A Gift Card Card

Hi!  I'm back home again after a wonderful retreat weekend with my favorite local shop Scrapdoodles!  I go twice a year and stay at this beautiful historic hotel:

We scrap from 7am till 3am along with 110 other ladies who love paper crafting as much as I do!  It's so much fun and we always the best time!  I am already looking forward to the next one! :)

I created a bunch of fun cards while I was away and thought it would be fun to share one of my favorites today!  My good friend Kristen and I hit Starbucks early on Saturday morning and were excited to see red cups!!  You know what that means- gingerbread lattes!  Hee!  I might like them even better than pumpkin spice!  Along with their holiday drinks, Starbucks was already displaying some fun holiday gift cards and the mini red cut ornament one was to-die-for cute!!  Of course I needed it for a card- won't this be cute to give to someone over the holidays?

The gift card slides out of the miniature cup cozy for easy access to the code on back.  It's so cute!  I mixed some patterned papers from Bazzill and Little Yellow Bicycle with some Lawn Fawn stamps to complete this look.

I will definitely be picking up some more of these cute gift cards- I'm planning to make a bunch for my girls' teachers this year!  I just love them! :)

Well, hope you are having a great Monday!  I'm trying to get back into the swing of things after being away... guess I better start unpacking! Hee!

-tessa

Making Cash More Fun to Give...

Hello!

I hope you are all enjoying the last few days leading up to Christmas! We still have two more days of school and work to get through until our vacation starts but boy are we ready for it!

I wanted to share what I made for my nephews this year. They are older boys so every Christmas I send them money that they can take to the store and buy what they really want with. And, every year I try to come up with a different, fun way to give it to them. I mean, really, how much fun is it to open an envelope? Hee! I think I was pretty clever this year- I came up with this:

Fun, right? I hid the money inside the soap! I love that they'll have to use it to get their money out. Hee! Knowing my nephews though, I'm sure one will figure out a quicker way.

I bought some soap making supplies at Michaels- clear glycerin soap, green dye, and the mold. It was so easy to make- you melt the soap in the microwave, add your dye and stir. Then fill your molds half way and drop in your rolled up money. Let it set for 10 minutes and then fill the rest of the mold over the money. To keep the money safe, I rolled it tightly and put it into a tiny treat baggie and rolled it around the bills. I used a little scotch tape to hold it together but I wish it wasn't so obvious.

To decorate my little money soaps, I picked out these great whistling Santas from this years Cosmo Cricket holiday line- aren't they just perfect for this project? That is where I came up with the name, too- he just looked like he was hiding something! Hee! I punched them out and paired them with the my favorite red patterned paper from Bazzill Basics. I added the cherry cobbler baker's twine and a little tag stamped with holly and each boys' initial; all from Stampin' Up!

These were so fun to make and I hope that my nephews get as much joy out of them as I did! Now to think of something clever for next year...

Have a great day and thank you for visiting my blog!

-tessa

Happy Birthday Card

Hello!

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! Of course, I've made her a card- want to see? Here it is:

Goodies:

Grandma's Feather Bed patterns and cardstock by Bazzill Basics
Celebrate pattern by Teresa Collins Designs
Tag It die set by Lifestyle Crafts
twine by The Twinery
Create a Cupcake stamp set, Basic Black ink, and rhinestones by Stampin' Up!
Scallop Edge punch by Fiskars
Large Black Eyelets by We are Memory Keepers

I was inspired by my new Tag It die set by Lifestyle Crafts that I picked up recently- there are so many cute tags and little pop up shapes in the set. I am hoping to pull it out again soon to experiment with it some more. If I have time that is- my days have been going by so quickly lately and I haven't had much time to craft!

I'm glad I found a minute to post today! Thanks for stopping by!

-tessa