All Night Stamping Party

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while. I will be going to Illinois tomorrow to an all night stamping party. This is the same group of ladies that travelled to Indy for our quarterly Stampin' Up! meeting in August. We all got together with our supplies to stamp and share new projects and ideas. We had such a great time, and came home with loads of new samples and fabulous new project ideas that we can then share with you. With the holidays rapidly approaching, I am very excited to see what everyone has come up with.

I have a large family...3 brothers, and 3 sisters. Between the 7 of us we have 18 kids. There are 6 great grand kids, and 1 more on the way. My sister just got married, and now has 2 step sons. Then add our 7 spouses, and 7 more spouses with the grand kids who are married...and let's not forget there's a few boyfriends and girlfriends in there as well...anyway, you get the idea. I haven't done the math in a while, so I'm not sure what that totals, but I know it's a lot!

My whole reason for telling you all this is that we all take turns hosting Christmas Eve. This is my year, and my plan is to be very creative with my holiday wrapping. I think my family actually expects that now. We no longer buy for everyone, since we can't even keep track of how many of us there are, but we do each bring a gift, and do an exchange. We put all of the gifts in the center of the room, and draw numbers to determine who gets to choose the first gift. I like to entice the recipient with creative wrapping. I have actually done some Christmas shopping, and have some ideas to avoid just putting each gift in a box and wrapping it in ordinary wrapping paper. In the next few weeks, I will share some of those ideas with you. Here is one gift bag idea to get you started.

I love snowmen! This bag is really easy to create. The snowflakes are randomly stamped with White Craft Ink on the bag first. Then, depending on the size of your bag, this one is 8 x 10, cut a square from red cardstock. Then layer a white square on top of that. The eyes and mouth were made using the 3/4" circle punch and highlighted with the Signo White Gel Pen. Crimp a piece of orange cardstock and tear to create his carrot nose. Use a Sponge Dauber to make some rosy cheeks, add some ribbon, and you're done!

A nice addition to this Snowman Bag would be to use a Stampin' Wheel and create your own coordinating tissue paper.

This adorable Snowman would definitely stand out and be the first package picked from the pile of exchange gifts.

I won't be posting over the weekend, but I will be stamping! Check back on Monday, as I'm sure I will have some great new projects and ideas to share with you.

Have a wonderful weekend, and enjoy all those marvelous fall colors!

dd

p.s. The pictures from Alaska were amazing! That is one place that I hope to see someday.