How about using some of those bags you are hoarding and turning them into gift bags such as this Thankful Friends Thanksgiving Gift Bag?! It’s so easy and fun and makes good use of the excess we all have around our house.

I was cleaning my house getting ready for company and just happened to notice how there were grocery bags and other store shopping bags stuck in a basket on a shelf in the utility room plus a whole grocery bag in itself filled/stuffed with all kinds of miscellaneous bags just sitting there on the floor.  These are the kinds of things you just live with until company is coming and then you (hopefully) notice them. I started pulling out bags and bags and bags and realized we certainly did not need to keep this many on hand (although my husband might disagree, just in case!). And while I had these bags pulled out, I separated out some of the smaller bags with the handles, like you can also buy at the craft store, and decided to do some decorating.

I love this Holiday Catalog stamp set, Thankful Forest Friends. I only recently ordered it because, of course, I can’t order everything the first time around! The animals are so cute and the greetings are perfect for Thanksgiving.  You will also be able to just ink up the words on the “Thankful for You” stamp and use that for any occasion, not just Thanksgiving.

This bag had the name of the store printed on the front, so that determined how wide my paper was going to be in order to cover it up, which was 4 inches.  The bag is 8″ wide. I used the Into The Woods Designer Series Paper and chose Old Olive as the back layer. Every package of designer paper comes with a list of coordinating colors so that makes matching easy.

I colored the greeting stamp with several Stampin’ Write Markers to get the various colors. Just breathe (huff) on the stamp after coloring on it with markers to remoisten the ink, then stamp. Next I used the Deco Labels Collection Framelits and the Big Shot to cut out the greeting and the layer underneath. You could add ribbon and other embellishments, but I kept it quick and simple.

So go through your bag stash today and pull out the ones you can turn into gift bags for free! And your house will look a little neater too!  If you need this beautiful paper or stamp set I used to make my Thankful Friends Thanksgiving Gift Bag  to take to your hostess this Thanksgiving, just visit the Stampin’ Up! Online Store or contact me to put your order in for you!

Stampin’ Up! Online Shopping HERE!

If you are going out for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and want a little something for your hosts, make a quick and easy tag for a wine bottle you are taking to them or some other beverage of choice! Or just make the tag portion to accompany some other hostess gift.

The tag is made with a base of Brown Sugar card stock, cut at 2 7/8″ x 8 1/2″ and scored at 2 3/8″. Punch a hole to fit over the bottle (sample uses 1 3/8″ Circle Punch) and if you like, also punch out a 1 3/4″ Scallop Circle to fit around the punched hole.  Layer the tag with a piece of the beautiful Color Me Autumn Designer Series Paper. I also love the stamp set  For All Things and stamped the images on the Deco Labels Framelits die cut piece and the greeting just on a scrap of Very Vanilla which I hand-trimmed in a banner shape and sponged with some Cajun Craze ink. The leaves are just cut out of some of the Color Me Autumn DSP!

Keep the Stampin’ Up! Online Extravaganza in mind that will be going on this whole holiday weekend and on through Tuesday, Dec. 2.  Don’t forget the Doorbusters on Monday, Dec. 1st!

Click HERE to see the Extravanza PDF.

And for any order placed during the Online Extravaganza, I will be sending you a Bonus Gift,  a PDF for some easy Christmas projects you will enjoy making!

You can also add a Paper Pumpkin subscription to your order!  Just click HERE to see the Paper Pumpkin options that you can add to an order for varying lengths of time!

Click to Shop!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

If you are looking for a Thanksgiving favor with a candy treat for your dinner table or maybe a little gift for someone, here is a bag of M&M’s made into a Thanksgiving turkey! I filled a Stampin’ Up! Cellophane 4″ x 6″ Bag with candy and tied the top with the Tangelo Twist 3/8″ Satin Stitched Ribbon. I cut off about one inch of the top of the bag and then adhered the turkey head (1 3/4″ Circle Punch) with SNAIL Adhesive. Make the turkey facial features however you like, but I used the Owl Punch for the eyes and just colored with a black marker. The beak is the tip of the Triangle Punch and the wattle is made with the wing on the Bird Punch but trimmed down a little more evenly. You don’t need punches for any of these pieces, just cut them yourself. For the turkey feathers, I just punched with the Scallop Oval Punch. You could also use Oval Punches, and you could emboss the feathers with an embossing folder.  You could also use designer paper for a little more interest and varied colors. So many options!

Pssst!  There’s a Stampin’ Up! Online Extravaganza coming next week!  Be sure to keep in touch! Better yet, make sure you are signed up for my Mailing List as I will probably send out an email with these specials! Sign up in the red box at the top of this page on my blog!

Shop anytime at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store for all the best in stamping supplies!

I found this glass jar in my craft stash and decided to add some Stampin’ Up! Burlap Ribbon and paper flowers made with the Originals Flower Spiral Bigz Die. The Burlap Ribbon also has a piece of Venetian Crochet Trim adhered to the bottom of the ribbon. I made the paper flowers with the Flower Spiral Die using the Color Me Autumn Designer Series Paper. It’s the same sheet of paper, just using the other side for one flower.  The center of the big flower is made with a strip of Old Olive card stock, cut with the Fringe Scissors and rolled up and glued to the inside of the flower. For some extra embellishments I snipped a piece of Gold Sequin Trim and attached it with a Glue Dot. Then I took another piece of Burlap Ribbon, pulled off the bound edge and pulled several threads off to fray the edge of the ribbon.  Then I just circled those burlap threads and adhered them behind the flowers with Glue Dots.

There is a white candle inside the jar although it can’t be seen very well in this photo. You could add some candy corn to the bottom of the jar and set the candle on top of that, or add some coffee beans or whatever you can think of to make the bottom of the jar more interesting.  I bet if you look around your cabinets or craft supplies, you can find something like this jar to make into a bit of fall home decor and use it for Thanksgiving! If you don’t own the Flower Spiral Die, just make flowers with punches or simply tearing some circles out of paper, crumpling them up and distressing them a bit and putting them together into flowers. Or attach some paper or real colored leaves, perhaps even a Thanksgiving greeting.  So many choices!

Burlap is so trendy right now.  I was surprised walking around a craft store the other day how they have burlap on just about everything! And mason jars and similar are very popular right now as well.

See what you can find to make a piece of home decor for the Thanksgiving holiday….before it is time for all Christmas decor!