J-O-Y

This week at Our Creative Corner our November hostess, Linda Coughlin, is challenging us to make a 3-D holiday gift. I decided to combine the challenge with my club's 3-D project for the month and came up with this JOY banner. I got the idea from this banner but thought it would be cute with letters inside instead of photos. It was a little hard to get photos since I hung it in the stairwell going down from my studio, but I did my best!

The original project used the matchbox die for the boxes, and I intended to do that as well... until I realized they were too small for the Serif Essentials Alphabet. So I quickly made my own little boxes. They are 5 3/4" x 6" panels of Old Olive textured card stock, scored at 3/4" and 1 1/2" on each side; cut off the corners to create tabs and you have a sweet little box. The Cherry Cobber letters fit nicely inside these. I backed them with panels of Jolly Holiday DP (2 5/8" x 2 7/8") and for accents I added images from the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set (from the mini catalog). I used a 1" book ring for the holder and looped Old Olive striped ribbon through it, then, to keep it in place, I sewed on a Cherry Cobbler button with linen thread. Yes, you read that right, I sewed it on. And my club members will do it, too, whether they like it or not! ;) The final touch was tying a Very Vanilla satin ribbon bow on top of the ring, just to make it a little more elegant.

Here are close-ups of the letters themselves. As for the red and green rhinestones, did you know you can color our adhesive rhinestones and pearls with Sharpies? Try it! Be sure you visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the team's creations - you'll find lots more great gift ideas for the holidays!