As I was decorating our Christmas tree and the house yesterday, I came across several of my past Stampin’ Up! creations from years past. Many of my decorations are handmade ones from all the years before I discovered stamping.

Like many of us who got into stamping, we also did and do lots of other crafts. I have wooden ornaments I painted, glass wine bottles I painted with snowmen, styrofoam ornaments covered with sequins, macrame, counted cross-stitch ornaments and small wall-hangings, Santa dolls, fabric wall-hangings, tons of stuff! Not to mention the ornaments and things my kids made through the years including a nativity made from a paper bag and stickers on popsicle sticks from pre-school!

Above you see my first Christmas sampler (that should be framed but isn’t!). Perhaps one from another holiday is framed and I intended to just change out the samplers for each holiday. People are still making samplers like this, even better, for every holiday and occasion for home decor and gifts.

These decorated ornaments were popular when I became a demonstrator.  It’s just a clear glass ornament with several drops of reinker rolled around inside until the entire inside of the ornament was covered. For an added touch, I dropped some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter inside.  The snowflakes on the outside I believe are rub-ons that we sold at some point.

This was once another very popular way to make an ornament! And it is FROSTY inside!  Anyone who has been around Stampin’ Up! for a while recognizes Frosty!  We could not believe it when they retired the Frosty Stamp Set! It was probably one of the first stamp sets I purchased from Stampin’ Up! For this ornament, we cut a window sheet in a circle with a little tab on top to fit into the ornament hole to hold it in place, stamped on it, then rolled it up small enough to put inside the ornament hole.  Once inside it would open up and relatively stay in place. I added some “snow” and some gold paper strips for decoration.

These star boxes were from a Stampin’ Up! kit a few years ago, the Many Merry Stars Kit.  The kit made a TON of star boxes.  Some of them open with lids, others are just 3D.  There are several that are VERY large.  These are just three of the boxes. They could be used as gift boxes or as decorations. This post shows some of the boxes.

These ornaments were made from two different kits.  The blue ornament on the left is made from the Stampin’ Up! Festive Flurry Ornament Kit. Here is a post with a video about the kit.  The ornament on the right is from the Ornamental Elegance Kit.  It graced the cover of the Holiday catalog a few years ago. Here is a post about that kit.

Out of many of my Christmas decorations, this box is one of my favorites!  I remember seeing it on display at one of the Stampin’ Up! conventions I attended. It was called the Christmas Keepsake Project Kit.  Shelli and Sara made a video together (or maybe it was a live event,  I don’t remember, that showed how to embellish the box with all the pieces and decorations.  I think it stands the test of time and is still very beautiful. I think I made extras for gifts.

Think about Christmas decorations and decor items you can stamp to have as keepsakes through the years.  It’s always fun to open the Christmas boxes and be reminded of all the memories our ornaments and decorations provide as we decorate for the Christmas holidays!

Somehow I came across a YouTube video that showed how to make these little paper angels, and I couldn’t resist trying them!

The person in the video uses origami paper, which I can see would make things a little easier since it is thin, so I thought I should try designer paper rather than cardstock.  I pulled out some retired designer paper, not knowing if this attempt was going to be a success on the first try or not! But I think it turned out pretty well!  I was not nearly as perfect and precise as the person in the video and there are no measurements in English.  So I had to wing it!

I started with a piece of designer paper that was 5″ x 5″ and cut it in half because the angel is made with two halves glued together.  My first attempt was the white angel on the right.  I scored the length of that paper every 1/4″ and accordion-folded it.  That’s pretty narrow, but it does make the angel look a little fuller in the end.  The green angel is scored at 1/2″.  After accordion-folding you have to fold down a portion to make the angel wings.  That’s really the hard part because the paper is quite bulky then.  But it can be done.

You could use narrow ribbon for this next part of making the angel hanger and gluing the two halves together, but in following the origami video I just cut a very narrow slice of Whisper White cardstock. You will see in the video, but make a loop for the top and then the ends get adhered between the two halves, forming the angel body.  On the first angel, I also made the bow out of a very narrow strip of paper.  On the second I just used ribbon.

After gluing the two halves together, you also add a dab of glue under those wings to attach them to the body. Then you can “fluff” the accordion folds to make the skirt and the wings.  For this size angels, I just punched 4 “faces” with the 1″ Circle Punch.  That loop that forms the hanger can be flattened out down by the angel so you can glue the angel face onto both the front and the back with the loop in between.

