Thursday, September 25, 2008

September PTI Blog Hop!!

Magnetic Snowman Kit!!
As a teacher I am always trying to come up with fun little projects to make for kids!! I remember as a child receiving little gifts and it just made you feel so special. Well, I decided to create a "mini" magnetic snowman traveling kit!! This little kit can be used on the refrigerator, any magnetic surface or even by itself! There are so many wonderful magnetic supplies out there that this project is so simple to create for the little ones in your life!
I started this project off by creating the card first. The important thing about my card was that it would have an inside pocket to hold my "magnet board". So, when I scored my card I made sure to leave an inch at the bottom when I folded it over. I then just folded the remaining inch up and inward to form the pocket. I used two small glue dots on both sides to keep it closed. For the outside of the card I used my new set from PTI Made of Snow. What a versatile set that can be used all winter long! I just love it. I stamped each part of the snowman along with his accessories and cut each individual piece out. I then just "built" my snowman using glue dots and dimensionals to add some depth. I used a small piece of tape to cover his nose when I stamped the eyes and mouth. I then just colored the nose with a orange marker and re-stamped the face. As for the inside of my card, I stamped the middle sized snowflake from last years set, Snowflake Serenade in red and green ink. I then stamped the sentiment, "Snowmen fall from heaven unassembled". I thought this fit perfect with the theme of my project. Next, I had to create my "magnet board". This is for when the recipient does not have a magnetic surface in front of them..(if they were at a restaurant or church). I bought some magnetic paper from Hobby Lobby. It has paper on one side and the magnetic surface on the other. The paper side acts as a magnet and it is so nice because you can run it through your printer for other projects. It also runs through my Cuttlebug perfectly(love that little green machine) with the nestabilities die-cuts. So, I chose the size I wanted, cut it out and decorated it. It slid perfectly in the inside pocket of my card.
The next step in my project was to create my snowman pieces! I first stamped the snowman body and cut it out. I then cut out small arms from brown card stock and placed onto the snowman. I then ran the smallest circle nestie I own through my Cuttlebug to create the faces of my snowman. It was a perfect fit. It was then time to cut out the individual pieces so I first stamped each scarf image with different colored inks and cut those out. I cut between the inside of the scarf to add more movement to them. I then stamped the hat images along with the mitten images and cut those out as well. Once I had all my snowman pieces I took my Crop-a-dile and used the smallest punch to punch out tiny magnetic circles from my magnetic paper. I then just placed those onto the backs of my snowman and accessories with glue dots.
Now, I needed a place to store my little snowman pieces and decided on the small square tin. I love the size of this tin and they work great for little kids! My snowman along with all his accessories fit great in the tin. I took my crop-a-dile and punched two holes on each side to create my ribbon handle.
So, there you have it!! I fun little gift that can be used over and over again by little hands! Thanks for looking!!!
Bridget

Monday, September 15, 2008

September PTI release party

Hi!! Well, another release party has come and gone..It was so fun last night to see new faces, as well as the regulars on the forum!! It has to be so neat for Nichole to see all these people coming to her site to see her work!! So cool and I'm always so jealous..what an experience for her! The best part of it is that she is still so humble and gracious to her customers!!
This month was all about Halloween for me.. I just love the Spooky Sweets set! Lots of different ways to go with it..I love the old, Halloween vintage feel of these stamps. My first entry is my hanging spider card! I used my square nesties to cut out a large square from my card base. I then just went down in size and layered two more nestie squares that would fit inside the first square I cute. I then stamped and cut out my spiders and threaded some sewing thread for the web. I then took a small glue dot and placed it on the inside, front upper flap and placed my spiders on there. Because the thread is so fine, I just took my crop-a-dile and punched out 3 tiny dots that I used to place over the thread and glue dot. This worked perfectly and blended in nicely with the card. I had the largest spider hold onto the sentiment and I like how his little legs overlap the paper. I then just finished the card off with the sentiment in the lower right corner. Very easy and fun card to create.
My second entry was my hanging coffin basket. I love giving my kids little gifts to open up now and then, especially around holidays. Well, I decided to create this small coffin to hang on their doors for Halloween. It is a template that I created and would be happy to share with anyone who is interested! I first stamped my images onto the black CS and then cut out my template. I punched 2 small holes on the side of the coffin and threaded my ribbon in to form my loop. I used the sentiment "Open if you dare" and placed that on top of the coffin with a small brad. I used a photo frame hinge to keep the lid closed. It works perfectly for this project. I then just filled my coffin up with Halloween candy and trinkets and its ready to be hung!! I can't wait to surprise my kids with these Halloween morning! I've made these in the past as party favors for a Halloween party. You can add the child's name onto them with a clear label.

My third entry was my creepy kitchen recipes box. This was really fun to create and I think would make a great gift for a teacher, mom or anyone who enjoys making and baking food!! I first surfed the net and found fun, unique, different and healthy Halloween recipes. I printed them off from my computer and made little recipes cards that would fit inside a small gable box. I then decorated the outside of the gable box in Halloween fashion. I then took the sentiment "Creepy Kitchen Collection" and masked off the word "Collection" I then printed off the word Recipes from my computer and stamped "Creepy Kitchen" above it. I am planning on giving this to my sister-in-law who is a teacher/mom a few weeks before Halloween..that way she can start testing out the different recipes!!

My fourth entry was my candy corn card. I had this delicious candy corn paper that I was drawn to but no candy corn card. So, I looked through my stamp sets and saw one of the party hats from the It's a Celebration set. I just masked off the different sections and stamped them onto white paper. I cut them out and used dimensionals when I placed them onto my card. I like how they look like you can just reach out and eat one. I stamped the sentiment directly onto the card itself and framed it with two brads.

Thanks so much for taking the time to look!! Can't wait to see all the entries for this month..so much inspiration just waiting to be tried!!

Bridget