Saturday, November 05, 2011

Welcome to the Handmade Holidays Blog Hop!!!


Calling all crafters! We've gathered designers from some of our favorite manufacturers to show you ways to create something from the heart this holiday season. This 3-day Hop includes over 60 stops with inspiration brimming from every corner. Explore all thoughtful and frugal handmade gifts you could make for the holidays, all in one place on this Hop!

To sweeten to Hop, we re offering a gift for you! For every comment you leave on the blogs in the Hop, you ll be entered to win a prize pack from one of the participating manufacturer sponsors!

I am representing Graphic 45 during this hop! Graphic 45 will be giving away the beautiful Christmas Emporium collection along with a 5x8 Altered Art Box, an Altered Art Metal Tin, and a Metal Ornate Metal Door Plate. A more than $60 value!


To show you what you can make with some of these products, I've made a fancy gift card holder! This altered envelope can be used to hold a gift card, small treats, become a package decoration, or even be used as wall art!


I do not make "quick and easy" gift projects. Even if I start out to do so, as I did here, they end up looking like...well, like this! (For a complete supply list, see the end of the post.)

This project is NOT as time consuming as it looks, and I do make use of packaging and other odds and ends!

Start out with one of the pages of a Graphic 45 Kraft Envelope Album and two tags from Graphic 45 packaging. I used the packaging from the metal flowers.


Cover the envelope and both tags with Graphic 45 papers and ink all edges. Now you have the base for your project.


Once your envelope and tags are covered with paper, you can decorate a little, or a lot. One of the tags can be glued to the front of the envelope as a decoration, as I did. And the second tag can be slipped inside the envelope to hold a gift card.

Since I love lumpy decorations, and I like to make my gift card holders EXTRA special, I added a lot of this and that to my project! To create the left side, I first painted an Ornate Metal Door Plate and several Metal Flower Staples with white acrylic paint.


I used pliers to bend my flowers into shape and glued the petals together. Tara Orr has a wonderful tutorial HERE for showing one way to do this. Mine are slightly different, but you get the idea. I always paint my flowers first, then dab them with chalk ink for added dimension.


Once I attached the metal door plate and flower, I added a crystal branch decoration and some velvet mistletoe and some berries. Very festive!


I wanted to make sure to have a Christmas message, so I stamped a sentiment with the Graphic 45/Hampton Art stamps, then used Spellbinders Labels Eighteen to cut out the image.


I like to stencil my images with chalk ink to give them more interest. I used French Blue chalk ink. It matches the Graphic 45 papers almost exactly!


I punched out a Santa image and glued it to a bottle cap - one of my "signature" embellishments! I made a second bottle cap for the top of my gift card tag, making the tag easier to pull out of the envelope.


I don't think I'll be making 100 of these decorated envelopes, but I can make a few for my most special people, and I can use all my extra packaging tags to make simple gift tags as well. I save ALL of my interesting packing for just this purpose.

Now...

Visit the list of blogs below and leave a comment on each by Nov 7, 2011, at 11:59 PM PST. Each day we will be sharing a brand new list of blogs with brand new projects for you to explore, be inspired by, and create from! For a complete list, visit the Graphic 45 Blog!

Company Blogs:
Clearsnap
Spellbinders 

Hampton Art 
Zutter
Graphic 45
Donna Salazar Designs
The Twinery
Authentique Paper
Glue Arts

Designer Blogs for November 5th:
Jan Hennings (Glue Arts)
Kim Sonksen (Donna Salazar Designs)
Jamie Harper (Hampton Art)
Jenny Suchin (The Twinery)

Heather Conklin (Authentique Paper) 
Gloria Stengel (Graphic 45)  -  YOU ARE HERE!
Christine Emberson (Spellbinders)
Julie Overby (Spellbinders)
Mary Dawn Quirindongo (Clearsnap)
Lea Sanders (Zutter)

Tara Orr (Graphic 45)
Patti Milazzo (Glue Arts) 
Emily Lanham (Authentique Paper)
Jessy Christopher (Donna Salazar Designs)

Supplies:
Graphic 45 Papers:
Christmas Past: The Night Before Christmas
Christmas Emporium: Believe!, Santa Express, Special Delivery
Graphic 45 and Hampton Art Stamps: Christmas Emporium
Graphic 45 Staples: Kraft Envelope Album, Ornate Metal Doorplate, Metal Flowers, Trim
Graphic 45 tag packaging

