filling. You can decorate them in any way you like. I made a few "Christmas" ones and some everyday ones....again not more pictures since they all sold out.

I did a few more project for the show, but sadly I have only the big table picture and no individual ones. I had more wine bottle sleeves, little boxes with note cards inside, a Christmas star that folds into a square and back...and a few more items. 

Well I hope you all enjoyed this little excursion into the Craft Show world. I would love to hear from you what you do when you participate in a show or from a customer perspective, what would you like to see and find? Please, leave me a comment below...come back for Christmas Cards and more... 

Cyber Monday Close to My Heart Special

Today is your chance to receive any of our Close to My Heart cartridges (with the exception of the digital Christmas one) for 30% off!

All of you who place an order of $30 or more from our regular product line, will receive a 30% of the exclusive Close to My Heart Cricut cartridges. Don't wait to long this offer is only good for today so CLICK HERE and start shopping!

While you are my shopping side, have a look at the wonderful special that are going on right now too, like our annual planners, Happy Christmas Sets including home decor items and so much more.

Happy Shopping and stay tuned for more...

Exploding Gift Boxes - Craft Show Part 5

These boxes are so much fun to make...can you tell :-)

I didn't do a good job of taking this picture, but this is the only one I have of the boxes. Can you guess why? Yes, they sold out too, but I am working on more. So a close-up might come at a later date too.

These boxes are made from an 8 1/4" square sheet of cardstock, well the bottom of the box is. The lid is made from a separate piece of cardstock. I decorated the inside of the box and the four panels on the outside, as well as the top of the lid. A piece of glitter trim stretches around the rim of the lid and a cute bow finish the lid of. In these samples I added a little Merry Christmas tag to the bow with a piece of silver thread.

The key to this box is the little platform in the center of the box. I started with a whole so a nail polish bottle would fit in or something similar. Then I had the idea, wouldn't it be perfect to wrap a gift card in one of these boxes instead of that little envelope they come in?

Well, the gift card wouldn't fit in horizontally or vertically, but it fit's just perfect in diagonally. So I grabbed my scissors and cut a wedge from the circle to one of the corners, almost all the way to the corners edge. I did the same cut on the opposite site of the first cut to create a diagonal. This will be the perfect spot to place your gift card and it will sit nice and upright in the box.

You can use these boxes for many items and my husband had a really great idea...use it for an engagement ring :-)...well to late for me LOL but a wonderful idea, don't you think?

Please, leave me a comment and tell me what you think of these cute little gift boxes. What would you use them for?....Stay tuned for one final gift idea coming up... 

Tea or Coffee - Craft Show Part 4

So, we covered the coffee part in the last post now let's see what we can do with tea. One really cute way to give away a little gift of tea is a tea book.

These books are easy to make and even for beginners so much fun without a lot of fuzz. I used a strip of cardstock for the outside of my books measuring about 4"x 11". This way you can make 3 books out of one sheet of cardstock.

For the inside I used different design papers cut and adhered into three sleeves. Each sleeve is adhered to the inside of the cover to create a book. I filled each sleeve with a tea bag. In my case I decided to use only herbal teas and I like the Tazo brand, so I used Sweet Orange Peel and Cinnamon Spice flavors to compliment the seasons.

You have different ways to decorate your books. You can place a piece of ribbon all the way around the books to keep them closed or you can try what I did. I used the oval shaped tag again. I secured the top of the oval with some strong adhesive to the cover of the book leaving the bottom part of the oval unglued. The flap of the book will now fit snug behind the oval and this will keep you book closed as well. 

As you can see, I used different items to decorate the outside of my books. Only your imagination is the limit her. These items always make wonderful gifts, so try one yourself and let me know how they turned out.
Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about them....and stay tuned for more gift ideas to come...

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a 

Happy Thanksgiving 

today.

Enjoy the time with 

family and friends.

