Quick and easy gift Bags

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to show you how I whip up a quick and pretty gift bag in no time at all. I am really bad a wrapping presents- no matter how hard I try they always look like a 6 year old wrapped them- so I take the easy way out and use gifts bags whenever I can.

For these ones I started out with just a plain old paper bag found at Michaels for a whopping 59 cents. I found some yummy wide ribbon on sale too (the kind with the wire in the edge) and my brain got cooking on how to jazz up that boring old bag.

I randomly stamped some pretty leaves from the Hero Arts set "A Season of Giving" on the bag using my Brilliance inks - then embossed them.

I cut a piece of the ribbon to wrap all the way from the front to the back (the wire in the ribbon makes folding over the edges and base a snap too) and adhered it in a few spots with some double sided Scotch tape. I found a precut die cut shape and stamped the sentiment and inked up the edges- added 2 little leaf buttons and a few Hero Hues pearls. Then I dug through my stash of ribbon and found that lovely sparkly brown ribbon for the base of each handle. And yes I know the plaid ribbon isn't exactly sitting straight- but the handles on this bag are a bit wonky and not centered -guess I should have picked a better bag!


Here is a close up shot of the tag for you to see better- aren't those buttons sooo cute!

I found some other super fun Spider web ribbon and decided to do a Halloween treat bag also. I LOVE this ribbon- the little orange dots along the edge are sooo sparkly!

I did pretty much the same thing as the first bag- stamped some fun Spiders (Hero Arts again) on the bag and found some coordinating orange ribbon for the handles. Made a matching tag and that's it. Soooo quick and easy! Now I just need to find some yummy tissue papers to go inside both the bags. The "Happy Birthday" bag I will be using for my sister's birthday next week- going to fill it up with some goodies from Bath & Body Works, a gift card, and a few sweet treats.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I showed you and quick and easy way to make a pretty gift bag in no time at all.

Inky Hugs, Anne

Hero Arts-Flicker Blog Hop

Hi ya everyone! Today is the day for the first ever Hero Arts-Flicker blog hop- wohoo!
I'm really excited to be a part of this and wanted to share 2 cards I made for this.
I'm crazy for fall- everything about it- all those leaves turning beautiful colors- baked apple goodies- football games, lots of bonfires, and walks in my woods.

So I made 2 cards honoring my love for fall and using my favorite colors. The first one uses the Hero Arts stamp "S5179" Swirly frame and a lovely little studio G stamp I found last week at Archivers. I stamped the frame using Brilliance pearlescent beige and the image was stamped using distress inks- spiced marmalade & vintage photo. I sprayed my own homemade mix of gold Pearl Ex powder and Lumiere paint onto the die cut leaves to add to the shimmer of the frame.

               

The next card uses more die cut leaves and the sentiment is from the set "CL361" Season of Giving. Each leaf was stamped using an assortment of Hero Arts and other stamps for a bit of interest. The gold button/embellie is made from Fimo clay and the texture on it is from using the part of the Hero Arts stamp "S5317" Starburst Lace. I used some Hero Hues pearls on the ends of the sentiment and the sentiment is stamped using vintage photo. Did some distressing around the edge of the embossed panel.

                        

I hope you are having fun hopping along on the Hero Arts blog hop, and to keep hopping along click here  to go to Valeries blog!

Thanks for stopping by everyone and I hope you enjoyed my fall themed cards!

Inky Hugs, Anne

Pairing up with Pia- part one

Hi ya bloggers! Today I've got some fun and exciting cards to show you. Over at the Hero Arts Flicker page we were all inspired a few weeks ago by Hero Hostess Joy and Jennifer Mcguire who paired up to create some amazing cards using the same set of stamps and many of us wanted to join in on the fun and do the same thing. Joy was kind enough to organize the pairing for us and we got our partner assignments a few days ago.

I got paired up with the ultra talented Pia Overgaard (go see her blog- she is amazing) and after chatting a bit we decided to use the new "Frightful" set from Hero Arts. If you know me at all you know I'm crazy for Halloween -it's my favorite holiday of the whole year and I've been itching to get making some cards!

We each made 2 cards for this first round of pairing up. I went with the bold traditional Halloween colors and just couldn't resist using the cute ghost. I also used my favorite dotted paper that was a free digi download I found years ago (buy have since lost the link to it- bohooo) and my Cuttlebug spider web embossing folder. I decided to make the ghost look a bit silly and added the googlie eyes to him and I popped up the ghost on some dimensionals.  Sponged some dusty concord distress inks behind the image and the edges of it as well and added some wide ric rack.

For my second card I used the cute ghost again (love it) and just stamped the sentiments randomly all over my base. I got out the white gel pen for a bit of contrast on the black scalloped circle and used some fun lime green ribbon and a plastic spider dangling off the button. The spider is from an old set of confetti left over from last years Halloween party.

