Bread box.....

As I sit here posting to my blog, I am listening to Christmas music and am SO MUCH in the Christmas spirit.  Never mind that I have very little shopping done and I don't have ANY decorations up in the house yet!!  I'm waiting for the grandchildren to come this weekend to help me with the decorating.  They asked me to wait until they could be here, so I am.  I'd love the help!!  My husband's cousin came a few minutes ago and said he wanted to see the Christmas decorations I had up.  His wife was decorating today and tomorrow.  I told him I have Christmas paper towels out in the bathroom and that's it so far.  ha!  He laughted, too.  Never fear, I'll get there!

Today I want to share with you a cute box that my friend Carol Morton sent me last year.  I liked it so much, I decided to do it in my December classes this month.  It is the perfect size to hold one of those mini loaves of bread that are so nice to take as a hostess gift or to lunch with a friend.  Carol's box was green, but I decided to make mine in Ridinghood Red cardstock, with black and Wild Wasabi accent colors.

 It is tied up with our lucious 1-1/4" wide striped grosgrain ribbon.  I used retired Ridinghood Red ribbon on mine.  And my box is made from Ridinghood Red CS.  I decided I wanted to make a little penguin to go on it.  I realize after I completed him that his eyes should be the LARGE white circles from the Two Step Owl punch, but oh, well.......I punched his earmuffs using the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack and I cut his "band" that holds the earmuffs with the 1" circle punch from Baisc Gray CS.

 Look at the "Just for you label on it.  I stamped that sentiment from the Afterthoughts Level 1 Hostess set.  I love that praticular stamp.  I punched it with the Decorative Label Punch.  See how I backed it with the red?  To do this, I punched two red labels using the Decorative Label Punch.  I cut one lengthwise (horizontally) and the other crosswise vertically).  I glued one of the crosswise-cut pieces on each end of the sentiment label and the other two at the top and the bottom of the label.  Great way to "layer" a punched image with its same shape. 

Also, can you tell that the box has black around it?  I used the Scalloped Edge Border punch to make strips to put around the top edge of the box.  I love the effect that gives it.

OK, here is the box itself.  The box is a 10 x 7-1/2" pc. of cardstock.  Score, cut and fold as shown on my picture here.

If you have questions, contact me.  Really, it's easy.

OK, here is another bread box I made for spring.   I used Marina Mist CS for this one.  

 I thought, what if a person doesn't have any of our lucious wide ribbon?  Well, you can add a handle so here I added a cardstock handle to it.  I think it's 1-1/4" x 8-1/2".

The bird and heart are from the Punched Potpourri Level 1 Hostess set.  I raised the bird using dimensionals.

These boxes are handy for all sorts of things--not just mini loaves.  You could put a baggie of cookies, or even a bag of party mix for those who don't like sweets!  The possibilities are endless.  And if you don't want it as long, just decrease the 10" length of the box to 8" and that would take 2" off the length.

I hope I've inspired you today!  Thanks for stopping in.  Smiles, Laura

Corners and cuts....

I saw a neat card in Paper Crafts magazine with squares and cut corners and such and decided I wanted to make one similar. Of course it did not tell you the dimensions on the squares, so I just eye-balled the size of them. I thought it was fairly bare--it didn't have too many squares/rectangles, so I decided mine would have more. And of course, I used Soft Suede for the card because I love that color so much. Here is my card: I used Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, and Marina Mist for my squares and rectangles. Each square or rectangle has opposite corners rounded. I stamped it "Just for You" with a stamp from the Afterthoughts level 1 hostess set. I think I've told you before that I cut off the other words on that stamp because I like the "Just for You" by itself. This card could be used for many different occasions.

I decided I wanted to make another one in different colors. Here that one is:

This one is also a Soft Suede card, but I used Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight and Marina Mist on it. Otherwise, the cards are the same. I wonder which is your favorite. I know which is mine.....

Come back again soon! Smiles, Laura

Butterflies everywhere....

Hi! Today I wanted to share another card Jessica and I made last week. She punched all the butterflies for both our cards and one for friend Regina. I love having someone to use the Big Shot for me!! For this card, I used the new Cajun Craze CS and DSP from Woodland Walk. The card itself is 3" x 6" so it folds up pretty small.

Here is a close-up of the butterlies, so you can see the pretty detail on them. We put a rhinestone jewel on each butterfly.

Just for You is from the set Afterthoughts, which is a level 1 hostess set. I cut off "so you don't have to share!" from the bottom of the stamp because I knew I'd want to use the "Just for You" alot! Since this is a clear mount stamp, I can still add on the other words when I want them. That's a nice feature of clear munt stamps.

Come back soon!! Smiles, Laura

Supplies used:

Stamp set: Afterthoughts

CS: Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Ink: Cajun Craze

Accessories: Woodland Walk DSP, rhinestone jewels, 3/4" circle punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Corner rounder punch (retired)