Bundle of Large Tags

Hey guys. Today is the last post of 2017 and what a wild ride this year has been!

I mentioned in Tuesday's blog that I had made quite a few Christmas gift tags this year so I wanted to share the rest of them with you today. I have quite a few of them so I hope you like them.

I forgot to mention in Tuesday's post but each tag is backed with a piece of coordinating, solid colored cardstock (because the markers I used for coloring bled through to the back of the tag) and stamped with 'To' and 'From'. Also, a big plus is that I was able to use up a couple of spools of bakers twine that I have had in my stash for quite a while, though you probably wouldn't be able to tell if you looked at all that I have left.

Final question guys- What are you doing for New Years?

-I will most likely do the same thing that I did last year, which is to stay home and watch a movie and then watch the ball drop somewhere on TV. Nothing too exciting here I'm afraid. Hopefully, you all have better plans than I do. 

Bundle of Small Tags

Good morning my friends, I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas. I had a pretty low key Christmas this year since both my mom and I have been sick and we have not had much time to buy gifts and decorate the tree. We ultimately decided to postpone Christmas until we are feeling better and then we can do something extra special.

Early on in the month I made quite a few gift tags so that I could use them on my gifts that I was giving this month. I made quite a few so I am going to split them up and show you some today and the rest on Friday.

For today I am going to start off small, with the smaller sized tags. I used a lot of different stamps and inks, and I hand colored quite a few of them. Some I even jazzed up with a little bit of glitter.

Let me know which tag is your favorite of this set.

What is your best holiday memory?

-When I was young I used to love when Santa (aka my parents) would do a treasure hunt on Christmas morning. Often times it was done because the present was to big to wrap, but to me it was an added adventure. I would unwrap one of my gifts and all the box would contain was a piece of paper with either directions or a riddle that lead to another place in the house. There I would find another note and then another until finally waiting at the end (usually in the basement) would be an awesome present. Like the year that I got the McDonald's drive up window or the year I got the Fisher-Price Car to drive around in. It is funny, but now that I am older, the hunt is what I remember more than the gifts waiting at the end.  

Hot Cocoa Mugs

I saw a tutorial for these cute mugs made of cardstock on Pinterest and YouTube and thought that it would be a fun craft idea to make for my family this year for Christmas. For the past several years we have decided not to exchange gifts because of the overall expense and our growing family (there are 10 children under the age of 6.) Instead we do activities together, like building a gingerbread house and decorating Christmas cookies and voting on who had the best ones. I always seem to loose, even though I have a document (aka a DEGREE in baking) that state that I know what I'm doing. LOL.

Sometimes though, it is fun to bring a little something that none of them expected. Since these fun mugs didn't cost me much to make, they fit the bill perfectly.

My plan WAS to fill each mug with either a packet of hot chocolate or a K-Cup of coffee and some various candies. But, unfortunately I was sick with a fever last weekend when my family got together for Christmas and I was unable to attend.

Does your family have any Christmas traditions?

-When I was a kid we would always open our presents at home Christmas morning but then we would have to hurry up and pack everything into the car to head off to my grandparent's houses. Back then it used to make me upset because I would get all these cool toys but I couldn't play with them until we got back, which was sometimes several days later. Now, looking back, I miss those days. Now a days Christmas morning is still the same, unwrapping presents with my mom and dad. But, usually by the afternoon we are going stir-crazy so we head out and go see a movie at the theater with my aunt and sometimes with my cousin, his wife and kids. I am sure that there are more traditions but I can't think of them right now. My head is still foggy from being sick with the flu.

Traditional and Oreo Truffles

For Christmas this year my mom wanted to give the people that she works with a nice holiday gift so she asked me if I would make some homemade truffles, of different flavors, that she could give to them. Of course, I said yes and I ended up making a varity of five different traditional chocolate truffles.

The green Christmas trees were milk chocolate and mint flavored.

The snowmen were vanilla and white chocolate.

The candy canes were filled with a gooey caramel.

Finally, there were two different types of gingerbread men. The first batch was simply dark chocolate and the second batch were made with hazelnut and dark chocolate. I made two separate batches because at least one of the people my mom works with has a nut allergy. I made the plain dark chocolate truffles first and completely packaged them and stored them in another location before I made the hazelnut tuffles, which were my mom's favorite.

I also made a LARGE batch of Oreo truffles to take to our family Christmas, I have made them for several years now and they are definitely a family favorite! The only thing that I did different this year was that I shaped them into molds instead of making them into round balls and dipping them into the chocloate. 

    

EDIT: Unfortunately, I got sick and was unable to go to my families Christmas party and thus my family didn't get to enjoy any of these yummy goodies. 

What is your favorite Christmas treats (or winter time treat)?

- I would have to say that these Oreo truffles are my favorite! The only time that I make them is for Christmas. My favorite winter beverage is peppermint hot chocolate. Have you tried the Junior Mint K-Cups? They are pure heaven!!

Homemade Bows

Today's project came about both out of a necessity and as a way to use up some of my GIANT stash of Christmas cardstock.

I hate to buy store bought bows for packages because I hate having to try and figure out a way to store them without crushing them. The solution? Make my own and I can control the amount that I have on hand. Plus, adding the homemade touch to the top of a gift makes it that much more special.

This project only uses some cardstock and hot glue so they are easy and fast to assemble and the best part is that you can make them to match any wrapping paper! My kind of project!

Today's question is a bit silly but: 

When it comes to opening Christmas presents, do you have a system of choosing what to open first? 

-I definiltely do! I always open the gift bags first, because I always think that they will be the boring stuff like clothes and underwear. Then I open any wrapped gift box from the smallest to the largest so that I can hopefully save the best and biggest for last. It has only backfired a few times when the largest box ended up being a new coat. Talk about a disappointment!

Pop-Up Gift Card Holders

There are only 13 more days until Christmas, have you finished your shopping? I haven't even started yet! I am having a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year and decided what and who to by for. #procrastination #itgetshardereveryyear  (trying my hand at hashtags, what do you think?)

Each year it seems like the number of people that I simply buy a gift card for increases so I thought that making some gift card holders that you can just slip the card into would be great.
I really like that from the outside you can't tell much about this little package, but once you remove the belly band the gift card stands up and presents itself to the recipient. I placed one of my business cards into the slot so that you could see how the gift card fits in.

I am definitely going to be making more of these in different themes (i.e. birthday, anniversary, thank you, etc) so that I always have some on hand when an occasion calls for a gift card.

Do you prefer your Christmas decor and colors to be traditional (red and green) or more whimsical (blues and pinks)?

- I definitely like traditional Christmas colors the most. I have made a few things for the holidays in the past that have been more on the whimsical side but I always flock to and return to the traditional red and green of Christmas. 

Loopy Tree

♫Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree how would you like a new loopy brother♫

Good morning guys and happy Friday. As you can probably tell from the title and my little song, today's project is a little table top Christmas tree made from styrofoam and cardstock. I started by cutting a bunch of cardstock scraps into strips and hot gluing the two ends together to form a loop. Here is what they looked like at the beginning:

After I made a huge pile of loops (more than enough for at least two trees), I began hot gluing them around a styrofoam cone that I got at the Dollar Tree. I started gluing from the bottom and with each new row I changed the color of the cardstock loop and over-lapped them slightly with the row below. To finish off the tree I decided to add a loopy bow by adhering the loops in a stacked pattern until I got the desired look. I added the tree onto a glass candlestick holder that I also bought at Dollar Tree.

Today's question: What is your favorite and/or least favorite Christmas Carol?

- My favorite Carol is probably 'Mary Did You Know'

- My least favorite is definitely 'Carol of the Bells'

Santa's Belt Card

20 Days until Christmas

I decided to only make one Christmas card this season because I still have A LOT of leftovers from last year, because I forgot to send them out to ANYONE. Does anyone else suffer from this? I have plenty of cards at my disposal to send for a multitude of occasions but I only seem to remember that AFTER the occasion or holiday has PAST. Oh well, one day I will get it right and I will surprise everyone with a card that is on time.

I have seen a ton of Santa's belt themed projects all around this season so, I figured that it was only fitting that I try my hand at making the jolly fat man into a card. I think it turned out really cute and it would be relatively easy to replicate. The only thing that I might change is the belt buckle. I am not a big fan of the gold mirror-like cardstock that I used because it shows EVERY fingerprint, smudge or slight imperfection, no matter how careful you are (maybe it is just me being messy LOL)!

Today's Christmas question: What is your favorite and/or least favorite Christmas movies?

-My favorite is probably the remake of Miracle on 34th Street that came out in 1994.  It is a must watch each Christmas for me and it always leaves me smiling and feeling like the magic of the season has finally sparked inside of me. 

-My least favorite is probably the favorite for some of you and that is Elf. I have seen it twice and both times it was like nails on a chalkboard to me. I am not a Will Farrell fan anyway so watching it is like torture to me. 

Paper Tree Ornaments

The countdown is on and it is T minus 24 days until CHRISTMAS!! Are you feeling the Christmas spirit yet? No? Me neither. So I have a question for you. When does YOUR Christmas season begin? I have told my family for many years now, that I absolutely refuse to admit that Christmas has begun until December first, because otherwise I get overloaded. Now, I love Christmas movies, music, food, etc. But, having a steady dose of it for 3 solid months gets a bit much. Around here most stores start putting up their Christmas displays around Halloween if not earlier and at about that same time there are several TV channels (Hallmark I'm looking at you) that become completely oversaturated with non-stop Christmas movies. By limiting myself to only one month to celebrate, I tend to 'schedule' out what is most important for me to do that season and it helps me to appreciate each Christmasy thing that I do do, if that makes sense.

Now that my mini rant is done, let's talk Christmas crafts. I decided that I would make a couple of new ornaments for my tree this year. I haven't made any for several years now and I would like to be able to put something new up ever couple of years.