Maybe you have made these angels as a child.  They are easy and fun to make and you can make them as fancy or plain as you like!  Just a little something for the holidays to decorate a package or make as an ornament.  Just have some fun trying the angels!

Here is the video I watched to learn how to make them:

Remember, today is the LAST DAY to purchase the Snowflake Showcase stamps, die, and Snowflake Trinkets!

I have to re-introduce one of my most popular posts on my blog, this Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Gift Bag!  Every time Pinterest sends me an email about my most popular pins, this one is almost always on it!  I actually made this three years ago but  I put the watermark on it last year. It’s such a simple thing to make and might be just the thing you need this time of year!

You probably already have a kraft shopping bag like this one in your house somewhere, but if not, you can buy a package of them at the craft store.  Then you are ready to go when you have an occasion you need a gift bag for.

This is how I made this Rudolph gift bag:

I made a great big red nose for Rudolph with the Red Glimmer Paper, punched with the 2 1/2″ Circle Punch. The eyes are punched with the 1 3/4″ Circle Punch and the 1″ Circle Punch.  For the antlers, I came up with punching the tree branch with the Tree Builder Punch (the one that coordinates with the Ronald McDonald stamp set, Sprinkles of Life).  I punched four branches or trees and trimmed the ends of two of them so I could glue one behind the other to look like antlers.  Since they are rather delicate being so thin, I didn’t have them pop up from the top of the bag or they would probably get bent up pretty easily, so I just glued them to the top corners of the gift bag. And for a little extra color, and to resemble the candy canes, I tied on a bow with the Real Red 1/8″ Striped Ribbon.

Obviously a couple of these products are retired but I’m sure you can find something else to use!

Another year I made a smaller Rudolph gift bag with the Mini Treat Bag dies HERE.  It’s just a fun and easy design to have fun with!

Take a few minutes and make this Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Gift Bag so you will be ready for the holiday gifts!

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One of my favorite stamping projects to do is to recycle a gift bag I may have received in a store and decorate it for a certain occasion.  You can also buy a package of these handled gift bags at the craft store. This white bag was perfect to make a Snowman Gift Bag!  

I made this bag just a little fancier than you would need to, but I was having fun! Depending on your bag size, you will have to figure out your own measurements for the pieces on the bag.  I punched two eyes with the 1 1/4″ Circle Punch and the mouth pieces with the 3/4″ Circle Punch.  I snipped off edges of the circles to make them look a little bit like pieces of coal. The carrot nose is just cut by hand from a Pumpkin Pie Cardstock scrap.

For the scarf and the hat band, I used the Buffalo Check Stamp (a large background stamp).  It is black ink stamped on Real Red Cardstock.  Yes, it is a little tricky to get the larger piece of cardstock stamped with the Buffalo Check stamp and keep everything lined up but just fool around with it, you can do it!  And it doesn’t have to be perfect! My snowman’s scarf is 1 1/4″ x 7 3/4″. Then I cut two smaller pieces and a circle to make something that looks like the scarf tied in a knot. I added one of the Gold Faceted Gems just for some bling.

The snowman’s cheeks are two 1 1/2″ circles punched from the Sparkle Glimmer Paper.  To make it pink, I picked up some Real Red ink with a lot of water from my Aqua Painter and colored the Glimmer Paper.

I really wanted a hat on my snowman bag so I cut a 2 1/2″ x 9″ piece of Basic Black Cardstock for the brim and another smaller piece, 4 1/4″ x 4 1/2″ for the hat. It extends beyond the top of the bag, but there is still room to grab the handles.  I added a strip of the stamped Buffalo Check Real Red Cardstock for the hat bang and a few sprigs of Garden Green Cardstock from the Sprig Punch.  A few berries are punched with the small circles on the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch.

Look through your bag of bags or in your craft stash and see if you don’t have some kraft shopping bags that you can decorate one way or another.  Even if they have the store printing on them, you likely will cover that up with paper anyway.

Here is a Rudolph Gift Bag I made a while back and has been quite popular in this post.  This gives you another idea for something you can make for the holidays.

Try decorating a few gift bags, maybe like this Snowman Gift Bag, to give to special people who will appreciate your efforts!!

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