On Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there! I hope you are having a wonderful day! 

I created this Mother's Day Gift Card Holder a few weeks ago during my girls weekend, but didn't want to show it until I gave it to my Mom.  Way back in the day I posted the tutorial for these gift card holders and you can find it HERE.  All of the stamps seen on this project are by DRS Designs. 

I used the Flower and Butterfly Address Frame (002K) to decorate the front.  Nice thing about this stamp is how versatile it is.  You can use it as I've done here or use it as a true address frame for a return address or even to decorate an envelope with the recipient's address.  


I colored it with Copic Markers and then cut it out including the center.  I stamped the "On Mother's Day Greeting (035D)" on light purple cardstock and then used foam tape to adhere the address frame over top so that the wording was centered in the frame. The added dimension really makes the frame stand out.

This is how it looks when opened.  I stamped it with the Script Gift Card Greeting (013D) and then hand wrote my personal message below it.  I hope Mom enjoys the Amazon Gift Card I bought her! :-)

Smiles, 

Jennifer

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Birthday Gift Card Holder

Interested in seeing sneak peeks from the next stamp release over at DRS Designs? Well, that's exactly what's going on for the DRS Blog Challenge this week. The theme is Gift Card Holders, but many of the stamps used on the challenge projects by the DRS DT are brand new and will be available for purchase this Saturday April 14th.

For this challenge, I created a birthday themed gift card holder. The outside of this trifold card was decorated using the Silhouette Balloon (491E) and the Tiny Happy Birthday sentiment (1081A). The opening flap was embossed with the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug embossing folder and a tag was created using the Gift For You greeting (514B).

The inside has a white panel for writing your own personal message. I stamped it with the Silhouette balloon again to decorate the lower left corner. To create the gift card flap, I stamped the soon-to-be released Birthday Candle Address Frame (010K) on white card stock and colored the candles with Copic Markers to match. Inside the empty space where you would hand write an address, I stamped the Birthday Wishes Greeting (020B) instead, which will also be released this Saturday. 

Next, I matted this piece with teal cardstock and then used a circle Nestability die to create the thumb cutout. I adhered the gift card flap to the bottom panel of the trifold card by adding adhesive to the sides and bottom only, so that the gift card could easily slide into and out if the pocket. Finally, to make it appear as if each candle was really lit, yellow Stickles were added to the candle flames.

If you'd like to play along and enter to win a $10 store voucher to DRS Designs, make sure to check out all of the challenge details HERE. Don't forget to check out the new stamps while you're there too. If you've come to this page on or after April 14th, 2012, make sure to check out all of DRS Designs new stamps HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Smiles, 

Jennifer

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A Card and Gift for Dad!

Happy Friday! 
Hope you're all looking forward to the weekend. I know I am!

I've been busy this week finishing up DT requirements for the last batch of new releases from DRS Designs.  You can see my project for today on the DRS Designs Blog, and I really hope you'll run over there to check it out. If you like cards and gift card holders all in one, I promise you won't be disappointed with this one! 
Here's a sneak peek!

Thank for visiting today!

Smiles,

Jennifer

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Holiday Gift Card Holders!

With the Holiday Gift Giving Season practically upon us, I've decided to make a few Gift Card Holders as I know they will come in handy and I will put them to good use. I've always been the type to "wrap" and "package" a gift card rather then just put it in a card to give. In the past I've been known to fill a shoe box with tissue paper and Christmas candy, stick the gift card in the middle of the candy and then, wrap it all up!

This year, those I give gift cards to will get them wrapped like these:

These are so quick and rather easy to make. Of course, the time to make them will differ depending on what you decide to do to decorate the front of the holder. I created both of these in about 20 minutes each. The finished size for these gift card holders is 4 1/4" x 4 1/4."

I've decided to do a mini tutorial today to show you how I made them, however, I can't take credit for it. I actually learned how to do make these at a recent Stamping Getaway weekend. The person who showed me how to do them got the instructions from here. I've changed how the holder is closed--I used ribbon rather then the belly band. So, read on to hear how I've created the 2 gift card holders shown above.

Step #1: Cut a piece of cardstock 4 1/4" x 11" to be the main base of your holder.

Step #2: Score the cardstock at the following locations: 2 3/4", 5 1/2", and 8 1/4". I used my Score Pal, but I had to use a small ruler to put pencil marks at the 2 3/4" and 8 1/4" positions and then just move the cardstock accordingly in order to score it.

Step #3: Fold your cardstock on the 5 1/2" line. Add pencil marks at the 3/8" and 3 7/8" positions. Sorry my pencils marks are a little difficult to see.

Step #4: Use the SU! Word Window punch to create the opening that you will slide the gift card into. You want the punch opening to start at the pencil mark you made at 3/8" from the left side as seen in this picture,

and then make a second punch, lining up the right side of the punch with the pencil line you made at 3 7/8" as seen in this picture.

This is how it will look once you've correctly made the 2 punches from either side.



Step 5: Use either a circle punch that is about 1 1/2" in diameter, or Nesties, like I did, to create the "Griping tabs" that allow for easy insertion and removal of the gift card.



Line up the Nestie as seen here to remove a half circle from the cardstock. It should cut through both layers with no problem.


Step 6: Use adhesive to secure the cardstock, folded in place. This creates the pocket that will hold the gift card. Place adhesive along the edge where you see the white lines in this photo and fold to adhere the right and left sides together. This picture also shows you opening created by using the Word Window Punch twice & the circle created with the Nestie (or circle punch).


Step #7: Fold the other score lines in the opposite direction of the way the middle (5 1/2" score line) was folded....

...Now your holder should look like a book, as in this picture below, with the gift card pocket as the center of the book.

Step #8: Decorate the front "cover" of your gift card holder. Here you can see that I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig and the Holiday Multi Greeting Stamp to add the words "Happy Holidays." (I also added a Holly and Berry image. It is seen in the upcoming photos below.)

Step #9: Place a horizontal line of adhesive across the front and back of the holder to add decorative ribbon over it as shown. I think my ribbon measured about 12," as I wanted to be sure I had enough to tie into a bow to close the gift card.

Step #10: Add decorative elements on top of the ribbon on the front cover as shown.

Step #11: Add Gift Card to pocket. As you can see, the inside looks very plain. Once I decide who will get this particular holder I will decorate the inside accordingly and add my own hand written message. (Back in May I attended a wedding where I made one of these for the Bride and Groom and used Rub-ons to decorate the inside. I also created it a little differently then I've explained here--there are many variations to making the same thing! You can see pictures of it here.)

Step #12: Secure holder by tying ribbon in a bow. As a finishing touch, I also added Shimmerz to the Holly leaves and red Stickles to the berries.

Stamps: DRS Designs-Triple Holly, Holiday Multi Greeting

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink in Warm Red

Paper: Smooth white cardstock by Office Depot, Colored Cardstock by The Paper Company

Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol, SU! Word Window Punch, Ribbon by Joann's Santa's Work Bench, Nesties, Sagebrush Shimmerz, Red Stickles

Here's a close up view of the Snowman one I made.

Stamps: DRS Designs-Holiday Multi Greeting, Stretch the Round Button Snowman, Interlocking Snowflake Background
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink in French Blue
Paper: Smooth white cardstock by Office Depot,
Accessories: SU! Word Window Punch, Nesties, Bic Markers, Glitter Glue, Offray Holiday Sentiments Ribbon

Thanks for stopping by today.

Stay tuned for my Veteran's Day Thank you Fun Filled Friday Challenge. I'm running a little behind and hope to have it posted later today or tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Smiles,
Jennifer

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Birthday Gift Card Holder!

Well, finally as promised, Here is the Birthday Gift card holder I recently made. My theory...You can never have to many cards on hand for Birthdays, and Gift cards come in handy too! I think they make a great gift. How cute is this quick and easy gift card holder??

Unfortunately, the colors are a little washed out by my flash on the front. Imagine them alot more vivid than you see here. I heat embossed the sentiment (Impression Obsession) in dark blue embossing powder. Then I used my 1" circle punch to punch it out. I used my Inkadinado chalk to add some green around the edges. Next, I created the light blue mat using my Cricut, and the dark blue scalloped circle was made using my Marvy Uchida punch. (I know, I know, again I NEED those Nesties!) I pop dotted the matted sentiment on Doodlebug Designs patterned paper. The ribbon that ties the card together is adhered under the patterned paper.



In this picture you see the sentiment I put on the inside. I thought of this on my own using several packages of Studio G clear stamps. It fits though, doesn't it? I the birthday hat image is also a Studio G stamp that I colored with my Prismacolor pencils in coordinating colors. The hat is stamped on the back page--you can see a little bit of my handwritten message there.

This last picture shows the sparkle gift card in place.

I'm sure I'll be making more gift card holders like this very soon. I'd love to start making some up for Christmas. Any interest in a tutorial? The actual making of the card portion is really quick and easy to make. I made the one shown in this post from start to finish in less than an hour. Leave me a comment and let me know if your interested. I'd love to hear from you!

Stay tuned for our next Fun Filled Friday announcement tomorrow. I've challenged Kimmy with a color challenge for this week. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it is!

Hope your weekend is a blast!

Smiles,
Jennifer

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Wedding Gift!

Last weekend, my husband and I attended the wedding of very good friends of ours. I was in a bind a few days before the wedding and in my haste I decided to pick up a wedding card while I was out-and-about shopping. At this one particular store I picked up about 6 different wedding cards that were very simple in design, and what I thought would only cost a couple bucks. Boy, was I wrong!!! All 6 of these plain Jane wedding cards were no cheaper than $4.00! I could not believe it! It was right there and then that I decided I had to make time to create a wedding card for them. Besides, who doesn't like a homemade gift?

On my drive home from the store, the wheels in my head were turning as I tried to think of how to design a wedding card. I remembered Becky from the Stamp Shack teaching me how to make the cutest gift card holders when we went away for our Shackapoloosa weekend. Ding! Ding! Ding! The bells in my head went off & I decided that I was going to make them one, but call it a money holder!

The wedding invitation was beautiful--a shade of lime green with chocolate brown, which I knew were the wedding colors. So, I decided that those colors were going to be the basis for my design. I don't have very many wedding themed stamps, so I browsed through my rub-on collection and happened to find silver wedding themed rub-ons. How lucky was that? I forgot I even had them!






So, here are pictures of how it turned out!

This is the front view. I even found matching lime green polka-dot ribbon in my stash to match!











I used my Marvy Uchida scallop punches and pop-dotted them to add dimension to the front of the gift card holder.

Here is the inside flap. Again, I used my Marvy Scallop punches to create the opening where I would insert the folded bill. The rings you see on the other side of the scallop is on the last page, where I included our hand written message in a white gel pen.

I forgot to take a picture of the back, but it is green cardstock and on the back I used my custom stamp that says "Handmade especially for you by Jennifer" and heat embossed it in silver.

I've also made another one of these for a friends birthday, that I will show you in another post. It turned out even cuter than this!

Happy Monday everyone!

Have a great week!

Smiles,

Jennifer

Paper: Bazzill Cardstock

Accessories: Rub-ons-Royal Langnickel Brush Wedding Bells Silver, Ribbon-unknown

Gift: Green Money!

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