Friday Freebie and Dollar Sale

Need a cuttable Calendar base to go with your new Hip Hip Hooray Everyday Calendar?  Get our Hip Hip Hooray Everyday Cuttable Calendar Base FREE until Sunday at midnight, MST.  While your at it, don't forget to stock up on your all your favorite products. LD is having a site-wide Dollar Sale! Sale ends January 1st! So shop now!

Site Wide Dollar Sale!

One week only! Tremendous savings throughout! Shop the site-wide dollar sale now!!

All alphabets only $1 each! That's a 75% savings! All fonts and doodlebats only $1 each! That's a 66-75% savings! All graphic sets only $1 each! That's a 75% savings! All cut sets only $2 each! That's a 60% savings!

Save more! Save $13 on purchases of $33 or more when you use coupon code: GoodBye2013

And on the 12th day...

It's the 12th day of Christmas, and we thought the best thing to help you get ready for the new year would be our new Hip Hip Hooray Everyday Calendar and Hip Hip Hooray Everyday Cut It Set.  On sale right now as part of our Holiday Dollar Sale! This adorable set features fun whimsical animals doing their best to portray the feeling of each month. The calendar can easily be printed and cut out and simply clipped together with a binder clip or bulldog clip. I found these adorable colored binder clips. I also liked that I could flip up the back side and use it to hang up.

Or you can turn it into an amazing flip calendar. Like this tutorial from Jin Yong at Under the Cherry Tree. This tutorial features last years Pandarama Calendar by Sheri McCulley.

Don't forget to check out today's FREEBIE and bonus product here!

A Great and Super Easy Last Minute Gift

Today's tip is a really easy and really thoughtful last minute gift that you can give a loved one!

What a better way to really give of yourself then to give the gift of service!  These adorable matchbook coupons are ready to go.  Just print and choose the coupons that fit your loved ones.  We have an adult version and a kid's version.

While you are picking those up, make sure you pick up the freebie too.  The freebies are blank versions of the matchbooks which are great for using the matchbook style card to do something other than coupons.  We thought of a few good ideas:

• reasons you love that special someone
• special words of holiday cheer
• favorite Christmas memories

We're sure you can think of a lot more! 

Tip:  We checked and you can buy a rotary blade for many paper cutters that will allow you to perforate your coupons and tickets!  Take a peek!

For those of you with cutting machines, take a peek of the matchbook coupon cut project.  The machine scores and perforates the coupons so they rip away like real coupons!

The Holiday Dollar Sale ends on Christmas Day!  Hurry and stock up!  And don't forget to take advantage of the 12 Days of Christmas Promotion.  You could win $100 dollars!  Learn more here!

What can you do with an alphabet?

Two great Christmas tips for you!

Use the first initial of a family members name on a blank tag to signify a gift is for them rather than writing out their names on tags.  Just print on light colored cardstock, trim and add to gifts!

Print  the initial letter of a loved one in a full-color alphabet on light or white cardstock or paper.  Frame it, and give as a last minute gift.

We have MANY new alphabets on sale now during the dollar sale!  Pick them up now for only $1 each!

Stuffing your Cut Files

Stuffing your files with batting...

You don't necessarily need a cutting machine to enjoy cut files.  They make great patterns for felt and other material.

As a side note, most cutting machines come with a fabric blade which is awesome...and fabric blades cut fabric great BUT this was a simple pattern so I didn't mind using scissors and I didn't want to bother cleaning up the felt dust.  If you want to cut felt you can!  There are a lot of great tutorials if you Google.  Just be prepared that you need to use a slower speed, cut as deep as possible (probably double cut) and if you don't want to spend hours cleaning your mat, use a little fabric interfacing between the felt and the mat.

 1.  Gather the materials you need:

• your cut it pattern.  We used the gingerbread man from "Christmas Calories"
• felt or fabric
• scissors
• embroidery floss or thread
• embellishments

2.  You need to create a base pattern that has a seam allowance.  You do this by cutting the bottom layer bigger.  You can "eyeball" it with scissors or.......

you can use software to make it.  This is an example of doing it in MTC.  It requires you to right-mouse click on "shape magic" then choose "shadow layer"

3.  Cut all your pattern pieces out of your material.  You will need 2 of the larger one with the seam allowance.  For the gingerbread, I elected to not cut out the wavy white lines that go on the sleeves and legs and planned on adding them in a different way.

You just pin the pattern pieces to the fabric or felt and cut.

4.  Sew all your items on to the base first.  It will make it easier...

5.  Then sew your base to ONE of the larger patterns with the seam allowance.

6.  Sew your second one right behind the first. 

7.  Make sure you stop about 7/8 of the way done so you can stuff.  I not only stuffed but I added a little gingerbread fragrance oil.

8.  If you want your item to be able to hang, slide a bit of folded ribbon in, before you finish sewing.  

We used our delicious smelling (thanks to the fragrant oil) gingerbread to add a little something to our homemade gingerbread scrub.

