#TGIFC548 — Festive Treats | Swimming In Stamps

For this week’s TGIF Challenge, we are creating festive treats! They can be for Halloween or any upcoming festive event. I love making treats to hand out during the holidays. It’s my little way of letting friends and loved ones know how much I care, and a handmade gift is so meaningful!

My projects feature the Gathering Moments Bundle and are based on some SUPER CUTE home decor projects made by Cindy Schuster at The Crafty Carrot Collective. I highly recommend their classes; I learn something new and get so inspired every time I watch one of their videos.

These big leaves are made with lots of paper layers, as well as Foam Adhesive Sheets, to make them super thick. Mine aren’t quite as thick as Cindy’s so I’m not sure if they would stand up on their own. However, they make great decorative toppers for these canisters that I’m filling with my homemade rocky road candy. Plus, they can easily be removed and used as home decor after opening.

Each leaf includes a front and back cut from Gathering Together Designer Series Paper (DSP) and then three adhesive foam sheets sandwiched between two colors of cardstock. The cardstock includes six layers each. So for example, the leaf below includes identical die-cuts of 1) Gathering Together DSP, 2) a foam adhesive sheet, 3) six layers of Old Olive Cardstock, 4) a foam adhesive sheet, 5) six layers of Cajun Craze Cardstock, 6) a foam adhesive sheet, and 7) Gathering Together DSP. Other than the foam adhesive sheets, all the layers are adhered with Multipurpose Liquid Glue. One great tip Cindy gave us was to use the negative die from one of the foam adhesive sheet layers as a mold to stack the cardstock layers and keep them straight! That made it so much easier to create these!

Once I built the layered leaves, I decorated with a Stylish Shape circle die-cut from copper Textured Metallic Specialty Paper, and two Thankful Garden leaf die-cuts. This first one has leaves cut from Crushed Curry Cardstock and copper specialty paper. I blended the Crushed Curry die-cut with Cajun Craze ink. Then, I stamped the acorn with Early Espresso ink and lightly watercolored it with Pecan Pie and Crushed Curry ink. Finally, I heat embossed the sentiment from the Thankful Garden Stamp Set in copper.

The second leaf includes Cajun Craze and Crushed Curry Cardstock layers, a Cajun Craze leaf blended with Early Espresso ink, and an extra leaf stamped with both Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze ink.

To complete the projects, I added some Irregular Weave Trim and Early Espresso Linen Thread as well as some Cajun Craze & Gold Dots.

Be sure to click over to the TGIF Challenges Blog to see the other designers’ festive treat projects!

Have a great day,

Purchase products from my online store to qualify to receive free exclusive project tutorials. This month’s PDF includes 12 creative tutorials designed by my demonstrator friends and I to inspire your paper crafting! The projects feature products from the 2025 Annual Catalog, Online Exclusives, and Sept-Dec Mini Catalog. Enjoy!