Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2026February 14, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome back to today’s Valentine posts. In case you missed it, earlier today I shared the simple gift bags I gave to my co-workers yesterday. Just a simple combo of SU! goodies from the crafty stash.

This afternoon, I’m using a lot of those same products — Most Adored DSP, Celebrate Love ephemera, and ribbon — to dress up the gifties I picked up for my two loves.

First up, sometimes you get things that are a little oddly-shaped for a gift bag or maybe you want a bit of the gift to show. So we’re using a belly band to dress up these first two. I chose the small heart sheet from the Most Adored paper pack and cut each belly band to size and adhered with tear-n-tape. The band is wrapped with some retired gingham ribbon. The tags are cut from the foiled heart patterned paper and cut with the To the Point label punch. The tags are dressed up with a punched heart and sentiments from the Celebrate Love ephemera pack adhered with dimensionals. A few gold sequin hearts are added for a little extra pop.

Next up, we’re still using the belly band technique but covering more of our chocolate bars here since their wraps didn’t really coordinate well with the color scheme. We’ve got two different heart patterns from the Most Adored paper pack and each is wrapped with ribbon — white iridescent and some Melon Mambo polka-dot. The tags are punch from a sheet of plaid and we add hearts and sentiments from the Celebrate Love ephemera pack with dimensionals. The tags are tie on with Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon and some sequin hearts are added for a pop of gold twinkle.

It doesn’t to much to turn a gift into something special with just a few handmade elements. All it takes is some goodies from the stash and a few minutes of your time.

I hope you all feel loved today. Know that you are special to your Creator and that is the most importantly love anyone can have! Next week, we’re going to find some fun ways to share a little luck.

Products used:
Most Adored DSP, Celebrate Love ephemera, heart punch, Iridescent ribbon, Melon Mambo polka-dot ribbon, Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon, Real Red & white gingham ribbon, heart sequins (retired)
To the Point label punch
Dimensionals

Valentines

Happy PALentine’s Day

February 14, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody! So glad you stopped by today. I’ve been so tired when I got home from the office on Thursday and Friday that I pretty much had dinner, did the usual family thing, and then went straight to bed! It’s a super busy time of year with the kiddo’s various activities, church activities picking up as we head into Lent, and just life stuff. Do you ever have weeks where you’re just done when you get home? I feel like I’m having a string of them.

Despite being pretty wiped out from the work day, I did actually play in the crafty goodies the last two days in preparation from Valentine’s Day. So today, I’m going to be bringing you two posts to show you what I pulled together from the crafty stash to make some folks feel a little love this week. I have oodles of Valentine-themed goodies in the retired Stampin’ Up! stash and that’s where I turned for my projects. I like to swipe holiday-themed things when they go on the sale rack in the store to prep for the next year. For anyone who likes to make things for craft fairs or just likes to make things to give away, this is a perfect way to give gifts from the heart on a budget! So we’re pulling out last year’s beautiful Most Adored foiled paper, Celebrate Love ephemera, and Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon, along with some gift bags I bought on clearance a Christmas or two ago.

I like to make little gifties for my co-workers, and with some clearance chocolates in-hand, I just needed to whip up some cute packaging. I had a package of pre-scored, pre-assembled SU! gift bags in my stash and they were just the perfect size to fill with the assortment of chocolates I purchased — Hershey Kisses, Hershey Nuggets, and some Lindor truffles. I cut some smaller pieces of metallic tissue paper from my wrapping stash to stuff in each bag. And then I set about making the custom gift tags. I chose a red plaid pattern from the Most Adored paper pack and cut tags using the Heartfelt Hexagon punch. I punched a small hole in the top of each one and thread a loop of red & white baker’s twine to affix the tag to each bag. I made a bow of the Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon and then placed a sentiment from the Celebrate Love ephemera pack on top using dimensionals. I tied the tag to the bag and voila — gift complete.

