4th of July Tags for Goodie Bags

Pin It Now! Just a quick share tonight.  I'm getting ready for a birthday / Independence Day party at my house tomorrow, and needed some patriotic tags for goodie bags for the kids!

I stuffed them full of candy and firecrackers (the cheesy kind!). Oh, and Minion glasses. This is going to be fun!

Have a blessed holiday weekend!  

New Year's Eve Party Favors - Crackers & Blowers

Pin It Now! Who's in the mood to celebrate?  Has it been a banner year for you, or are you glad to see the new one coming?  Either way, you really ought to have some festive party favors to wave bye to the old or ring in the new.

Here are some easy favors.  I made these for my church friends and some family that I'll be celebrating with.

The party blowers are too cute, and were easy to make. And YES! They do curl back up when you blow them out!  Yay!  I learned to make them from good ol' Martha Stewart here.  I used her measurements.  But I did a few things differently which are:

* I used  paper straws purchased at Target dollar spot.  Didn't cover them with vellum as they suggest.  I wrapped mine with washi tape.  The glittered ones are first wrapped with Sticky Strip, then rolled in glitter.  (You probably don't want to blow on these.  I don't personally mind glitter lips, but that's just me.)

* I used washi tape instead of clear scotch tape to adhere the patterned paper into the long strip.

*  I used Sticky Strip to insert the straw into the paper curl.  NO drying time!

One great tip I learned was to keep them rubber banded tightly curled for 24 hours.  They'll definitely keep their curl better.  I used the tiny Rainbow Loom bands, and they looked kind of cute while I waited.

Then the party crackers!  I love these, they turned out rather elegant.  They'd make a nice 50, 60, etc. birthday party, man's party, or wedding favor. 

Want some measurements?

Inside roll of Typeset Specialty DSP 3-1/4" x 3-3/4"

Outer ring of DSP: 1-1/2" x 4"

Tissue paper - plain white. 10" x 3-3/4"

Fringe cut the edges with fringe scissors.

Ribbon trim 4"

Baker's twine 3" each side

The tag was cut from the circle flip card Framelits set, and the "Happy New Year" comes from retired Christmas Messages which is still available as a digital download!

Have a wonderful, safe, blessed New Year's.  I hope you're surrounded by people you love!

Happy National Scrapbook Day! {Glassine Sack Tag Album, 50th Birthday Party Decor}

Pin It Now!

Hi friends, and Happy (inter)National Scrapbook Day to you!  Today I'm sharing with you a good reason to scrapbook - to honor someone you love.  I put together this mini album for my husband's recent HUGE milestone birthday!  It was really easy and the result was worth a million bucks.

 Simply gather a bunch of glassine bags or whatever bags you have on hand.  Need some?  Check here in my Etsy shop.
Staple them together at the bottom.
Wrap the stapled end with a piece of cardstock.  Mine is Marina Mist, embossed, and embellished with an Antique Brad & circle punch of Champagne Glimmer paper.
Wrap each bag with coordinating pattern papers.  Mine is Nautical Expedition (retired SU).  This gives the album a little body and color.
Add a little stamped embellishment to the front.  I used The Open Sea.
Now your base is done, time to fill it with memories!
I used the Two Tags die, measured the usable space, and typed up the replies on the computer. Then I cut them out and die cut each with the Big Shot.

Since it was my hubby's big giant birthday (I happen to be a LOT younger than him LOL, but I'm catching up fast), I wanted to fill it with messages of appreciation from people all throughout his life.  FACEBOOK, here I came!  I sent a group message to everyone that I thought has been touched in some way by his being around.  Childhood best friend, coworkers from 25 years ago, family, neighbors, church friends.  It was really easy once I got started.  Then the messages started rolling in, by Facebook message, text, and phone.  And it was WONDERFUL!   I was so blessed by the memories I received on his behalf.  It was very sweet to read what others had to share, and I was surprised by the heartfelt responses, especially from the guys in our lives.  But the real impact was when he read the messages.  I gave him the book the night before his birthday, and he took it to bed to read.  He laughed.  He got quiet.  And he smiled.

And this is why you have to scrapbook.

I also threw him a surprise party, and I wanted to share some of the decorations with you.  I scoured the web and Pinterest when planning his party and ended up coming up with all the ideas on my own.  First up was the banner for the cake table...

It's made of hand cut banner pieces, and LOTS of squares of Silver Glimmer Paper.  I scanned snapshots of many of the big moments in his life - childhood, grandparents, high school, our wedding, our first son, second son, and our business grand opening were some of the big ones.

Here's the hall, all gussied up!  I didn't want to do all black, I'm just very much not into the over the hill stuff :)

C. is a collector of antique clocks, so I started swiping clocks from the house earlier in the week. I set one as a centerpiece on each table, added confetti & balloons, and glue dotted a "time" quote to the face of each clock.  Lines like, "time flies when you're having fun",  "everything is better with time", etc.  It was so very HIM, and he loved it too.

  

Finally, some quickie decorations for the food table.  Jars of candy with coffee stirrers embellished with banners, pinwheels, and big fat rhinestones.  

I hope you enjoyed my birthday ideas, and hopefully you'll be able to bless somebody's life with a scrapbook, or honor them in some way with your crafty skills.  I'm going to try to pop back in later with a layout for NSD :)  Till then, have a blessed and creative day!  ~ Erika

Count Down to New Years Banner {My Digital Studio hybrid project}

Pin It Now! Here's a quick banner, that's fully customizable, to grace your home with on New Year's Eve. A hybrid project - that is to say, half digital, half hands-on product.




















It goes together really quickly with the My Digital Studio suite.  I colored the banners in Basic Black, Primrose Petals, and Pool Party.  Sized them just the way I wanted - about 3-1/2" x 4" each. Printed them onto Whisper White and Pool Party CS.

The borders of the banner are exactly the same size as the tip of the Two-Way Glue Pen - so they were begging for lots of festive silver glitter!  I added rhinestones to all of the starbursts, too.

A standard hole punch makes just the right size opening for a nice wide satin ribbon, and they're strung together, ready to count down with friends and family!

I love the fonts used for the numbers, they're so fun and on trend!

Here's the finished product, hung in my kitchen. We're ready to celebrate!

Here's the set, you can get it all as an instant download - no shipping, no waiting!  Click here to see it in my Stampin' Up! 24 hour store.

Download includes:
* Double-sided postcard designer template (3-1/2" x 5")
* 4-page décor designer template (8-1/2" x 11") 
* Tag designer template (3-1/4" x 3-1/4" )
* 46-piece SVG stamp brush set*
* 3 embellishments

Features:
* Digital-exclusive
* Designer templates include: invite, framable, bottle tag, table tents, name tags, banner
* Elegant décor for your New Year’s party that’s perfect for ringing in the new year

Colors:
Basic Gray, Midnight Muse, Sahara Sand, Summer Starfruit, Whisper White

* Note: SVG stamps won’t work with the original My Digital Studio software

Have a blessed and prosperous New Year!  Be safe~

Erika

Pinterest Party!

Pin It Now! Recently a bunch of crafty friends and I got together for a Pinterest party!  You've heard of Pinterest, of course?  Well, the only rule was that each partier had to either make a craft or a reciped she'd pinned, and prep the supplies for each of us to make one if she chose a craft.

The result was really amazing and fun!  And what's uncanny is that every one that made a craft chose to make a Christmas ornament. Totally unplanned, like matching outfits!

Here are our creations, with links to the original pin if I could find it...

Mine is a vintage book page ornament.  It's a 1/8 scale of a wreath I found here.

 JoAnn did so much!  She hosted the party, and here is the project she prepped for each of us. A really cute paper loop ornament.  You could make this in various sizes and use up lots of that paper you're hoarding ;)  Here's the link to the pin.

Danyelle's fabulous over-the-top ornament!  She created this one on her own, but I plan to pin it as soon as she blogs about it.  Stampin' Up! Supplies.  She started with die cut chipboard, layered Core'dinations cardstock, sanded, and added a layer of die cut window and more layers of beautiful inked images.  I really enjoyed making this, it's a real WOW piece!

 Who hasn't seen these super cute clear ornaments stuffed with paper curls, and said, "I'm going to make that!"  Well, we finally did.  We made some with sheet music CS and some with vintagey Anna Griffin paper.

 Below is the Anna Griffin paper curl version.  We glittered the sides of each curl, as well as the ornament top.  Lush!

Check out these newspaper Christmas trees used as party decor!  The link to the pin is here.
JoAnn patiently glittered every edge, so they sparkled like snow.

I'm dying here!  This starlight mint party tray was SO gorgeous!  It's pretty easy to make, super cheap, and wow, is it a conversation piece!

Danyelle of Hangnailz N Papercutz blog made these Martha Stewart Mini Peach Pies, and they are to die for.  Truly a life altering experience!  Handmade crust, delicious thick crumble atop fresh peach filling.  And then she made these little stamped stakes that are mini forks for eating your pie right away.  As they say....Yes, Please!

And then Wendy's cute Bugles Santa Hats were an adorable and tasty little treat that are easy to eat by the handful. I have copycatted this recipe twice already, including for my mason jar Christmas gifts here, where you can find out how they're made.

Cheesy Mushroom Pull Apart Bread, from Darlene, JoAnn's mom.  How did I not get butter and cheese all over my projects?

My food contribution was Meatball Sub Casserole.  Don't look, just doing so will give you another chin.

Here are some of the gals, busy at work.  I treasure this time with my friends, we had a blast!  I drove 500 miles to be with them, and would do it again tomorrow :)   Hope you have gleaned some Pinspiration!  Please leave me a link in the comments if you try any of the projects, or if you have had a Pinterest party of your own!

Have a blessed and creative day!
Erika

Back to {Home} School Treats!

Pin It Now! For all of us with kiddies, back to school is right around the corner.  Here in Avery County, NC, that means August 8th!  No kidding!  However, my boys will have sweet Mrs. Clark for a teacher.  Don't laugh - that's ME!  I'm homeschooling for the first time this year and I'm so excited about it!  

This week's challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments is Party Favors!  So I made a little party for two for my boys for them to enjoy the first day of homeschool in September.  

My favors include pencil holders and a mason jar full of chocolate Nuggets for when they get their work done promptly :)

There are just a couple of sneak peeks from the Holiday Catalog here...the Cherry Cobbler Sweater Trim is to die for!  And the 7/8" Cotton Ribbon will be a fave for everyone - you can tie it, tear it, stamp it, stitch it, dye it, whatever you like.

What's a party without chocolates?  Pennants?  Nothing, really.  

The Nuggets are wrapped in Storytime DSP - the ruled paper is the perfect fit, 1" wide x 3" gets you oodles of wraps from one sheet.  The little charms on the jar are hand cut from the DSP too.  The tiny pencil is punched from the Word Window punch.  

I love the "H is for Home" from the alphabet sheet, it suits my needs perfectly!

The pencil holders are a snap to make, and you can make FOUR from a single sheet of cardstock!  You could make these for a whole class, or for any occasion!  I got the template and directions from Sweet Miss Daisy here. So easy. 

Won't you join in the virtual party at Hand Stamped Sentiments this week?  I can't wait to see what you cook up!  

Sweet Shoppe Duet {Cards for Kids}

Pin It Now! A little birthday happiness for anyone that likes the bright, cool colors reminiscent of the '50s soda shoppes.


The card is 3" x 6" on Pool Party textured cardstock, with Edgelits, Sweet Shoppe DSP, tab punch, and trimmed out with Real Red Glimmer Paper and Galaxy Glitter on the frosting. Stamp set is Sweet Cake from the Spring Mini. 
The Pixie Stix favor I made to be used as a gift topper, with Button Buddies cherry image, the body of the tag from 2-1/2" circle punch, and trimmed and tied with Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine. The Pixie Stix will probably be a bigger hit than the present you tied them onto! :D

Have a blessed & creative day! Erika.

Cute Carrot Treat for the Kiddies

Pin It Now! Here's one craft I had the 2nd graders make at their Easter Party today.



Just a cute little sugar cone carrot in a pastry bag, wrapped in Pumpkin Pie DSP and tied off with dotted scallop ribbon and curls of organza ribbon.




On a few, I added a punched pennant with a Happy Easter banner from Heaven Blessed.



I also included a little printable of the jellybean Easter story, which describes the religious meanings behind all the colors of the beans.

Here's a link to a printable for the story.

Have a blessed & creative day! Erika. www.erikaclark.stampinup.net

Reversible Twitterpated Easter Banner HSSIC111

Pin It Now! Happy Palm Sunday!  Only one week left til Easter, can you believe it?


I've had a burlap Easter banner rolling around in my head for a few days now, and like I often do, I let it simmer until I'm ready and then go to work when I have a burst of time.  Great getting half the work done before I even sit down!

My original plan was to keep the banner Springy and generic, I couldn't decided on the word to put on the banner. Spring? Easter? ...then Rejoice? ...finally I decided to get right to the point...He Lives!  Rolling those letters out of my Big Shot actually felt therapeutic and satisfying.  Yes, that's exactly what I wanted on my wall.


The best part is that it's completely reversible!  So when Easter is over, I can enjoy it as a Springtime decoration.  Or I can hang it in a window and both sides are pretty!

It goes together in a snap, below are the basics...




The fabric side is Twitterpated Designer Fabric, die cut with Perfect Pennants.




Layer and attach with a dab of Tombo Multi.
Cut a long (about 2 yards) piece of Pretty In Pink 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon.  Iron in half lengthwise, except for the ends which you'll tie off in a bow.
Find the center and stick a pin in it, so you know where to start placing banner pieces.




Tuck all the banner pieces into the folded edge of ribbon.  Hold with pins, and run a straight stitch all the way down. Iron nice and flat.  These below haven't been ironed yet...



The pink rhinestones are from the Blossom Builders designer die cuts in the Spring Occasions Mini.  You NEED this just for the bling.  The blossoms are awesome too, so nothing to lose!

I attached the large bling two per pennant back-to-back.  So no matter which side you're looking at, you have bling at the bottom!


The lettered side uses the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch, and Timeless Type Alpa Jr. Sizzlits.  Embossed the pink circles with Square Lattice embossing folder. I think it resembles the burlap.

I was inspired to make this project thanks to Hand Stamped Sentiments' weekly challenge HSSIC111, anything Easter!  How easy can this be?  I know you have some awesome ideas brewing too, go play along!

I can't believe my pretty tea roses are blooming already! Cutting a few for my craft room <3.

Have a blessed & creative day! Erika.