Better late than never, Right? 🎁⭐ My work life has been a bit stressful lately. Hence the reason I am just loading up this content to YouTube. However, I still wanted to share it since it could be used for any gift-giving event. Just swap out the bling and color of the bag. For this gift bag, I went simple with Dollar Tree elements to make it simple enough for anyone. I used a bag from the Dollar Tree, added the bling, and the closure is a simple bow with a star paperclip (also from the DT). Check out the video by finding the link here.

Decorating Gift Bags for Christmas: Option 2

Ready to wrap those presents?🎁 Why not add a little pizazz to them? This time I used some simple stamping, a bit of texture paste, and a few embellishments to step up this plain red bag from Dollar Tree. I don't think I would do this for every gift bag, but adding to these gift bags for those special folks I am giving to has been a lot of fun. This one is pretty simple. Just a bit of stamping along with using a stencil and texture paste...voila', you have a winter wonderland. These are the bags I usually gift some of my A2 cards to friends. It holds 10 cards/envelopes nicely. Stamping on these bags and using some of my embellishments also helps me to use the cute stuff in my stash. For the easiest way to step up a gift bag stay tuned and later this weekend, you'll see the easiest way to bling out a bag. 😁

The video for this bag can be found HERE.  Hope you will take the time to check it out.

Decorating Gift Bags for Christmas: 3 Options

 Guys...I don't need anymore🎅 Christmas Cards! So I started dressing up the bags I will use to wrap presents🎁. I made so many cards back in July as part of the Christmas in July series along with so many other cardmakers. You can see these if you scroll back on my Instagram feed. Here is one of the three options I came up with for decorating gift bags. This is definitely the more complicated approach of the three options I will be sharing. I was inspired by a similar project by Mixed Up Crafts on YouTube. The link to her much more polished tutorial is in a link in the description of the YouTube Video I made of putting this bag together. I hope you will head on over to my YouTube Video to check it out. You can find that video here.

Paper Pad Crushed in One Afternoon!

 Finished a paper pad! 🥳🎇🎉 Is there anything more satisfying to a paper crafter? I really enjoyed the Love Letter pad by Recollections. I made the most of this pad by making several more cards using this along with the Celebrate Life sticker pack by the Paper Studio. I added a few other elements also from my stash, including stamping, washi, butterflies, and flowers. The flowers and butterflies are from The Dollar Tree. These were all pretty quick to make. All of these together would make a great gift I think. Hmmm...who should get them?

Happiness in a Box!

 It's Happiness in a Box! 🤩 I made my first tuxedo box. The emoji dies and the happy yellow color really made the project "pop". In fact, I liked it so much I decided to put it in my office. This one won't get mailed out. 😲 Head on over to my YouTube channel to see me put this lovely card together. The link is HERE!

**Challenging myself**💜

Today I wanted to share with you a card I made to enter into a couple of challenge blogs. I used to do this all the time and forgot how fun they can be. You can watch the process over on my YouTube channel. See below to watch the video.

The main challenge blog CAS Colours & Sketches provided the sketch to follow. Clean and Simple cards are kind of where I started my card making journey. We forget we don't have to have tons of items on your card for it still to be cute. These cards still make the recipient smile that you thought of them.

The theme of the card came from the other challenge blog Sweet Stampers Challenge. The theme of Christmas is needed to enter this challenge. This card may not be technically Christmas but I used Christmas Recollections stamp sets to create it so I think it will still pass. I hope you will check out my video. 😉

Head to see the video HERE!

 Here are my last *Fall* cards for the season. I am bringing you both of these for a couple of reasons. 1. The images were on my desk therefore, I felt I just had to use them to make a couple of cards. 2. It's Thanksgiving. This is my way of wishing you all who support my Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and blog a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am thankful for you all. I am hoping to grow my social media "fam" over the next year. I am so grateful to have you all along for the ride. Each like, comment, and view makes me smile. All Digital Stamps used by Prettgrafik Designs. Images cut with my Cricut Explore. The sentiment on the thankful card from Cricut Design Space.

 Hey everyone! Today I am using two of my favorite tools to create a custom emoji card: my Cricut and Pinterest. I had a card pinned on Pinterest that inspired this creation. I created the card using Cricut Design Space along with some dies I had in my stash. I have the making of the card up on YouTube. See the link in the bio to check it out. Also in the description of the video, I share my Cricut Mat link with you in case you want to make a similar card. Hope you will check it out!

 

I wanted to share a tutorial of this gift card holder I designed in Cricut Design Space last year. I have updated it a bit. I still love this project. It came together just as I had imagined in my head (that doesn't often happen around here). I hope you will check out my YouTube video tutorial. If you have Design Space I will be happy to share the project for a small fee which I discuss in the video. I also have a few of these made if you need one but don't have the time. I can mail one to you...again for a small amount.

