Hi everyone!  Last Minute Holiday Gift Week is in full swing and the Web Elves Artists have been busy stamping and creating even more simple and stylish ideas for holiday giving.  One talented elf artist has also made a video you won’t want to miss — so stay tuned for that!

First up today is Laura Griffin, who has taken ice cream bowls and mugs to a whole new level with stamping.  Wow, I just love these!  Laura shares, “I am in love with the Long Seasonal Borders stamp set that Hero came out with this year. When I first saw the set, I knew it would be perfect for creating last-minute holiday gifts. I picked up some white ceramic bowls at WalMart and used Lazertran waterslide decal paper to create custom stamped borders on them.”

“To finish off the gift, just add hand-stamped tags to some of your favorite toppings. I couldn’t stop at just the hot fudge — but had to add chocolate chips, pecans, marshmallows and sprinkles too! (Anybody else getting hungry? *lol*)”

“Other ceramic objects are easy to alter as well. For example, you can use Lazertran paper to create custom coffee or hot chocolate mugs. These are really fun to make. The cupcake snowman image works perfect for these! Just add candy or hot chocolate mix to finish.”

Supplies:

• Clear Design Long Seasonal Borders
• Clear Design Holiday Gift Tags
• Cupcake Snowman
• Black StazOn Ink
• Other (for bowls) : Lazertran transfer paper (either regular or “stamping” versions will work), Ancient Page permanent ink (Pine, Bordeaux, Cobalt), white ceramic ice cream bowls (Walmart), red ribbon, ice cream scoop, holly/berry sprinkles, chocolate sauce, marshmallows, nuts, chocolate chips, container of water, heat gun, oven
• Other (for mug): Lazertran transfer paper (either regular or “stamping” versions will work), white ceramic mug (Target), red ribbon, permanent markers (Sharpie, Copic or Prismacolor will work), hot chocolate, toffee, marshmallows, container of water, heat gun, oven

Laura’s Tips:

• The Ancient Page waterproof ink used on the ice cream bowls is safe to use on acrylic stamps. It will, however, stain your stamps permanently. Note that they will still work fine with other inks and the staining won’t impact the functionality of your stamps.
• Here are the suggested baking instructions for fusing stamped Lazertran paper onto ceramic: Place covered object in a domestic oven on lowest temperature to dry out transfers for 15 minutes. Increase the temperature as slowly as possible over the next hour until the decal melts (at approximately 350-400 degrees F). The transfer will turn shiny and the finish will have a hard, glazed appearance. Once cool, the stamped image will be fused to the ceramic. It is suggested that you hand-wash covered objects to help protect the stamped images.

Now…Laura has a special treat!  She has created a step-by-step video to show just how easy stamping on ceramic can be…

How fun does that look?!  I can’t wait to give it a try.  Thanks for the great instructions and beautiful inspiration Laura!

Next, Robyn Werlich has created a treat jar topped with holly and stuffed with deliciousness! I love the personalized touch of the monogram tag and the holly berries she made with clear buttons.  Here’s Robyn to share more:  “I love giving (and getting) homemade gifts during the holidays and I thought it would be fun to package them up in a cute way. By stamping on cellophane and creating a simple topper for a cute jar, you have a quick and festive gift!”

Supplies:

• DesignBlock Big Holiday Words
• Sparkle Clear: R
• Clear Design Winter’s Butterfly
• StazOn White Ink
• Clear Buttons
• Clear Circle Tags
• Other: plastic jar (Making Memories), cellophane bag, cardstock, patterned paper (Bo Bunny Double Dot), ribbon, sewing

Robyn’s Tips:

• Using white StazOn ink, stamp the large background stamp on the cellophane bag and let dry. You can tie a bow around this and give as a gift as is.
• I drew a holly leaf on the back of the cardstock and then cut it out. Use brown ink to stamp the snowflake border stamp a few times on each leaf and then fold and add some sewing. I simply punched red dots from patterned paper and glued them to the top of the clear buttons for the berries.

Super cute, Robyn — thanks for sharing!  I’m thinking this would be a great way to package the neighbors’ goodies (caramel popcorn) this year.

I hope today’s offerings from the Web Artists have inspired you to get a step ahead on your holiday gift preparations.  The Flickr pool is filling up nicely with wonderful last minute gifts!  Still not sure what to create?  Check out this thread at Flickr — lots more great ideas!  Remember, you have until 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 30 to participate in the weekly challenge.  Monday’s post contains more information.

Speaking of “last minute”…the Holiday “Win a Day” on the Hero Blog Contest is still open…but for only four more days!  The deadline is Sunday, November 30 and you can find all the details HERE.

Visit us tomorrow when we’ll announce the winners of Sally’s Thankful Challenge!

Thanks for joining us,

Filed under: lastminute

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 4:52 am and is filed under Watch It Wednesdays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.