Monday, September 10, 2012

Introducing Gingerbread Lane & the Essential Pillow Box

Greetings, Blogland! Today begins Papertrey Ink's September countdown festivities (the new products being shared today will be available on September 15th at 10:00pm). I have a few goodies to share with you this month, so let's get to it!

First, let's take a look at Gingerbread Lane! This $24 set (and coordinating dies) celebrates the sweetness of the holiday season! The set includes gingerbread people and a customizable house with both outline and solid stamps for maximum versatility. You can embellish to your heart's content with confectionery details or keep things simple for quick and easy projects. The set also includes sentiments perfect for every need, ranging from treat packaging to holiday cards and gift tags. The possibilities are truly endless!

How about we start with a simple, easy-to-mail Christmas card. I love sending cards at the holidays, but dealing with a large number of cards that all need special postage (during the postal system's busiest time of year) does not sound like my idea of fun.


This little ditty is a breeze, incorporating just a single layer of 1/16" foam tape and dimensional glaze for a bit of texture. I die cut my ginger lady and then used the outline, solid stamp, and button stamp together to whip up this quickie. I colored in her piping with a white colored pencil (a white pen would work well too) to add a little contrast and then added the aforementioned glaze to her buttons.


The sentiment (also from Gingerbread Lane) was stamped inside the chevron frame from Fabulous Frames. A little foam tape, impression plate/corner rounder action, and this card was ready to share.

Next up we have a wine bottle tag featuring the little house from Gingerbread Lane. I started by die cutting and stamping the house's outline and then filling in the main house image. Then I filled in my roof. The set includes both a full strip of gumdrops as well as a single gumdrop so you can go with a single color or multi-colored arrangement. Tip: the gumdrop at the very, very peak of the roof is slightly concave, so the single gumdrop image works best if you do a smidgen of masking. It's not totally necessary, but I wanted to give a heads up. No masking needed with the full strip of gumdrops.


I further embellished my house with the solid (square and roundy topped) windows, candy canes, door, and loop de loop images. The gumdrops and candy canes were then given a healthy dose of glitter. They look so real I started giggling like a five year-old. It's hard to show in photos, but it's awesome. I promise.


The banner at the top of the tag features one of the sentiments from Gingerbread Lane. There are both "from our" and "from my" sentiments in the set so you can send a gift/card/what-have-you from however many people you choose. Handy, no?

And last but not least is one of my very, very favorite contributions for this month's release. I give you the Essential Pillow Box. I love this pillow box. I designed this shape several years ago when I couldn't find an existing pillow box die that would fit a standard gift card. Everything on the market was just barely too small. So I put pencil to paper (so to speak) and here we are. I'm so excited!

Here are a few features of this new die:

  • Fits through most of the popular die cut machines available these days. If your machine has at least a 5 1/2" opening you're in good shape.
  • You can get two boxes from a single sheet of cardstock.
  • It fits a standard gift card/credit card, but it's also a great size for all sorts of tiny treats.
  • There are finger cut-outs in the inside flaps so it's nice and easy to get to the treat inside the box.

For my box today I began by stamping a half-sheet of white cardstock with Background Basics: Medallions. Then I die cut my box (if you cut first you may have trouble stamping on the debossed score lines). Another tip: I like to pre-fold my score lines before taping my box together because it just seems to close more smoothly.


Then I embellished the box with some Pinefeather saddle stitched ribbon, a bow from Bells & Boughs, and a little "just for you" sentiment. The button on the bow was stitched on with a little bit of metallic embroidery floss for just a bit of fancy-pantsyness.

Alrighty. That's all for me today. I hope you've enjoyed today's post. Make sure to visit with Nichole Heady, Heather Nichols, Dawn McVey, Betsy Veldman, Erin Lincoln, Cristina Kowalczyk, Melissa Bickford, and Tiffany Pastor for more countdown action. I'll be back tomorrow with more gingerbready, pillow boxy fun. See you then!

