Candy Cane Hearts {Tutorial}

Aren't these little heart lollipops adorable?  I saw them last year all over the internet on different blogs around Valentine's Day.  I ran out to the store to see if I could find any left over mini candy canes, but couldn't find any.  I saved the idea, and stocked up on mini candy canes at Christmas time with this craft in mind.  I'm posting this early so that you still have time to hunt down some left over candy canes.

To create this project you'll need:

mini candy canes
4" lollipop ticks (available at big box craft stores in the cake decorating section)
parchement paper
baking sheet
3" x 5" Cellophane Bags (103104)
Rose Red 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon (124322)

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchement paper.  Unwrap your mini candy canes and place them on a baking sheet as shown below.  (Be sure to leave enough room to place your sticks later.) 

Bake them in your oven until they just start to get soft.  They don't need to melt.  I found that they went from just soft enough to overmelted very quickly, so watch them carefully.  I found that it took between 4 and 5 minutes in my oven.  Just after 4 minutes they were perfect.  At 5 minutes, they had melted and flattened out. 

Working quickly, while the candy is still warm, place down your stick and pinch the candy a little to form around the stick.

Once the candy was completely cool,  I wrapped them in Stampin' Up!'s 3" x 5" Cellophane Bags and added a ribbon bow.   I'm sure you'll find lots of sweethearts to share these little valentines with :)

Natasha and I have been pouring over the new Occasions Mini Catologue!  Have you seen it yet?  It's filled with tons of gorgeous new accessories and stamp sets.  If you'd like one of your own, please feel free to email me, I'd be happy to send you off one in the mail (Canadian customers only please).

Tons of fun Valentines projects coming up, so stay tuned! 

Rememberance Day Poppy {Tutorial}

Rememberance Day is just around the corner, and we are all wearing poppies on our lapels to honour those who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace. 

Well you already know that I love to make flowers (just check out that side bar to the right....), but did you know I make hats?  Yup, lots and lots of different styles of hats!  I orginally made this hat for my upline Jenn's daughter Isabelle with a removable holly berries clip on it at Christmas time last year.  This year, I made a poppy clip for her to change up her hat a little.

This poppy is super easy to make.  Items you will need to create one:  Big Shot (113439), Circles #2 die (114526), Fun Flowers die (121812), red felt or polar fleece, black felt, aligator clip, needle and thread or glue gun (note:  although I am actually a pretty good seamstress, I can't tell you the number of times I've traded in my needle and thread for my hot glue gun when making dance costumes, dance headpieces, halloween costumes, etc. -- WAY faster than sewing, but you can do it either way).   

Cut 5 circles out of red felt (or, I used a super soft polar fleece) from the Circles #2 Original die.   I used the 2-2/2" size, but any size will work).  This job is super easy as the Big Shot will cut 5 layers easily all at once! 

Use the Fun Flowers Bigz XL die to cut the center out of black felt (or any other small circle die you happen to have).

Take four of the circles, and fold them into quarters by folding them in half, and then in half again.  Use a hot glue gun to lightly tack them down (to prevent them from opening) near the point.  Then arrange all four onto the last remaining circle.  Use the glue gun again to tack them down at the center.  

Glue the black center down.

To make it into a clip, glue an alligator clip to the back.  Or  you could use them to make a beautiful memorial wreath. 

Thanks for letting me share my lastest crafting venture with you!  

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Snowflake Gift Card Holder {Tutorial}

It's been a busy October for sure. I can't believe Halloween is creeping up on us! I will work hard at finishing up my Halloween treat favors i'm in the process of making for the kids classes/teachers and show them off next week.

I did a stamp party this past weekend and have to thank Steph and Mandi once again for hosting such a fabulous party. The energy at this party was unbelievable.. i often heard squeals of excitement...i loved it.. : )

I had a GREAT time demoing some fabulous projects. Here is one of the cute projects that i shared with the ladies. I'm pretty sure this cute little gift card holder was a favorite among the guests and i promised the ladies i'd post a quick tutorial so they could recreate it when they got home.



