My Happy Stamping Place

Convention Gifts

One tradition that is fun to follow at Convention are little gifts for Convention downline, roommates and/or friends.  This year I am lucky enoughto be going to Convention and rooming with my downline Kelly and Angela!  I made the following gifts for them.

These are bag tags.  Everyone gets the same awesome bag from Stampin' Up! at convention so if we tie these on our bag they will identify them as ours and not one of the other 5000+ demonstrators at convention.

These are little notebooks I convered with cardstock and embellished.  They open up like a book. They are started out as the small size legal pads.  I had them cut in half at Office Max and created a score line in the middle of the cardstock so they have a front and back cover.  We all grow a huge wish list at Convention so we will be able to record it here.

These are luggage tags.  I had a stash of luggage tags in a sleeve that just needed some refurbishing.  The tags started out with some cutesy saying but I covered it in cardstock and embellished it.  You can record your name and address on the back in case you luggage didn't get where it was supposed to go. I just slipped the embellished tags back in the sleeve and voila!

Kelly and Angela will receive this gifts inside the Tag and bag gift bags from Stampin' Up! the bags come decorated in that fun white chevron print.  I could have embellished them more but I ran out of creative juices and time!  the clothespin closures are covered with the narrow size washi tape. It's the perfect fit!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

 

Money Card

I have said this before - I am always looking for clever ways to present money as a birthday present.  During Valentine's season there were ideas floating around with a person with their hand stuck out in front of them and a hole was punched where their fist was to hold a sucker.  I got the idea to put a fistful of cold hard cash in their fist instead. I thought it would be a FUN way for my boys to give money as presents to their friends!  They both thought this was a great idea!  They are 13 and 15 years old so my creative ideas don't go over so well with them anymore.  I was thrilled that they both liked this idea!

Sam is the first one to have a birthday party to go to since I thought of this idea so his friend, Duncan, will be the first recipient.  Here is Duncan's card.  The outside is pretty plain.  He's turning 13. The Merry Christmas sentiment is because Duncan always says "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Birthday".

And the best part.... the INSIDE of the card!!!

Duncan likes to shake his money out of the cards(like they did in the movie, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". When he can't shake any money out of his card he might be disappointed.  But NOT when he opens his card!

I'm anxious to see how Sam's card goes over!  I am more excited than Sam is!

I hope you give this a try! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

 

Happy Valentines Day 2013!

Valentine's day is so much fun, don't you think?  I have always thought of it as a day to show love to my whole family, not just my sweetheart.  We would get heart shaped pizza and I would set the table with valentine's placemats, decorate the house for Valentine's and get everyone a gift.  This year will be a little different.  My daughter is away in her first year of college and my two sons will be at ski club.  My husband and I might be able to sneak away for a dinner for just the two of us!  I will miss the family dinner though.

I have no more kids in elementary school so the days of exchanging Valentines with classmates is over. *sigh* My youngest has a girlfriend.  It's 7th grade young love! I had fun making a few goodies for her. Here is the gift bag he will be giving to her today.

The Fancy Favor gift box is a Stampin' Up! Sizzix die.  It's my go to box when I want a little cute gift packaging.  You gotta have one of those!

Fancy Favor Gift box, item#115965, $39.95

I also made one of the cute owl pillow boxes I have been seeing everywhere!

Sam is filling both of these with chocolate and giving them to her today.

My 9th grader came home with a note from his Language arts teacher that the class wants to exchange Valentines.  Imagine my glee!   I started thinking up cute ideas.  I came up with this Bingo card idea I made in Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio software:

He thought is was a dumb idea and not Valentine's related.  I pleaded with him to at least let me make it for his teacher.  I guarantee she will love it!  He said no.  *sigh*.  Then I found this cute My Digital studio download for Valentines.  It was only $2.95!  I re-sized them and printed up 32 for his classmates.

