PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Purses and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

I saw a wonderful purse tutorial on Pinterst using the Envelope Punch Board and knew I had to make one for my dear sister in her favorite color: Any shade of blue!

Original Pin HERE

My purse turned out like this:

...and I made a matching card

to go with it:

I finished everything and realize that the purse really needed the bow that was shown in the original pin and video tutorial. Those finishing touches can made a BIG difference!

It helped me quite a bit to mark all areas ahead of time for the sticky tape placement using a pencil and to fold the velcro flaps before the purse was assembled. For my own future reference, here are the areas with adhesive tape:

I also increased the handles length to 10 1/2".

This purse started with a 12" x 12" piece of DSP and resulted in a final purse size of 4 1/2" wide x 6 1/2" high without the handles. With the handles, it was 8 1/4" high. That resulted in a large purse for any gift-giving occasion!

Next, I made a small version from a 9" square of DSP punched at 1 7/8" to hold a candy treat:

Here are a few more purse pins that caught my eye:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

...and finally...some handcrafted Thanksgiving cards

from friends who made me do a

happy dance:

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Tea Party Time and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

One of my favorite things to do is have a tea party! Here's a table set up from a tea party my neighbor and I hosted for a neighbor recovering from surgery: 

This weekend, I'm having a tea party for my mom, a coworker and her mom, so I wanted to make a tea party favor that would serve as a candy holder and place card, too. Based on a previous post on my blog, I made these teacup favors:

You can click HERE for the tutorial referenced on my blog.

Once you make one cup, it becomes easy peasy to make these lovely little cups! It's so fun to use up some of my treasured DSP paper and each teacup only requires a piece of paper that measures 8"x 5 1/2". I added a sampler of Hershey chocolates in each cup along with a tea bag from this box below which is now one of my favorite decaf teas:

Each tea sachet is individually wrapped in a clear cellophane bag and looks so pretty in each of my paper teacups! I recently bought these Chamomile Citrus tea bags at Safeway after a friend served it to me at her house...now...it's a regular evening treat!

Below I have highlighted some of my most favorite tea party pins:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Halloween Treats and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

Original Pin HERE

The FREE printable files to make these Tic Tac treats are from a site called Somewhat Simple and can be found HERE. The pin above is from a site called Cupcakes and Bling --- now that's a great name for a blog! 

I used an envelope punch board to create these cute little treat boxes from Pinterest. They measure 2 1/4" wide by 3 1/4" tall and result in the perfect paper project for Halloween or Thanksgiving. 

The Hershey Miniature chocolates nestled in the boxes already come in fall colors and prints, so they're the perfect candy to use for this fall treat box! 

Four boxes can be created from one piece of 12"x12" DSP and using double-sided DSP gives a nice contrast to the finished mini totes if you adhere the side flaps to the outer side panels. Here is the wonderful video tutorial which also has a quick link of http://tinyurl.com/ktfavorbox :

Original Pin HERE

The only thing I changed was the diameter of the hole punch at the top. I preferred a 3/4" punch instead of the 1". You can see the difference in the two punch sizes on my completed boxes in the first pic of the totes above.

....and one last Halloween treat box that is very cute and clever from Chick N' Scratch:

She created a terrific video, too:

Original Pin HERE

My Version:

Enjoy this fall season with some paper-crafted treats for friends and family!

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Gift Card Box and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

Original Pin HERE

Make a card box and set of small gift cards using the wonderful video tutorial and measurements provided from this pin! The tutorial also shows how to make the raised medallion for the front. I decided to make up a larger version that would hold standard A2 cards (4.25" x 5.5") with envelopes. Here's my version:

...with matching cards:

Here are my measurements:

I had to LOL when I saw another video this week and the paper crafter said that she doesn't like "naked" envelopes! We are kindred spirits there as I do love to decorate my envelopes, too!

Last week, I also found this terrific Envelope Punch Board paper tea cup idea with video tutorial that led me to making a bunch of tea cups:

I'll fill these cups with gold Hershey Kisses.

Here's the original pin from the VERY talented Linda Parker:

Original Pin HERE

It's quite a long video, but once you do one, it really goes fast!

The measurements are as follows:

8" x 5 1/2" piece of card stock

Along the long side, score at:

1 1/4", 2 1/2", 3 3/4", 5", 6 1/4" and 7 1/2"

Along the short side, score at:

1 1/8" and 3 5/8"

When using a directional printed paper, make sure the direction of the print is placed so that it goes right to left along the 8" side with the 1 1/8" score placed at the bottom of the print. Then I saw that Linda had created a tea pot to go with the tea cup, and of course, I had to make that, too!

Here is her oh! so lovely version:

Click HERE for the Original Pin

The video tutorials are a must see....and here
are the measurements for the tea pot
which starts out as a larger version of the tea cup:

BASE

10 3/4" x 7"

Along the long side, score at:

1 3/4", 3 1/2", 5 1/4", 7", 8 3/4" and 10 1/2"

Along the short side, score at:
1 1/4" and 4 1/2"

TOP

11 3/4" x 2 7/8'

Along the long side, score at:

1 7/8", 3 3/4", 5 5/8", 7 1/2", 9 3/8" and 11 1/4"

Along the short side, score at:

1/2" and 1"

Notch from the side with the short tab at:

1 3/8", 3 1/4", 5 1/8, 7", 8 7/8" and 10 3/4"

NOTE: Instead of punching holes and threading ribbon to hold the top together, I simply used red sticky tape along each fold and that created a simple pin wheel effect inside the lid.

SPOUT

5 3/4" x 3"

Score along the short side at 5/8"

Notch along the long side
with the 5/8" side folded over:

 1/2", 1", 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", 3 1/4",
3 3/4", 4 1/4", 4 3/4" and 5 1/4"

Notch on the opposite side at 2 7/8"

These projects are the original creations of
Linda Parker. Please give her credit if you post
any of her tea time projects ^_^

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Dragonfly Dies, Halloweenand the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

I bought a new dragonfly die from Spellbinders called Dragon Delight using my 40% off Cut at Home VIP coupon this month:

These are the very first cards I made with it:

SENTIMENTS:

Signature Greetings by Papertrey Ink

Wavy Wishes by Hero Arts

I also tried this same layout idea using the butterfly dies from Memory Box called Isabella Butterfly (solid butterfly blue layer) and Rhone Butterfly Wings (lacy butterfly white layer):

This was my Pinterest pin inspiration card:

Original Pin HERE

Here are a few other dragonfly card pins:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

More dragonfly pins can be found HERE.

I'm starting to think about Halloween projects and this easy candy popper treat from Chic'n Scratch caught my eye:

She has included a video HERE and a nice set of written instructions HERE. Her project uses a 4.5" x 6" piece of DSP scored along the 4.5" side at 1", 2", 3" and 4". It makes a nice little box to hold a few sweet treats. I made these two up in no time using the envelope punch board, SU's oval punch and Martha Stewart's bat punch: