Merry Christmas-disco style!

Merry Christmas from Nanci and I!  I cased this idea from Melanie and Joy over at Everyday Cricut!  Of course, I picked another song and dance!  Nanci and I were both disco queens! LOL  Hope you enjoy the video!  You may need to go to the blog to see the video, if you receive our posts via e-mail.  Just click on the post title Merry Christmas-disco style! and it will take you right to the blog!

Sweet and Simple Box #2 Bigz XL Dies

We crafted these boxes to hold peppermint candies to sell at our craft shows for the holiday season.  We sold all the boxes we made originally.   

Nanci received an e-mail from a prior customer wanting to purchase twelve more boxes.  We did not have enough of the Candy Cane Christmas Specialty DSP left to satisfy the order.  At the customer's request we improvised. 

This box design is what we came up with.  We stamped the candy piece from Bingo Bits and punched out the circles and scallop to coordinate with the papers. We love these festive little boxes all tied up as gifts for our customer's guests!

 The boxes travel better with the lids closed.  The candy tag lets the recipient know what to expect inside the box when it is opened.

This tower of boxes makes a sweet display!  

Did you notice the background paper?  It's the Specialty Paper Bride!  I purchased it on clearance a few weeks back because someone had mentioned it in a blog that was discussing the Presto Patterns DSP.  I love this paper!  If you have the snowflake punch, it is an awesome combination due to the shimmer of the paper's design and the slim detail of the punched snowflake!

We hope that you will enjoy this video that Nanci's daughter suggested.  The group is Straight No Chaser doing the 12 Days of Christmas.  They are fantastic!

Nanci and I would like to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas!

Snow Expected!

We're expecting snow for the next three days, so I thought I'd share this Sweet Snowglobe card with you!

We used the Sweet Treat Cup to hold our dazzling diamond "snow."  We ran our Bashful Blue card stock through the Big Shot with the Northern Flurries embossing folder.  Our sentiment and Sweet Snowglobe are heat embossed with silver embossing powder.   We also applied a little two-way glue to the stamped image so some of the dazzling diamonds would stick to the stamped image too.  

       The sentiment is from the Snow Swirled stamp set.  Night of Navy and Whisper White card stock complete the card.  We recommend mailing this card with the padded envelopes from Stampin' Up!  Extra postage will be required.  Let it snow! 

Jolly Holiday Revisited and $99 Overnight Retreat Special

Oops!  I forgot to post these cards the other day with our Have a Jolly Holiday DSP post.  If you need a few quick and easy card ideas these are very simple.  We made them at our beginner's card class at our Ladies Night Out Retreat.

 We ran the Very Vanilla card stock through the Big Shot using the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  Our wreath stamp came from the Northern Hearts set stamped with Old Olive.  Our sentiment is from Many Merry Messages stamped in Cherry Cobbler.  We've adorned our wreath with red crystal stickles!

 The idea for this card came from DOStamping with Dawn (Olchefske)'s blog.  She used the French Foilage stamp set to create a holiday wreath with the "stamping off " technique which she explains in the same post.  We loved her card, but wanted to give it our own look.  Our sentiment is from the Scenic Season stampset.  We inked the stamp with VersaMark and Cherry Cobbler inks and heat set it with clear embossing powder.

 This card uses the Scallop Edge Border, 5-Petal Flower, and Two-step bird punches and Holly Jolly DSP to create a fast and easy card!  Our sentiment is from the Bright Christmas stamp set inked with Cherry Cobbler.

We have 6 spaces left for our $99 Overnight Retreat Special February 19, 2011.  Check-in will begin at 11:00 AM on Saturday.  Your overnight will include:

*Lodging at Lake View Lodge on Saturday Night

*Free Make n' Take

*Full use of our Craft Room and Tools

*Saturday Lunch & Dinner

*Sunday Brunch

*All Beverages and Snacks

Check out is at 12:00 PM on Sunday!  Located on Dewey Lake, the address for Lake View Lodge is:

50650 Garret Road

Dowagiac, MI 49047

Space is limited!  Place your reservation today!  E-mail us at info@crafthavenretreats.com, for additional information or check out our Facebook page.  Happy Holidays and Happy Crafting!

Deck the Halls DSP Collection

We love Deck the Halls DSP Collection!  We designed these cards for Nanci's Stamp-a-stack, the November Stamp Club, and our Ladies Night Out Retreat in early December. 

Dasher was the favorite at our Ladies Night Out Retreat!  The sentiment and Dasher stamp are both stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  Don't forget to use your static pad or embossing buddy you want a really clean image when you're through.  We ran the Early Espresso card stock through the Big Shot using the Northern Flurry embossing folder.

 

We love the vintage look of the Deck the Halls DSP and fabric!  We frayed the edges of our fabric ribbon to add texture to the bow.  Nanci used colored pencils to decorate the bell stamp from Bells & Boughs.

Here's another vintage Christmas look!  I used markers to color in the stamp of the bough image and then I masked that stamp and stamped the bell in Early Espresso ink.  It looks like the bells are hanging from the bough.  The sentiment is from the Bells & Boughs stamp set also.  The Cherry Cobbler card stock was run through the Big Shot with the Petals-a-plenty embossing folder.  I think it makes the background look just like poinsettias.  We also finished this card off with a Deck the Halls fabric bow. 