Aren't these cute?  Nick didn't think so.  He had other ideas.  He wants to just hand out a starburst candy to everyone and call it a day. Breaks my heart. *sigh* I'm not appreciated in my own home. Teenage boys, whaddya gonna do? Well, I'm going to give these to my co-workers today.  I will have my youngest give him to his teammates at gymnastics.  Someone will appreciate them.

You can purchase this digital download and all other products on my website here.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's day with your loved ones!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Kathleen

Treat Holder with Two Tags Die

When I was preparing for stamp club this month I was making all kinds of different projects with the Two Tags Sizzix die from Stampin' Up!  I didnt' realize how versatile this die is!  Here is one of the projects we madethis month:

It is a treat holder made by adhering two of the tags together. Inside I put 3 Hershey nuggets.  Here is a side view:

I even made a video showing how it is made:

 

It is so quick and easy I decided to make these for my Bunko group on Tuesday.  I am the hostess and these will be the perfect touch!

I have several more projects with the Two Tags die.  Check back this week for more!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kathleen

Birthday wallet

Last night I went out to dinner with my friends Kathy and Cindy to celebrate Kathy's birthday. I got her a giftcard for her birthday.  I always like to give a gift card in a fun way so I made her this paper wallet.

There's a pocket for the giftcard, one for a note, and even a place where you could put money if you wanted.  I didn't follow a pattern with this one, I just built it around the size I thought a wallet should be and what would fit the giftcard.  There are patterns out there though if you care to make one.  They are a fun way to give a giftcard or money for guys and girls alike!

I used Marina Mist cardstock, the new polka dots designer paper, the Always Eleanor stamp set for th label, and the Every LIttle Bit stamp set for the presents.

I think it was a hit!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do you have big plans with your loved ones today?  Usually, we pick up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, I layout the table with festive Valentine placemats and plates, I give them each a little gift and we have some kind of sweet Valentine treat for dessert. Unfortunately, this year we will be scattered in different directions.  My daughter, Rebecca,works(at Papa Murphy's!), Nick has soccer, and Sam has gymnastics.  There isn't even time for my husband and I to sneak away for a romantic dinner because we have to be back in time to pick the kids up.Oh well.  Life is busy!

My youngest, Sam, is in 6th grade.  This is his last year in elementary school and the teachers told them it was optional to bring Valentines.  Sam didn't really want to but I wanted one last year to make something for his classmates.  So reluctantly, he is bringing in these for his class:

You can find the bubblewands at Target.  I just made little tags to hang from their heart shaped handles.

For his teacher I made this treat holder with a punch art lady bug:

Well, I gotta run to work.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

 

 

 

 

 

Gift card holder

I have another gift card holder for you.  I'm always looking for clever new gift card holder ideas and I received this cute birthday one in a swap from Tammy Nowatzki. 

I love the way she made a pocket out of the Sizzix square scallop die.  I decided to make a version for Christmas.  I adapted my pocket a little bit.  I cut my square scallop die and scored it at 3 scallops up from the bottom.  I adhered the sides with mono multi glue and that created by pocket. I put a piece of neutrals white designer paper inside the holder to give it a subtle contrast.

The stocking is made with the Gift Givers stamp set from the Holiday mini.  It is punched out with the stocking punch. Another fun builder punch Stampin' Up! has come up with! The candy is made from the Sweets for the Sweet stamp set.

There you go. Another nifty gifty idea for you!

    
Square Scallop Sizzix die, item#115950, $21.95 

 

Stocking Builder Punch, item#124095, $16.95

Gift Givers stamp set, item#123774 for clear mount($22.95), item#123772 for wood mount($29.95)

Sweets for the Sweet, item#122512 for clear mount($18.95), item#122510 for wood mount($25.95)

You can order on my online website here or contact me at kathleen@myhappystampingplace.com

Christmas Stuff

We have a little over a week before Christmas and there is so much to do.  So how did I spend my Friday night?  I made oreo truffles with my daughter and then busted out my new Just Dance 3 game and played it with my son, Nick.  I had a ton of other things to do but sometimes you just gotta have fun,right? We worked up a sweat in that game, let me tell ya.  It was very fun though.  A great way to get some exercise!