Sometimes it’s just a simple touch that really elevates a gift. And all we needed here to dress up the cute SU! gift bag was a tag. If you drop back by a little later today, I’m going to show you how I dressed up the little gifties I got for my boys for Valentine’s Day.

Products used:
Most Adored DSP, Celebrate Love ephemera, Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon (retired)
Heartfelt Hexagon punch
Red & white baker’s twine
Dimensionals

Nugget Treat Trio

December 23, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Tuesday, everyone! The days to Christmas are ticking away quickly. Do you ever feel like time is a bit on fast-forward this time of year? I sure do!

I’m sharing another fun treat box with you today. And it’s also another one I learned from The Paper Pixie. When I tell you that she is a 3D packaging genius, I’m not kidding! *wink* This cute little box perfectly holds 3 Hershey nugget treats. But you could easily use it for other things, as well.

I pulled out a combination of both old and new papers as I was making these little gift boxes. I have found that Christmas treats are the perfect way to use retired papers. While you tuck the lid right into the front of the box, I chose to make each of mine close with a tiny Velcro dot. I like the finished look that gives.

I like to use these little gifties for the mailman, my hair dresser, and anyone I think needs a little holiday cheer. And they’re great in combination with a host of other things in a goodie bag.

Wanna give this cute little treat box a try? You can download the PDF tutorial here.

Christmas · Gifting

Holiday Gift Trio

December 22, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Monday, everyone! It’s the official countdown to Christmas. Are you feeling prepared or are you like me and scrambling to the finish? It really didn’t help that I had the flu last week and didn’t feel well enough to do much crafting at all beyond Tuesday. I’m definitely in crunch mode now! But that’s okay. Christmas cards will come a little late and no one will keel over when it arrives after Christmas. *wink* Sometimes we just give ourselves the grace to get done what we can “on time” and make due with the rest.

Today I’m sharing another gift box with you. I learned this box from The Paper Pixie and it’s been a huge hit. This little box is the perfect size for some hand cream, a little treat, and a pocket sanitizer. And I’ve had fun finding all the different ways to put this together. Today’s variation uses 100% patterned paper. Let’s check it out.

I just had to pull out the super fun Reindeer Days paper from last year’s holiday release. It’s so cute & festive and has the perfect front-backside combinations for this gift box. The inside dividers need to be a little more sturdy and so I chose some coordinating Real Red cardstock for that. I used the coordinating sticker sheet and Memories & More cards to decorate the box, along with some of the current shiny Real Red ribbon.

I whipped up a little tutorial that gives you some instructions both for the patterned paper and cardstock versions of this box. And you can always catch The Paper Pixie video tutorial if you’re like me and more of a visual, hands-on learner.

Christmas · Gifting

Gift Set Box

December 17, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Hi, friends, and welcome back. This week, I’m taking you along on a journey of handmade gifting. And today we have a very special gift box.

As I prepare for craft fairs — and also just for my own gifting purposes — I like to find new ways to package items that make great stocking stuffers or small gifts. In years past, I’ve made separate little packages for lip balms and hand sanitizer, but this year I thought it would be fun to find packaging that combines them into a little gift set. And here we are!

I wish I could claim credit for creating this box from start to finish, but I’m terrible at creating 3D items on my own. I just don’t think dimensionally like that. But I’m a wicked template follower and I found a great template over at Stampin’ Gala that I adapted to make this adorable gift box.

This box uses a sheet of 8.5×11 paper for the box and a quarter panel for the inside divider. And then it’s decorated with patterned paper and whatever embellishments you might like to dress it up. Here, I’ve used just a simple bow. But it looks equally as snazzy to make little popped up panels with ephemera and the like.

I’m still feeling pretty under the weather. Turns out I have the flu. So needless to say that has very much slowed down my crafting this week. Assuming I start feeling a little better, I hope to bring you another gifty project and to get the PDF tutorial for this cute box posted. Not sure if that will be tomorrow or Friday. We shall see how it goes.