Clearsnap: Dark Brown, Creamy Brown, Chestnut Roan, French Blue Fluid Chalk Ink; Dark Cashmere Decades Antiquing Ink
Spellbinders: Labels Eighteen
Glue Arts: 3D foam squares, Raisen's adhesive squares, Glue Glider Pro
Deco Art: White acrylic paint
Prima: Decorative Border Cinderella Collection Cypress vine, Antique Mistletoe Traditional flowers
May Arts: twine, ribbon
Stampin' Up! Circle punch
Provo Craft: tiny scallop scissors
Fiskars: pinking scissors
Craft supply: Bottle cap, brads, glue

230 comments:

  1. What a perfect way to use your packaging. This is awesome, I love your style!

    Have a good weekend!

    Majo

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  2. Beautiful gift card holder!...what fun to make it so elaborate! Thanks for the inspiration.
    Janj

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  3. Wow, I love the gift card holder and envelope set. I always feel a little guilty giving gift cards and feel like the packaging should be a little extra special. Love the frosty looking embellies you added and the 'wintry' rose.
    Thanks for sharing! :)

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  4. Soo Beautiful projects with this great papers!!! Love this collections!! Thanks a lot for sharing and for the inspiration!! Hope has chance to win this time!!! Big Hugs.. Maggy

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  5. Love the idea of reusing packages in this way! You did a great job!

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  6. Wow, gorgeous, love Graphic 45! Thanks for the tutorial!

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  7. Beautiful! Love the use of hardware!

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  8. dang, you know how to embellish:) absolutely gorgeous gloria!

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  9. Gorgeous! Always looking for interesting ways to give a gift card. Thanks!

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  10. I love the floral embellishments :) What a beautiful gift in itself......

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  11. Wow so awesome, love all the layers and details!

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  12. love...love this! and ummm, the prize....awesome!

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  13. seriously beyond fabulous! Thanks for sharing.

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  14. Gorgeous gift tag holder Gloria - thank you for the tutorial and inspiration!!!

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  15. Glad to know there are others who start out simple and make it detailed!!

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  16. Very nice card holder. I just started getting into caps, so I love the Santa cap.

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  17. Love all the details and the flower. Thanks for sharing.
    Hugz, Z

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  18. Love this project and thanks for sharing your talent with us.

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  19. Wow! The embellishments are amazing. This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

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  20. Such a cool gift card holder!

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  21. Wow!! This is sooo beautiful!

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  22. Those tags are just gorgeous!

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  23. What a fabulous tag!

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  24. This is absolutely beautiful!!!

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  25. I love that you use the packaging! I too am a hoarder of pretty packing! Love the tag and holder for it!

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  26. So Creative and Pretty....Love this!!

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  27. Beautiful! Making them for some special people that I have gift cards for because I don't know what else to get them!

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  28. Absolutely gorgeous Gloria!!! Love your colors and detail! You never disappoint!!

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  29. this is just such an amazing way to personalize a gift card which I think is sometimes impersonal!!

    What a fabulous idea....i know what I will be doing this year for those hard to shop for people!! Thank you so much for the inspiration! Hey if I really enjoy it maybe everyone will get gift cards LOL!!

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  30. Wow this is really special!
    Nothing quick and simple.
    I would be thrilled to receive one of these as a gift.
    Thanks for sharing

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  31. Fabulous! Thanks for the great idea and inspiration!!

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  32. Graphic 45 is my favorite company. I can barely make myself cut into the papers,I hate to destroy them! So I have to buy two, one to use and one to keep and gaze at. How sick is that?

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  33. Thank you for the absolutely amazing tutorial!!

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  34. Thank you so much for the beautiful tags! Didn't think the Blog Hop could get any better but it has! Blog Hop2 is rocki' and Gloria is wonderful.

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  35. What a great project. I've never paid attention to packaging...I'll have to do that from now on.

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  36. It's a beautiful project, and I REALLY love that sentiment stamp you used from Christmas Emporium--I will definitely be looking for that one!

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  37. Ok I'm not the only one who does this. ( Saving packaging to use on projects.) TFS.. Your a very talented woman. This is the best " HOP " ever.

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  38. I am now a follower of your blog...happy happy.

