Christmas Tree Card

Hi Everyone

Even though I am still anticipating Thanksgiving and the yummy feast we will have, I have started creating my Christmas Cards. I tend to find multiple ideas and can never decide on the one I like best, so I end up making a few of each one. Here is one idea that I really liked. Using 1/2 of a circle of cardstock, you create a Christmas tree by scoring a few lines and then folding the cardstock on those scores.

Ingredients for this card:

5 inch circle of double sided cardstock - I used Crate Paper - Wintergreen
5.5x8.5 Cardstock for the base of the card
Circle Cutter
Adhesives
Embellishments

Step 1

Cut a 5 inch circle out of your cardstock and cut the circle in half.

Step 2

Starting at about 2 inches down on the flat side, score a line through the 1/2 circle to create a base of about 2 to 2 1/2 inches.

Step 3

Fold along the score line. Using the flat side as a guide, line up your paper and create a new score line.





Step 4

Fold the score in the opposite direction as the first score and repeat the process of lining up the flat side as a guide and scoring another line.



Step 5

Fold your score line in the opposite direction and follow the previous step.

Your Christmas Tree should look like the picture below. If you want the color scheme to run the opposite way, then just reverse the folds.

Step 6.

Using adhesive, glue down the folds on the tree. Place the tree on your card and embellish as desired. I used American Crafts Ribbon, a clear rhinestone, and a Merry Christmas stamp.





Happy Crafting


Sandra

Folded Tag Flower

Hello from Portland! A few weeks ago our super creative sales associate Mary made this lovely card for our store and it's become one of our most asked-about samples. It's a simple flower embellishment made with gift tags! You can customize it about a million ways and it's a great way to use up scraps. Today we'll show you how to make it with some of our holiday 12x12's.
Here's what you need:2-sided paper, tag & circle punch, 1/8 & 1/16 hole punch, scissors, adhesive, bone folder, brads, pencil, and metallic marker (optional).

Start by punching 8 tags out of your paper. Our tag punch doesn't make a hole, so we punched an extra tag out of scrap, folded it in half, and punched a 1/8" hole at the top. We used this as a template so the hole would be in the same place on all the tags. Fold the tag diagonally, using the tag's scalloped top as a guide. The left edge of the tag should be right under the scallops. Flip it over and cut off the excess so it's square. Fold the right edge (the one you just cut) back over itself, and crease with a bone folder. You can use a metallic marker to outline the edge, so it really pops.Repeat 7 times!Punch a circle out of paper. If you're using scraps you can choose a coordinating color, but we had enough to punch a circle out of the same 12x12 we used for the tags. You can use any size circle punch, so long as it's big enough to hold all 8 tags, and small enough that it doesn't show over the top of the tag. Our circle is 2 1/2". A little tip from Mary: it's easiest to attach the tags in quadrants. She punched an extra circle out of scrap, folded it in quarters, and snipped the top edge of each corner. Lay this template over your circle and mark a line for each quadrant. She also put a hole in the center so we could pre-punch a 1/16" hole for the brad we'll add later. Put adhesive on the backside of the tag, underneath the scallops. We took the opportunity to try out our new Stamp Runner from Tombo, and it worked perfectly! Stick your tags to the circle--points towards the center (above the hole for the brad), and the diagonal fold up against the pencil marks.Once you've got 4 tags stuck down in your quadrants, you can fill in the empty space with your 4 remaining tags.Pop a brad in the center and you're finished! You can attach this to a card, a scrapbook layout, the top of a gift box, or......Make another tag flower with the folds on the opposite edge, and you can stick them back-to-back for a super cute ornament! We're can't wait to put up our tree and cover it with tag flowers!Happy folding!-Portland Paper Zone

Holiday Maple-Bacon Bread Pudding

I LOVE BACON and this was so yummy, I had to share! It's great during the holidays for brunch or dessert and will have your guests begging for the recipe! Be warned - this is not your grandmother's bread pudding! Serves 8-10.

HOLIDAY MAPLE-BACON BREAD PUDDING
6 cups - 1/2" cubes stale bread
4 large eggs
3-1/2 cups - heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 cup 100% pure maple syrup, divided
1-1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. pure vanailla extract, divided
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened + more for preparing the baking pan
1/3 cup coarely chopped toasted pecans, plus more for garnish
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1-1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 lb. bacon, cooked, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly butter a 9x13 baking dish. Pat bacon with paper towel to remove excess grease. Crumble half (8 oz.) of cooked bacon and leave the other half (8 oz.) in strips. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Whisk in 3 cups of the heavy whipping cream, milk, 1/2 cup of maple syrup, brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, pecans, salt, and spices. Add the bread and stir well. Mix in melted butter. Let sit for 30 minutes so the bread will absorb the egg mixture. Stir in the bacon cumbles to the bread mixture.

Pour into the prepared dish. Bake about 1 hour - until firm when pressed in the center. Cool about 20 minutes. Serve with Maple Cream Sauce.

MAPLE CREAM SAUCE:
In a small saucepan, heat the remaining cream, syrup, brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Cook until the sauce just begins to bubble. Remove from head. To serve, cut the bread pudding into 8-10 pieces. After plating, drizzle with the sauce with 1/2 slice of bacon and a small amount of toasted pecans. TIP: You can crumble the rest of the bacon if you don't want to serve slices...

Give Thanks! A Yummy Thanksgiving Table-Setting...

Hello PZ'ers!

Now that Halloween is over, it's time to jump right into one of my favorite holidays - THANKSGIVING! A time to get ready for some home cookin' and family fun. This week I decided to show you a fun and yummy table setting that any guest would love!

Materials you'll need:

- Assorted Sheets of Paper & Cardstock (Thanksgiving-Inspired/Complimentary fall colors)
- 1 Sheet of Handmade Paper (may vary in size)

- Adhesive (Glue dots or ATG Gun work best)

- 6.5" x 9.5" Clear Bag Sleeve

- Floral Wire

- Raffia (natural colored twine)

- String or colored twine

- Thanksgiving Stamp & colored inks
- Assorted buttons

- Resee's Pieces
- 1/16" hole punch

- Scissors

- Crafting blade or paper trimmer

- Tape

Step 1) Candy Corn Treat Bag

To make your candy corn treat bag, you will need your clear bag sleeve, raffia, string, adhesive and candies.

First, wash your hands and seperate your Reese's Pieces to only use the yellow and maybe a few brown candies. (Eat up the rest!)

Second, cut your bag at an angle (see the red line I drew just as a reference). You want the bottom to remain sealed and the top to be open.

Third, you will put clear adhesive on the edges and fold each half in. I used the ATG gun which puts the perfect amount of glue with no dry time necessary.

(It should look like a kite when you are finished.)

Now this is a trickiest part, you will then have a cone; however, there will be the inside of the bag (with the sealed bottom) where the candies will go and the inside where you placed adhesive (this will make a cone too). If you place your candies in the part that is not sealed at the bottom - unfortunately, they will fall out and you will have to eat them. Silly thing to make note of but I don't want anyone to be confused with the two.

You will then need to bundle up a handful of the raffia and trim it to size. I put a little piece of tape at the bottom to keep it all bundled together when I place it at the top of our treat bag.

Take some of the wire and wrap it around tight holding the clear bag closed and the raffia in place.

I took a small swatch of the handmade paper we will be using on our table mat to tie it all together. I used a glue dot to adhere it around the wire.

Tie it off with some string and raffia and you are ready to start the next step - the name tag!

Step 2) Name Tag

Take three colors of paper and trim them to size:

- 4" x 3" (red)
- 3.75" x 2.75" (gold vellum)
- 3.5" x 2.5" (green cardstock)

Adhere and center each piece on top of each other.

Stamp your message in the center and write your guests name on the back.

(Tip: Lightly rub the stamp pad on the edges to create a more vintage feel to the note.)

Punch two holes in the left corner of the card and string on some matching buttons. Tie it off and you are done!

Step 3) Table Mat

To tie the whole look together, I created a matching table mat that can be used once and tossed.

(Tip: Don't want to throw it away? Laminate it then put it in your Thanksgiving box for next year.)




I took two pieces of 12 x 12 cardstock to use as my base.

I glued them together overlapping about 5.5".

I trimmed one of our handmade paper sheets down to (4) 14.5" x 8.5" sheets. There was also remnants from the trimmed edges that I used for the top of the candy corn treat bag and to wrap the silverware in. Center and adhere to the brown cardstock base. There should be about a 2" border of brown cardstock.

Step 4) Assemble and enjoy!

Set your table, wrap your napkin and place your treats on your guests plate. You are now all done! I hope your friends will enjoy this tasty table setting as much as I do!

Happy November & Happy Crafting - Feel free to leave comments or send your own thanksgiving-inspired craft ideas!

- Stephanie

Kristy's Eerie Halloween Card

Supplies you'll need:

Black card stock (any size)
Standard cover stock for templates
Colorbox White stamp pad
Cosmetic sponge (leftover from Halloween last year!)
White Jellyroll pen
Pow Glitter Paper
Marvey Circle punch
Double-sided adhesive (we love the pink ribbon ATG gun)
Small witch-on-broomstick, bat, or other flying image (think Santa for the upcoming holidays!)

** By request we have uploaded a PDF printable "C ityScape" template! **

1. From scrap stock, cut cloud template (a bit wider than your card) and cityscape template.

2. Position cityscape at bottom of card.

3. Position cloud template near the top of the card. Ink up cosmetic sponge on ink pad, and gently dab onto card, overlapping dabs to create first layer of clouds.

4. Move cloud template down a little and shift its position to one side or the other, and repeat dabbing.

5. Continue creating cloud layers, shifting template, turning template over, to create random cloud puffs, all the way down to the cityscape. Dab well between the buildings.

6. Remove cityscape template and gently dab along very bottom of card to create "fog".

7. Use white Jellyroll pen to dot lit windows.

8. Punch out moon, adhere with double-stick adhesive.

9. Position witch/bat image over moon & you are done!

Thanks to Kristy at the Seattle store for creating this great Halloween card design.

Have fun PZ'ers making this super cute Halloween Card!

- Seattle Paper Zone