A big Christmas wish in a little tiny box

The count down to Christmas has officially started at our house. The kids had their last day of school yesterday and the excitement is high! I remember those days. Now it seems that it was Christmas just a blink of an eye ago. Someone once told me that it makes sense that the time is faster. When you are 5, one year is 1/5th your life time. When you are 50, one year is 1/50th of your life, a much smaller chunk of time. So, from that perspective, each year is faster. It's kinda like watching a movie with time travel. It makes sense until you stop and try to analyze it. But, onto the project.

I saw this project at first on Gretchen Barron's blog. She is so kind and always provides directions. Then, I saw a very old-fashion version of the tree in a box on Carla's blog. I loved it! I HAD to replicate it. No, it wasn't that I wanted to...I HAD to. (This is why I refer to my "hobby" as an addiction! The rest of you out there waiting for that box to arrive from Stampin' Up and who know the sound of the UPS truck, and who know the name of your driver...you too, my friend, have an addiction. Ain't it great!!!) Here's my box.



The bow was made out of the same paper as inside the box. Go to Splitcoast stampers and look for Paper Bow tutorial and you can make them too. They are easy-peasy. When you pull the lid off the box....wa-laaaa!



I know! Beautiful! Carla did a great job. I just copied hers with a little variation. I made four boxes all together. I made one and had to make more. Yes, HAD to! Each one was different inside. Here's a picture of the other three.



All four boxes were made out of ONE Simply Scrappin' kit. Yes, I did say all FOUR! Those kits are the best deal out there. This kit is called Christmas Jingle and is $19.95. That's $5 a box. Super deal! I still have stickers left from the kit plus some paper. Enough to make a scrapbook layout.

I must thank my friends...Nancy Wong who loaned me the Christmas Tree Die, and Mary Cargill, who is a fellow nut...uhh,... I mean demonstrator, for loaning me the clear cutting pads. I have to pace myself in ordering, or I'll be broke. So thanks for making this happen for me gals!

Thanks for stopping by!
Kristine

Holiday Bustle

It has been a fast week. I have been creating and cutting and making my fingers sticky and inky. And it was all glorious! All gazillion and one of my Christmas cards has been sent out! Whew! I made a few designs since after a little while, I didn't want to make one more of the same card!
Card #1 used the very elegant Scenic Season stamp set. This was one of the first sets I bought when the catalog came out. It appeals to the traditionalist in me. The picture doesn't show it well, but I misted the paper with the frost white shimmer paint, so when the card is tilted, it looks like it's snowing!


Card #2 looks like a quilt in person to me--and it happens to use my favorite color combo--red and white (must be the Danish background!) I REALLY do try to use colors other than red, but it seems to sneak in there on me frequently. The main white panel is embossed using the Holiday mini embossing folder Petals a plenty.




Card #3 was probably the most time consuming of the three. Using the large and small tag punches, you punch out and adhere the paper to vellum to create the star. I LOVED the look, but was cross-eyed and sticky after making the stars. It was like looking at the 3D books where you're suppose to see something in the picture. After awhile, I couldn't see the star in the pattern! There is a great tutorial on how to make these punch tag stars on Splitcoast stampers. In the tutorial they show how to make a double star. I decided to stick with the single layer because I felt like the card already had enough goin' on. I used my much missed Red Riding Hood on this card. I so miss that color! {sniffle}. It's still an "IN Color" in MY heart!




I have also been working on some 3D projects which I'll share in a separate post.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Kristine