 

This pairing up has been so fun and intersting- hope you like our cards!  Pia and I will do a second round of cards later this month......wonder what we will decide on for that one.  Don't forget to go visit Pia's blog and see what she created- I can't wait to see myself.

Our weather here in Wiscinsin has gotten quite cool this week- I think fall might actually be starting- yeah!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

Inky hugs, Anne

Just a quick update!

First I want to thank all of you who said a prayer and sent some well wishes my way- this is very much appreciated- it really means a lot to me to have friends who care.

So I spent most of yesterday at the hospital having an abcess drained and tissue culture taken. It was kind of a long day- I did not  not know I was supposed to fast to have "concious sedation", so I had to wait about 4-5 hours for my small breakfast to digest, then I could actually  get hooked up to an IV for some super duper relaxing "won't remember a thing" drugs- so I would feel little or no pain for this icky/painful  procedure.

So I sat on my bum in my hospital gown and nonslip socks in a big old comfy recliner under a nice toasty warm blanket and watched some good TV and read some magazines. If only I had thought to bring along the book I was in the middle of I could have easily finished that. I kept smelling really good coffee being brewed all day knowing that there way no way in heck I could have any- can you say torture! Why is it you always crave what you can't have?

Anyways, the procedure went well  (still a bit painful- but not too bad) and I was home by dinner time (and trust me I was starving). So today I rested and did absolutely nothing but sit on my butt again (mostly in front of the computer here.....) trying to recover from yesterday's ordeal. I'm feeling much better even though I'm still a bit sore around the site where they took a tissue sample and my "you know what" looks like it's been in a car accident- yikes! Thankfully I've had a very slow work week and my hubby and son have been extremely kind and patient with me- the hubby even offered to do a load of laundry if you can believe that- and my son has been waiting on me hand and foot.....when he remembers.

The doctors should have some test results for me by Friday- I think they did 2 separate pathology workups- one to check for what type of pathogen is lurking inside me to make sure I'm on the correct antibiotics, and  another one for benign or malignant tissue? (Heck....I was so drugged up I can hardly remember what the  they said).  Keeping my fingers crossed that all is well.......actually I'm not too worried at all since I've never had any problems in the past.

I hope to be back to my active self by Monday (actually able to do normal upper body activities- wohooo!) and will try to get some crafting done tomorrow- especially since my order from 2 Peas got delivered today-  new Hero Arts and Basic Grey goodies!

Thanks a ton ladies for all of your support and see you all again soon- hopefully with some new fall or Halloween card creations!

Gentle hugs,

Anne

End of summer- start to fall

Hi ya everyone!

I've been enjoying the last few weeks of August with my son before school starts again and starting to get the itch for those lovely fall days to begin! Cooler days- crisp leaves- football games- and apple picking time is what I've got on my brain right now.

Last week we went on vacation up to northern MN to my father in laws for some down time on beautiful Birch Lake and playing on the 4 wheelers and fishing- it was very relaxing and the weather was beautiful (mid 70's to high 60's)- just perfect! We had a lovely time and I have to boast that I was the only one who caught any fish (he he) - a nice 4 pound small mouth bass and a little perch. The poor guys got skunked again!! I even saw a few trees that were starting to turn colors up there- loved it.

Here are some pictures of a few cards I made over the last 2-3 weeks- some of you have probably already seen them on Flicker- but some of you may have not. All of them are stamped using mainly Hero Arts stamps and my favorite fall colors- orange,  red, yellows and browns.

Here is a quick picture of my family and my mom who was here visiting for a few days. We had a belated birthday get together for her (very casual as you can see) and we watched some really old time home movies that we finally had transfered onto DVD (that was mom's present).  That's me in the white on the left, my mom,  all my sisters and brother with the nieces and nephews too!

Today we are just relaxing and getting laundry done and all our stuff put away from our trip before the work week starts again- but luckily I have the next 2 days off still before my son start first grade! I can't believe how quickly this summer went by and that it's school time already. Got all the back to school stuff purchased and his backpack with supplies ready to go. Now I just have to remeber what day is "picture" day- last year I completely forgot about it and he wasn't exactly looking his best for his kindergarten picture-oops!

I am also getting very excited for the upcoming "Scrapfest" out at the Mall of America too- just about 3 weeks away! It's going to be soooo fun meeting all my Hero Arts/Flicker friends and taking a class from the amazing Tim Holtz and Jennifer Mcguire!

I also just placed a big order of stamps and other goodies goodies from 2 Peas in a bucket last night- I can't wait for that to arrive!! If anyone wants a free shipping code for 2 Peas here it is "B2SKOL"- I think it was a minimum of $50 purchase to apply.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and I'll try to find the time to visit your blogs/Flicker pages and see what you have all been up to!


Inky hugs everyone!

Anne