Welcome to the 2nd Hard Core Crop!
We are bringing in the Holiday season with challenges designed to get you inspired to create for the Holidays. Please head over to the Core blog for crop rules. And we have the Facebook HCC crop page here for you to chat and hang out with fellow Hard Core Croppers so make sure you head over there, too. You never know when challenges or giveaways will pop up over there!
Today I have created for you Gift Bags. These are a great way to brighten someone's day with a personal gift wrapping. Today I did 2 Thank you bags, but it would be a perfect concept for a birthday or Christmas, even a baby gift. I can't wait to see what each of you come up with.
Supplies needed:
- gift bag
- Core'dinations ColorCore Cardstock in the coours that suit your topic
- border punches/ favourite punches
- letter stickers
- adhesive
- twine
- Core tools-sand it & dust buddy
additional items that will be awesome:
- embellishments
- patterned paper
- ribbon
- embossing folders
- die cutting plates
Let's get started! Here is the first

Start out with a plain gift bag, I get mine from my local Dollar store.
Cover the gift bag with a base colour. I never ever go edge to edge with the bottom layer. I like a bit of the gift bag still peaking through.
I did sand ONLY around the edge.
Make sure you use enough adhesive, the last thing you want is your gift bag to fall apart on the way to the recipient. :0
Next I started to create my layers. I started with a fairly light beige background. So it was natural for me to pull in a darker colour. For the darker layer, I sanded the entire thing. I wanted it now to "pop" a little more and by revealing the base it really stands out more. I also raised it with Scrapbook Adheive by 3L 3-D Foam Squares.
Break out those Spellbinders Dies! Here's a perfect time to cut out a funky shape! I picked red cause it seems to help the brown tones POP! For this element I DID NOT sand it. I like to really vary the layers with sand and no sand. I think they give a larger impact.
Again another fun die. For me it seemed so natural to add some tone of blue. I love the neutrals, but I love them more when they have some sort of "snap" to them to come alive!
Now for my main accent! I die cut a cute little Gingerbread man. (Tim Holtz die) I adore him and he makes me smile.
Add a title and somw twine and voila! Now it looks like a decorative piece!
Gift Bag #2:
I'm not going to show all the steps again, as some are a little repetitive of the first bag. Lot's of layering again. This time I used more border punches . Again I popped everything up with 3-D Foam Squares from Scrapbook adhesives by 3L. This time I added lettering stickers from Bo-Bunny.
I brolke out my EK Success punches and made some butterflies. I only put my Dodz Adhesive in the middles so they wings could be bent to look like they are flying.
Rule of 3, so I balanced another butterfly lower down on the left.
Then I punched out a whole bunch of little flowers and layered those and used them as little accents all around the gift bag. Same with the itty bitty hearts. What I haven't shown you is, I later decided to put rhinestones in the centers of my flowers. I didn't have any on me when I was scrapping at a friends house, but when I got home I decided they needed a little something something.
Thanks for joining me today on making gift bags. I challenge YOU now to make a fabulous gift bag for any occasion. And then PLEASE SHARE!!!!! We love to see what our loyal Core Addicts do. You guys just ROCK!!!!!
ow one of you lucky followers is gonna win a sweet prize package from Core'dinations Color Core Cardstock. I am giving away the Jenni Bowlin: Vintage Brights Core Impression line. fabulous product!!!!!
If you do not have a blog, please feel free to use Photobucket or Flickr or any other photo sharing sight that provides links. Challenges must include Core'dinations ColorCore Cardstock. You may NOT combine this challenge with any of the other HCC challenges but you may complete this challenge as many times as you like. You must link by 8 pm, December 2nd (Sunday).
Thanks so much for joining me. Keep checking all the fun activities everyone on our team has planned!
Leica Forrest
*you can also find me on facebook where I share my daily adventures**