SUO Challenges: Handmade Holidays

 Hey y'all, it's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

And here is our theme:

This means anything that is handmade and holiday themed, so Thanksgiving and Christmas cards (though there are lots of other holidays too if you want to do something different) OR any other handmade project.  I stared blankly at all my Christmas stamps for a while, ate some chocolate, and then I made this:

Place cards for Thanksgiving dinner!

I made nine altogether with the Mini Alphabet dies and Sweet Days of Autumn DSP.  I didn't center up the names on all of the place cards; instead, I moved them around a bit to show off the animals on each one.  I cut an 8.5x11 piece of cardstock into quarters (so, card front size) and scored at 2 3/4" on the long side to make the place cards.  Easy peasey and you can dress them up however you want.

We also have some other handmade table decorations for Thanksgiving:

Way back in the day, Stampin' Up! had fabric for a hot minute, and I found a tutorial for making fabric pumpkins so that was a Thanksgiving Day craft one year when we lived in England, about 13 years ago I think.  The turkey is made from felt with an artificial flower for his tail feathers, and of course googley eyes.

Okay, I've got to get Ryan off to school and go get my car's oil changed.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  None
Ink:  None
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, Sweet Days of Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Mini Alphabet dies

SUO Challenges: Gifts, Tags, Boxes, & Bags

Gooooood morning stampy friends!  It is time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

 
And this time around it really was a challenge for me because we're doing 3D items (gifts, tags, boxes, and bags) and 3D is Not My Thing.  I had been mulling this challenge over in my mind for weeks (the DT has the list of challenges for usually several months in advance) and then, one day last week, I took the last two tea bags out of a tin and I had an idea.  I buy quite a bit of tea from Republic of Tea and I just hate to toss the tins when they're empty so...why not alter it?  Here is what I made:

So the tin is about 5 inches tall (not counting the top).  I peeled off the original label and discovered it was about 8 1/2" long, and I had the most recent Paper Pumpkin kit on my craft table so I grabbed one of the card fronts from that to wrap the cylinder.  If I had it to do over again I think I'd choose a regular patterned paper; the card front is heavier weight, more like cardstock, which makes it a little more difficult to wrap around a round object.  Definitely use some heavy-duty adhesive.  I added a cardstock band and then a stamped/die cut the main label part.

And then I filled it up with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, because who doesn't love those :)  I think this would be a cute little gift for Valentine's Day or anything else really--yeah I used Poppy Parade but there's no hearts so it's not strictly Valentine's Day themed.  Now I sorta wish I hadn't left all my other tins in storage but I've been collecting them for years and this is the first time I've actually done anything with one of them, haha!  I'm going to keep this in mind for when Ryan starts school, I think these would be cute for teacher's gifts.  Plus I never turn down an excuse to drink more tea.

So now it's your turn to make something three dimensional and share with us on the SUO Challenges blog.  If that is Not Your Thing either, be brave and try something new--I did, and I really liked what I ended up with!  Now I just need to concentrate on not eating all the peanut butter cups...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nothing's Better Than
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, card front from January 2021 My Paper Pumpkin kit
Accessories:  Layering Ovals dies, Love You More Than dies, black ribbon from January 2021 My Paper Pumpkin kit

SUO Challenges Goes 3D

Hey y'all!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time around we're asking you to make a 3D item, which was definitely a challenge for me!  Using Stampin' Dimensionals is usually about as 3D as I get, haha.  I ended up browsing the tutorial library on Splitcoast Stampers to figure out what to make, and here's my finished paper lantern:

See the tutorial here.  There's an easy-to-follow printable template and instructions simple enough that even I could do it ;)  This is a teeny-tiny lantern; at first I wanted to use the kimono lady from Power of Hope, but she was a little too tall.

There's a battery-operated tealight inside; I used vellum for the cutouts on each side.  It does look nice when the tealight is on, but it was hard to photograph!

See, there you can tell the tealight is on but the colors are totally wonky on the DSP.  I used the Parisian Blossoms DSP for the lantern; it's sturdy enough for this particular 3D project.

Do 3d projects scare you the way they scare me?  Or am I the only one who finds this to be a big challenge?  Let's see what you got:  post your 3D project on the SUO Challenges blog!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Parisian Beauty
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Petal Pink, Parisian Blossoms DSP, vellum
Accessories:  1 1/2" circle punch, Parisian dies

Baby Shower Projects

I blame the Olympics and Anne McCaffrey.

