Christmas Gift Holders

Hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday! :) We just got back from getting some gift cards for the family. The hubs family does gifts for Christmas time... they even trade lists and stuff, totally foreign concept to me.

We got no lists from a lot of them this year. If my list wasn't out already because I was trying to be a good compliant family person (at least for my first year...won't say anything for the rest of the years), then I wouldn't feel so compelled to make the gift somewhat decent. Darn my promptness!

So this year the family is getting gift cards. Secretly this is great for me as well since each $50 gift card purchase at our local grocery store gets us $0.20 cents gas. I like cheap gas!

But what better way to give monies than in a gift card holder made by yours truly? Because if you know me, nothing I do is ever ordinary. So Christmas gifting can't be either.

I had these lovely chipboard pieces from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly line. I'll admit, I was a little hesitant to use them on people who I knew would throw them out... but I'm trying not to hoard supplies... Aren't they adorable? I made my hubs talk to the birdy chipboard and the snowman. Hah, I know, we're special like that. And yes, I did name them -- the bird is Walt and the snowman is Oliver. Ok, enough about my "special" quirks. ;-)

The gift cards are actually relatively simple. I designed them so that I could make multiple ones from an 8 1/2 by 11 cardstock. I cut the cardstock into pieces of 4 by 8 1/2. The leftover scraps were used for the medallion. Scored at 2 1/8 and then 6 1/8. The top piece I cut 3 7/8 by 2 1/4 patterened paper for a 1/8 inch border and the bottom piece is a 3 7/8 by 2 piece of patterened paper. Folded, decorated and adhered one edge to make a pocket. Easy peasy! Probably the easiest and quickest crafty thing I've mass-produced all year.

And because I'm totally OCD about trash during gift opening time, I have to show a pic here on how to open it properly WITHOUT untying my ribbon. The hubs knows already that I spend lots of time making my ribbons pretty and he should never ever touch them. The rest of the family isn't going to be trained in time -- alas.

I designed these so people can just slip the ribbbon or paper band off. Easy peasy! I hope...

There's a lot of pink this year... mainly cos pink is awesome! And maybe next year the family will give me Christmas lists rather than receive pink gift card holders... we'll see.

I have 9 total right now and after shopping I know I'm already 2 short... I haven't decided if I'm going to change the design or not for the last 2 I need to do... If you don't know, I hate mass producing (aka never ever ever ever doing 80 wedding invitations again) and I like uniqueness so I'll prolly do a different twist for the next two.

Happy holidays!


Paper: (Kraft, Raspberry Fizz) PTI, (Jolly By Golly) Cosmo Cricket
Accessories: (Jolly By Golly Chipboard) Cosmo Cricket, Ribbon from American Crafts and PTI
Tools: Large Circle Scallop Nestabilities, (Corner Punch) EK Success