Candy cane holders using Strength and Hope

I'd like to say a huge thank you to those of you who have already ordered your Strength and Hope stamps! Every time someone buys this set, Stampin' Up donates £1 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation - a non-profit making organisation committed to finding a cure for breast cancer - and I think that anything we can do to help is worthwhile.

I've been busy coming up with ways for you to use your new stamps! Today I want to show you a little holder that I designed to hold some candy canes I found in my brilliant local sweet shop.

It's so easy to make these! You simply take a 25cm x 5.5cm piece of card stock and stamp it on one side with a repeat design using the same colour ink as card stock. Score and fold the card stock at 8cm.

Use a 3/4" circle punch to create an indent in the short end, and curve the corners at the other end with a corner rounder. Then sew the holder closed with contrasting thread as shown below. I found some Rich Razzleberry coloured thread for mine!

Have fun decorating the holder! I used flowers from the Boho Blossoms punch and self-adhesive pearls and rhinestones and I tied ribbons round my candy canes.

You could put all kinds of things in a holder like this - pens, pencils, scissors and other stationery items, beauty products such as lip gloss or eye liner, gardening labels...

...but candy canes are the best fun! I  photographed them here with another card I made with the Strength and Hope set.

I thought you might be interested in the border. I scalloped the edge of a 9cm square Very Vanilla card base with the scallop border punch. Underneath it, I glued a 9cm square piece of Melon Mambo card stock the edge of which I'd tucked into the Square Lattice embossing folder and run through my Big Shot.

It gives just a hint of texture - look, here it is in close-up. The background was created by stamping three of the script image, one on top of another. I used a stamp-a-majig to make sure mine was straight.

And here's the beautiful butterfly! I made this in the same way as yesterday's card - it's so easy but very effective. Stampin' Up's adhesive pearls have some strips joined together as well as individual gems. The joined ones are very useful for embellishments like this although they can be used separately too.

Here's a view of the inside of the card - just to show you the neat finish and that little bit of texture showing at the edge.

I hope you're getting an idea of how versatile this little stamp set is now. If you haven't yet ordered your set, click here to email me.

Thank you so much for spending some time here today it's always a pleasure to welcome you to my blog. I'd like to say hello to everyone that follows my blog too - I hope you'll find plenty to inspire you over the coming weeks.

I'll be back tomorrow with a quick card for Three Minute Thursday and there might just be a bonus card too! Hope to see you then,