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  39. lovely work, using packaging is really a great idea and i love how you have put it all together.

    thanks Gloria!

    xx

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  40. Graphic 45 sent me. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work. Got some great ideas!

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  41. What a beautiful gift! And such a clever way to recycle packaging, I have to remember this :)

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  42. love the upcycling, so elegant and green to boot.

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  43. What a beautiful project! I love the reuse packaging idea.

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  44. These are sooo beautiful! I love the packaging and the tag for the gift card, OMG, and that stamp you use is gorgeous!

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  45. That is just gorgeous. The card holder is a gift within itself. TFS and for the inspiration!

    KimMJ
    bast830@comcast.net

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  46. Love the gift card. The cards won't be the only gift given.

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  47. Wow - awesome! Thanks for the inspiration to actually try it!

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  48. wow ...what a beautiful gift card holder; great ideas here!

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  49. What a great gift idea. TFS.

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  50. WOWZERS! Amazing project! I love the metal flower!

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  51. What a great gift card holder. Love your inking.

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  52. Who wouldn't love to get a gift like this?

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  53. beautiful work! thanks also for a chance to win!
    kmassmanATgmailDOTcom

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  54. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!!!!! TFS!!!!
    wyme98@yahoo.com

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  55. Reusing packaging, nice.

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  56. This is truly a stunning gift card holder. I love that you used the packaging. Way to recycle...

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  57. Wow - your projects are amazing. I can learn a LOT from you. TFS

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  58. Wow, really outdid yourself. Great pojects I will use. Think I am giving money or gift cards this year.

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  59. Absolutely wonderful and I never throw away my packaging as there are so many uses for it - as you know!!

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  60. What a wonderfully 'busy' piece of art, thanks for all the details too, very inspirational.

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  61. What a gorgeous project. I love Christmas time and this truly inspired me to get started on my Christmas crafts. Thank you

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  62. Beautiful project! Thanks for sharing.

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  63. Talk about being eco friendly. Amazing what you can do with packaging. Your gift card tag is fabulous and thanks so much for telling how you made it. patnbobcuddy at gmail dot com

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  64. Awesome way to recycle and reinvent. Great idea! Thanks for the chance to win!

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  65. love the tags.. wonderful.. happy hopping..

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  66. Super WOW!! holiday hopin!!

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  67. There are so many wonderful little things about your creation, but my favorite is the Santas in the bottle caps! (I really love Santas!)

    Noreen
    www.make-homemade-gifts.com

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  68. amazing project. Thank you

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  69. Wow! This is gorgeous!!! I love it!!!

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  70. OMG..this is gorgeous...love how you used the envelope...thanks for sharing. loving this blog hop.

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  71. Love Graphic 45... really like what you did with the metal flowers - I haven't played with those yet. I like the paint effects on the metal.

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  72. Goregous tag. I especially love the flower!!

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  73. wow how vintage looking. love the colors ans embelishments.
    thanks for sharing
    abbraddock@msn.com

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  74. Anonymous11:23 AM

    Wow there's a lot going on here and it all comes together so beautifully. I wish someone could teach me how to do this.

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  75. Gorgeous tags. Such an awesome idea and sooo beautiful work. thanks soo much.

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  76. Thank you for the endless inspiration!

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  77. Love the Christmas tag you stamped!

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  78. Beautifully done! Thanks for sharing!

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  79. oh wow, your gift tag project is amazing, I love all the added details, and I agree the blue chalk you used on the sentiment die cut matches the graphic 45 paper beautifully.... gorgeous ty

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  80. OH MY! This envelope with tag is SOOOOOO amazing--so much detail and layers! LOVE:) Thanks for the chance to win--sbmmhoover at yahoo dot com

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  81. Graphic 45 sent me. What lovely, vintage-reminiscent gift envelopes, gifts in themselves. Thank you for the ideas.

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  82. I love your elaborate style!

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  83. this is so beautiful it would be lovely as wall art, great way to use package thanks for the idea
    upnurse at aol dot com

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  84. Super cute gift card holder! Thanks so much for showing us how you created it! I absolutely LOVE it!!! TFS! :)

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  85. What a wonderful imagination you have and such a creative talent. Thank you for sharing your art!

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  86. A very beautiful piece!

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  87. wow, I love this, so many fun goodies on here!

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  88. very lovely. tfs.
    littlen44 at gmail dot com

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  89. Love your gift tag!