Head on over to my YouTube channel HERE to view the tutorial.

 

I am at it again ya'll. I made clusters of embellishments one evening, then the next day turned them into cards. For this card. I took the banner, the flat shaker element, the sentiment sticker, and the butterfly to create the embellishment. The next day I added a red panel that I had embossed in silver with a corner border. Then it all went on a white top folding card base. Doing cards in batches like this has been fun.

Case'd Card

 I case'd this card from one I found on Pinterest using what I had on hand. I like it because I used quite a few brads. Brads are one of those items I have quite a bit of but hardly ever use. So that is a win! I think though I should have dry embossed the background layer. I think that would have helped it to stand out more. The original was made with textured cardstock. Yep, I think that is what is missing but still love how it turned out.

Here is the Pin of the card I Case'd in case you want to check it out.

Use Your Haul Items: Scene Card

 

Today I broke out those cute tree stickers I just picked up in my last Dollar Tree haul. I used them to create this cute scene card. As a bonus, I was able to use the sentiment strips I just made recently as well. The video of my making the card is now up on my YouTube Channel so I hope you check it out.

YouTube Video for this Card!

I am entering this card in a few challenges:

Creative Fingers Challenge: #197 Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #131:  Anything Goes

Sentiment Strips

 Sentiment Strips have been a trend for quite some time. I decided to go back a bit to an old school technique of taking those small sentiment strips and making them into tags to add to projects or to send as happy mail. These are quick to do. They use up those skinny strips of paper leftover from other projects while also using up some patterned paper. It is sentiment strip tags for the win! I have a video up today on my YouTube channel for you to check out how easy it is to make these. I also will have a video out soon using a sentiment strip tag in a card project for inspiration.

Grateful Pop-up Card

 

I of course had to enter Kristie Marcotte's 123 challenge. I am a bit later than I wanted to be to get this card posted for everyone, but it took me a couple of attempts to get the card I had imagined in my head. This card took images from Prettygrafik, inspiration from a Jennifer McGuire video, the challenge issued by Kristie, along with the sentiment and digital stamp placement from Cricut Design Space. This card literally has all the elements I love about this craft thrown into one card. (ok maybe not EVERY element, but it's sure close). I have the process of making this card up on my Youtube Channel as well if you want to see it come together (missteps and all). To watch the video check out the link below.

Layered Embellishments Leading to Cards, Card #4

 

I love how this card came together with the banner embellishment. Again I kept the card itself super simple since the banner had all the goodness. The banner embellishment does have a couple of stamped elements..the heart and the sentiment. Those stamps are from Papertrey Ink. I have had them in my stash for years but they are classics. 😀 I layered on a black cardstock card panel a heart black and white patterned paper. That was it. I found I really enjoyed doing a night of layered embellishments then later turning them into cards. It really was super fun, relaxing, and my die-cut container definitely had fewer embellishments at the end. So it was an all-ar
ound win. I hope you enjoyed this series of cards.

Layered Embellishments Leading to Cards, Card #3

 

In keeping with the theme here is another layered embellishment made into a card. So cute right? I think this comes close to being my favorite of the four cards I made. This was so simple to make. I just added a strip of that black and white patterned Recollections paper I used for all the cards onto a black card base. Then I added the embellishment that was already put together. Easy Peasy!
💖

Layered Embellishments Leading to Cards, Card #2

 I turned another layered embellishment into a card. This one has a lot of patterns going on. Looking at it now I am sure some are going to go...Oh my! But in person, this actually works. I really do love that striped paper from Echo Park I made the flower embellishment portion from. I just could not part with that paper until I had used all of it I could. The patterned paper comes from a black and white 6 x 6 paper pack from Recollections I had forever (and there is still plenty left). The owl washi might be what sent this one over the edge... 😊

Layered Embellishments Leading to Cards

 If you were able to check out my video from YouTube yesterday, you saw some layered embellishments I made. Here is the first one of those embellishments used to make a card. I used some patterned paper in black in white to add some layers, then added the embellishment on top. So easy! The sentiment is a simple hello from Papertrey Ink. The drawn dashed square I had made using Design Space and my Cricut Explore.

 I am sharing a FB live I did recently on my YouTube channel making layered embellishments or back in the day they were called "card candy". I will be posting the cards I made with these embellishments over the next few days. This was a lot of fun so I hope you'll check back. Links to my YouTube channel is in the bio.

One Stamp 3 Looks: Christmas Edition Card #3

New video up on my YouTube channel showing how I put together this cute spinner card.  Now I made a huge error in making this card but was able to save 🙌 it.  So I hope you'll take a look so if you find yourself in the same situation you will know what to do.

