Gift bags and thank you cards - A Club Scrap Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Club Scrap blog hop, featuring the Aspen kit.

Around the holidays, I always seem to have at least one or two items that defy wrapping paper, and a box just doesn't seem right.  To the rescue - gift bags!  I used some ribbon from my stash to tie things up - I couldn't bear to use that gorgeous chevron twill just yet.

Of course, ordinary gift bags might not be the right size, so I made my own with paper from the Club Scrap Aspen paper.  These bags are destined for gifts just after Christmas, so the wintery feel is just right without being too spirited. The patterned paper made it easy to make a pretty bag without a lot of work.

To make these custom bags, I measured what I wanted to bag up, and then made a template with some plain paper that was languishing in my drawer (not Club Scrap paper, of course!).  These bags hold bars of homemade soap - who can't use an extra bar or two?  I used the stencil with mists for this bag.

On this bag, I masked each panel (before folding!) and used stamps on the sides and the Aspen stencil on the front and back.  I think I cheated here and used a piece of tan paper from the Chocolate kit...

The length I needed was 11" or 12" depending on the number of bars in the bag, but the height was only 8.5".  This left plenty of long strips for crafting, which were perfect for making cards to go with the gifts!  In a "What Would Kay Do?" moment, I added glitter to this cut apart from the kit to make the leaves sparkle.

I make it a habit when crafting now to use up scraps to make other cards when I can.  This is yet another reason why Paul's Christmas card was made from the same scraps....  I used sepia accents on the leaf here to make it shine and have some dimension.

Since I used the green for Paul's card, the leftover strip became this card.  My "thanks" greeting is from a Stampin' Up! stamp and punches to nestle it on the front.

I hope you're enjoying the hop this month and seeing all of the inspiration from our talented artists.  Next on the hop is Deb Weller, and if you get lost or want to start from the beginning, check out the Club Scrap Creates blog.