Joyful Gift Card Holders & Blog Candy

Hi peeps!  Happy Friday!  I thought I'd pop in and change up the scenery a bit.  Are you having a fabulous start to the holiday season?   I've taken advantage of quite a few little online sales, but I am not one to leave my house on a perfectly good morning that I could sleep in!!!  Speaking of online sales, Verve has all stamps on sale through Monday! Yay!

The other night I got some quality time in the studio and decided to dust off my Cricut Expression and some cutting files and get to work some pocket gift card holders that could double as tree ornaments or gift tags.  Since trios are the name of the game with this month's Verve Project Parade, I made three little holders.

The idea for this project started when I saw a gift card tag tutorial over on the Hybrid Chick blog.  I loved the idea, and thought it would be really fun to translate the concept with a cute shape that didn't require me to measure and cut angles!  :)  So I downloaded Kelleigh's Designer Label Shapes cutting files and used shape #5.  To make the tag, I cut two of the exact size the label comes into the Sure Cuts a Lot program as (3.48" x 4.15", one on cardstock, the other on patterned paper).  Then I resized the shape, adding .2 to the dimensions of each side (3.68" x 4.35")  and cut a cardstock mat for it.

Then I simply took the patterned paper piece (everything shown uses the Everybody Loves Christmas collection by Echo Park) and cut  and cut across the third ridge.  For the cardstock shape, I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Candy Stripes embossing folder, then layered the patterned paper over the cardstock shape and secured the three sides with 1/8" scor-tape to form a pocket.  {Note:  I used the thin tape to make sure I'd have enough room for my gift card to slide into the pocket.}  For this holder, I added a Rosette from patterned paper, accented with a circle stamped with the medium snowflake from Glad Tidings and a sentiment from Holiday Phrases.  I added some May Arts Twill ribbon, a swarovski rhinestone from Pizzazz Aplenty and then layered the whole thing on a pink pirouette mat.  The hole is punched with a crop-a dile and I added some baker's twine and accented the paper with liquid pearls to finish it off.

For this second holder, I stamped the Joy sentiment from Glad Tidings on a circle, then added some real red polka dot ribbon, ruffled and a big bow to accent.  And again, there's a little bit of liquid pearl goodness added for accent.

For the third holder, I simply tied some May Arts striped ribbon around it, then added some red jingle bells with some silver cording.  The sentiment from Holiday Phrases is added on a piece of vellum and I accented with a shiny silver pearl from Pizzazz Aplenty.

Okay, I hope you've enjoyed these fun little gift card holders!  I had a blast making them, and it makes me feel not quite as lame when I take the easy way out and just give gift cards instead of braving the mall!

So if you've read all the way to here, you must want to know what the blog candy is.  I recently saw these Texture Fades at the store and had to have them only to find out that I had had them on backorder with another company and they shipped that same day!  Oops!  So I'm offering up the extras to one of you for your crafting pleasure.  Just leave  me a comment on this post by Monday night (11/29), and I'll pick a random winner to receive these four embossing folders!

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic weekend!
-Julee