Happy Hanukkah! Special Guest Blogger: Stacy Cohen

Hi, everyone! My name is Stacy Cohen, and I’m thrilled to be the guest blogger today!!

Hanukkah starts at sundown tonight, and I’m finally finished with my shopping. My family follows the tradition of opening a present every night during the eight nights of Hanukkah, so I had numerous presents to buy and wrap. My daughters are very easy to shop for. My husband, not so much. Luckily, we started a fun tradition a few years ago: rather than buy each other big gifts, my husband and I buy eight small Hanukkah gifts for each other—gifts that have to come from the 99 Cents Store!

The past 99-Cents-Store gifts have run the gamut from practical and personal to downright hilarious. I’ve received items like scrapbooking embellishments, a picture frame, and a tube of toothpaste (not my regular brand, unfortunately). I’ve given my husband gifts such as tools, a flashlight, and socks. (He loves those socks!) One thing is for sure: every year our 99-Cents-Store gift exchange ends up creating lots of laughter in our house. I can’t wait to see what my husband has picked for me this year!

In honor of the holiday, I created a Hanukkah layout to share with you today:

"Handmade Menorahs" by Stacy Cohen. Supplies Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned paper and sequined gems: Prima; Letter stickers: American Crafts; Trim: Junkitz; Canvas paper: Ranger Industries; Embroidery thread: DMC; Paint: Shimmering Products.

Pleated Paper How-To
I love to add pleated paper ruffles to my layouts. Here’s a little step by step for you to try at home:

1. Cut strips of paper about 1″ wide.

2. Use scallop scissors to create a decorative border on one long edge of each strip. Alternatively, you can freehand cut scallops or curves—they don’t need to be perfect since you’ll be pleating the paper.

3. Starting at one end of each strip, use the edge of a ruler to make a fold in the paper. The size of your fold will depend on how big you want your ruffles to be. I usually make my front folds about 0.75″ wide.

4. After the first fold, make a small fold (about 0.25″ wide) going in the opposite direction. Note: I always eyeball the width of the folds, but you can mark your fold lines with a pencil and a ruler if you want to be more precise.

5. Repeat the folds back and forth as the pictures above shows. It doesn’t matter where on the scallop pattern you make your folds, because once the strip is fully pleated, the scallops will blend together nicely.

6. Trim the cardstock base of your layout to remove just less than the width of your paper strips from each side; here, about 0.75″. Once you have your paper strips pleated from end to end, use a strong adhesive to adhere them to the edges of the backside of your cardstock. In my experience, Fabritac, Zip Dry Paper Glue and a Scotch ATG gun all work well.

7. As a final step, you can add some sparkly paint to your ruffle. I used Blingz paints from Shimmerz.

Voilà—you have a pretty pleated ruffle!

Thank you, Creating Keepsakes, for having me as your guest blogger today! It’s been an honor! Happy Holidays, everyone!

Hanukkah Product Giveaway

Shalom Scrapper has generously donated three prize packages for the CK blog readers. Just leave a comment on this post by December 13 sharing your favorite Hanukkah tradition. Three lucky winners will be randomly selected.

Free Font Friday

P.S. As part of Free Font Friday, you can download the CK Hanukkah font for free here.