Christmas · Gifting

Custom Gift Bags

December 16, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome back, friends. I’ve been under the weather the last several days, which is really cutting into my crafting time. Because quite frankly, I don’t feel like crafting. *gasp* I know — I can’t even believe I said it either.

Luckily I had made some fairly decent progress on office gifties and I’ve been able to share those projects with you. I’ll be giving my coworkers gift bags filled with handmade goodies. And today you’re getting a look at the gift bag shell. Why just a shell? Because I’ll be putting all the finishing touches on once all of the giftie goodies are tucked inside.

I learned how to make an assortment of gift bag sizes from my upline Patty Bennett. This particular bag uses 2 sheets of 12×12 patterned paper. I happened to pull from some of my favorite retired paper packs to make my gift bags. These come together quickly and easily and I love being able to coordinate all of the items in the bag! I’ll show you the finished product once I get all of them finished. Hopefully I’ll be well enough to finish them before our office party on Thursday!

Tune in tomorrow as I show you a super cute gift set in a handmade box!

Christmas · Fun Folds · Holidays

Christmas Slider

September 15, 2025September 15, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to a new week, everybody! It was a relatively busy weekend for us with lots of bowling for the kiddo, but we spent it together and that sure made it fun! We capped off the weekend by bringing our feral momma kitty and her five precious week-old babies inside in preparation from exterior housework we’re having done this week that would have upended her cozy hiding spot. So we scooped up her little birthing hut (thank goodness she used it this time!) and brought her and the crew inside where they’ll all stay until babies are big enough to go to the local rescue group for adoption and mom is recovered enough to (finally) get fixed. I’ll have to share some precious baby photos once I can get momma to let me take some good ones.

This week we’re on to a new design theme — all that glitters is gold. With so many beautiful gold foiled and glittery products in the Stampin’ Up! lineup, it should be a week of shiny goodness! We get started with some goodies from the new suite called Traditions of Christmas and pair them up with a few oldies, like gold foil sheets, Regal Distressed Patterns paper, and a few die sets.

You might recognize this gift card layout and think that it looks familiar. And you would be exactly right! We’re flipping our new slider fun fold on its side to create today’s beautiful gift card design. I’m currently working on the tutorial and hope to have that up on the site later this week!

We get started with a base of Cherry Cobbler cardstock and score it to create the off-center barn fold look with the right panel serving as the pocket for our slider section. A sheet of the beautiful Traditions of Christmas paper serves as the backdrop for our card front. The overlapping focal panel backdrop is a combination of gold foil cut with the Perennial Postage dies and a sheet of the Regal Distressed Patterns paper cut with the Textured Notes dies. We use a combination of the Christmas Greenery dies and paper snips to cut the floral elements from another sheet of the Traditions of Christmas paper. The larger spray of florals is the focal image for the front panel, while the smaller fussy-cut elements serve as the cover for the slider pocket of the gift card panel. The front floral spray is adhered over a twist of the Real Red shiny ribbon using several layers of dimensionals. We finish everything off with a scattering of the Traditional Sparkling sequins across the front panel and add just a few on the gift card panel.

When adhering the florals on the sliding panel, ensure that they are flat for a fully unobstructed open/close of the inside slider gift card panel.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see what we have glittering next!

Product List

Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[119685]

$14.00

Gold Foil Sheets

[132622]

$5.00

Regal Distressed Patterns 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[164037]

$10.00

Traditions Of Christmas 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[165853]

$16.50

Perennial Postage Dies

[162607]

$33.00

Textured Notes Dies

[165555]

$31.00

Christmas Greenery Dies

[165872]

$36.00

Words For The Season Dies (English)

[165797]

$32.00

Real Red 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Shiny Ribbon

[165876]

$10.00

Traditional Sparkling Sequins

[165875]

$8.00

Fine-Tip Glue Pen

[138309]

$7.25

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Add All to Cart

Fun Folds · Gifting

Hats Off for the Grad

July 28, 2025July 29, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Monday, everyone! Our summer is flying by in a flash as we begin the last two weeks of summer break here in N. Texas. It’s hard to believe that school is just around the corner. And I don’t know about you, but that brings about a lot of anxious preparation as we begin gathering new school supplies and shopping for new clothes with a preteen (not for the faint of heart!).

