This Just In

I have been a busy little bee the whole month of December.  The first weekend, I had our Cub Scout’s Pack Carnival and Little Man had a Tae Kwan Do tournament.  The next weekend, I had Santa’s Secret Shoppe for the PTO.  In between these events, Little Man had school, Tae Kwan Do and Scouts, and I had work.  I also had a craft exchange party that was a total blast to attend.  The odd moment when I wasn’t doing laundry or making dinner or doing who knows what else, I was working on a gift to give all the staff at work for Christmas.

I had seen an adorable crisscross box online and wanted to be able to make one with my Silhouette Cameo™.  Of course I asked my BFF Andrea to design one for me, because she is a total genius when it comes to making templates.  I cut the box itself out of kraft paper card stock.  The bands were red or green, and the phrase “Merry Merry” was created in Photoshop, using the “Santa’s Sleigh” font.

I used a glue called Zip Dry on this project, and WOW! is all I can say.  Fast drying, excellent bond and no wrinkles! I found this glue at Hobby Lobby, and with a 40% coupon, it was only $4.16 a bottle.  Worth every penny for the way it works.

I used my Sizzix Embossing Boutique to emboss the bands with an all over dot pattern.  I love that embossing machine so much, and I use it at every possible opportunity.

Lastly, I stuffed each box with holly berry tissue paper, and filled them up with three different kinds of home made caramels.  The recipes for the caramels that were new for this year will be in the next post, but click here for the recipe for Walnettos, which were included in each box and seem to be a perennial favorite with people. (This is a good thing, because my dad has given me probably close to 10 lbs. of black walnuts this year.  I will freeze them for next year’s use too, but that is a LOT of Walnettos and Black Walnut Pound Cake!)

The recipes for Licorice Caramels and Apple Cider Caramels will be posted with pictures on Monday, after the Christmas holiday.

Today though, I have pictures of my project.  I also have a present for YOU. You will be especially happy if you have a paper cutting machine. *grin* Click on the photos to see them in a larger size.

Here are a couple of individual close ups:

In this picture you can see the detail of the embossing.  Have I told you I love that machine?  I got it for Christmas last year from my parents, and I’m still loving it.

Do you love the little crisscross box?  Would you like your own cutting file for the Silhouette?  Click here to download the Studio File for the Silhouette system, and enjoy, courtesy of Too Faboo Designs (Andrea, for designing it, and me, for providing the web space and the demo).

I hope you have yourselves a merry little Christmas, with love from me to you!

Stacey