Want to make your own gingerbread sugar scrub?  It's so easy and it smells so good.  Plus its really great to get rid of all that dry dead winter skin that is making you so itchy.  I got the recipe I used from Foodie With Family

Gingerbread Sugar Scrub

Ingredients:

For the Gingerbread Brown Sugar Scrub:

2 cups light or dark brown sugar

1 cup extra virgin coconut oil

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground clove

10 drops cinnamon essential oil (optional, but gives the scrub a more lasting, stronger scent)

Optional: 1 tablespoon Salt (*See Notes)

To Make the Gingerbread Scrub: 

Stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and clove (and salt, if using) in a medium sized mixing bowl. Gently heat the extra virgin coconut oil in a microwave or saucepan just so that it is soft and partially melted. This should only take a few seconds. Pour it over the brown sugar mixture and smash it all together with a fork until everything is evenly distributed. Pack into a container or containers with tight fitting lids. Store at room temperature for up to six months. Use as needed.

Stuffing your files with cupcakes...

One of the most popular cut files we sell are the cupcake wraps.  If you have ever wrapped one around a cupcake, you realize that lots of glued layers wouldn't work very well.  That's why we figured out a fast and easy way to embellish a single layered file.

Our Gingerbread Cupcake Wraps would look adorable (like blank little gingerbread men and women) without the extra work, but it takes no time at all to add a few embellishments to make them look special.

After you cut out your little cupcake wraps, use a marker or puffy paint to add a few cute details.  We didn't have any children handy, but we are betting that kids would LOVE to help and would make a far better wrapper than we did!

New! Adorable Holiday Gift Wrapping!

Looking for some fun fabulous new ways to present that special gift this season? Our new Holiday Boxes Cut It Sets are a beautiful solution to new fun ways to gift wrap this year.

Our Scalloped Match Box Cut Its, are perfect for homemade candies and yummy treats. Pair it with today's FREEBIE, our Folded Paper Ribbons, and whatever is inside will look likes its worth a million bucks!

Or for a fun seasonal sentiment, fill one of our Christmas Tree Boxes with something special, or just make them up for holiday decor.

Our Holiday Boxes are sure to delight any recipient. Use the top for the bottom or the bottom for the top, whichever makes your fancy. Add one of the matching tags for the perfect finishing touch!

Or just use the decorative half for a bag tray and fill with a delectable goody!

And make sure you don't leave without our fun Folded Ribbon Cut It or Printables. Free, until 6 pm, MST tomorrow night! These ribbons cut out fast and make an adorable embellishment for any gift!

Chalk it up to a few good ideas...

The chalkboard fad is huge on Pinterest...and in crafts.  We've capitalized on it with today's tip and freebies.

First tip:  Using our cut sets as a stencil, make chalkboard paper, boxes, tags, and more for your presents.

We learned the hard way, that you don't really want to write on your presents with chalk (it wipes off!).  So we have a new solution.  

1.  Go shopping for some chalkboard spray paint.  We used Kyrlon.

2. Download the cut sets you want to use as a stencil and cut out.  We used Holiday Expressions.

3.  After cutting your "stencil" from your cut set, use a tiny bit of repositional glue or tape to adhere it to your box, paper, or item you will turn into a chalkboard.  You don't want it totally glued too much because having it be a little "loose" will let the spray paint seep underneath a bit and create a feathery chalk effect.

4.  Spray your item.  It takes about two coats.  It might take more if you are standing outside trying to block the snow from falling on your item while the wind blows your drop cloth around.

5.  After your item is sufficiently black, you could also write on it with chalk if you want but be prepared for it to wipe off pretty easily.  Wrap up your present and add a chalk tag.  We used the  Chalked Holiday Tags.

For more chalked looks, check out our Chalked Cookie Envelopes!  They are free today!

Here is another holiday tip!  After downloading the free cookie envelopes, you can use a variety of way to create closures.  We love a good use for washi tape.  Also it was fun to grab a couple of buttons and actually stitch them on and use baker's twine to close.  Make sure you line your cookie envelope with wax or butcher paper to help the delicious buttery grease to not soak through before you give your present away!

If you love the chalk look make sure you pick up our other new chalk-inspired product.

These are our new Chalked Christmas Village Tags.  

New! Pop-Out Christmas Cards...Keep them simple or spruce them up!

The new Pop-Out Christmas Cards, are a fun way to send someone a special Christmas Greeting. The great thing about these cards, is they look amazing as simple silhouettes, or you can have fun decorating and embellishing them, to make them even more unique!

You can create this fun Gingerbread pop-out card using the Pop-Out Christmas Cards Scenes Cut It and the Sweet Tooth Cut It set, both on sale for just $2 during our Holiday Dollar Sale.

Just start by cutting out your card and the candy items you want to use from the Sweet Tooth Cut It. I thought it was helpful to digitally set it up in Illustrator or you can use the free Illustrator-like program Inkscape. By doing this, I could get everything sized how I wanted to beforehand.

I built all the candy pieces and glued them to the card. For the trees, I folded the lower part of the trunk so they could stand up. You can also glue ribbon into the the back portion of the card before hand so it can you can tie it together if you want. When you glue the back on, make sure you start gluing from the middle and go out.

Here is the finished version: