Treats From Santa

Today I have a homemade treat to share.  This small container is filled with one of my favorite recipes - coated almonds.  I have this package decorated for the holidays, but they make delicious gifts anytime during the year. 

After filling the plastic container with the nuts (recipe below), I created a decorative ribbon attachment to fit the lid. 

To create the attachment, a small strip of white cardstock was stamped with Penny Black’s Letter Background with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  Antique Linen Distress ink was then rubbed over the top.  The stamped image was then pounced with VersaMark Watermark ink and dusted with Gold Perfect Pearls.  A small red piece of red cardstock was attached so that 1/8” was visible on the left edge before being attached to the white cardstock.  I rounded the corners so it fit in the recessed portion of the plastic lid.

I attached a piece of ribbon to the front of the tag, wrapped it around the container and tied a bow at the top.  Antique Santa (Penny Black) was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored with Copic markers.  The image was then trimmed and attached over the ribbon with dimensional foam tape.

These coated nuts are delicious as a snack or as a topping sprinkled over yogurt, ice cream or a warm bowl of oatmeal.

Coated Nuts

2 C. Nuts (I have used pecans, walnuts, almonds (whole and slivered) and peanuts)

1 Egg White – lightly beaten

½ t. Water

¼ C. Sugar

2 -3 t. Cinnamon (optional)

Mix egg white with water, pour over nuts and stir well.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar and coat the nuts.

Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes stirring once during baking.

I hope you enjoy this project – inside and out.

Have a great day,

Elizabeth

Hide A Smile

My mom always hid little notes in our school lunches when I was younger and I remember how much I enjoyed finding those unexpected treasures. 

These are two tiny cards I made that I thought would be fun to tuck somewhere to give someone an extra smile.    

Finished Size:  2 x 3



Finished Size:  2 x 2 1/2



For both of these cards I used Penny Black's 12 Days of Christmas transparent set.  The images are so versatile you can use them all year round.  I substituted the holiday sentiments with phrases from the Betsy Bluebell transparent set.  The size of the font was the perfect match. 

Enjoy hiding a smile for someone….

Elizabeth

Holiday Wrapping Ideas

All this week Penny Black is featuring inspiring projects for holiday gift wrapping created by their designers.  There are so many wonderful ideas!  Everything from tags and bags to boxes and cards. 

Today I am excited to share the designs that I created …..

The first is hand-stamped tissue paper.

The elegant Christmas Star paired with Rhubarb Stalk Memento Dye ink turned ordinary white tissue into a festive design in no time at all.  Tip:  I used a dye ink to prevent bleeding in case a couple of stray snowflakes happened to find their way near the package.  You may also want to use caution if wrapping stamped tissue around clothing or fabric items.

This tag could also be a holiday decoration.  The small ribbon loop makes it easy to attach to a gift or display as an ornament.

The adorable polar bear is part of the Snow Kiss stamp.  To take the guesswork out of centering the image on a pre-cut circle, I stamped the image with Tuxedo Black Memento ink then positioned a circle Nestability die around the design and ran it through a Cuttlebug.  A quick bit of Copic coloring, a sentiment from Xmas Snapshots and some crystal gemstones completed the tag!

Many times I have homemade baked goodies that I give as gifts and I like to include a small note with the package.

I thought these mini cards would be fun accompaniments.

Season’s Greetings:

Wherever You Are 4113K, Robin’s Kingdom 30-056

Create a medallion and suspend it in a die-cut circle with fishing line.

Merry Everything:

Robin’s Kingdom 30-056, Mimi’s Christmas 30-061, Wherever You Are 4113K

Create a mask after stamping the first two penguins and tuck in a third for a whole merry group.

Love & Joy:

The Gift of Peace 4117H, Wherever You Are 4113K

Add ink directly from a marker to the tree image, mist with water and stamp.  Cut out the tree and ink the words “love and Joy” from the Gift of Peace.  Crystal and Lime Stickles give the tree added sparkle.

Every gift card needs an envelope, so I made this little mini packet.

Penny Black has a wonderful assortment of designer papers and this design is called “Christmas Music”.  I rubbed a bit of Vintage Photo Distress ink (Ranger) over the paper and then sprayed it with gold Sheer Shimmer Spritz (Tsukineko).  The decorative closure was created from the transparent set Winter Whites & Greens.

You can download my small envelope template here.  It is sized to hold a 2 ¼ x 3 ¼ card.

Thank you for visiting and wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving. 

Elizabeth

A Quick Edit

Hello Everyone.

I have a small scheduling change to share with you.

My designer posting date for the gift wrapping projects was rescheduled by Penny Black for tomorrow, Wednesday.

I will have to keep you in suspense for one more day.  

Elizabeth

Sneak Peek

This week the Design Team for Penny Black will be sharing fabulous ideas for gift wrapping, packaging and tags for the upcoming holidays.  Each day will be filled with spectacular and unique projects.  

I will be featuring my designs tomorrow, one of which will be this festively stamped tissue paper.

I hope you have a chance to return tomorrow when I will be posting my ideas:  a gift tag, three mini gift enclosure cards and a mini envelope with a template. 

Have a great day,
Elizabeth

Thankful!

I wanted to end this week with a quick idea that could either be a Thanksgiving greeting or a thank you card.    

This is a Penny Black favorite of mine - Earth’s Bounty - stamped in Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink with a quick touch of water coloring. 

After the water colors dried (just a minute or so), I added Sparkle Gold Watercolor Paint (USArtQuest).

The sentiment was created using the Kate Text Lowercase Alphabet set and I converted three gold brads to copper with Ranger's Adirondack Copper Mixative.  The ribbon was a great find at my local craft store.

I am currently working on Valentine projects for Penny Black and I am looking forward to sharing the new designs with you soon. 

Have a great weekend,

Elizabeth

O' Christmas Tree(s)

This past weekend I was admiring a scrapbook layout created by Lisa Storms in which she had created a really neat Christmas tree using patterned paper and the wave border punch from Fiskars. 

Her tree inspired me to create a few of my own with a twist and incorporate some rubber stamping.  All the stamps used in this project are from Penny Black and I have inserted links for each image if you would like to view the product.

The first piece I created is a place setting card for the holiday table.

First I cut two triangles from green cardstock that measured 3 ¼ x 4 ¾ and 3 x 4 ½.

Then I punched the two long sides of each triangle with the wave border punch and added Bamboo Leaves Memento ink to the edges with a jumbo sponge dauber.  Using the same ink, I stamped Starlit over both pieces to add those fun dots.  The snowy accents are just quick flicks of a white gel pen.

To assemble, I layered the smaller triangle on top of the larger one and punched a small row of holes down the center so I could hand stitch them together.  I elected to hand stitch them so I could use a heavy piece of cotton thread that I custom colored to match the project.  To eliminate the chance of the thread cutting a slice into the ink pad, I applied the ink to a sponge dauber and used that to color the thread.  You could also run this piece through your sewing machine.  Once sewn together, gently bend the smaller panels up.

The star was created from Sparkle which was stamped with VersaMark Watermark ink on white cardstock and heat embossed with gold powder.  The star was then trimmed and colored with Dandelion and Cantaloupe Memento markers.  For extra sparkle, I applied Golden Rod Stickles over the gold embossing and Lime Green Stickles to the dots on the trees.

Here is another tree used on a card.

The patterned background paper started off as a piece of tan cardstock which was stamped with Snow Scroll in Rich Cocoa Memento ink.  The swirls were accented with red water coloring and the whole piece was highlighted with a combination of Dandelion, Bamboo Leaves and Rich Cocoa Memento inks.  The sentiment is from the In A Pear Tree transparent set.

Here is a closer view of the tree with red crystals for ornaments.

As I was working on these projects I thought of some other design variations that would be fun ideas----- 

Add a piece of mat board to the back

of an assembled tree (for stability) and

a small magnet for festive fridge art.

OR

Create two sets of trees and adhere

them back to back with fishing

line for a dimensional ornament.

Be careful, these are addictive to make and before you know it you will be surrounded by a whole forest of art!

Thank you for visiting.

Elizabeth