HP's Activity Center

I found another great website with hundreds of FREE print projects. It's HP's Activity Center and right now they're featuring a whole bunch of great holiday downloads, including these fun 3D Holiday Ornaments.

Stuck for some last minute gift wrap and tags? I found these cute tags and stickers on HP's site. You can also print out your own gift wrap and boxes. Not to mention dozens of creative cards and paper for your very own family newsletter. Already done with all of your holiday cards and gifts? HP also has calendars and party kits for the New Year!

Happy Holidays Everyone!
~ Angela

Holiday Boxes and Bows... Oh My!

Here are a couple of gift boxes that I created for the holidays. I got my inspiration from a number of different online resources. The box is your basic origami box. There are a many great websites offering instructions on how to create this box. To find them, just enter "origami box" into your favorite search engine. One of the best is Kristina Werner's video tutorial which can be found on her blog. I chose one patterned paper and one solid paper to create my box. Then I tied the two color schemes together with my bow and accents.

The paper bow is my own variation of the tutorial which can be found on SplitcoastStamper's website. However, instead of cutting and gluing 13 individual loops, and using multiple brads, I used fewer strips of longer paper and just one long-pronged brad.
Here's how...

Materials:

• 6" x 12" piece of double sided paper
  (Note - heavier double sided cardstock will also work,
  but it will be more difficult to manipulate)
  
• brad/paper fastener with long prongs
  (you can find these at your local office supply store)
• paper piercer (or a thumbtack, for an inexpensive alternative)

Instructions:

1. Cut eight 10" x 3/4" strips and one 4-1/2" x 7/8" strip of the double-sided paper.
   Tip: First cut your paper into two 6" x 10" and 6" x 2" rectangles. Cut the eight strips from the larger piece and the small strip from the 2" piece.
   
2. Pierce 3 holes down the center of each of the 10" strips: 1/2" from each end and one in the middle.
3. Pierce 2 holes in the 4-1/2" strip: 1/2" from both ends.
4. With the prongs facing up, place the end hole of one of the 10" strips on the brad, inside pattern side up. Using a figure eight pattern, place the center and second end holes on the brad. Always keep the inside pattern facing up on the brad.
5. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat step 4 so that the loops form a plus sign.
6. Continue with the remaining 10" strips, rotating so that each new loop falls in between existing loops.
7. Finish with a single loop made from 4-1/2" strip. Bend prongs to secure bow.

Bonus Tip! Since I knew that I would be attaching this bow to my paper box, I pierced a whole in the center of the lid of my box. I then inserted the brad from the inside of the lid so that the prongs protruded up on the outside of my box. Next I put my box lid over a jar, so that I would have a stable surface to create my bow. Once I finished my bow, it was already neatly attached to my box! Voila!

: : :

I based the design for my personalized tag on Nichole Heady's Mini Gift Cards. I love the simplicity and elegance of Nichole's design! Since I didn't have her stamps, I decided to use a graphic from a Digital Kit instead. I chose the holly leaves from Kate Teague's "Berry Days" Kit which I downloaded from the Two Peas in a Bucket website. I finished it off using Font Diner's Rickles font, my Marvy Uchida Mega Scalloped Square Punch, and some ribbon. I attached my gift tag to my bow using a small safety pin.

Finished size of boxes approx. 4.25" square x 2.75", exclusive of trim.
Bow is approximately 4-1/4" across.
Additional photos in my online portfolio.

Creative Park website

I found a really great website that I want to share with all of you. It's full of really cool, FREE materials that you can download and print for your scrapbook, cards and general crafts. It's called "Creative Park" and is brought to you by the fine folks at Canon.

When you go to the website, you can navigate to six different categories: Greetings, 3D Paper Craft, Scrapbook, Art Craft, Calendars, and Digital Photo Gallery. The Greetings category contains envelopes and stationery for various holidays and occasions. I love their 3D Paper Craft section! It's full of simple and complex three dimensional animals and crafts. It also contains some really gorgeous pop-up cards. The Scrapbook heading has many kits for various occasions, as well as accent items like tags, borders and frames. The remaining three categories allow you to create projects using artwork, print your own calendars, and search for free hi-res digital photos.

I hope you enjoy crafting with these items as much as I know I will!

My Trio of Halloween Treat Boxes

As seen in the Oct/Nov 2008 issue of Paper Trends magazine!

Here they are! These are the Halloween Treat Boxes that I created for Paper Crafts magazine message board's daily challenge. I had lots of fun creating these cute, little boxes using various digital kits and the Chinese Takeout box template from PackageTech.com.

I created this box using the October Orange Kit from Two Peas in a Bucket. I finished it off with a length of black velvet ribbon from Michaels Stores.







This one uses the Treats from the Streets digital kit from ScrapStreet.com. I added some yellow ribbon from SEI's Kaboom collection and attached it with black brads from Making Memories.

I designed this last box using the Harvest Spice kit from ShabbyPrincess.com. I decided not to add a handle on this one.



Finished Size Approx. 2.5" x 2.25" x 2.5", exclusive of ribbon. More pics in my online portfolio

Trick or Treat!

Created using Adobe Photoshop and elements from the
Shabby Fall and Harvest Spice digital kits from shabbyprincess.com.

Happy Halloween everyone! Today I'm hosting the daily challenge over on the Paper Crafts magazine message board. Would you like to join us? Here's the info...

I hope you're not all Halloween'd out, because today's challenge, should you choose to accept it, is both a TREAT and a TRICK.

Here's the Treat:
Create a Halloween Treat Box out of a Chinese Take Out Box.
You could do it by decorating one that you already have (I know the craft stores around me sell them) or you could take one apart to use as a template. Or you can use this template that I found online by PackageTech.com:
www.packagetech.com/chinese-takeout-boxes.html
(Scroll to the bottom to find the blank templates and instructions.)

Now here's the Trick:
Use at least TWO digital elements, when decorating your Treat Box.
You can use ones that you already have, or choose from these Free Digital Kits that I found online:

From Two Peas in a Bucket*:
The October Orange Kit (about halfway down the page).

From ScrapStreet.com*:
Treats from the Streets or
Falling into Fun.

From shabbyprincess.com:
Shabby Fall or
Harvest Spice.

* Note that Two Peas and ScrapStreet both require that you sign in or create a free account to download their kits.

If you don't have a working printer, you can just do the Treat part of this challenge. But I'm trying to encourage everyone to try something new, like using digital elements, in their paper crafting.

Please join me in doing this challenge! No prizes or awards, just trying to get our creative juices flowing and thinking outside of the box. (Or thinking about and making a box, in this case...) I will post my own creation(s) later today. If you would like to see your Treat Box on my blog, feel free to email me a photo. I would love to see what you all do!

Happy Halloween!
Angela