Gnome On Shaker To-Go Cup Gift Card Holder

 When I saw the Lawn Fawn Coffee Cup Gift Card Holder die set, I knew I had to get it and make a shaker style cup card holder.  It wasn't difficult to assemble the card holder by first cutting one cup out of vellum and two of white card stock.  Carefully line the edges of the vellum and card stock cup with 3 in 1 Fabri-Tac glue. Between the layer of vellum and one white card stock cup place a couple of pinches of Sprinkletz 'Yuletide Fun' confetti before pressing the pieces together. Glue the last card stock cup behind the two glued ones.  Die cut the belly band from All the Sparkles Lawn Fawn star print paper.  Glue it onto the cup and add theWhimsy Stamps sticker.  Stamp, color and fussy cut the Whimsy Stamps gnome. (Because the Copic pen ink bleeds through the card stock, you will need to glue a second piece of card stock behind the colored gnome and fussy cut out the excess paper.) I added some extra confetti pieces to the cup lid and stamped the words using a Misti tool.to get the correct alignment. 

Here's what the cup looks like with the HM Ben Franklin Crafts gift card in it. I just love the movement of the sprinkles shaking in the cup!

I loved the shaker to-go cup so much that I just had to make one to attach to a card.  This version has more space for a message inside.  I think the recipient would be happy with cash instead of a gift card in the slot. Even though this gift card idea is a bit late for the season, I can see using this cup die to make birthday, graduation, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc. gift cards by just changing the character and papers. I think you will be very happy if you purchase this LF die set from HM Ben Franklin Crafts because it will making gift giving so easy and fun. Okay, Go Shopping Now! 

Gnomes at Home

 This year I collected even more gnomes.  Mostly they are from Daiso (so reasonably priced) but some are from Japanes boutique stores.  The two large gnomes in the back are wooden ones from Daiso. I plan to paint the names of my grandsons on the brims of the caps. I like the gnomes that have dangling legs because they can be hung over the edge of a table.  There are gnomes that have matching baby gnomes...so cute!  While I love the gnomes that have the caps with sweater designs, my favorite gnome is probably the pink one just because she's a girly girl!  I hope that you will consider collecting gnomes. They are so cute and can be used as decorations for many occasions.  Bring some gnomes home for Xmas and you just might have little bearded coneheads as your friends for a lifetime!

Singing Mice Snowglobe Ornament

Making the snowglobe ornaments shown in my last post were so easy to do, I decided to create another version using the Lawn Fawn stamp and die sets, Caroling Mice.  For the background I chose a printed card stock with a village scene. (Sorry it's hard to see in the photo.) I think the mice show up well because the paper is not too bright or busy.  However, the back of the paper was not interesting so I selected another one before cutting it out with my circle die. (See the back of the ornament in the photo below.  The paper had just the right print, some music and holiday designs.)  I created the snowglobe in the same way explained in my last post but added different 'snow'. I chose Buffalo Snow Flakes (sold at HM BFC) instead of glitter snow which is finer.  As with the previous snowglobes, I finished off the ornaments with pipe cleaners, miniature holly sprigs, and red pips. On this set of ornaments I tried using the LF stencils to color in the mice but found the results were not great because of bleeding under the stencils.  Perhaps my Copic pens were too juicy.  The stencils worked well on other stamped images.  To rectify the problem, I colored over the miscolored boo-boos with a white gel pen (sold at HM BFC too!) I learned this tip from another crafter when I complimented her on her neat coloring. Hahaha!  I think you'll find that there are a lot of great holiday stamp images that will work well in a snowglobe ornament. Hope you'll make some too, and have some fun playing with snow!

Sweet Mice shaker Oornament

The Lawn Fawn mice stamps are so cute and just the right size to fit into the half ball ornaments sold at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  I love making shaker cards, so I thought making a shaker ornament would be equally fun.  I started by using a Spellbinder circle die to cut a circle (from printed card stock) just slightly bigger than the plastic ball circumference.  At first I wanted to use some colorful, bright Xmas card stock but then realized that the mice were hard to see on such busy prints.  I looked through my 6x6 Doodlebug Xmas paper pads and found sheets that would compliment the mice.  The Doodlebug sheets are printed on both sides so you have to consider the designs on both sides. (Printed card stock 6x6 paper pads have small prints which makes the paper perfect for this project.)
 

Once the paper circles were die cut, I shaped the words (Wishing You A Sweet Christmas!) into two arcs before stamping them on the die cut circles and embossed the words with gold powder.  Next, I stamped the mice on white cardstock, colored them in (with Copic markers) and fussy cut them out. I freehand cut some white cardstock (with a little texture) to look like a bed of snow for the mice to play in.  I glued in the snow before using adhesive foam dots to adhere the mice into the snow scene.  Before gluing the half ball clear ornament down over the scene, I added about a tablespoon of snow glitter.  I used 3 in 1 Fabri-Tac glue (my favorite from HM Ben Franklin Crafts) to adhere the globe down and add the tri-colored pipe cleaners around the globe.

Finally, I twisted some artificial wired greenery and red pips onto the hanging ring that is part of the plastic half globe. This view of the ornament backs reveal why it is important to choose your papers carefully. Even though most of these supplies are from my stash of Xmas craft goodies, I think you should be able to find almost everything at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  Half globe shaker ornaments are so easy to make I think I'll make a bunch of them this year to add as gift toppers or as decorations for hostess gifts. Hope you'll try making some for your tree too!   

    

Xmas Gnome Belly Band Box

 Whenever I receive a sturdy cookie-sized gift box, I usually save it with the intent to recycle it into another decorated gift box.  This gift box once housed some Japanese cookies and was plain brown with a printed belly band label.  I decided that I would keep the decorations simple and fashion a belly band too, as a secure way of closing the box without a ribbon.   

First, I covered just the top and sides of the box cover with crinkled, gold speckled washi paper (purchased at HM Ben Franklin in a large sheet). I decided not to try topaper over the ends of the box cover because corners are a little tricky to do neatly.  I glued the paper down with Fabri-Tac 3 in 1 glue. This glue (available at HM BFC) is my favorite because it dries clear and makes it easy to reposition paper pieces.

The belly band was easily fashioned from printed card stock and decorated with a die cut circle of Lawn Fawn Sparkles paper that comes in a 6x6 paper pad. The gnome is a Spellbinbinder stamped image that was colored with Copic pens and fussy cut out.  I looked into my stash of Xmas stickers hoping to find a 'Merry Xmas' or 'Happy Holidays' label to fit above the gnome circle.  Amazingly, I discovered a wonderful shaker Merry Christmas banner sticker that fit and matched the belly band.  I don't know when or how I got the 'perfect' sitcker but finding it made my day! Finally, I added some wool roving for the gnome's beard to make him even more lovable.  I hope this project has given you ideas for recycling gift boxes. It's fun to do and results in a novel way to house your home baked goodies for gift giving.  Happy Homemade Holidays!