DeNami Pretty Packaging Blog Hop

Good morning and welcome to the DeNami Design Pretty Packaging Blog Hop! Today the DeNami Design Team and customers alike are using DeNami rubber stamps to make all kinds of packaging. Hop along with us for all kinds of packaging inspiration!

Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Tammy Hobbs's blog, Creating Somewhere Under the Sun. If so, you are on the right track! If not, you'll want to head over to the DeNami blog to start the blog hop at the beginning. (And remember, if you get lost along the way, you can always head over to the DeNami blog to get pointed in the right direction.)

Don't forget, there are some amazing DeNami prizes to be won! Two lucky commenters will be drawn at random from among the comments left along the blog hop to win a $20 DeNami Design gift certificate! You have until Monday, December 10, 2012, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize.

I always have a long list of Christmas gifts to give in December. My family likes to remember the kids' school teachers and Sunday School teachers, as well as our neighbors, with a small gift to let these folks know how much we appreciate them. We often whip up some homemade goodies or make up treat bags from treats purchased from our resident scouts, and when we do, we need some pretty--homemade!--packaging to dress these up. This year our gifts will be presented in some cute cranberry and kraft gingham gift bags I scored in a JoAnn Fabrics post-holiday clearance sale last January. All I needed were some classy gift tags to tie on the bags, and we would be all set! Here are the tags I came up with:

I used a fun collection of Christmas chickie stamps (Angel Chickie, Santa Chickie, Elf Chickie (Cling), and Reindeer Chickie (Cling)) along with some fantastic DeNami design elements (Merry Christmas Circle, Medium Double Circle, Polka Dot Background, and Season's Tweetings) to make my tags. These were so much fun to create!

That's it for me! Before you leave for more pretty packaging inspiration, be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for the randomly drawn prizes and then you can be on your way to the next stop on the hop, the blog of the very sweet and talented Kristy Smith, Kristy's Crafts. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy the blog hop,

Emily

PS I'm playing along with the Playing in Paradise Challenge this week. The theme is Winter Birds!!

TCM October Previews, Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the October stamp release from The Craft's Meow! I'm back again today as the TCM October Guest Designer, and I'm sharing cards made using two more brand new sets. Today I'm previewing Winter Fibi & Lilly and Christmas Cheer along with the TCM design team.

Here's my card for Winter Fibi & Lilly:

This set has several delightful Christmas and winter images of Fibi and Lilly, but I thought the angel and coordinating sentiment could make a sweet thank you card for any time of the year! The label stamp I used comes from the TCM Timeless Tags set. (Cardstock: SU Bashful Blue and Not Quite Navy; Ink: SU Not Quite Navy, Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox Frost White)

And now for a clean and graphic card using Christmas Cheer:

Not much to explain here! But I love how it turned out. :D (Cardstock: PTI White; Ink: Versafine Satin Red, Spanish Moss, and Vintage Sepia)

Be sure to check out the fantastic creations that the rest of the TCM designers made for today's preview of Winter Fibi & Lilly and Christmas Cheer over on the The Craft's Meow blog. There's a giveaway going on, too, and you can find out all about that over there as well. :D

Well, tomorrow is the last day of previews before the big release party on Thursday. I'll be featuring projects made with my two favorite sets from the October release. I hope you'll join me!

Until then, I hope you'll make time for a little bliss in your day!
Emily

Good News: I'm Guest Designing with TCM this month!

I'm SO happy to share that I'm guest designing for The Craft's Meow this month!! Somebody pinch me!! You can read all about it here. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

And today is the first day of previews for the TCM October stamp release. The TCM design team members (and that includes me!) are sharing creations made with two new fabulous stamp sets for Christmas:  Christmas Angel and Hearth & Home.

Let's take a look at what I made with the Christmas Angel set:

I took an understated approach with this set to let that beautifully detailed Christmas angel really shine! I embossed her in gold on a Night of Navy SU cardstock base. The "Glory to God" sentiment also comes from this Christmas Angel set. I stamped it in Night of Navy ink on Vintage Cream PTI cardstock and embossed a beautiful label (from TCM's Season's Greetings set ) around it in gold.

My second card for today comes from the Hearth & Home set:

There's a great selection of images and sentiments in this new set! I chose to focus on the parts that "jingle" ;). I colored the jingle bells image with my colored pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits and paper blending stumps. I just had to add some silver glitter for a bit of pizzazz!! The musical score background is digital paper that I recolored (it was originally black and white) and printed out from the Echo Park Hybrid Mini-Theme kit called Melody of Life. I would have loved to tie on some silver jingle bells with my button and bow treatment but discovered that all I had were gold!! Gotta put some silver ones on my shopping list . . .

Be sure to check out the fantastic creations that the rest of the TCM designers made for today's preview of Christmas Angel and Hearth & Home over on the The Craft's Meow blog. There's a giveaway going on, too, and you can find out all about that over there as well. :D

I hope you'll join me tomorrow for some more previews of new TCM stamp sets!

Until then, have a day filled with bliss!
Emily

Some Musical Thank-You Notes

My sister came to visit me back in October, and while she was here I helped her make 15 note card sets to give as Christmas gifts to her staff, co-workers, and kids' teachers. She tailored each set to the recipient, trying to make cards that reflect each person's interests. While hunting for appropriate stamps in my collection, she noticed that I had practically no music-related stamps, so for Christmas she remedied that situation by giving me the lovely music stamps I used in today's thank-you cards! Wasn't that sweet of her? I used them for the first time today. I sit on the Worship and Music committee at our church, and one of my tasks is thanking guest musicians who share their talents with our congregation. I was in need of two thank you notes, one for a male musician and one for a female musician, and my sister's gifts were perfect for the job! Here's the first:

The angel image is from Hampton Art, and the "thank you" sentiment is from Tradefish Designs. I loved the colors for the new Play Date Cafe Challenge (robin egg, lavender, bisque), and they immediately reminded me of my long-neglected Kioshi papers from BasicGrey. The angel's dress just screamed for some paper-piecing, so I'm playing along with the Paper Piecing challenge over at Ribbon Carousel Challenge #38. Plus, I had the perfect May Arts two-toned sheer ribbon from Jessi (thanks, my friend!), which I knotted around the top of the card base to keep this somewhat flat-ish for mailing.

Now, my more masculine card:

The music comes from an old hymnal, and I did a bunch of ink distressing on it to darken it up. The musical stamps used to create the vertical strip come from an old set from Inkadinkado (my sister found it on eBay), and the "Thanks" sentiment comes from the Everyday Greetings stamp set from DeNami Design.

Now, I just need to write my notes inside these cards and pop them in the mail!!

Hope you found a little bit of happy in your corner of the world today! Thanks for stopping by :).
Emily