Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Happy Birthday Kristy!

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Hi all,

It’s birthday time again for one of our Paper Prettie Design Team Members. Today Kristy Ketterlin is a year older, Happy Birthday Kristy. Of course what better way to celebrate than a Birthday Blog Hop Prettie Girl style! As we can't get together to celebrate in person the next best thing is a virtual birthday party .... yahhhhhhhh what fun!

The hop started at Christie Ortman’s blog so if you didn’t start off there you might want to hop on over there now so you don’t miss out on any of the fun!

I thought Kristy might like shoes for her birthday … so I used Paper Pretties “Sassy Shoes” set to create my card. the layout is based on the Mojo Sketch challenge (Mojo115)

Here is the order of the hop:

  • Christie Ortman
  • Julie Masse
  • Jana Weaver
  • Jackie Rakoski
  • Christi Thorsen
  • Frances Byrne (you are here!!!!!!)
  • Heather Lee-Reppen
  • Wendy Bond
  • Jane Matsumoto
  • Jennifer Greco
  • Kristy Ketterlin (don’t forget to wish the birthday girl a happy birthday)

    Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the party festivities so far. Now it is time to continue on our birthday blog hop and visit the blog of Heather Lee-Reppen. Don’t forget to wish Kristy a Happy Birthday when you reach her blog.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Sassy Shoes – Paper Pretties;

    Paper: White; Red; Pink; DP

    Other: Black Ink; Fancy Tags Die; Circle Nestabilities; Foam Tape; Copics

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  • Club Anya Holiday Blog Hop!

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    Hi everyone,

    Today is Club Anya’s Holiday Blog Hop, and I thought it was about time I signed up to participate in one of their customer blog hops,  after all I have tons of their stamps so why not!

    The list of participating blogs is posted on the Club Anya blog so be sure to hop on over there so that you can hop around to all the other blogs that are participating in this hop, I am sure there are some amazing creations for you to see out there in blog land today.

    To participate we had to create a holiday themed card that uses Anya or Ian stamps. I decided to use both Anya & Ian to create my card …. mine are digital stamps Miss Anya Autumn and My Guy Autumn.

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    I decided to make a Double Side Stair step card for today’s blog hop. I have seen lots of Side Stair step cards around the place and hadn’t gotten around to creating one even though I have made a few Stair step cards and recently I discovered what I am calling the Double Side Stair Step card … I am not sure if this is the official name for it, but as it has a side step on both sides it works for me.

    Anya-Double-Stairstep2-wm Here is another pic of my card …. the Christmas tress and Santa hats are both brads. I attached the trees onto my card the normal way you attach brads, but I wanted to ensure that the hats were positioned in the correct place so I cut off the prongs and attached them to the heads using foam tape.

    Well that is all for me … don’t forget to visit Club Anya’s blog so that you can continue on the hop.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Miss Anya Autumn & My Guy Autumn Digital Stamps – The Greeting Farm

    Paper: White; Red; Green; DP – Kaisercraft

    Other: Black Ink; Modern Label Tag Punch & Die; Christmas Tree & Santa Hat Brads; Red Ribbon; Foam Tape; Copics

     

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    Monday, December 14, 2009

    The Season Of Giving!

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    Hi everyone!

    Well it is time for another challenge over on The Pink Elephant blog.  This week the challenge is Theme challenge with the theme being Christmas or Winter.

    As you can see I decided to go with Christmas, although looking at how she is dressed I guess it covers winter too although for me Christmas are hot summer days not cold winter ones! For my card today uses a digital image from Squigglefly …. this one is called “Season of Giving” which was one that was designed by Robin Willis. This is such a cutie.

    I decided to change up the image slightly but printing it out fairly large and cutting the image out of the square and then mounting it onto a circle. I cut up one of the sentiments in the square individually and attached it to the lower part of my card.

    Don’t forget to check out The Pink Elephant blog to see what the other design team members came up with this week.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Season of Giving Digi Stamp – Squigglefly

    Paper: White; Pink; Purple; Blue; Eskimo Kisses DP – Basic Grey

    Other: Black Ink; Circle Nestabilities; Snowflake Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Pink Brads; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Sunday, December 13, 2009

    Oh Christmas Tree!

