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I love, love, love the idea of clear tags! You never have to worry about matching wrapping paper, because everything goes with these. I sometimes find, if I make my gift toppings too early, my style changes, or I find just-the-perfect wrapping paper, that throws off the whole wrapping thing. Which is why these tags are such a fave. They work with everything form simple kraft, to elegant, sparkly designs. And the recipient can even use them as ornaments, long after the gift-giving has passed. To make these sweet tags, I used an oval die, but you could use any shaped die you have, along with some sentiment stamps, versamark ink and embossing powder. ____________________________________________________________________ TIP: HEAT-EMBOSSING ON ACETATE Using heat-resistant acetate helps to ensure your clear tags don't buckle or melt while you emboss!  It's also especially important to use your non-static pouch before stamping, as without this step, acetate can gather a lot of static ...

One of our favorite Holiday traditions is finding new cookie recipes to make and share with friends. Usually, hubby and I each pick 4 recipes, and spend the weekend baking, tasting, and decorating packages to deliver some *happy*! This year, however, we've had to be mindful of just how much I can take on, so we decided to pick just a few recipes that are quick and easy, to keep our little tradition alive. I'm sharing recipe links below, and a few notes on the tweaks. But the real star of today's post is actually the packaging! It was so easy and fun to pull together! And since I don't have the energy I once did, making all the packaging from scratch seemed like quite the feat. Instead, we found several packaging options, and decided to just focus on making the tags. We found these adorable treat boxes at a local craft store, and we've also picked out a few larger boxes at our local Michael's. ____________________________________________________________________ T...

As many of you. we've started receiving some Holiday happy mail and I couldn't be more thrilled to open my mailbox every morning. Can we please have Christmas mail surprises all year long?! In light of the increased mail action, I thought it would be fun to do a Delicate Series project that is a teensy bit related to this and will hopefully be helpful in your holiday crafting! First I need to ask...Does anyone else get a little squirm-ish when a card sheds glitter everywhere?! I loooove things that sparkle and shine, but if it makes your house look like Santa's workshop, and you're picking itty bitty twinkles off everything from your cat, to your hubby's work clothes (lol), you gut-wrenchingly know that card just might be going back into the envelope! Since I don't think that any card deserves such a harsh punishment, I'm sharing my favorite way to avoid this situation! (To be honest, that would never, ever happen around here. It just might reside on a high ...

As much happiness as colorful holiday cards bring me, there is just something about this color combo. The connection to Christmas is as instant as hearing Christmas carols on the radio, or smelling gingerbread!  So today, I have two little shares using this traditional palette and a few tips on how to stretch your dies! ____________________________________________________________________ TIP: STITCHED DIES First up,  I have a snowflake tag, cut with PTI's Stitched Snowflake die . I love that the holes are already pre-cut! I usually add a little bit of string or thin wire (if using as an ornament) and it's all set to go! This makes your "stitched" dies double as a pretty fine base for tags or ornaments! ____________________________________________________________________ To decorate my tag, I used a vellum oval, embossing tiny 'snow' with Altenew's Floral Frame stamp .   I then added a die-cut sentiment and banner (both from my stash, but similar here and ...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday! A new series on my blog, where I'll be sharing quick, easy, and animated step-by-step instructions once a month! Today, I'm sharing these lacey, traditional tags, which are sure to dress up any gift!  This year, I'm using these sweet tags to tie brown paper packages of mulling spices for friends + family! What will you use yours for? STEPS 1. Start by die-cutting the floral cluster shape 2. Stamp the outline guide by using the large background stamp and lining it up with the die-cut shape 3. Stamp center of flower, buds, and berries 4. Stamp leaves 4. Die-cut a scalloped heart 5. Using a marker, color the scallops only (easiest to do with brush tip markers) 6. Die-cut sentiment 7. Adhere floral cluster, sentiment and pearls to heart base Once these are done, it's super easy to add sparkle, rhinestones, glitter, Nuvo drops, or any other little accents to dress them up even more!  It's also super easy to switch up the colors to more contem...

Hey everybody! Can you believe it's exactly one month until Christmas?! It's approaching quickly and I still have a heap of cards and oodles of ideas to share with you before then!  Today I'm sharing a little CAS duo - and a card that was inspired by  PTI's November Blog Hop . I've been working a lot on paring down the layers over the years. And while I'm not quite ready to give up the intricate cards just yet, I am trying to challenge myself to step outside the box a little. So far so good :)  For today's challenge, I wanted to focus on a single layer background. Plain cardstock seemed a little too vanilla, so I decided to make a dotted and festive one instead! I find this to be such a fun and relaxing technique. And the tools are so simple: just a stencil, an ink blender and some ink. I love the satisfaction I get when I peel back that stencil and reveal whats hiding beneath. It makes me smile every time! For this background, I used a polka dot stencil ( h...

Happy Saturday, Friends! I hope you've all had a wonderful Holiday thus far.  Today I'm sharing with you a very easy background that you can quickly add to your tags, cards, or other projects if you're in a hurry. ______________________________________________________________________ TIP: STENCILING WITH MARKERS By using stencils you have on hand, along with a few fun marker colors, it takes no time at all to add a little bit of extra fun to your projects! Using a lined stencil, such as the one here , is a quick and easy way to add color with markers. The openings are smaller, so there is less room for error, and coloring is a lot easier when you don't have to cover large surfaces! Just swipe your marker across a few times, and voila! Don't have a stencil? No problem! Simply use a ruler and draw the lines.  ______________________________________________________________________ Once I had my tag all stenciled up, I added some string through the top, and a couple of g...

Hiya Friends!  Even though we're still in the thick of Summer, a few turning leaves bring on thoughts of Autumn. Before we know it, the days will be shorter and the air crisper, and even though Summer is welcome here for as long as it will stay, I do love the changes that Autumn brings about.  Today's tag is a super simple little piece! It was inspired by Melissa's sweet pastel pumpkin card over on the PTI blog . Her pink pumpkin especially caught my eye! You can check it out here . I started this tag with PTI's Tag Sale Quilted die, and used my newest favorite Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp set to create a colorful background. Altenew SALE This beautiful stamp set is currently a part of a huge sale on SB.com - most Altenew stamps and dies are 20% off or more, meaning this gorgeous (and really large) stamp set is under $18! You can use my link above or use the link provided in the supplies list below. The sale is valid until midnight Thursday, September 20th! Happy Shopp...

Another entry for Altenew's challenge! I created this wee card with a lot of the same ingredients as I used in this post . I love that these colors challenged me so much! I usually don't work well with monochromatic shades or cooler hues, so this was a super fun way to step out of my comfort zone. Keeping with the same color theme as the July Altenew Inspiration Challenge, I used the gorgeous Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp to add some floral touches to this sweet tag from PTI's  Tag Sale Quilted  die. I used a variety of PTI ink colors - listed for you below. To dress up the tag, I added a blue border by cutting out another tag and trimming out the middle part. I also added a soft bow and button to the top. A few sprinkles of sequins and  Nuvo Jewel drops in Sea Breeze  finish off this little tag. Here's the wonderful inspo photo - hope you can play along! Thanks so much for visiting friends! Ivana