Easter Candy Holders

I made these Easter candy holders by recycling ink pad holders from the Versamagic and Brilliance Dew Drop ink 4-pad sets. They were on sale for $5.99 a couple of weeks ago at J's and I got the last 4 sets of the Versamagic ink for my birthday (I now have all 36 colors!) and a couple of 4-packs of the Brilliance inks. The third picture above shows the packaging before. As soon as I saw the packaging, I thought "hey--those are the exact shape of Easter eggs!" And then I pulled out the Easter CTMH stamps that I think were a "stamp of the month" freebie a year or two ago and to be honest, I didn't like them and thought I'd never use them--but they are the perfect size to stamp eggs for this project and now I like them! I made these for the 5 little girls for Easter, my daughters Paige & Brooke, my adorable nieces Karmin & Katrina and their cousin Morgan. They are filled with Easter M&M's in the back of the packaging (where the ink pads were). I just traced the ink pad to make a template for the PP eggs and the stamped eggs. It was actually easier to trace the outline before stamping to get the image lined up correctly. Below is a complete list of supplies and some more commentary (you know me!--concise is not a word you'd use to describe my writing style):

All versions:

Used a monogram initial printed on white cardstock, font is Exotica (in font size 70-84 depending on the width of the letter). I love this! I was longing to buy the new SU big alphabet for doing cool monograms (as shown on the wedding favors in the latest catalog) but they are so expensive and this font was FREE from Dafont.com!!!

Empty packaging from Dew Drop Ink 4-packs (Versamagic and Brilliance)--this packaging just opens up and closes right back up--no power tools needed to open the clamshell!

Stamps--Fancy Pants Journals Ala Mode and CTMH C1230 Speckled Eggs

SU 1-3/8" circle punch and scallop punch

Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly punch

CM corner rounder

2 pieces of PP, 1 piece of 8 x 8 (had to trim to around 8 x 6 and then fold) scalloped paper, 1 scrap of cardstock for scalloped circle behind monogram, and 2-3 colors of coordinating inks and ribbon

SU red Sticky Strip (also sold as Terrifically Tacky Tape) to adhere scalloped flaps to the packaging

Foam Pop Dots for dimension on some monograms and embellishments

M&M Easter candies (the plain & peanut M&M's and the speckled eggs)

P version:

PP--K&Company Sparkly Sweet

Scalloped Paper--Colorbok from the "Scalloped Box Set" from J's

Ink--Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender/Blue/Purple

Ribbon--from my stash

B version:
PP--DCWV Nana's Nusery Baby Girl

Scalloped Paper & Chipboard--Colorbok

Ink--Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid and Versamagic Sage

Ribbon--Martha Stewart, craft supply

M version:

PP--Fancy Pants Mulberry Road (had to make the scallop on this one using the Marvy Giga corner rounder with the guard off)

Ink--Versmagic Turquiose Gem/Pink Petunia/Sea Breeze

Ribbon--Fancy Pants Mulberry Road, American Crafts

K version #1:

PP--DCWV Pocket Full of Posies (gold pattern) and Nana's Nusery Baby Girl (little chicks)

Scalloped Paper--Colorbok

Ink--Versamagic Thatched Straw/Mango Madness/Pretty Petunia

Ribbon--from my stash

K version #2:

PP--DCWV Pocket Full of Posies (light blue pattern) and Colorbok (red floral)

Scalloped Paper & Chipboard--Colorbok

Ink--Versamagic Red Magic, Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue

Clip--Making Memories Chelsea's Place from M's

Ribbon--from my stash

I liked how these turned out so much I stayed up until 2:16 this morning finishing them! Yikes--I've been having a bit of a problem with insomnia lately. Of course, 2:16 became 3:16 immediately because of the whole daylight savings time thing last night. It reminded me of college a long time ago when we'd get an extra hour of bar time on that night! These are really cute in person--I wish I could figure out my new camera so I'd know how to take better photos. I know the photos are kind of crummy. And I didn't want to take them outside in the daylight to photograph them since it's snowing (AGAIN!--Isn't 80 inches this winter enough already??? Never believe the silly groundhog). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this project. I was going to do a whole tutorial on the one set of packaging I have left (going to make one more), but I'm too tired and my photos aren't so great anyway. So email me if you have specific questions or feel free to leave comments! Thanks!

I was inspired a bit on this project by the fabulous Keisha Campbell's use of this exact FP stamp with monograms (not that my work looks anything like her fantastic creations--google her blog--she's awesome!) and some great candy holders on Taylor Van Bruggen's blog, Taylored Expressions. Her talent blows me away, too! She picked out only the candies that matched her paper, too! So I'm not the only crazy person in the world who does things like that. After all, we can't have a project without color-coordinated candy! Heehee...