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    Hi everyone,

    I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Today I have one more card to share with you all using the new Christmas Cuties unmounted plate available from Alota Rubber Stamps …. I just love this set!!!!!

    Recipe
    Stamps
    : Christmas Cuties – Alota Rubber Stamps

    Paper: White; Pale Green; Dark Green; DP

    Other: Black Ink; Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; MS Star Border Punch; Circle Nestabilities; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Saturday, December 12, 2009

    A Quilt and a Snowdog!

    Snow-Dog-wm Happy Saturday everyone!

    My card today is for my regular Saturday challenge I have with my “Crazy” friends over on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog. This week our challenge hostess for the month, Joanne Grzelak has asked us to “Focus on Snowflakes & Snowmen”.

    This week I have again got more then one card to share with you for this challenge …. yes I went a little crazy with snowmen …. well really a snow dog and a snow women if you want to get technical hehe!

    I discovered this cute Snowdog image earlier in the week, and as soon as I saw it I feel in love with it … it is sooooo different! Fortunately this is a digi stamp which meant I could get it straight away and play … don’t you just love instant gratification *smile* .   Anyway this is from a new (to me) digi site called Designed2Delight.

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    I found this cute “Quilted Snowman” over on the KLM Digital Designs web site the other week and just had to purchase it to use for my card. Of course I also added snowflakes to my card using Martha Stewarts snowflake punch.

    Don't forget to check out the rest of the “Crazies” cards over on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and also their individual blogs for more details.

    Recipe for Snow Dog:

    Stamps: Snowdog – Designed2Delight

    Paper: White; Brown; Sage; DP – Kaisercraft

    Other: Black Ink; MS Snowflake Punch; MS Snowflake Border Punch; Grosgrain Ribbon; Foam Tape; Brads; Copics

    Recipe For Snow Quilt:

    Stamps: Quilted Snowman – KLM Digital Designs

    Paper: White; Green; Burgundy; DP - Kaisercraft

    Other:  Snowflake Punch; Oval Nestabilities; Green Brads; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Hugs!

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    Hi everyone,

    I have another Alota card to share with you today. This time round I am using Alota Rubber Stamps “Bugs Hugging”. For the layout of my card I used this week’s Mercy’s Tuesday Sketch challenge (MTSC51), however I turned it around to suit the image I wanted to use.

    MTSC51 Here is the sketch …. as you can see I have turned it to suit my card so that you can see exactly what I did.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Bugs Hugging – Alota Rubber Stamps

    Paper: White; Black; Pink; Red; DP

    Other: Black Ink; Black Brads; Sizzix Embossing Folder; Red Grosgrain Ribbon; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Friday, December 11, 2009

    Hello There!

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    Hi all, I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

    A few weeks ago I was checking out the blog updates on my Google reader when I came across Alison of Stamping When I Can blog … she had a Me Likey post … and one of those items I definitely liked!!!

    That link led me to “The Red Haired Girl” blog where she was showing her Easel Top Matchbook Box that she created. Wow! I needed a handmade gift to make to use as a gift exchange with a group of friend that I met up with each month to use for our Christmas Luncheon we had last week. As soon as I saw this idea I knew exactly what I was going to create and set to work!

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    Elena had included a link with instructions on how to create the matchboxes using the scorpal, however as I had the Sizzix Matchbox Die I decided to use that to create my matchboxes. I tried to keep it all Stampin’ Up …. as I knew this is what my friends would want …. and did pretty well till I got to the finishing touches …. ooops! I know the girls who get this won’t mind that I strayed a little hehe.

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    Here is another view of my easel matchbook box, I copied the idea of having the sentiment at the back of the box rather than on the front. For this version of easel card I think it is a great idea.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Cheep Talk & Oval Alls – Stampin’ Up

    Paper: White; Blue; Green; DP

    Other: Black Ink; Blue Ink; Green Ink; Circle Nestabilities; Green Grosgrain Ribbon; Border Punch; Blue Brads; Cuttlebug Corner Die; Foam Tape

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    Thursday, December 10, 2009

    Pig Out!

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    Hi all!

    I have been playing again … what’s new ha! hehe!! This week the challenge over on the Totally Stampalicious blog is to keep it simple. I think I did that!

    This time round I decided to play with Totally Stampalicious' Farmer Hawgt set … this just cracks me up! Love the sentiment too …. not sure that we need any encouragement to “pig out” though at this time of year right hehe!

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Farmer Hawgt – Totally Stampalicious

    Paper: White; Black; Blue; DP

    Other: Black Ink; Black Brads; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Cutie Shipping Tag Box

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    Hi again,

    I have been playing with my Alota Rubber Stamps “Christmas Cuties” stamps again … I just love these cute little kids.

    This time round I decided to make one of the Shipping Tag Boxes that was this week’s Technique Challenge over on SCS. You can find out how to create one of these here. These are sooooooo easy to create!

    alota-shippingtag-box2-wm Here is a side on view of my shipping tag box. I also got to play with one of my new Martha Stewart Border Punches I got this week … this one is the Stars border punch.

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    Oh before I go I wanted to share a brand new unmounted stamp set that Alota Rubber Stamps just released. This set is called “Aussie Snowman”, this was designed by a friend of mine, Susan Uncle. I thought it was such a fun set that I just had to share it with you all. I don’t have the stamps yet so I can’t create a card to share here just now but as soon as I do I will.

    This is pretty much what a snowman would look like if we attempted to try and make one down here especially at this time of year, although I haven’t ever seen snow where I live …. a bucket full of water or mush on the ground.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Christmas Cuties – Alota Rubber Stamps

    Paper: Olive; Red; Eskimo Kisses DP – Basic Grey

    Other: Black Ink; MS Star Border Punch; Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Tag Corner Punch; Hole Punch; Red Ribbon; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Wednesday, December 9, 2009

    Newlyweds!

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    Hi everyone,

    Of course it is Wednesday which means it is time for another Pretties Wednesday Challenge & Blog Hop. If you didn't hop onto my blog via Christi Thorsen's blog then you might want to hop back over to the very start of the blog hop which is at Christie Ortman's blog.

    This week it is Christie’s turn to issue the challenge which is to make 6 x 6 scrapbook page. Now just so you all know ….. I DON’T scrapbook!!!!!!! I know many of you do and that is fine, but I just don’t and to make matters worse, the majority of photos I take are of my cards/projects not people! Anyway never one to shirk a challenge, I did my page. I used a photo from my daughters wedding from last year … I can’t believe it is now just over a year since the wedding …. doesn’t time fly!

    I used Paper Pretties new “Time For Cake” set to embellish my scrapbook page. This time round I used the cake as is just adding the flowers at the top so it resembled the cake in the photo … just a little anyway.

    Want to play along with us
    How to Enter: Create a card using the challenge above and any Paper Pretties stamp set(s) you have. Upload your project to the Paper Pretties gallery. Please include it in the Weekly Challenges category and use keyword PWC81.
    Deadline: 6pm EST Tuesday, December15th.
    Prize: $15.00 coupon to the Paper Pretties Boutique.

    Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Paper Pretties Design team to see what they came up with for this challenge.

    Now to continue on the hop you need to head on over to Heather Lee-Reppen’s blog to see what she has created for this week’s challenge

    Recipe:
    Stamps: Time for Cake  - Paper Pretties
    Paper: White; Brown; Blue; DP – Three Bugs In A Rug                           Other: Black Ink; Spellbinders Fancy Tags; Oval Punch; Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; MS Scallop Dot Border Punch; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Christmas Cuties!

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    Hi everyone,

    I was so excited yesterday when I went to check my mailbox, as my parcel from Alota Rubber Stamps was sitting there waiting for me to bring it inside *smile*. I just love this new unmounted plate that has recently been released called “Christmas Cuties”, this plate is chock full of cuteness!

    Of course I had to play and this is one of the things I came up with, I will show you more later in the week. I used this week’s Mojo Sketch challenge (Mojo116), for the layout of my card.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Christmas Cuties – Alota Rubber Stamps

    Paper: White; Burgundy; Green; DP – Kaisercraft

    Other: Black Ink; Burgundy Grosgrain Ribbon; Burgundy Brads; Circle Nestabilities; Oval Punches; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Tuesday, December 8, 2009

    Mrs Claus!

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    Hi all,

    Today I have two more “Riley” cards to share with you, this time using Mrs Claus.

    Don’t forget that Riley stamps are now available from Riley and Company.

