my last-minute gifts: kerri bradford & lori whitlock blog party

It's day two of the "Last-Minute Gifts" Blog Party! You'll want to stop by kerri's blog, to grab your freebie shape for the day. Remember, it's only free for one day, and then it goes into a kit that can be purchased at the end of the week. You'll also want to stop by both kerri's blog and lori's blog, to find the details to be entered for a chance to win a $50 gift card. My projects went up today, so I thought I would share them here. And if you read all the way through, you might find a little giveaway here as well ;) 

I often make little cards, or envelopes, for giving out gift cards. I didn't set out to create this fun box, for holding a gift card. But it turned out, that the size I choose to cut my box in was quite a bit smaller than I realized, once I assembled the box. It turned out to be the perfect little size for a gift card.

I used Lori's box with bracket flap (SVG's on Lori's site. shape also located in Lori's Silhouette store), and cut it from some red tone-on-tone pattern paper. I used a few snowflakes from Kerri's This & That Winter: Shapes Only kit, and adhered them to the front of the box using glitter brads.

When I saw Lori's Photo Box (SVG's on Lori's site. shape also located in Lori's Silhouette store), I knew I wanted to create a few, for sharing photos with family over the holidays. I have family members that we only see a few times a year, and Christmas is always one of those times. 

I tend to save up photos of our family, and my girls, and hand them out when we see everyone. I think it'll be so much cooler to hand them out in such adorable little boxes. And the recipients can easily keep them in the box, until they're ready to find a home for them.

I embellished the front of the box, with a loopy frame from Kerri's Life Additions #1 kit, and some pretty flowers from her Modern Nature kit.

With several golfers in my family, golf balls are a very popular gift of choice around here at Christmas time. There are usually a few boxes under the Christmas tree, or tucked in stockings. Instead of leaving them in their original boxes, I thought it would be fun to create a more unique box to hold them in.

I cut the "Play Hard" title from Kerri's The Ol' Ballgame kit, to add to my boxes. I love the grungy look to it.

Love the amazing details, that cut perfectly on my Silhouette.

Lori's Bracket Closure Box (SVG's on Lori's site. Also located in Lori's Silhouette store) was the perfect shape for it. When I adjusted the size of the box to fit the width of the golf balls, the box ended up being just long enough to hold four golf balls.

And now for the giveaway part! Kerri and Lori have generously given me a $25 shopping spree to EITHER of their stores, to give away to one lucky blog reader. Just leave me a comment, telling me your favorite handmade gift that you love to make every year, for gift giving. I will announce a randomly drawn winner on Friday!

Comments

[Yvonne]

oh wow, i'm the first to respond! :) my chances of winning are slim to none! :) that's ok. my best friend and i get together every year and make chocolate covered pretzels for our employees... we make a cute little topper. they're usually quite the hit. :)

[Megan B]

I love your photo box. Will definitely be making some of those for gifts this year. My absolute favorite gift I do for our extended family each Christmas is to create a DVD of all our year's photos set to music. I make DVD envelopes for them too and embellish those a little bit.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1820945213]

I like to get cupcakes for fellow employees right before Christmas and make the liners- they love them so much~

[Karen W]

Love all the boxes, but I especially love the photo box.

Thanks for the inspirations

Karen

[marilyn]

my favorite gift to give is homemade candy... either crockpot candy or peppermint bark....thanks for the chance to win.

[Lauralee Lien]

I just have to say I love what you made! I am so inspired for my giftie packaging!!

I love to make cookies and cards for Christmas gifts!

[rkokes]

I make a layout of my kids for my mom and dad. They display them in a hallway in their home, so it's fun to add to their collection. Love how you used those boxes for photos, and the box for the golf balls-genius!

[Cari]

love your ideas! I make candied nuts to give out to teachers, bus drivers, and anyone else. I need to cute them up this year with these great ideas!

[Dolly/scrapthat]

Love the golf ball holder!! Great idea!
Me? I like coooookies! LOL :D

[Christine Newman]

I love to make a batch of my homemade hot cocoa mix and put them into mason jars for gift giving!

[laura stewart]

making cards or photo gifts

[conniemelancon]

Love the photo box! I like making ornaments and cards.

[Diana Waite]

I LOVE these Laura! My favorite thing to make and give--gift tags! :)

[Ruth G]

Laura, I blanked about the fact that your blog would have a chance to comment, so I made lots of comments about your fun projects on Kerri's blog, duh!
I usually end up dressing up Girl Scout fall products (nuts and candies) with tags and patterned paper, but we didn't sell them this year so I was planning on making a mocha cocoa mix and making a paper mug to put it in (the cocoa in a cello bag or something like that.) Of course, I really should get started on that...speaking of last minute! rgauss at sbcglobal dot net so there's no confusion about which Ruth this is. I've learned my lesson;-)

[Vera W. Yates]

Laura, these are fabulous! I love using Silhouette. Thanks for the awesome inspirations. :)

[Heather Crawford]

Goodness, these are all awesome..you are so talented!

[Yarnovah on Ravelry]

We like to give homemade cranberry or banana bread. I also like to knit gifts, but sometimes I have to wrap up a UFO (Unfinishes Object) with a promise to get it done ASAP!

[Michelle]

Oh gosh, these are all awesome!!! I especially love the treat bag and photo box.

[Rhona]

This year I've made homemade marmalade as a gift but had to sample some (really good!!). Love these gift bags and the photo boxes :)

[lois paulo]

i so love making my grandkids advent calendars each year. thanks for the chance to win
lois

[Lynne]

Oh, my goodness! I think that you must have peeked on my Christmas giving list! I can use every single idea that you posted! Wow!!

I will often decorate a wooden frame for a last minute gift.

[lindsay]

we always make handprint calendars and ornaments for the grandparents. they love them!

[ona ginger]

I love giving out home-made hot chocolate mixes with home-made marshmellows. My friends have come to expect it yearly..!!

[stephanne]

I <3 Mason Jars and finding different mixes and treats and goodies to stuff in there and then decorate. So fun and each year I'm challenged to find something new!

[Lori Whitlock]

Laura, your projects are absolutely FABULOUS! Seriously, I love what you did with all of them. Feel free to play with my shapes any 'ol time you'd like. Have a super day!