Getting Clipped....-

A little dilemma here -- how to present restuarant gift certificates the old-fashioned paper way (?) along with Starbucks gift cards in those oh-so-adorable mittens. All that is too big for one of my mint tins, so I bought the $1.00 wooden clothespins at A.C. Moore, covered them with acrylic paint and Designer Series Prints paper. A Big Deal alphabet intiial in the scallop circle and some organdy ribbon. There you have it -- more Teacher's Gifts -- to go!

Gift Tins

Every once in a while I look up from my table to see if the Christmas Crafting is finished! There is still plenty to do, but I thought I would stop and share one of my Teacher Gifts this season.

These are DVD tins inspired by something I saw on Cambria's Blog back in August. I've made a half dozen or so. I cover them in some of the fun Stampin' Up! Designer Papers (One set here is Cutie Pie, the other Fall Flowers.). On the inside I make one side with a little pocket to hold a gift card, the other side has a notepad. Cambria's tins seemed to have real little legal pads in them. I couldn't find any to fit my tins. So I purchased memo pad refills and just made toppers for stacks of papers.

I personalized each tin with my Simon Lower Chipboard letters. These are really coming together quickly. And since the papers and ribbons all coordinate so beautifully, I don't even have to think about "matching"!

Gift Card Tins

The gift cards for teachers and bus drivers and other important friends are starting to fly out of here! And I'm sending lots of them out in those fabulous mint sized tins.

This one (and plenty others like it) features the "Dashing" Designer Paper. I didn't snap a photo of the inside but the bottom is covered in a coordinating stripe and the inside of the top has solid cardstock and a message in Very Vanilla.

I used a retired set called "Tiny Talk" for my greeting. I know it's not current, but it is one of my all-time favorites for use with the Small and Large Tag punches.

The ribbon is the Wide Grosgrain in Old Olive and it gets a little bling from a rhinestone brad.

Going, Going, Gone....

As I suspected, my little Cold Play snowman IS retiring at the end of the month. The new Stampin' Up! (first) Semi-annual Retirement list was announced today -- see it HERE.

Our July retirement sale was soooo long and soooo extensive the word "retirement" list makes me break out in hives. But alas, this list looks normal and predicatable even if it is a little sad for my snowman. (Lots of snowmen are retiring -- I am expecting fabulous new ones in six months!)

Anyway -- look over the list. Because it's Christmas I'm offering 20% off the stamp sets that are retiring. Grab them soon, though. Once January 2nd gets here it's a new Stampin' Year!