    For my top card I layered Mrs Claus onto an ornament which was created using a Cuttlebug die.

    hanna-Mrs-C-wm This card was created using the top note die.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Mrs Claus – Riley and Company

    Paper: White; Pink; Dark Pink; DP – Kaisercraft

    Other: Black Ink; Ornament Cuttlebug Die; Snow Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Oval Punches; Snowflake Punch; Pink Candy Dots; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Monday, December 7, 2009

    Stripy Snowman!

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    Happy Monday everyone!!!!

    It’s time for another challenge over on The Pink Elephant blog, this week the challenge was a color challenge which was to use our Favorite Christmas colors.

    I love so many color schemes for Christmas cards which includes the traditional Red and Green and also Blue and Silver. But I also love to use unusual colors when I create my Christmas cards, which includes pink & purple that I used for my card today.

    This week “Your Next Stamp” is the sponsor for The Pink Elephant challenge, and each design team member was given digital stamps to use. The snowman is called Stripy Snowman and I used the sentiment from the Christmas Stockings set.

    Don’t forget to check out The Pink Elephant blog to see what the rest of the design team have created this week.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Stripy Snowman; Christmas Stockings – Your Next Stamp

    Paper: White; Pink; Purple; Eskimo Kisses DP – Basic Grey

    Other: Black Ink; Spellbinders Fancy Tags Die; Circle Nestabilities; Oval Punch; MS Snowflake Punch; Purple Brad; EK Success Snowflake Border Punch; Snowflake Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Sunday, December 6, 2009

    A Christmas Stocking Gift Card Holder

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    Good morning everyone!

    As promised I am back today with the last of the Gift Card Holders that I created with the Crazy 4 Challenges Gift Card Holder challenge in mind. As I said in my post yesterday (scroll down if you missed that post) I did indeed go a little crazy over these gift card holders. I am not sure why because I don’t even give gift cards out at Christmas time, but I do like playing with new ideas, construction type cards etc and these were all so much fun.

    A couple of weeks ago on SCS, the try a new technique challenge was to create a stocking gift card holder. I didn’t get to play at the time but did put it on my list of wanting to try it one day. If you want the details on how to create one of these cards you can find them here.

    These are lots of fun to create and very easy too! As the designer paper I used had lollies all over it I decided to use one of the lollies and the “To” & “From” sentiment from the “I want Candy” stamp set that is included in MFT Stamps December Kit of the Month.

    mft-stocking-giftcholder-wm Here is an inside view of the stocking gift card holder. To help keep this closed I used Basic Grey’s Magnet Discs, I just love these. You can’t actually see the magnet discs because I have hidden it underneath the layers of card, that is how thin they are!

    Recipe:

    Stamps: I Want Candy December Kit – MFT Stamps

    Paper: White; Red; Olive; Eskimo Kisses DP – Basic Grey

    Other: Black Ink; Tag Punches; Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Green Grosgrain Ribbon; Magnet Closures; MS Icicle Border Punch;

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    Saturday, December 5, 2009

    Be Merry & Bright!

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    Hi everyone!

    It’s the first Saturday in December which means that we have a new challenge host for our challenges over on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog. This month our challenge hostess is none other than Joanne Grzelak, I am sure you will love the challenges Joanne has in store for us all this month.

    To start of the month and because Christmas is just around the corner, we had to make a Gift card holder … it can be any type you like.

    Well I went a little crazy this week, and made tons (ok 4 different) gift card holders ... I just couldn't help myself, there are just so many out there that I have been wanting to have a go at for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

    For my first gift card holder I created a gift card holder that I have made a few times before … if you want instructions on how to create it you can find a tutorial here. I decided to use my new stamps from “Waltzing Mouse Stamps”. The stamps used here are from the Seasons of Love set …. this set is designed to work with the nestabilities. I used the star & circle nestabilities for this one. Claire also has some other great sets which can also be used with the nestabilities … which I also love!

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    Here is an inside view of my gift card holder. You can see the gift card sticking out of the middle portion. I also included circles on either side ready to write who I will give this to and who it is from.

    c4c-giftcard3-wm One more view of the inside!

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Seasons of Love – Waltzing Mouse Stamps

    Paper: White; Olive; Burgundy; Eskimo Kisses DP – Basic Grey

    Other: Black Ink; Burgundy Ink; Star Nestabilities; Circle Nestabilities; MS Scallop Dot Border Punch; Burgundy Grosgrain Ribbon; Green Button; Word Window Punch; Swiss Dot Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Foam Tape

    totally-money-holder5wm Ok, as I said I couldn’t just stop at one so for my next gift card holder (well really this is a money holder, but close enough right), I wanted to try out Carolina's Ornament Money Holder. Carolina, posts a different tutorial every week and this was her tutorial from last week, you can find out how to make one here.

    totally-money-holder3-wm Here is another photo of my money holder this time with the ornament out of the little envelope that holds it. I used “Willameana” from Totally Stampalicious to put on the front of my ornament.

    totally-money-holder1wmAnd one more pic of my money ornament holder, this time without the money.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Willameana – Totally Stampalicious

    Paper: White; Olive; Red; Eskimo Kisses DP – Basic Grey

    Other: Black Ink; Circle Nestabilities; MS Snowflake Punch; Red Grosgrain Ribbon; Green Candy Dots; Tag Punches; Tab Punch; Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Gold Cord; Red Gems; Foam Tape; Copics

    gina-beanie-money-holder1-w Now onto my third gift card holder today … this is another of Carolina's ideas. I first saw this idea a few week’s back and knew at once I wanted to make one too. You can find the instructions for her Beanie Gift Card Holder here. I did play around a little with my circles and I didn’t want to see my gift card from the back of the holder so I actually cut out 2 circles and cut the 2nd one slightly larger than in Carolina’s instructions.

    gina-beanie-money-holder-wm And here is the inside view, the front lifts up similar to how a hinge card does.

    Well I know I said at the beginning of this post that I made 4 card card holders, but I have decided that 3 is probably enough to inflict on you today LOL. I will use the last one for my post for tomorrow, so don't forget to come back and check it out ;) .Sorry to be such a tease :)

    Don't forget to check out the rest of the “Crazies” cards over on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and also their individual blogs for more details.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Merry & Bright Sentiment – Gina K Designs

    Paper: White; Green; Brown; DP - Kaisercraft

    Other: Burgundy Ink; Circle Cutter; MS Doily Lace Border Punch; Burgundy Grosgrain Ribbon; Snowflake Punch; Circle Punches; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Friday, December 4, 2009

    Santa …. I Have Been A Good Girl!

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    Really I have bwahahahahahahahaha!

    Hi everyone ….

    It is time for another challenge over on the Alota Rubber Stamps Paper Craft Planet Group. This week the challenge is hosted by Cheryl Walker. Cheryl’s challenge is “Christmas” …. another perfect challenge for this time of year.

    You have two weeks from today to participate in this challenge and you also have a chance of winning some wonderful stamps if you card/project is selected randomly from all the entries received.

    For my card I used 4 stamps to create this typical Christmas scene, Princess Chair; Sitting Santa; Little Girl and Toy Bag.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Princess Chair;  Sitting Santa; Little Girl & Toy Bag – Alota Rubber Stamps

    Paper: White; Red; Green; DP

    Other: Black Ink; Foam Tape; Copics

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    Thursday, December 3, 2009

    Sending Christmas Wishes!

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    It is Elzybells challenge time over on the Elzybells Art Stamps blog. This week the challenge was to “Create a Christmas Gift/Packaging.

    I decided to create a gift card holder, because I figured that could be classed as a gift and packaging as well. I recently saw a fun gift card holder made using the top note die over on De Stampin Corner so I decided to give that ago.

    I used the new Tags – Christmas set from Elzybells … I just love this stamp set as it gives you so many options. As you can see I also added texture to the front of my gift card holder using my cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. The slit at the top holds the gift card in place as well as keeping the front of the holder closed.

    elzy-topnote-giftcard2-wm Here is my gift card holder open.

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    Don't forget to check out what the rest of the design team created for this challenge.

    Recipe:

    Stamps: Tags – Christmas – Elzybells Art Stamps

    Paper: White; Navy

    Other: Navy Ink; White Ink; Circle Nestabilities; Snowflake Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Navy Grosgrain Ribbon; Blue Candy Dots; Snowflake Punches; Foam Tape; Copics

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