Scrap & polish

I am so excited! Not only did Bill and I manage to take down and put away all of the Halloween decorations today, we also managed to squeeze in a trip to Target!

Post-Halloween shopping at Target is a family tradition -- it's mostly how we get new decorations and prizes for next year's pumpkin carving contest. But this year, before we hit the Halloween aisles, we ventured into the Dollar spot, and guess what I found? These adorable micro bottles of nail polish. Three .07 fl. oz bottles for just $1.00! They were so cute! I just knew I had to pick some up and think of something to do with them for Christmas.

It took a little trial and error on the measuring and scoring part (the snowman version was my first trial and is very much less than perfect) but I now have all the measurements and I can hardly contain myself because in addition to being totally adorable, this project used nothing but scraps! Woo Hoo!

Want to know how to make these nail polish holders? Easy Peasy! Start with a 5.5 inch long strip of card stock in the color of your choice between 3/4 and 1 1/4 inch wide (for reference, the red strip in the photo is 1 inch wide and the pink is 1 1/4 inch wide.) Score the strip along the length at 3/8, 3/4, 2 3/8, 3 1/8, 4 3/4, and 5 1/8 inches. Use a pop-up glue dot to secure the nail polish bottle to the center of the strip. Fold the strip around the bottle along the score lines so that the top two tabs meet in the center.

Use a 1/8" hand held punch to punch two holes through the center of the top tabs and secure closed with ribbon that coordinates with the colors in your selected image. Stamp and color your image and punch out using the shape of your choice (I used the scalloped square, but most other shapes would work as well.) Stamp the same shape for the tag in the back, attach both punched pieces to the front and the back and you're done.

I think this would make a perfect stocking stuffer for a tween, teen, best girlfriend or female co-worker. It's a fun, hand-stamped present and the recipient need never know that you made it from your scraps! I know I'll be making a bunch of them this Christmas!