Today's top headline: "Paper-piercing Tool Saves Flurry of Snowmen!"

I know, I know, these little snowmen keep showing up in my blog, but it's only because they've been "living" at my house all month! As cute as they are, all the little pieces that are needed to put them together could cause some major frustration without a few tricks. Here's what "we've" learned:

1. Mr. Snowman's face is a whole lot easier if a few circle punches are used to "cheat."
a) Punch a 1-3/8" circle from Shimmery White (or Whisper White) cardstock.
b) Pencil in where the eyes and mouth should go and punch those out with a 1/8" punch.
c) Punch a 1-1/4" circle from Black cardstock and adhere to the back of the "head."
d) Add nose. Viola! No muss, no fuss face!



2. Mr. Snowman's hat is SOOOOOO much easier with the assist of a paper-piercing tool! Arranging the little "berries" on the holly leaves was probably the most frustrating part of assembling these snowmen when we did them during stamp club.

Quite by accident I discovered that the ever-sticky nature of Mono Multi glue has its advantages. With just a touch of a paper-piercing tool (a large needle or pin would work too) to the "dried" glue on the outside of the bottle tip, I created the perfect "berry mover!" I put 3 small dots of glue where I wanted the berries to be on the hat, and then with my sticky paper-piercing tool, placed the little red circles on the dots of glue exactly where I wanted them. I was able to make a whole "flurry" (that's what I've decided a whole bunch of snowmen would be called) quick as a wink!



With as much fun as paper piecing can be, this trick should come in handy a lot!

Off to tackle today's to-do list! A quick reminder: tomorrow (the 23rd) is the last day to take advantage of Stampin' Up!'s free shipping offer!

Christmas Punch Art

My Stamp Clubs got together a few days ago for their December meeting. Traditionally, the swap theme for this before-Christmas meeting has always been "Anything But A Card--for Christmas." It's as if Santa comes early because everyone comes up with such clever ways to incorporate Stampin' Up! products into wonderful little gift ideas to share with all those in the club who swap. (I'll show those to you tomorrow. How's that for being a tease?)

In keeping with the "theme," the projects for the meeting were also gift-related. Everyone made the gift tags you see below, all incorporating punched pieces! Now, before you go thinking that I came up with these creative little darlings, let me tell you that I got the idea from the SU! Demonstrator Website. The tags were designed by a wonderful SU! demo, Mercedes Weber, who submitted them for a contest. Obviously she won because these are so cute and clever I practically had no choice but to share them with everyone. I just love them, and I think the stamp club members enjoyed them too!

Doing the tags this early in December was good--because tie-ons for gifts are always something I want to do, but of course, they always get left for last, when my energy level is majorly sagging.

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I took the idea a little bit further and converted the snowman tag into bag toppers that I put on the caramels that I donated to the Kettle Moraine High School Band's "Breakfast with Santa" bake sale this weekend.

And as if on cue, an email that I received from one of my online swap group members, Laura Lipe, contained a picture of a punch art gift bag she made. She saw a the punched singing reindeer idea on someone's blog and made it a trio to cover the bag. The "antlers" were made using the "swirls scribbles" Sizzlits die and the Big Shot. Cute beyond belief!

Come back tomorrow to see the Stamp Club's swap projects. You're going to love them!