Candice Windham Design Studio

This is the last day of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop, featuring Sizzix dies created by multi-talented designers Brenda Pinnik, Eileen Hull and Karen Burniston. This has been so much fun and has made me push the creative envelope. These dies have been so easy to work with and, in a time of year that is extremely hectic, they have made me slow down and relax with the thing I enjoy most, creating art. This final die, by Eileen Hull, is one that truly stretches the imagination. It is designed as a baggie topper, but the elements can be used for so many other items. The embellishment pieces alone (hearts, scallops, nameplates) conjure up a variety of ideas for future projects. I used three toppers and one embellishment, all cut from mat board, to create a traditional bag topper, a book and a little storage space for stray postage stamps. Here's how I made them: Valentine Bag Topper You don't have to wait for Valentine's Day. Show your love anytime! Supplies Sizzix ScoreBoards

I can't believe we are almost through with this blog hop. Each week has been an adventure in creativity! Be sure to click on the Sizzix button on the left side of this page to see what 60 other amazing designers did with this die! Between this event, my 3X weekly posts at the Memory Keepers blog, and Christmas shopping, I am just about created out. When I took Brenda Pinnick's lovely fabric and Sizzix diecuts out of the bag, my brain malfunctioned. There were so many possibilities, but also 60 other designers using the same materials. I always like to push the envelope, but how could I top what I had done in the past few weeks without spending days on the project? I read somewhere that when you are writing a novel and you get your hero stuck in one of your mind blocks, you should turn him around and go in the opposite direction. If it works for writers, it should work for crafters, so I turned backwards and went to my crafting beginnings, which was scrapbooking. Brenda's fa

Welcome to this week's edition of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop! Today, the featured die is Karen Burniston's Sizzix Pop-up Gift Card Holder Die ( #656740 ). Sometimes gift cards are the only way to to make sure you give what the giver wants, but when it comes to presentation, we are limited to a gift card envelope or pay way too much for a special holder. This die comes with the holder and several extra pieces, and when assembled, your gift card will pop out of the greeting card enclosure as a little extra surprise for the recipient. I chose to make the pop-out portion a book title rather than a card holder by just placing the extra little label cutout portion over the words to create a permanent title page for my 2010 Christmas album. Supplies Sizzix Pop-up Gift Card Holder Die, #656740 Christmas Cardstock, 2 sheets 12" X 12" Chipboard, 3 sheets 5 1/2" X 6 1/2" Green Card stock, 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", folded to 4 1/4" X 5 1/2" Black Card s