It also means that we’re beginning a new week of fun crafty designs. And this week we’re going to be working through a stash of fun folds that I’ve been dying to try. And first up comes a design of necessity as my oldest nephew is headed off to college in a few short weeks. I might be just a teensy bit behind in honoring his graduation, but there’s always the last-minute items to buy right? *wink* Today, I’m trying my hand at a super cute cap & tassel fun fold that I saw over at Beth’s Paper Cuts.

For a giftie like this one, I try to coordinate the color palette with the graduate’s school colors. In this case, I need to work with a palette of royal blue, white, and black. Finding just the right shade of blue proved a little tricky since I was out of Blueberry Bushel. BUT I happened to still have a supply of Pacific Point in my retired stash, so here we go.

I decided to have the royal blue serve as the predominant color in the design and then I used white and silver as accent colors. I used white baker’s twine to tie the tassel and happened to have some silver thread on hand that I used to bind the tassel together. I liked having this silver detail tie together with the sentiment. I used the recently-retired die set called Wanted to Say to cut the sentiment. Silver trim and drusy embellishments give us nice pops of festive shimmer around the sentiment.

As I was putting my card together, I got a little ahead of myself and ended up adhering the panel that was intended to be the gift pocket, which meant I had to improvise a solution. I cut an extra square of silver specialty paper to serve as the money pocket and placed it in the center of the folding section. It works, but it wasn’t exactly how envisioned this coming out. I’ll fix it on the next go-around. *grin*

I chose to use the top-inside panel to include a hand-written note, so it is not strongly affixed in this short demo. But I still wanted to show how this adorable fun fold opens and where that message panel will eventually be situated. I haven’t had time to make the how-to video for this design yet, but I did take the time to create a PDF tutorial which is free to download here.

Products used in today’s fun fold:
Pacific Point (retired), Basic White cardstock
Brushed metallic silver specialty paper
Wanted to Say dies (retired)
Silver trim
White baker’s twine
Drusy embellishments
Brad
Dimensionals

Fun Folds · Gifting

Birthday Duo

June 28, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’re closing out our 3D design series this week with a fun combination of designs. Do you ever find yourself looking for a cute way to give a gift card? This combo is the perfect way to dress it up! Our gift box has the Timeless Plaid paper and up-and-coming Label Me Thankful set sitting front & center, while our card pairs the Everyday Arches and Scenic Adventure dies.

The card and gift box have coordinating bases of Misty Moonlight cardstock. The gift card box is covered with a sheet of the Timeless Plaid cardstock. The sentiment panel is cut from white cardstock using the Everyday Arches dies and then the sentiment from The Right Words stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso. I used one of the newest Online Exclusive die sets called Label Me Thankful (releasing Tuesday!) to cut the leaves and acorns and finished things off with a few of the Earth Tones shimmer gems.