I had every intention of making a card today, but here it is 11:00 at night and I didn't do it.  Oops.  I'm part of a group of nerds on Facebook and they got started talking about Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books and I was suddenly seized with a burning desire to read the books again, which I haven't read in I'm sure over ten years so it's like they're new again.  And I have lots of other things to do but it's always been hard for me to tear myself away from a book.

So anywha, here are a couple of artwork pieces I made for my sister-in-law's baby shower in January.

If you remember, the theme of the shower was Cinderella.  My awesome friend Tiana cut out the words for me and I sent her a bunch of extra cardstock so she cut out some other shapes too and sent them all back to me.  However the castle she cut out wasn't the color I wanted for this piece, so I traced it onto Pool Party cardstock and cut it out, then coated it with Iridescent Ice EP.

Same thing for the Cinderella--I traced her onto the back of some Blushing Bride glimmer paper.

And here is my army of paper mice favor boxes I made; they all have a teabag inside, herbal in the pink mice and black tea in the blue mice.

So there you go and I really should go to bed and don't let me read another chapter tonight. :)

Unicorns are Awesome!

Morning, peeps!  I'm sitting in front of the computer with four cups of tea in front of me.  While the hubs is away this week, I decided to empty out the tea cabinet and taste-test all the ones I don't drink very often to make sure I actually like them...and even with tasting 10+ different teas per day, it's going to take several more days.  Why no, I don't have a hoarding problem, whatever do you mean?  I am staying ridiculously well-hydrated though, which means I have a new hobby.

So, today's projects require a bit of explanation.  My friend Ashlea somehow came to the conclusion that every single movie I watch has unicorns in it.  Granted, two of my favorite movies as a kid were The Last Unicorn and Legend (the old Tom Cruise unicorn movie with Tim Curry as the devil), but by no means do *alllll* of my favorite movies feature unicorns.  But anyway, every time I talked about a movie, Ashlea's first question was does it have unicorns in it.  It's now a running joke.  She even told me that Ruby Rhod in The Fifth Element is a human unicorn because of his hairdo in one scene...

Well, when her ridiculously adorable daughter turned one, I couldn't resist...

Shout out to my friend Tiana, who cut out a couple dozen unicorns for me out of different colors using her Silhouette.

Oh yeah, I decorated the bag too.

So what did this bag contain?  A set of five plush unicorns with their own castle and The Last Unicorn on BluRay.  Just to make sure that baby girl grows up with unicorns in her life, because that is a necessary ingredient for a great childhood.  Her parents cracked up when they saw the bag and again when they opened everything for her.  WIN.

Well, my teas are getting cold.  The chocolate one is better than I expected...cheers, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Silver Glimmer Paper, various cardstock from my friend Tiana
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, rhinestones, die cut unicorns from my friend Tiana

Friday Flashback: Sweet Shoppe Alphabet

Happy Friday, peeps!  Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback, featuring the Sweet Shoppe Alphabet.  It's a very cute alphabet, I'm happy for the reminder to break it out and use it again!  So let's go flash back.

This is a more recent creation, I made it just last December.

Ok, I admit, it's a little sad that the Flashback is pretty short and one of the photos is the index card I did for the Splitcoast gallery.

Also features Broadsheet Alphabet & Array of Sunshine

Ok, so there's one more project I used the alphabet for.  Clearly I needed the reminder to use it again, and I'm super excited about what I made!

These photos are from way back in 2006 when the hubs and I lived in North Carolina and we had a go at growing flowers in our backyard, no mean feat for me who has two black thumbs.  The layout is very, very simple, so to make it a little more interesting I matted half the pictures with different colors and left the other half unmatted.  So let's take a look at that title:

Your eyes do not deceive you, I used a different alphabet for the capital letters (Empire Alphabet).  I just love mixed font titles and I love how those two looked together!  I will admit, though, that it took For.Ev.Er. to stamp the title on here.  I always worry I'll do something like drop an inked stamp on the cardstock and I'll have to start over, but I managed to get through that entire very long title with no oopsies.  Even spelled it right.

And I finally used the largest of the Butterfly Thinlits.  This is a flashback for color too, that lovely shade on the butterfly is the long-retired Marvelous Magenta.  It's such an 80s color, am I right?  It retired shortly after I started stamping, so I only have a few pieces of 12x12 cardstock this color and no 8.5x11 and no ink pad.  If you want to get technical, the cardstock I have is from before Stampin' Up! went to "true" 12x12, it's about a quarter inch shy of twelve inches square.  And now I have three pieces of it plus some scraps, but it was worth it to use one piece for this layout.

There's my color palette:  Pistachio Pudding, Garden Green, Marvelous Magenta, Ballet Blue, and Elegant Eggplant even though it looks black 'cause it's not.  So that's it for me this week, peeps, hope you have a marvelous weekend, whether or not it's magenta ;)

Supplies, scrapbook layout only:
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet, Empire Alphabet, Embrace Life
Ink:  Garden Green, Ballet Blue, Elegant Eggplant
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Marvelous Magenta, Ballet Blue, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories:  Butterfly Thinlits

Concord Crush Christmas

Merry Christmas again, friends!  I managed to squeeze in one more project for Christmas, though it's not your traditional red and green.  Or even blue and snowflakes.

My sister-in-law Adrienne loves purple, so I had to make her gift card box purple.  I used Concord Crush because I have almost zero Elegant Eggplant DSP, and I think Concord pairs better with Wisteria Wonder anyway.  I thought it needed some glitz, so the heart is covered in Iridescent Ice EP which doesn't show in the picture but looks nice IRL.  And it's really difficult to heat emboss something that small without burning your fingers, just sayin'.

I ran out of time to really glam up the box though and the inside isn't decorated at all; I just did the insert in Wisteria Wonder and wrapped the accompanying Rolos in the same DSP as I used on the box top.  Should have probably at least put Merry Christmas or something on the inside, but there just wasn't enough time to get all fancy.

If you want it, here's the link to Qbee's tutorial that I used.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  None
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder, Pretty in Pink
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet (really, really old, not SU!), Sweetheart punch, Iridescent Ice EP, Dimensionals, Decorative Label punch used to hold the gift card on the inside

Three Dimensional Thinking

Ok, if you've been a regular visitor here at Snapdragon Stamps (hi Mom!) you know I pretty much stick to flat paper crafting--cards and scrapbook pages, not 3D items.  But every once in a while I want to try something new, so today I'm sharing a gift card holder box I made.

My friend Karyn's birthday is coming up next week, and I'm giving her a gift card, so this seemed like the perfect time to try out Qbee's Pop-Up Gift Card Box Tutorial.  The tutorial is easy to follow (I had it up on the iPad while I was at my craft desk) and the box isn't hard to make, but there are a few things I learned on the way that would make a second box easier.  For example, after you do the score lines and cut the tabs, next time I would fold along all the score lines and put the adhesive on the OTHER side of the cardstock.  I basically had to fold the cardstock the opposite direction that I'd scored because I put the adhesive on the "inside" side (that would make sense to you if you were trying to make this box, I think). 

Here's the inside, and that's a pack of Rolos because you know you get hungry when you're shopping if you do it correctly.  Here's another thing I learned:  maybe I made the slot for the gift card a little too wide, because it was kind of tilting so that the edge of the gift card was at the edge of the box and it didn't stand up straight.  So I stuck a Dimensional down in the bottom of the box and made sure that the gift card was put with the edge in front of that Dimensional and voila!  No more tilting.

So anyway, I'd say this little project definitely qualifies for the challenge at Create with Connie and Mary.

And I also used the fun color combination from Just Add Ink:

You're probably wondering, where's the Real Red?  To be honest, I don't like hot pink and red together, I think they clash :) but I *did* use Real Red ink to sponge the edges of the rose petals.  Now, pale pink and red I think is totally fine ;)  But just so you know, I DID use all the challenge colors on here.  And champagne glimmer paper, because it's fun.

So, would I make a box like this again?  Yeah.  Am I going to make a regular habit of it?  Probably not, I'm lazy and I'm used to thinking two-dimensionally ;)

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet (retired), Label Love
Ink:  Real Red, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Strawberry Slush, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Champagne glimmer paper, retired Wild Wasabi DSP
Accessories:  Spiral Flower Bigz Die, Autumn Accents Bigz Die, Note Tag Punch, Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack (heart), Decorative Label Punch, Artisan Label Punch, Hexagon Punch, Dimensionals, hot glue & Sticky Strip to adhere everything together