Little Milk Carton Gift Boxes

Ever since I become a legitimate Christian, celebrating Christmas as Jesus being the reason for the season no longer hold any water within the Christian faith. I'm so glad to know there isn't such a stipulated "biblical" day to observe in order to be a Christian because such a "religious day" can be taken way too out of context. 

If you take a deeper look and do some research into the history, you'll be surprised to know it's actually derived from pagan roots and a holiday created by men. And for some, it only serves as the most depressing period of the year. Instead I'd much prefer to celebrate this day as a day of long tradition; a day of family gathering together to know everything from Charles Dickson to Christmas trees, or how St. Nick and Santa Claus came about! And why Santa wears red has an interesting origin. Check this out:

   

While almost everyone was busy shopping for Christmas gifts and decorations, as well as sharing holiday recipes on various social media platforms, it was perhaps one of the years I appeared not doing much about this Christmas. Maybe helping out my youngest sister to gift-wrap all the presents she had bought for her friends and colleagues. As usual, a little busy moment for this holiday season.

Although Christmas has just passed, it doesn't means gifting has to stop here. Rather I'd very much prefer to gift based on the heart to give and not restricted to such occasion(s). Hence, looking at the pile of Graphic 45 St. Nick paper collection lying around my crafting area, I decided to do some gifting using this collection together with the milk carton etched die I just bought from Spellbinders. Not something extravagant, but a little act of gifting makes your heart more fonder to gift. In actual fact, I just want to utilize my existing stash to create something. I just have too much! Guess as a crafter/artist, it always seems it's never enough to stock things up for whatever reasons.  

Therefore, I made these 8 little cute milk carton gifts for some of my friends and sisters-in-Christ from the Church. The 12" x 12" patterns and solids paper pad came in very handy for this project. It's probably one good idea to maximize your patterns and solids papers. 

These cute little milk cartons measured at about 3.75" tall, handy enough to be grabbed single-handedly. Puns aside, these milk cartons are just way too adorable. 

It took me some time to figure out what I should do to embellish these milk cartons. That was where I searched into my wafer dies library and found this Spellbinders Fleur de Elegance die set that has a little regal oval frame I could use. Using the gold metallic sheets I've in my stash, I die-cut 8 of them out. The effects it give on metallic paper is really amazing. It just gives a very special touch to the entire frame! Plus it goes really well with the papers I've selected. 

Each of them are thoughtfully named using the alphas from the stickers sheet along with this paper collection, and named them accordingly to the individuals I'm gifting. Thinking adding a little greens will be nicer, I decided to make some holy using the mini holiday green thinlits and placed them onto the labels. Since they're milk cartons to begin with, a little golden bell in front will perhaps jingle a little when the cartons are being shaken. Everything looked well and good, and I'm ready to gift (with some already been gifted)!

A full list of supplies I used for this project can be found listed below with links to various places I get most of my supplies from. This will be my very last post for this year and I hope to see you guys really soon with more tutorials and videos next year. Meanwhile, have a very good weekend ahead and Happy New Year!!!

List of Supplies:

• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas 12" x 12" Patterns & Solids (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Graphic 45 St. Nicholas Stickers Sheet
• Bazzill Basic Walnut Cream Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Brushed Corduroy (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Mini Holiday Green Thinlits
• Tim Holtz Kraft Stock Metallic 8" x 8" Gold & Silver Cardstock (Amazon, Scrapbook.com)
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities Milk Carton Etched Dies (Amazon, Scrapbook.com, Spellbinders)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Fleur de Elegance Etched Dies (Amazon, Spellbinders)
• Tiny Golden Jingle Bells
• Own Stash (jute trims, seam bindings, gold trims, vintage binder clips)

A Blessed Thank You Card

I've recently bought some club kits from Spellbinders after viewing some interesting project ideas on Facebook. Without much hesitation, I bought the September club kit that came with this very beautiful large lace dies after getting inspired at that moment. 

As usual, I won't have much of the ideas in what I want to do when the dies finally reached me. And this explains why sometimes I'll be a little slow in using them. Considered that one of our fellow brethren from the U.S. was coming to edifying us via the Gospel meeting last month in November, I decided to volunteer to do up a Thank You card for him to show our appreciation in his earnest effort in serving the LORD. This was where I got to play with the large dies I bought.  

Looking into my stash, I still have these rather old collections (Engrave and Printery) from Prima Marketing that I haven't been using them that much. Hence, I decided to do up a masculine Victorian card that displays mainly scripted texts and damasks, which coincidentally goes really very well with the flourish etched dies I bought together with the September club kit. 

A heartfelt message was printed onto premium paper and was mounted at the back of the card. To give some dimension and sparkles, I finished off the card with some jewels around the diecuts, both front and back of the card.

Though the September club kits are no longer available to purchase at membership pricing, the large die set is still available for purchase here. If you are interested in joining the Spellbinders Club Membership, they are having a 15% off for the 1st month when you sign up. Offer will end this year end (till 31st December 2017). Unfortunately, most of the December club kits are sold out for now, however worry not as very soon they will be launching the January club kits very soon before the end of this year. When the kits are launched for purchase, you will be able to enjoy the discount.

A list of supplies used for this project can be found below. Click onto the links to purchase the various Spellbinders dies and supplies if you are interested to get. 

List of Supplies:

• Spellbinders D-Lites Flourishes Etched Dies
• Spellbinders Classic Lace Die Set (Large Die of the Month)
• Prima Marketing Engraver & Printery Paper Collection
• Golden Chenille Stem
• Doodlebug Bumblebee Assorted Jewels
• Conqueror 100gsm High Quality Wove Finish Paper
• Wood Veneer Letterings (own stash)

Creating with Canvas Corp Brands

Yes it has been quite a while I'm announcing something new and finalized. After finally getting myself settling down, I'm proud to announce that I'll be working with Canvas Corp Brands as their Creative Crew for next year, offering extensive product usage and online tutorials/classes.

It's a good come back to rejoin the community and I intend to do this for as long as I could and will be actively searching around to work with various companies. I hope I'm able to offer more useful techniques to all people alike, whether you are just a hobbyist or someone going through some adversity that need some creative outlet to cope.

Do stay with me. 

Cheers!!!