Recipes:
Sweet Season's Greetings Card:
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Classic Kraft - Papertrey Ink; white
Stamps: Gingerbread Lane (available September 15th), Fabulous Frames - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Simply Chartreuse, Classic Kraft, Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink; Burnt Umber - Palette
Other: Fabulous Frames Dies, Linen & Canvas Impression Plate, Gingerbread Lane Dies (available September 15th) - Papertrey Ink; Foam Tape - Scotch; White Colored Pencil - Prismacolor; Glossy Accents - Ranger; Corner Chomper - We Are Memory Keepers


From Our Home To Yours Wine Tag:
Cardstock: Rustic White, Classic Kraft - Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Gingerbread Lane (available September 15th) - Papertrey Ink
Ink: New Leaf, Pure Poppy, Fresh Snow, Classic Kraft - Papertrey Ink; Burnt Umber - Palette
Other: Gingerbread Lane Dies (available September 15th), Wine Bottle Tag - Papertrey Ink; Glue Pen; Crystal Fine Glitter - Martha Stewart Crafts; Foam Tape - Scotch; Red Nail Heads - Mark Richards

Just For You Pillow Box:
Cardstock: White
Stamps: Bells & Boughs, Background Basics: Medallion, Framed Out #3, Fillable Frames #9 - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Scarlet Jewel, Pinefeather - Papertrey Ink; Noir - Palette
Other: Essential Pillow Box (available September 15th), Bells & Boughs Dies, Framed Out #3 Dies, Pinefeather Saddle Stitched Ribbon, Scarlet Jewel button - Papertrey Ink; Metallic Embroidery Floss (Precious Metals E168) - DMC; Foam Tape - Scotch; Scor-Tape


17 comments:

~Anna said...

Oh wow, Liz, these are ADORABLE!!

Alex said...

Ohhh I cannot wait for the pillow box die!

Debbie Gaydos said...

Drat. I didn't even know that I WANTED a pillow box die until RIGHT NOW! LOL it's soooo cute and will be super versatile for so many projects! Coming home with me for sure!

Jennifer K said...

The pillow box die looks perfect, Lizzie! Nice work!!!

Jill Norwood said...

Love the pillow box die and your sweet projects!

Cindy O said...

Beautiful gingerbread cards! and the pillow box is awesome.

Denise E said...

Oh my, I didn't think I needed the gingerbread set until I saw your wine tag with the house! SO CUTE! And, a pillow box, that actually works, and fits, and is cute! Stop it now... Great work. So excited! Thanks for sharing! =o)

Ann said...

Oh Lizzie I've been waiting for a decent pillow box die for.... well, I don't know how long! Thank you SO much. And those little ginger images look super cute, Perfect for a sweet Christmas!

Emily Leiphart said...

The gingerbread is adorable and I love your idea for the perfect pillow box!

Gina said...

Lizzie, I love the Wine Tag decorated with Gingerbread Lane. That is *so* cute!!! I could see slipping something like that on the neck of my favorite Pennsylvania Dutch Egg Nog that I frequently gift at Christmas...it would be perfect! And I really like the pillow box die, too. Awesome!! I have a template but, ugh, if I don't get the curve right on it when I score it. A die solves that problem! Yay!!!

Also, I just read your blog post about losing your brother recently and I am so very sorry to read that. I just can't imagine losing one of my siblings - especially unexpectedly. My thoughts are with you as you continue to grieve and miss him.

Tracey McNeely said...

Lizzie awesome projects today. Your wine bottle tag is so much fun and I love your pillow box!

Kathy Mc said...

Lizzie, congrats on designing a very usable pillow box. Your gingerbread creations are also adorable. WTG!

Lindsey said...

BLESS YOU! I am so excited for your pillow box and beyond excited that you created it with a gift card in mind. I seriously was thinking just two days ago that I really need to get a pillow box die. I even started "window shopping" at a few places to compare dies and costs. SO HAPPY that I can get one from PTI now, since I shop here all of the time. :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, that tag makes the wine gift look so lovely! It would be great to bring to a party.

jintyoo7 said...

So sweet, love the pretty bottle tag :)

bjmartin said...

Love the pillow box die - a great addition! The gingerbread set is adorable - I can see many possibilities!

IamDerby said...

awww your little house is adorable.