Christmas Hostess Gifts - Day Two - Christmas Crackers

Christmas Crackers:

Here's another quick and easy hostess gift but with a twist.  If you're hosting your own Open House or Girly get-together how about giving "Gift Crackers" to your guests.  Just make one for each guest and a couple of spares and load them into a pretty bowl or basket and have guests choose one before they leave your event. 

Crackers are traditionally part of the Christmas table decor, but I've made these super cute little crackers into gift packages for guests. They can be used for any occasion not just Christmas.  

After watching the video by Joanne James of The Crafty Owl's blog in UK I was hooked and knew I wanted to share them with you.  Joanne is a fabulous crafter so make sure when you visit her blog that you leave her a comment and check out all her other great projects.

Simply change up the Designer Series Paper or card stock and these crackers can be used at Birthday Parties or other seasonal events........think Halloween Party!  Fill them with candy or little trinkets. Your guests will love them no matter what time of year or occasion.....trust me! 

My Version:

I am totally head over heels in love with my Stampin' Up Envelope Punch Board.  It's not just for envelopes!  The cute gift crackers in the picture above were all made with the envelope punch board.  They are so quick to make you can assemble a dozen or more in an evening without even breaking a sweat.  

How to Make Your Crackers: 
1. These crackers were each made with a 6 1/2 x 4 1/2" sheet of designer series paper. I chose to use the Winter Frost Designer Series Paper Stack and Season of Style Designer Series Paper stacks because they were just the right size.  You could also make them with card stock and decorate the edges.  

Winter Frost DSP Paper Stack #132183.  Create multiple cards in a snap with this stack of Designer Series Paper sized specifically for card fronts. 48 sheets: 24 ea. of 2 double-sided designs. 4-1/2" x 6-1/2". Acid free, lignin free. Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Whisper White. Coordinates with the Winter Frost suite.

Season of Style DSP Paper Pack # 132181.  Create multiple cards in a snap with this stack of Designer Series Paper sized specifically for card fronts. 48 sheets: 24 ea. of 2 double-sided designs. 4-1/2" x 6-1/2". Acid free, lignin free. Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Whisper White. Coordinates with the Season of Style suite.

2. Once you've chosen your paper you'll need to score it.  Starting with the 6 1/2" side of the paper score it at:  1, 1 1/2, 2, 4 1/2, 5 and 5 1/2 inches. 

3.  Rotate the paper and score at 1, 2,3,and 4 inches.

4.  Use your bone folder to gently crease the score lines on all sides.  

5.  On 6 1/2" side fold score lines (again very gently - you don't want to rip the paper or stress it), into a mountain/valley/mountain fold on each side. These creases will create the cracker part of the box.

6.  With one inch fold at the bottom of the 6 1/2" paper, fold over paper and insert into the envelope punch.  Line up the end of the paper at the 1 1/2" mark on the measuring line.  The punch should be lined up with the valley fold.  See picture below.  

7.  Punch and then move paper along to the 5 inch mark on the measuring scale and then punch again.  Repeat until the end of the paper.  Rotate paper 90 degrees and then punch again to the outside edge of the paper. 

Rotate and punch this sheet again so that the punch holes go through the end of the paper. 

8.  When you've finished punching it's time to join the ends to form the cracker box.  The easiest way to do this is to flatten out the cracker and apply adhesive to the outside edge and then fold over.  

9.  Your cracker is now ready to stuff and to decorate.  Place your gift item inside the cracker and using 11" lengths of ribbons tie bows to hold the cracker ends together.  

10. Stamp tags or sentiments and adhere to the center of the cracker, and you're all done.  Here are some closeups of the ones I made.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets:
Very Merry Tags #130402

Card Stock:
Season of Style Designer Series Paper Stack #132181
Winter Frost Designer Series paper Stack #132183
Red #121790 and Silver #124005 Glimmer Paper 
Scraps of Whisper White Card stock for sentiments and tags.

Ink:
Cherry Cobbler
Island Indigo

Accessories:
Seam Binding Ribbon or Other Ribbon of your choice 
Basic Rhinestones
Scoring Board or Paper Trimmer with Scoring Tool
Envelope Punch Board
Label Bracket Punch #132153
7/8" Scallop Circle Punch
1 1/4" Scallop Circle Punch
Dimensionals, Sticky Strips, Adhesive and Glue Dots

Suggested Fillers:
Hershey's Kisses or other individually wrapped candies
Lip Balm or Lip Stick 
Wine Charms (put in a small cello bag) 
Scratch and Win Tickets (rolled) 
Stampin Up Re-inkers 

What would you fill these crackers with.  Give me your ideas, I'd love to hear them.  Leave me your comments on this tutorial and I'll have a draw for a kit of six crackers.  Draw will be on December 28th, 2013.