Christmas in July - Use Scraps!

A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

Proverbs 18:16

Christmas in July!!??...  Great idea to help ‘beat the heat’ that many are experiencing these past weeks!  Use scraps…??!!  I can SO do that – since I SAVE everything!  You just never know when you might need ‘that’…and many-a-time while crafting in the wee hours, I do need ‘that’ little bit of something!

So – there are times when I just have to acknowledge my Dutch Heritage…  Being very frugal, resourceful and drinking coffee all day are a few things I do that come from my ‘Dutch genes.’  *smile*  Therefore, I have many empty coffee cans for which I continue to find ‘good use’ –

Silver Bells Goodie Gift Container

My first project today is a ‘repurposed’ coffee can – decorated with scraps – and turned into a Gift Container for some yummy Christmas Cookies or candies.

To cover the can, I stamped ‘sheet music’ in brown on parchment paper, inking the edges and then stamping snowy flourishes in silver in various places. (These don’t show up in the photos – sorry.)  I used the PCW Bell cutting file – a scrap of red paper, one of ‘marbleized’ silver (wallpaper), two of plain silver and a snippet of silver ribbon to make the ‘Silver Bells,’ which I adhered to the red grosgrain ribbon wrapped around the can.  

I made a Recipe Card/Gift Tag for the top with a Circle Card file (I don’t know from whence I acquired it…) – topped it with a Scalloped Circle ‘wreath’ I made from the same file.  I punched ‘notes’ from silver scraps, placing them on the wreath.  I used the flourishes that were cut from the Bells under a red flower plucked from a red hydrangea stem, enhanced with a red, flower-gem center and silver ‘Scribbles’ paint.

Gingerbread House Goodie-gift Container

Another enjoyable passion of mine is ‘burning candles’ – for their relaxing scent, as I ‘burn mine at both ends!’  Therefore, I have several of these empty glass jars at any given time…

I used the CWC Gingerbread House 2010 cutting file on the front of this ‘repurposed’ Treat Container.  I cut the house, door and chimney from rust-colored patterned scraps.  I then embossed them with my (Cuttlebug) Brick and Woodgrain folders.  I inked the edges and the ‘grain’ with gold and penned around the door with gold, also.  I embossed the white ‘snow’ with my Polka Dot folder and inked the edges with Bronze.  I embossed the green wreath and bushes with another folder – a fancy flourish of sorts.  I used 3D Crystal Lacquer on the candies – to make them shine and to prevent the tiny pieces from falling off.  

I added red and clear rhinestone gems to the wreath and Boutique Fleur Mini Round Gems (Recollections) on the bushes, in lieu of the ‘jelly beans.’  Who could resist a ‘chocolate,’ Red-nosed Reindeer (CWC) on the Recipe Card/Gift Tag on the top of the jar?   I used an SCAL2 Library shape for the tag.  I wrapped and tied Timeless Twine around the top of the jar and also used it to fasten the two pieces of the tag.  I punched a row of snowflakes to go around the jar and attached the Gingerbread House to it, anchoring it to the bottom, also.

One could also set a new, real candle – or even a battery operated candle – in the jar, rather than baked goodies – for a ‘non-caloric’ gift!   Hopefully, this has helped you ‘chill’ and has given you some pre-holiday ideas! 

We encourage You to make something for this Challenge, link it up at CWC and show us Your creativity!  See you next Week?!

 

NOTE:!!

Thank you to all of you who ‘attended’ our Crops of Luv Blog Hop this past weekend and made such kind comments about my Projects!  I hope some of you participated and will follow through with offering Layouts to that organization -  I enjoyed being a part of my first Blog Hop and look forward to others in the future!  ;-}

I’d also like to announce the 'randomly chosen' winner of my First Giveaway!  Evelyn Holmberg will be receiving a set of 6 Rose stamp Notecards!  Please let me know in what ‘colors/color family’ you’d like me to make your cards and also a mailing address…  eMail me at:    Ldb1408 (at) aol (dot) com