Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas one and all!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas together.   Here are some cards that I made using Stampin' Up "Many Merry Messages" and "Dasher" stamp sets, as well as "Petals-A-Plenty" embossing folder from SU (and Snowflakes from Cutttlebug), and some Lifestyle Crafts "Nesting Scallops" dies.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Christmas Treat Bags

The other day I ended up making around 70 of these fun little treat bags.  In a prior post, I had started this project, by stamping the "VERY MERRY Christmas" from the Stampin' Up set "It's a Wrap Holidays".  I only got about 60 candies stamped and wrapped before running out of candy.  The project was put on hold for over a week, until I could make a Costco run and get the huge bag of Hershey's Nuggets. 
Once I had more "nuggets", I began stamping and wrapped a ton more!  To make the use of "It's a Wrap Holidays" easier, I stamped onto address labels and then peeled to stick to each candy.  After finishing the candies, I worked at getting four into each of the small Stampin' Up treat bags, and then worked on stamping "Joy at Christmas" from the SU set "Perfect Punches".  I also punched a background for each stamped image.  I used  the 1 3/4" and 2" scallop circle punches. 
For the wrap across the tops, I cut a 3" by 6" strip of cardstock, punched the bottom of each with Martha Stewart's snowflake border punch, then folded in half and stapled once in the center.  I made sure to staple backwards so that I could "hide" the staple edges with the scallop medallions I had made.  I love how these turned out!  For colors, I used several greens and reds (both SU and other brands).  ~Hoppy crafting!!!

Christmas in July

A few weeks ago, at the Scrapbook Expo, I visited The Scrap Yard Chicks (www.scrapyardchicks.com), and found a Christmas Advent Calendar Kit.  I'm normally not much of a kit person, but over the past couple of years, I have bought several kits from these gals.  They are awesome!  They usually come with all of the pieces needed to create your project (minus glue, ink, other basic tools, etc.), and very detailed instructions with color photos.  During the previous years' expo, they were selling an advent calendar, and I kicked myself for not getting to their booth sooner (because I was sold out!), so the Chicks were one of the first booths I visited to get the best selection. 

Well, I finally got some time (and motivation) to start working on the calendar.  The calendar was actually very easy, just time consuming with all of the little pieces (which I enjoy).  I started by sorting all the pieces into each quadrant of the cookie sheet for each day, just to make sure I had everything, then started with the ones I thought looked the easiest. :o)  Yes, there are fabulous instructions, but I totally winged it with most of them and just glanced at what they should look like. 
Now, I'm done with all 25 days of Christmas.  All the glittering is finished.  The dimensional glaze for the snow globe is dry.  All magnets are on.  I just need to finish adhering the title, and I'm home free.  Pretty cool, eh?   ~Hoppy Crafting!