Coffee or Tea? - Craft Show Part 3

Going to a craft show you have to make sure to have both....coffee and tea. One of my go to favorites for coffee is the awesome coffee made by Door County Coffee & Tea Co. Sometimes flavored coffee can be to potent in flavor, but theirs isn't. It smell wonderful and the taste is mild and so smooth. Try it yourself or let's see if I can get a few more of these wonderful treats done for you ;-)

The burlap bags I used are from Close to My Heart and they were just perfect for the "one pot coffee bags" I placed inside. Since we are so close to Thanksgiving I had to make a few Fall flavor bags and naturally some Christmas flavors too. How does "Jingle Java" sound to you?  I think I will get some right now...

The fall bags are decorated with some paper leaves cut from one of our Close to My Heart Cricut cartridges. A little bit of orange ribbon and a few leaf brads I found in my embellishment box and this set was done.
For the Christmas version I used a similar banner around the bag. Added some white and red ribbon and decorated each with a little star and either some greens or a cute little wooden ornament and a golden bell.

So what do you think? Like to try some coffee yourself? I would love to hear from you, so leave me a comment and stay tuned for more gift ideas to come... 

Cute little boxes with Chocolate - Craft Show Part 2

I love to create little chocolate treats that bring a smile on any guest. This time I used Hershey's Kisses for the filling. Yes, believe it or not, but these cut boxes contain two kisses inside.

The first boxes I made were the Christmas ones. They took a little time since the ribbon goes through the layers and the lid is closed with a bow. I found the idea to this box on Cristina's blog papersmiley.com.


Being a bit more experienced in making them, the second round of sets got easier. This time I skipped the ribbon part and closed the lid with the oval shaped tag. The lid simply tugs behind it.

Both Christmas papers are from an older set of Close to My Heart papers. Glitter paper and stamps are from current sets.

These cuties make great plate decorations for any party or you can use them as place cards too. Well I can't show you a close up since they all sold out. 
Leave me a comment what you think about them or if you like to know how to make them....I would love to hear from you...Stay tuned for more gift ideas.

Star Box with Tea Lights - Craft Show Part 1

Let's start the craft show series with a simple package for tea lights, shall we?

I found some cute tea lights decorated with a gingerbread and smelling like one. So, what could I do with them I thought? I found a star dies in my stack of dies and the first idea for a little gift was born.

I created the bottom of the box from "Desert Sand" and the lid from "Colonial White" cardstock both made by Close to My Heart. Before I assembled the lid, I run the cardstock through my die-cutting machine to create two cut-outs. This way the candles would show through just a bit. I used white/ gold thread around the box to keep it closed and added a little "Merry Christmas" tag to the top including a star cut from gold glitter paper.

I think simple but cute...what do you think? Leave me a comment and stay tuned for more gifts to come...

Gift ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas

Thank you all for hanging in here with me. Sometime it is a hassle to keep up with all the "social media" stuff in our life's. Well and sometimes things just get pushed back because life gets the upper hand ;-)
In any event, back on track for the rest of the year I am (well I hope so LOL).

So what have I been up to lately you might ask? Last weekend I attended a craft show at St. Mary's in Milford, which is always a delight to be part off. Beside bringing along my cards, I try to come up with little gifts for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Little "Thank You"'s for someone special. A little "Get Well" gift to brighten up someones day....gifts for teachers, postman/ lady, the neighbor next door...well you get the idea.

I always try hard to come up with something new for this show and the wonderful people that come by and take advantage of an early Christmas shopping experience. 

Well, here are some pictures of my table at 9.00am just before the doors opened:

I am glad I took those pictures and a few snaps of the individual items before they sold out. Not much was left to my delight ;-), so no pictures from the end of the day. Stay tuned for more details to come...

Oh and while you are here...why don't you leave me a comment and tell me what things you like to by at craft shows or what items you wish you could find! 

A Year of Card Techniques ~ November Blog Hop ~ Vellum or Acetate

Welcome too

Our year of hopping is almost through, if you've not gotten the chance to hop and comment each month, click on this links below to take you to the posts.

January February March April May June July August September October

Remember to comment on each blog, each month to be entered into the prize drawing. Each comment on the 12 hops throughout the year will be entered into a drawing for a $25 Blitsy.com or Stampin'Up gift certificate (Winner's Choice).

Now on with the projects. This month it's all about the see through stuff... vellum and acetate.

A personal note...I dropped out of this months hop since I didn't get my projects finished in time. It has been a crazy month so far and too much was going on, but I decided to show at least a few "golden oldies" that I made from vellum and acetate. So in case you dropped by, this is the reason I am not on this months list :-) But to make sure you don't miss a thing...the line up is at the end. A warm welcome to Amanda how will join us for our upcoming hops...

Vellum is an awesome medium to work with. Like I mentioned these are some "golden oldies" I made a while ago, but never-the-less, still nice to look at. My projects that I had planned to show today will be on the blog in the next week...sorry about that! 

Here I created little lantern, that fold flat to sent out in the mail and once received, you unfold them and place a little LED light inside. I stamped little snowflakes with white pigment ink onto the vellum and let it dry over night. The vellum is placed behind the star opening to make the light shine through.

The acorn card is another wonderful use of vellum. I embossed the vellum with a dot pattern and adhered it on the left side to a grey cardstock piece. The grey cardstock then is adhered to my card base. 

The effect here is a very toned down, saddled grey shining through the vellum. A few items to decorate and another card is done. The vellum lays loose on the cardstock, only attached on the left.

I have used acetate a lot in the past, but mainly for shaker cards or window boxes. These two card were created for another hop earlier this year with the topic "Watercolor". 

I cut the front panel of the black card base around the roses I adhered to it. I then replaced the missing card front with a sheet of acetate. I added my glitter birthday phrase on top of the acetate and added a few sprinkles of rhinestones and pearls. 

You can stamp on acetate, but you have to use StazOn inks, otherwise the ink will not adhere. If you happen to have white StazOn ink and a snowfall stamp....go ahead and create your own snowfall. Stay tuned to see the other projects next week. 

We really love feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in today's hop.

Well, you are at the end of this month's blog hop!

Keep on crafting and don't forget to comment!

Have a wonderful day

Claudia

Your hop destinations are:

Theresa ~ http://scrapsbygracie.blogspot.com

Debbie ~ http://pawstoscrap.blogspot.com 
Lisa ~ http://lisaslittlerascals.blogspot.com

Kim ~ http://katydidcards.com

Jearise ~ http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com

Sharon ~ http://piece-ofheart.blogspot.com

Amanda ~ http://salnclts76.blogspot.com

Claudia...Your are here!.... The End :-) 

Don't forget these Specials

How about a little recap on all the wonderful specials that available this month, so let's wrap them up one more time:

2017 Planner

Our beautiful 2017 planners are available while supplies last. Pick between the SeaGlas Album or a a cute Black-White striped one.



Extra Thin Cuts

Multiple sets of thin cuts have been added to our product list. These can be purchase with or without the matching stamp set...but what good does it do you if you don't have the stamps to go along with them. So make sure to order them both. Only available until they are sold out.



Happy Christmas Package

If you like to wrap up all your Christmas crafting in one swoop, go ahead and purchase this months special. Lovely projects including album, cards and so much more...

I am sure there is something for everyone in here. You can order these products/ packaged directly from my website or via email. Make sure to join the monthly party on the site when ordering.... stay tuned for more to come!

It's Craft Show time again!

It's craft show time again ....

Come see me at St.Mary Our Lady of the Snows Church in Milford,MI this coming Saturday, November 12th from 9 am- 3 pm. Address: 1955 E Commerce Rd, Milford, MI 48381

Lots of unique vendors and items can be found at this Craft Show. I will have many new items made from paper for you. Cute little teachers, Thanksgiving or Christmas gifts and decorations.

How about these items?
- little chocolate give items
- tea lights in unique boxes
- wine bottle gift boxes and sleeves
- tea bag dispensers, tea books all made from paper with tea filling
- Christmas dinner table decor
- cards for all occasions including lots of Christmas cards
- home decor items like lanterns and so much more

Come see me on Saturday and in case you can't make it, well you will miss a great opportunity. Hope to see you on Saturday and spread the word, bring a friend and have some fun.