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  90. Beautiful project!

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  91. Love these tags!

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  92. Such a great tag. Love the product line.

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  93. Makes me want to give gift cards just to make these holders. Stunning!

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  94. Gloria, what a work of ART! How wonderful it would be to be able to give a gift card in this beautiful holder.

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  95. Oh my, this is absolutely beautiful! I love the way you did the flowers. I want to try it out, thanks.

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  96. This would have to go to a very special person. Great idea.

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  97. Just beautiful, as always!

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  98. Gorgeous!!! Thanks for sharing.

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  99. Your gift card holder is STUNNING!

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  100. Wow! That tag is awesome!

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  101. Love your tag, great idea to use up the packaging.

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  102. Love, love, love it! I guess I need to start saving packaging.

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  103. What a gorgeous card holder - very inspirational :)

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  104. So glad I joined the blog hop because I got to discover your blog. Great work, great products

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  105. love the use of the beautiful packaging and love the rose tutorial too!

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  106. Beautiful project-very detailed.
    Leslee in MT

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  107. Anonymous3:05 PM

    I love that you re-used some packaging. I always think I'm going to do that and then am never sure what to do with it. And I had no idea you could bend those metal flowers--they end up looking SO different!

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  108. just beautiful! Graphic 45 sent me. :)

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  109. Beautiful gift card Gloria! I agree with you that I would only make a few of these for those extra special people. I absolutely love the idea of recycling some great packaging. Thank you :-)

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  110. Picking up ideas as I hop. Your prokects are lovely.

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  111. Oh, how fabulous! Love the up-cycled tag. Such awesome images and embellishments! Just perfect. :o)

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  112. This is probably the most gorgeous gift card holder I've ever seen. Wow! And you used old packaging...what a fantastic idea.
    Stunning!

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  113. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing! http://www.bearheartbottomsetc.biz/ #bear Luv and Bear Hugz!

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  114. You always have such fun projects Gloria! I love this idea. I have to admit that I did not even realize the door plate was under all those gorgeous flowers and leaves - but I love the look - absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for sharing this project!

    rebeccadunham at hotmail dot com

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  115. Ooh how gorgeous are those pieces? Love it! Thanks so much for the blog hoppy goodness!!

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  116. I don't have any of the metal goodies yet-but I do the packaging you used. I am certainly going to give this a try-think my dil would just love it.Thank you for such beautiful and unique inspiration.

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  117. Anonymous5:48 PM

    What a beautiful card love the packageing, thank you so much for sharing and the chance to win.

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  118. perfect! thanks for the ideas.

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  119. beautiful project, love all the embellishing. great use of packaging. love the texture and colors. thank you so much for sharing.

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  120. Anonymous6:00 PM

    I am having fun seeing everyones designs.

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  121. Love these tags! You are so talented. Thanks for the blog hop!

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  122. Love this! I can see why you might no make hundreds, though. :P

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  123. Anonymous6:32 PM

    Very beautiful... I really love the flowers!

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  124. How beautiful! I love the products that you used, the artistic way that you manipulated everthing to do everything you wanted is phenomenal! Thanks for sharing :)

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  125. How lovely. And such an inspiration! Thanks for sharing!

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  126. what a great way to give a giftcard

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  127. Wonderful work. Was sent by G45 & ClearSnap. Thanks for the chance to win.

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  128. Beautiful gift card holders. TFS

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  129. A very elaborate and beautiful design. I guarantee that one is going to come out every year as a decoration!

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  130. THANKS for doing a gift card holder! I love it and am going to make it for my daughter to give her gift cards to her friends!

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  131. I have so enjoyed this hop. It is better than the count down to Christmas. Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful ideas.

    kim
    k1i2m3@cox.net

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  132. Love your signature bottle cap...Santa is a fav of mine too! Thanks for sharing

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  133. Absolutely love your gift card idea! You craft like me...none of my projects are quick and easy. LOL! Graphic 45 sent me...TFS

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  134. Your gift card holder is amazing. You could use them to decorate a tree and no one would realize that there are gifts hiding inside.

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  135. beautiful! Love that the gift card pulls out!
    kacee

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  136. congrats on a beautiful finished product! Love it!

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  137. wow, this came out so beautiful

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  138. Anonymous8:05 PM

    Oh my, what a nice job you did! The colours are great.