We just love the Christmas Collage stamp!  Nanci inked it in VersaMark and Early Espresso and heat embossed the image with clear embossing powder on Crumb Cake card stock.  She used the same procedure for the sentiment and the "25, " but she used Cherry Cobbler for the ink.  She punched them out and used dimensionals to add depth to the card.  She used colored pencils to fill in some of the images of the stamp.  This picture doesn't do the card justice--it is really a show stopper when you see it in person.

I cased this card from Tiffany Bauer (www.mycraftyworld.blogspot.com) who made it for a Founder's Circle event.  We decided that it was a lovely card, but too expensive to make in bulk and mail--those buttons are heavy!  We tried to find a more cost effective design for mailing.

This card was my cheaper to produce and mail alternative.  I tried to make it look like the ornament was hanging from the bough.  I used markers to color the stamp.  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and is stamped in Early Espresso ink.  The Cherry Cobbler card sock was embossed using the Petals-a-plenty embossing folder.

We loved the gift tags from Tags till Christmas!  We used gold gel pen accents on some of the punches with natural twine for the ties.

 More chocolate--you can never have enough chocolate on hand for the holidays! Again, we used Deck the Halls Fabric  for our ribbon bows and natural twine ties.

  

 We loved this paper from Deck The Halls DSP for these Fancy Favor die-cut bags!  The poinsettias were so pretty on the outside of the bag.  We choose the fabric that matched the inside of the bags to make our bows out of.  Soft suede card stock accents finished them off nicely. 

We're from Illinois and the cardinal is our state bird.  We loved the look of these gift bags and mini-milk cartons with their Cherry Cobbler cardinals.  Our bags are tied with Deck the Halls fabric bows again, but our milk carton bows are the Cherry Cobbler seam binding.  The icy edge on our mini-milk carton roofs is Silver Glass Glitter which really looks fabulous in person!

The altered Scalloped Envelope die holds a regular size gift card and can easily fit inside any of our gift bags or cards.  It also would look nice just placed on a branch of your Christmas tree!

That's a quick overview of some our Deck The Halls DSP collection.  We have really enjoyed working with all the designer series papers this year and we hope you have too.

  Nanci and I wish you and your family a healthy and happy holiday season and Happy Crafting in 2011!

Have a Jolly Holiday DSP!

Gift Tags - þ

Medium Gift Bags and Christmas Cards - þ

Gift (a.k.a. Chocolate) - þ

Gift Card Holder - þ

Hoo is it? Santa - þ!  Hiding Chocolate and his true Owl identity--even his pack of toys is an owl punch!

Small Gift Bags with Cards - þ

Jolly Holiday Collection - þ

Happy Crafting!

$99 Overnight Special and Tags Till Christmas!

Nanci and I have decided to offer a $99 Overnight Special for Saturday, February 19, 2011 with check-in at 11:00 AM through Sunday, February 20th at 12:00 PM.  Your overnight will include Saturday night lodging, make n'take, full use of our craft room and tools, Saturday lunch, dinner, snacks, and beverages, and Sunday brunch!  

We hope you will be able to join us at Lake View Lodge located on Dewey Lake in Dowagiac, Michigan for our mini-retreat!  It will be cold and snowy outside, but the lodge will be warm and toasty! Space is limited for our $99 Overnight, so make your reservation today! 

When we were preparing for our craft shows this fall, we decided to make Christmas gift tags to coordinate with the three holiday designer series paper packs;  

Jolly Holiday DSP

Candy Cane Christmas Specialty DSP

and Deck The Halls DSP

We loved the Top Note packaging that we designed for them, but it definitely did not show off the tags to their full advantage!  So we took some photos of the contents before they were packaged!

Aren't they cute!  The Tags till Christmas stamp set coordinates so well with the Stampin' Up punches--they are a snap to stamp, punch, and assemble.  We added some white and gold gel pen accents!  

Unfortunately, the gift tags for Jolly Holiday were already packaged at this point, but all three designs were very similar!   

Farewell to Candy Cane Christmas DSP

We were saddened to learn that Candy Cane Christmas Specialty DSP is no longer available.  We have really enjoyed the projects that we made with this paper.  We hope you enjoy them too!

Gift Card Holders with the Scalloped Envelope die cut altered to fit regular size gift card. Click here for a link to Tara Bazata's video tutorial!  It's fast and fun! We used velcro to close our gift card holders and a few quick punches and a brad to decorate the envelope!

We cased this gift card holder by Vicki Burdick from Late Night Stampers!  It was so cute!  We made it at our November Stamp Club and at our last retreat at Lake View Lodge!  It's a gift before you open it to get your gift card!

We did not pick the gift card our to match the paper--it was a happy accident!

A Baker's dozen gift tags made with the Tags till Christmas stamp set.

We loved the matching Candy Cane Christmas fabric that Stampin' Up! put out to match this paper.  We used it in place of ribbon to compliment these chocolate bars wrapped in the Candy Cane Specialty DSP.

Fabric ribbon and some fancy penguin punch art adorn these mini milk cartons!  These quirky birds are concealing chocolate treats and their true "owl" identities!

We designed these cards for our Christmas Stamp-a-stack, but we also used them at last weekend's retreat  for a beginner's card class with fantastic results!

Everyone at our retreat loved the dazzling diamonds!  A little "bling" goes a long way!

What would scallops be without a little Crystal Stickles?  Remember to give the stickles some time to dry!

So long Candy Cane Christmas Specialty DSP!  We will miss you!