Keeping Christmas - October 2019 Edition

Hello Friends!  Today's post is part of the monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop and I have several cute and quick gift card holders for you.   Not to scare you or anything, but Christmas is just 2 months from today!  

A few weeks ago, I happened to check and see if any of the Ink to Paper September release products that I wanted had come back in stock.  The one item I most wanted was back in stock; Tag Creations: Modern Gift.  I absolutely love how well thought out this die set and it makes these beautiful Gift Card Holders!  The stitching details in the poinsettias are so perfect!  

A week or so after this die set arrived, my husband had traveled home to the family farm for a family reunion.  My father-in-law is the last of his siblings to still be living at the age of 89, but a few of his nieces and nephews live in the area and still come each year.  I have to pick and choose my trips as travel is difficult for me, and I want to be able to go at Christmas, so I stayed home with the doggies this time.  

Our dogs are pretty spoiled and they won't eat unless I am sitting right with them.  I grabbed my scrap bin of papers, my little sidekick machine, the Modern Gift Dies and sat and die-cut for several hours to make piles of the pieces for these gift cards.  Sadly, this barely made a dent in my scrap pile.  I know some of you can probably relate!  

On the other side of that is the fact that I made more than 30 gift card holders and have already given several of them away.  I also have a significant number of the poinsettias left to work with for many more of these.  I have a whole bunch of photos for you.

I also have some tips for you on maximizing your paper usage.  If you cut your paper in half lengthwise (4.25 x 11) you can get a gift card holder and a ribbon from that one piece.  Especially when you are mixing and matching papers, this works great.

I don't buy much paper from retail stores unless I really like it and when I do it is often a paper pad from Hobby Lobby for a specific purpose.  In my case, this is usually something masculine or foiled.  Quite by accident last weekend, I discovered that the 4.5 x 6.5-inch paper pads from Hobby Lobby are just enough longer to cut the gift card holder from with almost no waste.  Because of the tab that you tuck in, you need that little bit of extra length that this paper size affords.

You don't get that ribbon piece from the taller piece of cardstock, but given my penchant for gold or shimmer cardstock, this worked out well for me.

Initially, I also felt that the ribbon would be a lot of wasted paper, but as you can see in this image, you can cut multiple items from the set from the scraps.  In the end, I didn't feel there was any waste at all.  Even though I was using scraps for the decorative elements, I still don't like waste good quality and/or specialty cardstock.  It was actually very cleverly thought out!

These next few projects are a few of my favorites and I added them to my personal stash!

Red Glitter Paper, Red Satin Flower with white Glitter Ribbon and Silver Accents

Misty Rose Metallic with Garnet Plum flower and gold foil ribbon and accents

Iridescent Ice Gold, Shimmer Gold, and Gold glittered paper scraps

Aqua Mist, Gold Shimmer, Moss Green, and Alcohol Inked background scraps

Iridescent Ice with Tonic Gold Satin Silk Effect, and Lovely Lady Cardstock for the bloom

Misty Rose Metallic with Gold Satin Silk Effect elements

And last but not least, my personal favorite!  You know how I love pink and gold!  This was an awesome way to use up some of the scraps in my bin.  I am very hopeful that Ink to Paper will add other seasonal elements that can be used with this tag for other holidays.

As you can see, I have many of these to use and will most likely include some in the Sister-In-Law Christmas Goodie Bags this year!  I'm definitely planning to look through my stash to see what other stamps and dies I have that can be used for other occasions.  Even if it's just a $5.00 Starbucks Coffee Gift Card, what a nice way to brighten someone's day!  Think of all the special days throughout the year that you could use this type of item. 

There are always so many projects to see that I know you'll enjoy.  I hope you'll stop and leave a little love with these ladies who bring content to you each month of the year except December when we actually observe Christmas.

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

Nancy Guse

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I appreciate it when you take time to visit, comment or shop through my affiliate links. Here is my affiliate link to the Ink To Paper Store.