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  139. I love the font on that stamp! Also love the way that you incorporated the vintage images, love vintage.

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  140. WOW! Just gorgeous! very inspiring!

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  141. So pretty! I love all the special details!
    DeniseB

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  142. Beautiful! I love all the special details!
    DeniseB

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  143. I'm like that too, I start making something simple and then before I know it I've used every type of crazy product I have! TFS!

    Thanks for the chance to win!!

    xx
    Kristina
    please visit me - www.pearlgateway.com :-D

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  144. Cute GC holder. I love the chalking and the metal rose is awesome.

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  145. Thanks for the hop!

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  146. Thanks for such a great product!

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  147. That was gorgeous - so lush and detailed. You're right, maybe not make 100's but definitely a few for the very special people on the list.

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  148. Fabulous project, very inspirational!! Graphics 45 sent me LOL Thanks for the chance to win !!!!

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  149. nice project. thank you for sharing.

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  150. Wow, Beautiful gift card holder.

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  151. Wow wonderful gift tag and card. TFS love the Graphic 45 papers.
    Debbie
    http://craftywizard.blogspot.com
    debbie_craine at hot mail dot com

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  152. I just love the way you have used all of the different products on your tags to make them unique and extra-special!

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  153. Graphic 45 sent me. Don't you love the metal flowers? So cute! And I also love the bottle caps...

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  154. love your gift card holder I will have a go at making some for the iTune cards I give the teenagers in my family

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  155. WOW, what a gorgeous project!!!

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  156. Beautiful, but I wouldn't want to give it away :) Thanks for sharing.

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  157. I am still looking and discovering new aspects of this project! As I go through the list of everything you used and try to see how you used it. I would love to be able to sit and just stack and stack and have it look fabulous like this!

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  158. These are amazing. I think I would like to be a recipient of one of these!!!

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  159. Exciting work, thanks for sharing

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  160. I like to re-use packaging too LOL
    Your Tag and Gift Card holder are gorgeous, thank you for the inspiration!

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  161. Wow, just gorgeous!! Breathtaking envelope!

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  162. Absolutely unique project using all the different products, love it!

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  163. Thanks for the lovely inspiration. I really like the layout of your design and color combinations, very classy!

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  164. WOW... love that you up-cycled and made the packaging into such beautiful tags... the Graphic 45 Papers are beautiful!!!!

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  165. Anonymous12:09 AM

    Wow this does look like it takes a lot of time but that's what makes it look so good...I love learning new ideas. Thanks for sharing

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  166. Gorgeous!!!! And I must say, what a hop! This would be a fabulous prize to win!

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  167. What a fab tag! This blog hop is so much fun! Love all the inspiration and great projects I am seeing!

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  168. Beautiful Job! Great Inspiration!

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  169. Beautiful blog. Thanks for sharing and thanks for inspiration.

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  170. What a great idea with the spellbinder!

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  171. You always seem to inspire me... Thank you for that!

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  172. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

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  173. Beautiful project. Thanks for the tutorial as well.

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  174. Amazing tags and gift card holders!

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  175. This is so beautiful. Love all the details. Johanne L.

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  176. very cool gift card holder!

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  177. Beautiful tag and holder!! Loving the ideas on this blog hop!

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  178. Love the vintage feel of your projects.

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  179. So beautiful and I love the way you used the packaging, brilliant!

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  180. So many delightful elements on this gorgeous envelope!

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  181. Thanks for the crafty inspiration and chance to win! :)

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  182. gorgeous crafty project and very artsy too!

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  183. Love the card holders. TFS!

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  184. Your work is amazing! Love this! Holiday inspiration Galore! Thank you!

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  185. I like how you have recycled products to make your gift tag, what a great idea. They can also be put in a layout afterwards.

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  186. this is absolutely gorgeous! I would love to make this or receive it if I were a gift recipient! so nice and I really love all your details! thanks for your ideas. I started using the packaging from some of my supplies too, which is funny coincedence. With all the trinkets these days, there's a lot of clear plastic packaging, with circle and square shapes that make awesome shakers on cards and stuff.

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  187. I hope that the recipients of your project know how lucky they are to get such a creation. Your project should be framed and kept on display.

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  188. Oh, WOW! Love It! Love that you recycled! Thanks for Sharing! :0)

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