I have some Christmas stuff to share with you.  This first picture is of some Christmas tags that one of my stamp club ladies, Mary Jo, made.  She used several stamps from the Tags' til Christmas set.  This one has a coordinating punch with each stamp in the set.

She used the scallops#2 sizzix die to layer the snowman circles on.  The santa tag has the small and large tag punch layered and the snowflake one has the 1 3/4" scallop circle and the 2 3/8" scallop circle punches layered together.  The reindeer is a single stamp.  She made a foldover tag with this one.  So fun and easy to make up a big batch of tags!

 

This next one is a pop up gift card holder.  This is the front of the card.  I made a belly band with the 3 ornaments on it. The ornaments come from the Tags til Christmas stamp set as well.

 

Here's the pop up inside of the gift card holder:

I never got around to ordering Christmas designer paper this year so I stamped whisper white cardstock with the Circle circus stamp set in red and old olive to make my own designer paper for the inside. The pop up mechanism really requires designer paper so I went scrounging and came up with this pattern from the hostess paper pack called Cheerful Treat.  I think it coordinated pretty well! You'll see another Tags til Christmas stamp set in the shape of the Decorative label punch at the top of the inside card. Love this set!  This genius gift card holder was created by Kim Score. You can see a tutorial on how to make this pop up card on SCS here.

I taught a class making 9 of these pop up gift cardholders using the Christmas Lane Simply Scrappin kit.  They came out really cute.  You can see the picture of them here.

I have more Christmas to share with you over the coming week so stop back to check it out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kathleen

Santa box

Ooh my!  Can it be December 10 already? It sure can cuz it is!  I have been busy, that's for sure.  But hasn't everybody?  Lots of extra things to do at this time of year.  The Christmas decorations are all up(pretty much), a lot of my Christmas shopping is done, and we are in the thick of the party season.  We are going to my husband's Christmas party tonight.  One of the things on my to do list today is to buy a black shirt to wear tonight.  I have the rest of my outfit picked out, just not the black skirt.  Last year's doesn't fit me, in a good way!  I'll be wearing a pink turtleneck sweater with a scarf, black tights and knee high black boots.  You see the black skirt is all that is missing.  It should be easy enough to find - I hope.  When I go looking for something specific I can never find it.  Wish me luck!

I do have a cute Santa box to share with you.  I gave this to my Stampin' Up! hostess a couple of nights ago.   I CASED this from Debbie Henderson.

He's made with the petal cone die tilted up side down and a smattering of punches.

Punches: Wide oval punch(head), large circle scallop punch(beard), oval scallop punch(hair), stocking punch(eyebrows), circles for eyes from owl punch, bird punch(mustache) small oval punch(buckle) and scallop trim border punch to go all the way around the cone box.  I did this in sections . I think Debbie's version used ribbon but I couldn't get it to lay flat around each curve.

I have lots more to share.  I just have to get some photos taken and get them posted for you.  I also have a big box of new stamping goodies I'm itching to get my hands on.  This is new stuff from the upcoming Occasions mini and Sale-a-bration.  I have lots of Christmas to share with you first though.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen

Pop Up Gift card class

I have an upcoming class for popup gift card holders.  I have a lot of people I give gift cards to over the holidays.  I don't like the fact that I didn't put much thought into giving the gift of a gift card so I like to present them in a fun way.  This pop up gift card holder fits the bill!

Kim Score came up with this fun mechanism.  I just designed the card fronts.  I cased some ideas I found online and I'm very happy with how these came out!  In this class you will be making 9 pop up gift card holders and will have the makings of 10+ gift tags too.

Date: Thursday, December 15

Time: 6:30

Price: $25

If you are local to the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and would like to come to this class, you can contact me for more details at kathleen@myhappystampingplace.com.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathleen