Gift giving in a pinch...

It's that time of year again... Teachers and therapists' gifts... ;-)
You have to leave in 5mn, you forgot to pack the chocolates... *gasp*
No time?.. :-( No problem! :-)

1- Head over to Annie's Paper Boutique, grab a pack of those adorable Mini Gable boxes. (obviously this step would have had to be done in advance... ;-) I personally try to always have some of those on hand! You just never know!... :-))
2- Next, buy large Holiday ribbon (in a hurry grab the one from the box of chocolates you just received from your lovely neighbors) , wrap the ribbon around the box, secure with tacky tape...
3- Add a little tag (this one is from My Thoughts Exactly, the Holly jolly Tags stamps set) attached with some Trendy Twine (Holly Berry here).

Or if you're less in a hurry, you can skip the hanging tag and glue whatever embellishment you have on hand...

And VOILA... quick and colorful gift wrapping in a pinch!  :-)

And just to satisfy your curiosity, this little beauty holds comfortably 12 Lindor truffles. (you could fit 13 but I got this weird idea that some people might freak out at receiving 13 of something... Oh well, you know what I had to do with poor #13 truffle.. ;-P Yum...)

Baby Box

I apologize for the yucky pic, but it was one of those "take the pic just as we leave" project and Noah tempered with my camera yesterday and I didn't have the time to figure out what was wrong (my wild guess is greasy little fingers all over the lense...).

So anyway I thought I'd still post it, even though I didn't get a chance for retakes, since it's my 1st ever project made with the Cricut Expression coupled with my laptop via the SCAL software. Pretty exciting, if you ask me! ;-D...

I used one of Lauren's template, that you can now purchase as an SVG file, which then allows you to resize it to your taste before having your machine cut it out for you.

You cannot see on that pic but I added extra detailing to the top using her matching cut-files. And the little onesie on the card is from the SCAL shapes library. I cut my little windows (before adhering some acetate) with a Nestability (now that was a joy since it was an afterthought, LOL) but I plan on figuring out very soon how to do that with my gadget and software!... ;-)

It took me some time because I was figuring things out as I went but I have to say it is surprisingly easy to use and really fun, and no doubt time-saving (well once you get the hang of it obviously!).

I am psyched that Lauren's templates will now be available in that format (and they still come with the pdf file so that you can choose to print them the usual way instead.)

Ain't technology grand?... (coming from one of the worst computer challenged girl...)

Holiday pressure

The older I get, the more stressful I find the holiday period. :-(
Especially now that my kids are in school, trying to find gifts ideas for everyone and get them on time puts me on edge.
It is a cultural thing, I don't think we are especially selfish people in France, but we don't give gifts left and right just because it is Christmas... Maybe some chocolates here and there but that's mainly for friends and acquaintances, not so much coworkers or the doctor's office or even the teachers....

Anyway, as much as I love this tradition of giving I find it stressful for my time table and my wallet... and I am not so talented that I can get away with homemade gifts! LOL :-S...

This being said, I am working on little scrapbooks (with my kids' pics and/or their drawings) for grandparents, some also for brothers & sisters (but with their kids this time ;-)) and intend on stamping some candles to give to teachers with whatever else when I find just the right gift for them. They are very important people in our lives and I'd like to show them my appreciation (without going into debt or embarrassing them!).

This morning I tried my very first stamped candle and it went OK, I needed to try out the technique with the tissue paper, it is pretty cool indeed!...

Yesterday I made this origami box for my daughter with some beautiful cosmo crickett paper.
My husband bought an origami book a long time ago and it never occured to stupid me, when I started paper crafting a few months ago, to look into that book! *facepalm*
Anyway now I have (looked in the book)....and it is is pretty awesome!.. ;-)

ETA: I just found a tutorial for the box on SCS, for those who don't have a book... : http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/origami_box/