A Few Christmas Goodies

I love candles.  I LOVE these brilliantly creative ideas from the 36th avenue for gifting them.  So easy and adorable!  You can find the tutorial to these cuties HERE

My kids are getting to the age where they are starting to want money instead of presents.  But handing over an envelope isn't very fun.  This super cute idea is from makingmemorieswithyourkids. You can find this tutorial HERE.

You know I am a sucker for anything in a jar.  This is a great keep warm kit in a jar.  This is from 30 days and you can find the tutorial HERE.

I couldn't resist a few more creative money ideas.  These are from top inspired.  You can find them HERE.

And if you are starting to run behind on your holiday gifting, hold off until after Christmas, and deliver some New Year's cheer!  This is an adorable, and very doable gift.  With a free printable!  This one is from create craft love and you can get it HERE.

So, back to the holiday magic!  Hope you all have a wonderful and joyful Christmas season!  And remember in all your gifting, the real reason we do all this-this is a great little video; check it out if you have a minute.

Continue reading →

Christmas Gifts

This last class I taught at the scrapbook store, we focused on fun and quick gifts for Christmas.  So here is a quick recap! 

Above, is a little kit with sugar cookie mix, hot chocolate mix, sprinkles in little containers, and dried marshmallow bits in an ornament.  I also added some chocolate dipped spoons.  You can see the original idea on pinterest here.

Next is a fun item you can pop in the mail for not very much.  Cotton candy, dressed up!

I just got a container of cotton candy in the christmas aisle at walmart.  It only weighs a few ounces, so you can mail it as a first class parcel for just a couple of dollars.  I wrapped it around with some kraft paper and a cute scrapbook piece, and it's ready to go.  

Here, on triedandtrue, I found one of the cutest ideas ever!

It is an EOS lip balm as a rudolph nose!  You can go to her site for the free printable.  Also, one of the ladies in my class found the Walgreens brand of lip balm in the same shape, but it is shiny!  Like Rudolph's nose.  So cute.

Another quick project we did was originally found HERE, on damasklove.  A great way to jazz up a kraft bag.

We also made these

which can be found HERE on bubblynaturecreations.  I used the dip mix recipes from this blog budget101.  We used the onion dip, fiesta dip, and copycat hidden valley ranch, but there are several others to choose from.  

I also showed the ladies one of my fave gifts, hot chocolate on a stick! 

The original post on this cute project is HERE.  This amazing idea is from giverslog, whose author AmberLee owns this shop HERE.So if you don't feel like DIYing it, she has some great gifts that will make any chocolate lover happy.

One last idea, was a gift card snow globe.  

HERE is the original post from smartyhadaparty.

I'm going to be making a few of these!  If you have specific questions about any of these projects, just leave me a comment!

Continue reading →

Hanging Advent Tutorial

I don't even know if I would call this a tutorial, because it was so easy!  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought this driftwood frame, using my 40% coupon.  I know lots of crafty/thrifty people out there would go find a pallet and take it apart and make their own, but I am lazy.  And I don't know where to find pallets.  Or how to make a frame.  So... I just bought one.

Then I took a length of jute twine (like in the picture above, which can be found pretty much at any craft store), and wrapped and knotted it around one side of the frame.  Then I stretched it across and knotted it on the other side.  I did two "clotheslines", but if your frame is bigger or taller, you could do more.  Also, I really procrastinated so we did the 12 days of Christmas instead of a 24 day advent countdown.  

Then I added these:

Mini kraft envelopes and mini clothespins, both from canvas home basics line of scrapbooking, found at Hobby Lobby.  I just clipped the envelopes on to the twine with a clothespin.  

Then I slipped a little card with an activity on it in an envelope.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  I printed off numbers 1-12 from different fonts that I liked and cut them and glued them to the front of the envelope.  

See how cute it is!  Don't forget some baker's twine!  It makes everything cute.  Even brown paper bags.  Especially brown paper bags.  I just tucked some berry picks around each corner, and it was done!  Easy-peasy.  Seriously, the longest part was cutting out the numbers.

Here is my calendar hanging on the wall. What fabulous pix my iphone takes.  Sigh.  Maybe next year Santa will bring me a nice d-slr camera.  :)

There you have it!  If you want to see what we did, here is an example of some of  my activity cards. If you want to use my numbers, here is a file of cards 1-24.  You can just print off whichever ones you need.  I just bubble cut around each number.   You could also buy stickers, but I was too cheap to buy 12 different kinds of number stickers!  Plus, I got to create my own.  Enjoy!

Continue reading →

Kitchen Treats

So we all know that I love to create.  And cook.  And often I create through cooking.  I love to make things that bring happiness to other people.  So when I saw this fabulous idea for hot chocolate on a stick, I knew I had to try it!  So here is my first attempt at making this treat.  

I just used ice cube trays for the chocolate mold-not super cute, but the only thing I had to use.

So maybe I don't have a bright future as a chocolatier, but I know where to find cute stuff to wrap treats in!

Glassine bags from garnish, one of my favorite new online stores!  Even their receipts are cute!

And of course, I had to put the marshmallows in cute packaging as well!  I used peppermint mini marshmallows, and vanilla caramel marshmallows.

clear candy tubes from garnish

I put everything in this super cute kraft box and tied it up with a bow!  Who wouldn't be excited to get this in the mail?  I hope it tasted all right.  Although, I think some of my nieces and nephews just ate the chocolate right off the stick instead of making it into cocoa!  :)  Whatever works!

kraft boxes from garnish

I hope to send a few more treat packages out this year.  Just for fun!  So you know that I am thinking of you!

Continue reading →