Dies to Embellishments to Cards

Recently I have been making some card candy or embellishment clusters or whatever you want to call them. I then take those embellishments and turn them into cards. I will have a process video for you to watch me make the embellishments up soon.  But for now, here is a 5×7card I made after putting the banner cluster together. All scrap dies cuts in my stash. #samanthadesigns #cards #diecuts 

One Stamp 3 Looks Christmas Edition: Card #2

New post on my YouTube channel.  For this Christmas card I decided to do a retiform card.  I have never tried one where I colored the images.  Though this was a bit labor-intensive I enjoyed doing something out of the ordinary.

Cricut Drawn Background for the Win

Letting my Cricut Explore do all the work again with this card.  The background is drawn with mint and pink pens.  I then added the sentiment from letters I still had in my stash from another Cricut cutting session. A few gems for sparkle round off the card.

Simple hi

This is a card that is so simple but lovely.  If I could draw this something I would attempt. Luckily my Cricut Explore can do all the drawing for me.  I created this in Design Space then colored the image with Copic markers. I added to a card base made with pink Recollections cardstock.  

One Stamp 3 Looks:Christmas Edition

New video up on my YouTube channel.  This is part of a series called one stamp 3 looks.  The focal stamp is this cute reindeer. This card of the series is one that is simple enough to mass produce for your Christmas cards this year if you haven't already completed them. To watch just hit the link below.

Dollartree Haul

A haul video up on my YouTube channel.  Got some cool things at the dollartree.  Link is in my bio if you want to check it out.  #samanthadesigns #craftyproducts #dollartreehaul

 

Sometimes simple is best.  A few colored strips with a sentiment. Clean and simple. Remember this type of card when you need to use up scraps of cardstock

Simple Treat Pouches

New video up on my YouTube channel showing you how to make simple candy treat pouches using 6×6 paper and an envelope punch board.  

 I am back with the last card using an old Technique Tuesday border stamp in my stash. This one I used to make a background. Click on the video above or head on over to my YouTube channel to watch. Love how this turned out. I used a monochromatic color scheme with different shades of blue Recollections Cardstock in my stash. The image was embossed on each strip with white embossing powder. The doily and die cut elements really bring the look together. Hope you find some inspiration that leads you to play with your crafty stash today.

Simple Card using Washi

Love making cute "paper" with my washi stash.  All that was left was the sentiment with a few glitter epoxy stickers from Dollartree.  A quick card that can be mass produced if needed.

Using up a few Cardstock Scraps

I had those bright still out on my desk.  I recreated a card I made recently but with some slight changes. You can see that version on my Instagram feed.  Love the gold embossing powder on black.  So elegant.  How do you tend to use your scraps of cardstock?

Simple Cards that Use Your Stash

Got a few cards done this week so I am here sharing with you. Drink is a digital stamp, I believe from Prettygrafik Design, cut out with my Cricut.  Sentiment I made on my computer with Cricut sticker paper.  I have a blog post on how I do this.  This is a great way to personalize your own sentiments.  Patterned paper is from Recollections blush and mint collection which I have almost used up. 🙂

I really like this card design because it showcases all that pretty paper.

Father's Day Cards

Guys, I have been on a Father's Day card-making roll.  I have been making quite a few cards for those in my life that need a card including some friends.  Here is what I have gotten done so far.  Hopefully, these will inspire you.

I used a stamp set I received with a stamp magazine. I loved how it turned out. This one is going to the hubby. This is the retiform technique I have seen some trying..I haven't done this in quite a while but still love it when I find the right color combo and stamps.  I used Pacific Point ink from Stampin up and London fog from Momento.  I think this color combo gives this card a cool feel.

 This one for my father in law who lives on a farm. Thought the simple silhouette with the oxide blended background and the rays would be perfect.  I used a combo of Fossilized Amber and Worn Lipstick Distress Oxides for the background.  The rays were created by blending in more fossilized amber using a stencil.

This was all created in Design Space in Cricut. It is a blend of several different images in DS.  The images were cut in black cardstock or gold mirror cardstock.  The Layers I did manually with paper from my stash along with more mirror cardstock.

I offered another co-worker to do a Father's Day card for her husband. She wasn't sure what she wanted. So I asked about his hobbies in which she replied to as fishing and beer. So here is what I came up with with the help of Cricut Design Space. Vinyl for the outside. The inside was drawn by the Cricut.


For the last card, I had a request from a friend for a custom Father's Day card for her son. This is what I came up with thanks to some vinyl and Cricut design space.

 I hope you enjoyed this post.  If you have questions or want to see more from me please check me out on my other social media pages below.

Facebook Page: Samanthadesigns @SamanthadesignsPapercrafts

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Instagram- @samanthadesigns2

Twitter - @Samanthadesign2

YouTube Channel: Samanthadesigns