Halloween Hand Sanitizer Holder

I took some days off work this week, and have just been having the best time puttering away in my craft room!  For the past two nights I worked long into the night and finished up 40 of these hand sanitizer holders to give away to our nearest and dearest co-workers at Halloween. 

I found the tutorial here, but you can find that video as well as several others over at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts.  I love her blog; she always has lots of new ideas, great tutorials, and she's so enthusiastic and cute I can't help smiling whenever I watch them.

I bought the hand sanitizers last summer at Bath and Body Works in Calgary, but I found when I tried to make the holder using the dimensions in the video, it was just a bit too small to fit the bottle nicely.  It fits perfectly in the tutorial, so maybe the bottle sizes in Canada are just a slightly different shape.  Not to worry, though -- after much ciphering and experimenting I made it work using 12 x 12 cardstock, and here are the final scoring lines that worked best for me for the 1 oz bottles I had.

Score paper at:
  1/2"
  1-1/2"
  3-1/2"
  4-1/2"
  6-1/2"
  7-3/4" (here is where the difference is)
  8-3/4" (and also here)

Using 12 x 12 paper makes the front flap end up even with the bottom of the holder, which is nice, but I wanted to be able to include a sentiment closure at the bottom (like the second one in the tutorial), so I trimmed 1/2" off that end of the paper (the end opposite the first 1/2" score) as well before cutting it into  six 2" strips.

If you would like to find these Halloween-themed hand sanitizers, they are available on the Bath and Body Works website in the "Boo-tique", and I see there are lots of new ones that weren't there last year. 

Here are a few of my favourites.  I have to admit, I was running out of steam by the end, so some are more detailed than others, but I'm happy with the result overall.  I've also been thinking about how to convert the pattern to accommodate a 1 oz bottle of irish cream or some other grown-up Christmas "treat".  Yyyyuuuuummm!!!  :o)

Wedding Card for the Mr. & Mr.

I've been meaning to post a photo of this card I made for quite a while now.  Finally sat down tonight to do it, and just spent a good 20 minutes trying to remember -- then ultimately resetting -- my password. 

Anyway...back to the subject at hand.  This is the card I made for my hairdresser and his fiance, who were married this past weekend.  I prefer giving handmade cards when I have the time, especially if it's for someone special, and lately I've been doing my own artwork, but I'm a bit shy about who I give those to.  It feels very presumptuous. 

I did actually go looking for a store-bought card, and I have to say I'm surprised at the lack of selection of wedding cards for same sex couples.  Here it is 2012, and all I found was one lame card (which they were sure to get multiples of), so off I went home to make my own.  In the end I was glad I did, although I was a bit nervous about what their reaction would be once they saw the picture, and I almost chickened out.  But they loved the picture and the sentiment, and will even be putting it in a frame.  In fact, they asked if I would consider selling them.  Awww...bless their hearts.  :o)

I should mention also that I was able to use my new light box (!) for the project.  (See previous post.  I only held out for about a week.  In my defence, I did have a 40%-off coupon.  Hee hee!)

Right.  Off to bed now.  Nighty-night!