Products you'll need for this Project:

Stamp Set: 115370 Teeny Tiny Wishes

Card Stock (CS):
119685 Cherry Cobbler (CC) 3-1/2" x 11" & 2-1/2 x 2-1/2" for scallop punch
100730 Whisper White (WW) 1"x 3-1/8" for scallop border punch & scrap for greeting, punched out with the word window punch.
100702 Old Olive (OO) 2" x 2" for 1-3/8" circle punch

Ink: 119670 Early Espresso (EE)

Accessories and More:
113439 Big Shot
120901 Northern Frost Sizzlit Decorative Strip Die
124005 Silver Glimmer Paper 2" x 2" (for snowflake)
122334 Simply Scored Scoring Tool
122349 Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper (DSP) 3" x 3-3/8"
121006 Brights Glimmer Brads (old olive)
119857 Word Window Punch
119854 Scallop Circle Punch
119860 1-3/8" Circle Punch
119882 Scallop Edge Border Punch
101227 1/16" Circle Handheld Punch
122977 3/8" Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbon - 16 inches
101610 Stampin' Sponge
104332 Snail Adhesive
110755 Multipurpose Liquid glue
104430 Stampin' Dimensionals
104294 Sticky Strip
103683 Mini Glue Dots

TIP: An easier way to die cut the snowflake using thicker paper such as the glimmer paper. Peel off the shinny backing of the silver glimmer paper before placing it on the northern frost sizzlet strip die. After you have cut out your snowflake use your piercing tool to poke out all the small pieces (hearts and circles of the snowflake)

Once you have gathered all the supplies above and cut your CS as directed follow these quick easy steps to complete the gift card holder:

1. Ink up your greeting with EE ink and stamp onto the scrap piece of WW CS. Punch out greeting with the Word Window Punch. Sponge around the edges with EE ink.

2. Place your 3-1/2" x 11" piece of CC CS onto the Simply Scored Tool. Score at 4", 5-1/2" and 7.



3. Fold your crease lines as shown here.



4. Place sticky strip on the 3 sides shown here. DO NOT place a piece of sticky strip on the bottom where it will be folded together. This is where the gift card will be placed.



5. Peel off back of sticky strip and adhere sides together. The inside of your card should now look like this.



6. Line up the word window punch a quarter inch of the way in and punch. (If you are using an older style black SU punch, i used the lines on each side as a guide)



7. Move your punch over just a little and punch again to make the opening a bit longer to fit the gift card.



8. Now grab all of your pre cut CS, punched out CS, ribbon, the brad and get ready to adhere to the front.



a) Adhere the WW scallop border to the DSP
b) Adhere DSP to CC card front with snail adhesive
c) Line up your ribbon around the card and place 2 mini glue dots on the back to hold the ribbon in place so when you untie your ribbon bow the ribbon stays attached to the card.
d) Adhere the OO punched out circle to the CC punched out scallop piece.
e) Adhere your die cut snowflake to the OO circle using multipurpose glue.
f) Punch a hole through the OO CS using your handheld punch. Adhere shimmer brad.
g) Pop up the CC Scallop with stampin' dimensionals. One at the top of the scallop circle and one at the bottom --or half a dimensional at the top and half at the bottom end to save on dimensionals.. : )
h) Adhere your word window greeting with snail adhesive.
i) Add sentiment whereever you choose to inside the gift card and then place gift card in word window slot you previously created.
j) Tie Ribbon to close.. : )

Hope you like... : )

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Stocking Gift Card Holder {Tutorial}

This was one of the projects we created at stamp club this month.

When i saw the stocking die in the Holiday Mini i immediately thought "gift cards".. so here's what i came up with!

Products used for this Project:

Stamp Sets: Punch Pals (116588)

Card Stock:
2 pieces of Real Red (102482) 5-1/2" x 6" for Stocking, Scraps for Holly Berries
Very Vanilla (101650) 11"x2" for candy cane, Scrap for Greeting-Large Oval
Old Olive (100702) 10"x2" for candy cane, Scrap for Holly Leaves and Scallop Oval
(124004) Holly Berry Bouquet Specialty DSP - 2" x 8" scored at 4", 2" x 5" scored at 2-1/2, 2" x 3" scored at 1-1/2"

Ink: Basic Black (101179)

Accessories and More:
Big Shot (113439), Stocking Accent Die (124099), Holiday Stocking Die (124098), Snow Burst Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (124096), Simply Scored Scoring Tool (122334), Scallop Oval Punch (119856), Large Oval Punch (119855), Mini Jingle Bells (124116), Linen Thread (104199), Stampin Dimensionals (104430), Snail adhesive (104332), Multipurpose Liquid Glue (110755), Sticky Strip (104294), 3" of 1/8" Old Olive Taffeta Ribbon (119256), Glue Dot's (103683-optional)

To create the gift card holder:

Using the Holiday Stocking Die, cut out your 2 pieces of 5-1/2" x 6 real red card stock to create 2 stockings, front and back. Fold all 3 pieces of your scored DSP and place them on the Holiday Stocking die as shown here. Run the die through the Big Shot. You will end up with 2 pieces each of the toe, heel, and top of stocking as you will be decorating both sides of the stocking. You will need to place the DSP correctly on the die, as shown here in order for the heels, toes and top of the stocking to match up correctly on both sides of the stockings.


Emboss your stockings. When embossing your stockings make sure you place your card stock correctly in the embossing folder so you emboss the correct side of the stocking. Place in the embossing folder as shown in the photos below. You want the raised embossing to show on the outsides of your stocking.

See how i flipped the second piece of card stock before i placed it in the embossing folder.



To create your extended candy canes you will need to score your 2" x 11" piece of Very Vanilla card stock at 3", 4-1/4", 5-1/2", 6-3/4" and 8"



Fold your score lines as shown here.

With your folded ends facing towards the bottom of the candy cane place card stock just above the cut line.

Feed through the big shot. Unfold candy cane. You will now have an extended candy cane.



With scoring tool score your 2" x 10" Old Olive card stock at 3", 5" and 7", fold and place the folded sides just above the candy cane cut line, same instruction as above.



Once you have cut out your candy canes you will need to grab your gift card. Place the gift card just above the main fold on your Old Olvie candy cane. Place a glue dot just above the gift card as shown here. You can place adhesive snail as well just above the gift card and keep "snailing' until you get to the tip of the candy cane. Adheres the top of the candy cane together as well.



To attach the Very Vanilla candy cane to the gift card as show below, follow the same instruction as above. Having the glue dots on the candy cane just above the gift card holds the gift card in place. Once put together you are still able to slip the gift card in and out. I did place a bit of snail where the two candy canes cross so they would stay together.

Thread your bells onto your linen thread and tie around candy canes. You can also loop in your scallop greeting as well (not shown here) before you tie your cute little bow.

You will adhere your toe, heel and top of stocking on the front side of your embossed stocking. Then using your gift card as a guide place it down and then place a piece of sticky strip at the bottom of the gift card. You must make sure the top part of the stocking (DSP) is attached before you line up your gift card. You can see that the gift card sits above the stocking and will be covered a bit by the DSP at the top. If you forget to adhere the DSP to the front of the stocking before lining up the gift card your gift card will slide down to far and your candy canes will not show..

Glue around the stocking using your multipurpose glue.

strip of sticky tape will hold your gift card in place so it doesn't slide down to the bottom of the stocking.

Adhere the embossed back piece of the stocking. Add the back pieces of the toe and heel (not shown here). Don't adhere the top of the stocking (DSP) just yet.



With Multipurpose glue adhere your 3" piece of ribbon to the top corner. Now you can adhere the DSP, top of the stocking to finish off the back.



Here is the final project. You can now add the Holly with dimensionals if you desire. And of course if you want to add a To:/From: greeting you can tie that in as well.

Hope you like... : )

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Sweet Berries {Tutorial}

This month at club, one of the projects that we created was this super sweet berry box, and 3-D strawberry favor holder (perfect for a Hershey's Kiss or other treat :)), along with matching 3"x3" card and envelope.

We used the Full Heart Punch. Polka Dot Embossing Folder and 5-Petal Punch to create the strawberry on the little 3"x3" card. The card fits perfectly into the Mini Envelopes which we stamped with the Baroque Motifs stamp set. The Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine and Dotted Scallop Ribbon Boarder Punch finish the card off perfectly. We stamped the inside of the card with the sentiment "Hope your day is the sweetest day ever" from the Crazy for Cupcakes set

To create the strawberries, we used flowers cut out from the Flower Folds Bigz XL die. We embossed them with the Polka Dot Embossing Folder, and then scored them across the petals with a Bone Folder so that the score marks come to a point in the center. Then we cut off two and bit of the petals and most of the third, but we left a little flap(see pic below). Then we punched each of the five remaining petals with the 1/16" Handheld Punch, centered and about 1/4" from the outer edge. We folded along the score lines we created, and glued everything together with the little tab we created. Lastly, we used Linen Thread (threaded in, out, in out), pulled everything together, topped with sepals created with the 5-Petal Punch, and tied the Linen Thread into a bow.

To create this project you will need:

Stamp Sets: Tiny Tags

Card Stock: Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White, and Crumb Cake Textured

Ink: Early Espresso

Accessories and More: Big Shot, Flower Folds Bigz XL Die, Floral Fusion Sizzlit Die, Little Leaves Sizzlit Die, Polka Dot Embossing Folder, 5-Petal Punch, Full Heart Punch, Jewelry Tag Punch, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine, Linen Thread, Pearls Jewels, Stampin' Pastels,

The little blossom flowers are part of a beautiful four part paper flower tutorial available here.

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Have a sweet day!

Owl Step Card {Tutorial}

Thank you all for your kind words regarding my step owl card. If you haven’t seen this super stinkin’ cute card yet click here to view it.

I had an over whelming response for the dimensions so I thought I’d whip up a quick tutorial for you all!! Also to answer many question about size, it is a standard size card and fits into any of Stampin’ Up!’s Medium Size Envelopes- page 182 of the New 2011/2012 Idea Book and Catalogue. Have you seen the New Catty yet…? I’m sure you are just DYING to get your little hands on it!! If you can’t wait to get your hands on a hard copy click here to view the web version. (I know, I know.. just not the same..but it will get you by until you receive your copy)… I just received another box of 8 catties so please contact me if you don’t already have a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and I’d be happy to get one to you.

For those interested in placing an order during the summer please send me an e-mail (alittlebitofink@gmail.com). I'll be ordering on the 15th of July (this friday) and August 1st. You also can order through me 24/7 on line, click here and click the shop now button at the top right corner. NOTE: if you are ordering online, please check that you see my name listed at the top of the website as the demonstrator for your order. Sometimes it will default to a demonstrator you have used previously. You may need to clear your cookies before a new demonstrator's name will appear.

With all your emails and questions about my step card, I eagerly await to see what you all come up with. Once you have created your step card please leave a comment on this post and link to your card. I’d LOVE to see how it turned out..! : )

Step 1 - Line up the short side of card stock in paper trimmer so the edge of the card is at 1-1/4" mark. Position the cutting blade at 1" cut all the way to 5".

Step 2 - flip card stock over and do the same using the same measurements above.


Step 3 - Rotate card stock to the longer side and from the edge to the cut line score at 1", 2" and 5".



Step 4 - Flip over card stock and repeat Step 3, same instruction above.



Step 5 - Score between the cut lines at 4".



Step 6 - Fold the score lines. The first, third and center score lines are mountain folds. The second score line is a valley fold. Reinforce score lines with bone folder to make the folds crisp.




Step 7 - Voila..stamp and decoreate as desired! -- This card fits nicely into Stampin' Up!'s Medium size envelopes.



Again, I'd love to see your version of a step card so please don't forget to leave a comment with a link to your card.. : )


Products used for this project:

Stamp Sets: Fabulous Phrases (W117002, C120501), Calendar Alphabet & Numbers (111610)

Card Stock: Early Espresso (Owl-119686), Crumb Cake (Card Base, Owl Feet-120953), Wild Wasabi (108641), So Saffron (105118), Whisper White (eyes-100730), Marina Mist (eyelids-119682), Poppy Parade (hearts-119793), Basic Black (eye balls-121045), Pumpkin Pie (beak-105117)

Ink: Baja Breeze (111833), Poppy Parade (119782), Peach Parfait (119783), Wild Wasabi (109014), Early Espresso (119670)

Accessories and More: Just add cake DSP (124339), Owl Punch (118074), Heart to Heart Punch (119881), Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack (118309), 1/2" Circle Punch (119869), Bitty Buttons (118761), Linen Thread (104199), Mini Library Clips (109857), Snail Adhesive (104332), 2-way Glue Pen (100425), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430), Paper Cutter with Score Blade (104152), Bone Folder (102300)

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Hope you like... : )