You were perfectly fine . . .

Cocoa, anyone?

Last year, one of K's school friends gave her a cute cardstock holder filled with several packets of hot chocolate mix. I wish I'd saved it to copy!

But today, I found a pattern for an accordion purse that would serve the same purpose. Very cute!

Here's a photo of the finished purse:

and here it is opened:

I used Holiday Red and White Daisy cardstock, and some retired Christmas patterned paper. It could definitely use some more decoration, but I like it simple too. Here's a link to the blog with the tutorial to make this project.
  

Back to School Treats

I found a really cute pattern for Halloween treats on a fellow consultant's blog and decided to try them out. When I'd made one, I realized that with a few tweaks, those treat holders could look just like paper lunch bags--the perfect back-to-school gifts for my daughter's 4th grade class.

We kept it simple--so it would still look like a lunch bag, and so my daughter could do a lot of the assembly herself. We love how they turned out!

I altered Lori's measurements slightly--the main piece of cardstock is 3 3/8" by 12". I scored the cardstock at 4.25, 5.25, 6.25 and 10.5.

I used CTMH Brown Bag cardstock, Indian Corn Blue cardstock (for the birds) and chocolate ink. The stamps are Storytime lower case alphabet and School Fun (both retired). To make the edge of the "lunch bag," I trimmed that edge with Fiskars "stamp" paper edgers. The little birds are popped up on foam tape. We stapled mini packages of Skittles inside each treat holder, and closed the tops with dotto removable adhesive.

We'll deliver them tomorrow. :) K is very proud. I love that!!
  

YOU ROCK Album Instructions

I love doing creative stuff: scrapbooking, writing, knitting, paper crafting, you name it. But I find that two obstacles keep coming up over and over: not a lot of time, and not a lot of money.

Sometimes, I let these obstacles keep me from having a creative outlet for days or weeks at a time. However, I know that I feel better and more balanced if I carve out the time to make something. One thing that makes this easier sometimes is finding projects that others have created before me, and adapting them to make them my own.

I found instructions for a 6x6 CTMH My Creations display album on the consultant website, and decided to do just that--adapt them to fit what I wanted to make. My hand drawn instructions and cutting guides are below, and the photos of the finished project are in my last blog post.

This is a really simple, easy project--I completed mine in an afternoon. It could easily be used to make a regular 6x6 album, or even adapted for an accordian album. I made it a priority to use only 1/2 of a CTMH Level 2 paper pack, with a couple of extra sheets of colored cardstock, one ink color and one stamp set.

The display albums make great gifts too. With one Level 2 paper pack, you can make 2 display albums--one to keep and one to give. Not too much time, not too much money, but a great finished project that you and your family/friends can enjoy.

Instructions:

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Feel free to email me if you have any questions. If you want to check out the products used to create the album, check out the online catalog and idea book here.

Enjoy!