Gift bags and Gift cards

Hi Everyone!

I hope that you enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend.  Mine was very busy and a lot of fun. Three friends came here on Saturday to create bridal shower favors for Angela's son and future daughter-in-law.  We were a great team and within a few short hours created 50 favors. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but I can tell you about them.  We used Teri Anderson's Tea Sleeve Tutorial and Andres and Maggie's wedding colors of purple, green, gray and white to create the tea sleeves.  We decorated the sleeves with lacy edged circles.  We used a computer to print their names on each circle and added a pair of lovebirds to them.  Everyone was very please with the results.  Thank you Teri as always for the inspiration you give us.

Yesterday I hostessed a cookout here and today we went to a cookout.  Robbie made an awesome potato salad, a to-die-for cherry pie, and a yummy blueberry one.  I made a delicious cole slaw and was surprised to discover that my food processor is much more efficient at shredding cole slaw than my Kitchen Aid stand mixer is.   

This week my paper crafting activities were experimental and fun, fun, fun.  An e-mail from SEI tidbits included a template for a Father's Day gift box that I just had to make.  Here are some photos of one of the boxes I created.             


side view of Father's Day gift box



front view of Father's Day gift box

The only tricky part of the box was the sides, but other than the sides the rest of the box is quick and easy.  A gift card will fit in it. 

I flipped through magazines and started a file on my computer that I called "Techniques and Ideas to Try".  I decided to make some gift card wallets.  The wallet I made is VERY easy. 

An A2 card measures 4.25" x 5.5" inches.  For this first card I cut 2 patterned tag weight papers so that they measured 4.25" wide by 11" long and scored them both at their 5.5" line.  I used Scor-pal tape to back them together and folded them. 
Here's the card.  Peggy I think these cards will be perfect for the nieces and nephews.  I plan to make others for birthdays and other holidays.

And here's the inside of the card.  The twine holds the money in the wallet.



I wanted to make some graduation wallets too.  I have some copy weight graduation paper that is 8.5" by 11".  I wanted the hats to be facing up so I cut the paper so it was 4.25" x 8.5".  I backed it up with some "sky" paper and folded it so that it now was 4.25" x 4.25".  Dollar bills fit perfectly inside the card with room to spare.  I plan to use standard A2 envelopes for the cards so that no extra postage will be required for this square card.

If you want to make these wallets I suggest that you either use 2 pieces of tag weight paper or one piece of tag weight paper and one of copy weight paper.  If you only have copy weight paper that you want to use sandwich some white tag between the papers.

One of the other paper crafts I created this week were clothespin pinwheels that I saw on one of Martha Stewart's web sites.  I clipped one of them onto my lamp just so you can see it.  We clipped them to the umbrella at our outdoor table.  We'll use them again on July 4th and at our cookouts too.





That's it for today.  Talk with you again soon.

Carol