Celebrating Chanukah!

I wish everyone who celebrates the Festival of Lights starting Friday evening a very Happy Chanukah! I'd like to share with you gifts I made for the three doctors that I work with.

First I made this cute little house from Lauren's template I embossed all the stampings with Silver EP.

I kept it clean and simple using two Papertrey stamp sets, Home Made and Mazel Tov.

Inside the house I tucked 8 Star of David sugar cookies frosted and sprinkled with blue sugar crystals bundled up in a flatbottom bag and tied with a blue ribbon.

Next I made some spiced nuts (ETA: recipe by Denise (Peanutbee) I make them EVERY year since I found her recipe and they are just de-lish!!!) and poured them into sterilized Starbucks bottles that I decorated with a Spellbinders snowflake layered onto a large felt snowflake, and hung around the bottle with a ribbon. I added a few silver gemstones for shimmer! I wrapped a piece of cardstock around the jar that I had scored at half inch intervals over the whole piece so that it wrapped nicely. I embossed a symbol on a blue circle that I attached to the top of the cover.

To complete the project I made a little card using this cute little guy - Fred Frolic - from Poppy Stamps that I colored with Copics. The sentiment is from the Mazel Tov set.

Then I placed it all inside a little basket that I picked up last year at The Christmas Tree Shop and placed one on each doctor's desks.

They were gratifyingly pleased with their home made Chanukah gifts!

You can see the gifts I made them last year on this post.

Thanks so much for coming by today!

Stamps: Home Made, Mazel Tov - Papertrey Ink, Fred Frolic - Poppy Stamps
Paper: Pacific Point, Going Grey - SU, white - PTI, silver paper (unknown)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark Embossing pad

Accessories: Silver EP - PTI, silver and blue ribbons - PTI, hot gun, silver rhinestone stickers, Starbucks bottles, basket - Christmas Tree Shops, felt snowflake - Michaels, flat bottom bag - clearbags.com, Copics, Spellbinders snowflake, Cuttlebug, foam dimensionals.

Happy Chanukah and a Spellbinders DT Call

A couple of posts ago I showed you the cute Dreidels I made as part of Chanukah gifts I was making for the doctors I work for. I finally finished all the treats and thought I'd share them with you. I got these pretty baskets at Christmas Tree Shop for $1.99 and they worked just perfectly to present all my treats! These are the dreidels again - I found the pattern on Marthastewart.com under crafts/dreidel. I filled them with a bag of sugar spiced nuts that I made using the wonderful recipe that Denise (peanutbee on SCS) published on her blog. I printed labels on my computer to label each item.

I wrapped up some Biscotti in these fun bags that I got from Papertrey Ink and then just tied a pretty red ribbon around it. You can see the recipe for the Biscotti on this post
Next up - I made these delicious Oatmeal raizin cookies from a recipe I found last year in Martha Stewart's magazine. The article also showed how to use window CD envelopes to make each cookie a little present in itself! I decorated mine using the Mazel Tov stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I embossed the image with silver embossing powder and then colored the candles with Copics. The framing scalloped circles were punched using Marvy punches.

I just love this little cake box container that I found while blog hopping - it's made from one 8.5" x 11" sheet of card stock. You can see the tutorial for this on Mary Jo's blog here. I used Ballet Blue card stock. The designer paper is Snowy Day from Stampin Up. I punched the lacey edges with a Martha Stewart punch. Inside is a yummy loaf of banana bread that I made using whole wheat flour instead of white. They came out a little more dense and have a subtle nutty flavor. I just attached a ribbon around the bread and a printed label saying what it was.

And the last treat is a yummy rum cake with pecans on the top that you make using a yellow cake mix and instant vanilla pudding (and rum of course!). I wrapped the bundtlette cake in cellophane then placed it in this flat bottom clear bag that I got from Clearbags.com. I cut a blue piece of card stock to go over the white piece that was already on the bottom of the bag. The top was made using a Labels One die from Spellbinders and my cuttlebug. I stamped the dots from the Polka Dots Basic set using Vintage Cream ink from - both Papertrey. The sentiment is from the PTI Mazel Tov set and punched with the curvy edge frame punch from Stampin Up

Since Chanukah starts this Sunday - I gave the baskets to the doctors today - and they both absolutely loved them and appreciated that I had made all the treats and the packaging as well. One of them said he didn't even want to eat the treats because it would ruin the beautiful presentation - a most satisfactory response for a crafter don't you think??!?!? It's so nice when our efforts are appreciated!

And I appreciate that you stop by here to check out what I'm up to! I'll be by to visit you too!

Oh!! and check this out - Spellbinders is looking for new Design Team Members they have some super perks if you make the cut! (is that a pun?!) I just love all the nestabilities and spell binder dies don't you!? I used the Labels one die on the rum cake packaging just above.

A Shiny New Year and a Chanukah Dreidel

The Double Dare Challenge that I do with some SCS friends was from Anne (jdmommy) this week and her challenge was to make a New Year's card with some shine or bling. I've been waiting to use this Happy New Year's hat stamp by Stampendous all year! So I whipped that right out - and I actually cased one of my own cards - (you can see it in my post below) because I just loved how the embossed city scape stamp by Amuse looks and thought it would work for this card too! I used a dotted blue designer paper for the sky and embossed stars from the Take a Bough set from Papertrey Ink.

You can see the other Double Dare New Years cards here.

Stamps: 2009: Karen Foster Snap Stamps, Hat: Stampendous, City Scape: Amuse, Stars: PTI Take a Bough
Paper: Grey Bazzill, White: PTI, Basic Black & DP: SU
Ink: onyx black versafine, embossing pad
Accessories: silve EP, hot gun, foam dimensionals, circle punches

I made these Dreidels as part of a gift I'm giving my bosses for Chanukah - I'll be putting some candies or nuts in these and I'll include some home made cookies and little breads wrapped up in a box or a plate of some sort (haven't gotten that all planned out yet!) I'll show you that when I get it all made up!I found the pattern on Martha Stewart.com under crafts - I searched on dreidel - I enlarged it about 200 times to make it a finished size of about 4 1/2 x 2. I punched a 1/4 inch hole in the top piece and inserted a 1/4 inch dowel and tied a silver ribbon (Papertrey Ink) around it. I put some glue around the opening inside and out that will hopefully hold the dowel in place!?! The piece on the left shows you how it looks before I taped it all together so you can see the images I silver embossed on the sides. The stamp set is Mazel Tov by Papertrey Ink.

Stamps: Mazel Tov: Papertrey Ink
Paper: Ballet Blue: SU
Ink: embossing pad
Accessories: silver EP, 1/4" dowel, 1/4 " hole punch, silver ribbon: PTI, tacky tape