Last but not Least

Greetings Stamping Friends!

Wow... that was quite a storm we had last night!  I drove to a demonstrator meeting in Oregon City and on the way home a gust of wind hit my car as I was driving over the Oregon City bridge and I felt my car move sideways.  So glad it didn't blow me over the side!  When I got home, I noticed that my normally sheltered front porch was wet all the way up to the house!  I guess we have to admit that even though it is not officially winter, we are definitely experiencing winter weather.  Ugh!  My advice ( I know it gets boring) is the same... stay inside, make yourself a cup of something hot, turn on some lights to brighten things up, and then stamp, stamp, stamp!  It is great therapy for the winter blahs.

Well, there's nothing blah about the project I'm going to show you today.  This will be the last Christmas Lane posts.  Do I hear some of you cheering?  Today's project is an easy box that will hold your Christmas Lane cards.  Check it out...

I know a few of you have made this in one of my classes, but here it is again, all dressed up for Christmas. If you would like the directions for this box, please email me and I'll send it to you via snail mail so you'll have my hand-drawn diagram showing all the score lines and cutting lines.  That will be so much easier to follow than just the printed directions.
The base of the box is one sheet of Early Espresso card stock.  The front panels have been gussied up with some of the Designer paper from the Christmas Lane Simply Scrappin' Kit.  The belly band around the box is a strip of Cherry Cobbler card stock and the Lucky Limeaid scallop was cut with the 2 3/8 inch Scallop Punch (p. 210 of the big catalog). The snowflake was punched out of the new Silver Glimmer Paper (p. 41 of the Holiday Mini-catalog) with the Snowflake Punch (p. 210 of the big catalog).  I would not advise you to try punching the glimmer paper with this punch, though.  It was extremely hard to do and I think I very nearly broke my punch in the process.  The more detailed the punch, the harder it is to punch with it.  And this snowflake is the most detailed punch in the catalog.  Instead, I'd suggest that you use a die (such as the Stocking Accents die ---p. 24 of the Holiday Mini--- to cut a cute shape from the Glimmer Paper.  As you know, the dies with the black foam on top cut metal, leather, thin wood, etc., so you'd have no trouble slicing through Glimmer Paper with them.  I certainly don't want any of you to ruin a $16.95 punch, so please don't do what I did! 
And that wraps up my series of posts on Christmas Lane.  However, this concept can be used with any of Stampin'Up!'s Simply Scrappin' Kits.  One of my customers (Hi, Marilyn!)  bought several Simply Scrappin' Kits and made sets of cards in a box like this for Christmas gifts for friends. Who wouldn't love receiving a pretty box full of hand-stamped cards and envelopes?  It is a creative, thoughtful, personal, and best of all, hand-crafted gift! And for those of us of a certain age who are having thoughts of down-sizing, it is a consumable gift, which means one less "thing" to store or display. 

OK, stampers!  I think I'm beginning to ramble on and on, so it's time to say goodbye for today.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll look forward to meeting you here tomorrow (Yay for the weekend!) for another classic card.

Stay warm!
Susan