The first ornament that I want to share is a snowflake ball. I bought a small styrofoam circle and then punched out several snowflakes (you could use a flower punch as well for a little bit different look that I might have to try later). Then I used straight pins to adhere the center of the snowflake to the styrofoam. To cover the head of the straight pins I added a bright red, sticky-backed pearl to the center of each snowflake.

It was difficult to get a good picture of the ornament because shadows kept getting in the way (and I am to lazy to put my tree up right now in order to get a good hanging photo) but I hope that you can get an idea of how they look. Also, in hindsight, I should have used a dab of hot glue or some other strong glue to adhere the pearls because they are now popping off of the snowflakes. You live and you learn.

The other ornament that I made came straight from the Youtube channel Maymay made it. She did a tutorial on the beautiful angels and I just HAD to make a couple. I love them!! I also love that you can get completely different looks, depending on what punches you use for your angels wings and the bottom of her dress. 

(By the way, the second photo is actually the BACK of the ornament.)

I decided this year to end each post with a Christmas themed question, so for today its going to be:

What is your favorite Christmas Ornament that you own and why is it your favorite?

- Mine is actually a cupcake ornament that I made a few years back for several members of my family as well as myself and my mom. If you are interested I could probably be persuaded to show it to you. 

Another Thanksgiving Dessert (Day 2)

The other dessert that I made for our family Thanksgiving this year was also found on Pinterest. Each year my Aunt hosts Thanksgiving for our family and gives me only two rules about dessert- there MUST be something chocolate and something with peanut butter.

I found this super simple recipe for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Mini Cheesecake and knew that this would have to be a winner (even if it failed) because it ticked off both of the necessary requirements.

My cousin and his kids were eyeing the plate of these cheesecakes from the minute they walked in and they could barely wait until the meal was over before diving in and shouting about how good they were. I think that by the end of the night we had to hide them because the kids wanted to go back for more. I would call this one a Thanksgiving dessert SUCCESS!!

Thanksgiving YUMMYNESS Day 1

Double.

Chocolate.

Bread. (which is actually not bread but instead a rich, fudgy chocolate cake)

Pudding.

Need I say more?

When I was in Culinary school this amazing dessert was one that we were fortunate enough to learn and I have made it several times over the years to much applause. No matter where I take this gooey pile of delicious chocolaty goodness everyone raves over it! No the picture above definitely does NOT do this dessert justice. (Oh, and I forgot to get an actual picture of the pan of decadence, so this is just my serving, LOL) 

To accompany this rich chocolate explosion I made a recipe that I found on Pinterest for a no churn cinnamon ice cream. It turned out awesome! My grandpa is in love with it and pondered over how it could remain so solid yet creamy for so long when out of the freezer. I will definitely make this again and it pared well with the chocolate pudding and helped balance out the richness. 

I hope that you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and I will see you again on Tuesday. 

Pumpkin Autumn Greeting

I just realized that November is almost over and I have yet to show a card for this month of fall-themed projects. How did that happen? I honestly have no idea! Usually I have an overabundance of cards and I am searching for other papercrafing projects to add in so that you all don't get tired of just seeing cards all the time.

I kept the elements of this card pretty simple since I made it about 20 minutes before this post is going live. I had some extra pumpkins that I made at the beginning of the month for the Thankful For You scrapbook layout so I used them along with some scraps of foiled patterned cardstock. I popped each pumpkin up with a thin piece of foam so that it would stand out a bit better against the orange and gold foiled papers behind them. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Fall Cardstock Mini Album

I don't make a lot of mini albums and I honestly don't know why. They are typically easy to make and you can totally LOAD them down with photos. I don't remember exactly where I saw the design for this particular album but I figured that it was about time that I create a few. I might even make some Christmas themed one to give as gifts this year, if I have the time. I chose to make this album in fall papers for a couple of reasons. Reason one, to use up some of the patterned paper in my stash. Reason two, I have some photos from past Thanksgiving's that I am hoping to group together and share with my family and reason three a mini album is much easier to transport than a larger scrapbook.

Candy Corn Trees

Do you like candy corn? It seems that everyone I know either loves it or hates it, there is often no middle ground. I personally hate it, eating it that is. I love the look of them though, and I can't really explain why.

When I was at my local Dollar Tree recently I came across some styrofoam cones in the floral section and for some strange reason (probably the overabundance of fall decor) my brain instantly thought, 'this looks like a giant candy corn.' So needless to say, I left the store with a couple of cones, a package of glass tea light holders and a bag of sickeningly sweet candy corn (which I later gave to my dad who loves them).

Now it is time to turn it into a project! Shown below are some of the pieces that I used to create these ADORABLE trees. I also used a scalloped circle punch from my stash (from EK Success, I think) the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, a hot glue gun, the glass tea light holders and some real candy corn.

It looks good enough to eat, that is if you actually LIKE candy corn.