I wanted the card to give the feeling of looking through an old window, so I used the Everyday Arches dies to cut a window shape out of the sheet of Country Woods patterned paper that serves as the focal panel. I set this panel aside to build the scene using the Scenic Adventure dies. The underlying scene panel starts with a sheet of white cardstock that I cut with the largest arch die to fit behind the focal panel that will ultimately sit on top. I started by filling in the top with Cloud Burst ink using a blending brush to create a soft sky. Next, we move to creating the water element at the bottom using the detail die in the Scene Adventure set. Moving the die around and passing through several times gives us the realist-looking shimmery water. To bring out the details of the water, I went over that section with Pool Party ink and a blending brush. The grass at the shore is cut from Mossy Meadow cardstock, while the small stand of flowers is cut from Granny Apple Green for a pop of contrast. The flowers are cut from pastel ombre glimmer paper and adhered to the floral stems with glue dots and then tucked behind the grass at the shore. The trees are a combination of Pecan Pie and Shaded Spruce cardstock and layered both behind and in front of the grass at the shore. The mountain in the distance is cut from Thoughtful Journey paper and adhered behind the grass and trees in the foreground. Dimensionals help give this scene a lot of depth and layers. The window pane layer is adhered on top using several layers of dimensionals to ensure that the scene looks as though it’s outside the window. We finish things off with the sentiment cut from Flower Garden Foil using the Wanted to Say dies. An assortment of riverside pearls, two tone gems, and In Color pearls add the finishing touches and help the eye pass across the design.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration in this week’s designs and have maybe even downloaded a tutorial or two to try out sometime soon! I hope you’ll stop in next week as we take a look at some new Online Exclusives!

Product List for Card

Misty Moonlight 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[153081]

$14.00

Shaded Spruce 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[146981]

$14.00

Pecan Pie 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[161717]

$14.00

Granny Apple Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[146990]

$14.00

Mossy Meadow 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[133676]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Thoughtful Journey 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[163303]

$12.50

Pastel Ombre Glimmer 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[164851]

$12.00

Flower Garden Foils 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[165511]

$10.00

Country Woods 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[163393]

$12.50

Scenic Adventure Dies

[165467]

$31.00

Everyday Arches Dies

[164629]

$29.00

Wanted To Say Dies

[161594]

$39.00

Cloud Cover Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[165279]

$5.50

Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad

[147107]

$9.00

Riverside Irregular Pearls

[164937]

$9.00

Two Tone Sparkle Gems

[164633]

$9.50

2025–2027 In Color™ Flat Pearls

[165192]

$8.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Product List for Gift Card Box

Misty Moonlight 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[153081]

$14.00

Timid Tiger 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[165626]

$14.00

Early Espresso 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[119686]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Timeless Plaid 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164678]

$12.50

Everyday Arches Dies

[164629]

$29.00

The Right Words Cling Stamp Set (English)

[165316]

$26.00

Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad

[147114]

$9.00

Earth Tones Shimmer Gems

[164070]

$8.50

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Add All to Cart

birthday · Gifting · Treat Boxes

Birthday Pinch Box

June 25, 2025 susanfoxbowen2 Comments

We’re already halfway through this week. I’m not quite sure how that happened! This week, we’re making 3D designs. And today’s design is a super simple fold-over pinch treat box. There are all sorts of variations of this box out there – mostly varying in size or shape. Regardless of which one you choose to make, the box comes together in a snap! And today’s birthday box uses the Wildflower Birthday paper pack and ephemera sheet.

The box itself is made from a full sheet of Pool Party cardstock. After scoring along both the long and short edges and making some strategic cuts, you fold in the flaps to create the bottom of the bag and the top flap. A quick little pinch of the sides at the top create the closure for the fold-over flap. I use small Velcro dots to act as my bag closure because I find it the simplest and most effective method, but I know some folks have used magnets and some have chosen to have a ribbon closure. But for me, I’ll stick with the easy button! *wink-wink*

I used two coordinating sheets of the Wildflower Birthday paper to decorate the bag. I intend to use this as a little birthday giftie, so I chose the sheet with cakes on it as the focal section (both front & back of the box) and then used the decorative scalloped sheet for the bag flap portion. I tied a bow using the gold striped sheer ribbon and decided I needed a little more oom-pah-pah for the bag flap, so I pulled a few gold twigs and a small leaf from the Wildflower Birthday ephemera sheet. Together, these elements provide the perfect eye-catching addition to the bag flap.

These gift boxes come together so quickly that it would be easy to trim and score a whole stack of cardstock in no time flat! If you’d like to give this cute gift box a try, you can download the tutorial here.

Product List