ribbon butterflies (and using up those ribbon scraps)

Do you keep your ribbon scraps? Do you have an overflowing drawer like I do??

Yes, I have a lot of scraps. I used to throw them away but now I keep them for 2 reasons: 1) my daughter likes to go in there & pull out ribbon for her 'projects', and 2) I found a great way to use up those scraps.

I found this idea over on Nicole Magouirk's blog a while back. I love this idea & have made tons of these ribbon butterflies. So here's what you do:

Take your ribbon scraps, Sizzix die, adhesive & scrap cardstock.

Measure the die you're going to use & then cut the cardstock to 1/4" wider on each side. Then apply adhesive to the entire piece...don't skimp!

Layer strips of ribbon on the cardstock. If something doesn't look right to you, just peel it off & place another one. There's no rhyme or reason, just what looks good to you!

Trim the excess ribbon off (it doesn't have to be exact, just makes it easier to run through the machine).

Place your die face down on the die paying attention to which side you want at the top & run through the Sizzix machine.

Can you tell my machine is well loved :) And what you end up with is this:

Cute, huh?! I used this big butterfly to dress up a tag that will probably end up on a gift bag:

Then I made a smaller one for this card:

Card & tag were created using the Truly Scrumptious kit 

along with scraps from my stash

 

You can make whatever shape you want. You can use this to decorate cards, gift bags, whatever. In fact, I made one of the bigger ones last year to add to this decorative printers tray:

More pics of this project here using one of last year's kits.

So use those ribbon scraps :)

Halloween treat bags

I have a really easy way to make some fun Halloween treat bags. I believe I saw the original idea for this on Jennifer McGuire's blog. I like making fun little treat bags for holidays and the idea I'm going to share with you is really easy. So here's the treat bag:

First I'll start with the embellishments I put on the front of the bag. I took the cute little Halloween stamps that came with the Sleepy Hollow kit, Versamark & some embossing powder. The frame I stamped on black cardstock with Versamark, sprinkled some iridescent embossing powder, then heat set with my embossing gun.

For the skull I did the same thing but used purple embossing powder. Then I cut both images out.

For the bag, take a strip of paper that is 4" x 12". I chose some Pink Paislee paper from the Sleepy Hollow kit. You can use regular cardstock but patterned paper is fun because it already has a design on it.

Score your paper on the long end at 4", 6" and 10". If you don't have a scoring tool you can use your paper trimmer & a bone folder and score right in the groove of your paper trimmer. But don't press too hard because you'll go right through the paper. After you score it your bag will look like this:

You can go ahead and fold the small flap over at the top and adhere. Then, holding all of the top layers together, take a small circle punch and punch 1/2 the circle at the top. This will be the opening for your candy bag to stick out.

Decorate the front of your treat bag, then get a cellophane bag and fill with candy. Be sure to eat all candy that accidentally falls out ;) Most craft stores have cellophane bags but regular 'ol sandwich bags will work, too. Twist the top and put through the inside center of the treat bag & adhere ribbon.  And there you go...fun little treat bag!

Now I know some people don't do Halloween stuff, so I also made a little treat bag using some goodies from the Sweet Sue & Seaside Cottage kits.

By the way, these are fun little treat bags to give to teachers!