Papertrey October Blog Hop

Projects this month were supposed to represent a winter holiday that was not Christmas. I used traditional Christmas colors...mainly because I loved how the mug looked paper pieced using the new Christmas Prints paper ;)...I was careful not to use trees, since those screamed Christmas to me and I was trying to keep it generic winter.

I make a cocoa box using an A2 card box and tiny tubes.

I had extra space at the top and originally was going to fill it with starlight mints which I thought would look adorable, but I was to lazy to go to the store and ended up filling small 1 x 8 inch bags with individual servings of marshmallows...one package per tube of cocoa. The marshmallows fit in perfectly with minimal coercion :)

The mug fit nicely on a 1 3/4 inch circle punch...so then I had to use the new dies that coordinate with that punch. The scallop is quite pretty. I cut it in felt and paper and ended up using the paper...but it cut really nicely on the felt too...no problem with the details.

This is a pretty generic winter giftie that could be given as a Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Hey, I like you present. It should also make my friend Cindy happy that I actually made something and submitted it somewhere ;)

If at first...

it looks like crap, try, try again.

Ummmm...it's only like 15 times cuter now.

And it took about 5 minutes...must have just been having some kind of cute craft blockage yesterday....

Same ribbon tie, same stocking, just a different layout and bolder colors made such a difference...in my head at least :)

Justification...

so...I swore off Papertrey for 3 months. I decided that I couldn't buy anything new until I had actually used each stamp set that I had already purchased from them.

Three months is a long time...since I made it that long, I deserved a prize (I may not have actually used all of the stamp sets, but I showed amazing restraint...and that in itself is prize-worthy...isn't it?!?) I knew the perfect thing...more Papertrey things to look pretty on my shelf, create oodles of creative thoughts, and accomplish nothing...great plan!

Package arrived, I opened it, oohed and ahhed, then let it sit on my counter for 4 days while I was up to my armpits in paper bats, sparkle modge podge, and cricut letters (don't ask).

Anyway, after telling my friend that I caved and finally made a purchase, I told her I had this idea to use the stocking die for paper and felt and then stitch on the paper...then I felt compelled to actually do it...

I like the stitching on the cuff, and the felt with the paper...but the rest of it definitely needs work...

but, it was only a prototype...and I did actually make something...so it's probably okay that I already placed another Papertrey order...right?