25 Days of Christmas!

This year I did the 25 days of Christmas with my babies, who are 14 and almost 17, but still my babies none the less! Each morning, starting on 12/01 they woke up to a treat, some large some small, and not with a little pun. For example, one day they got Star Wars things and the note said "The Force is strong, Christmas is almost here!".....it was a lot of for for all of us! Today they got their last "day" as tomorrow the treat will be their actual Christmas presents! It was a little sad, for me, because I've had so much fun doing this for them! Here are the pics from each day. Merry Christmas!!

 

 

You're a mean one, Mr Ginch!

I always make my children a card for each special occasion/holiday. For Christmas I chose to do Grinch cards, with "Grinch pills" inside. Pretty easy to make and super cute! My kids LOVED them!! Here's some pics and a break down of how I constructed them! 

For the actual Grinch I used the Stampin' Up Top Note. I also used the Top Note for his Santa hat, I just trimmed it down. For the white trim & ball on his hat, I simply tore card stock until it looked the way I wanted it. I used the Stampin' Up 1' circle punch to make his yellow eyes. The pupils are from a standard size hole punch. His eye lids are the 1' circles cut in half with black Sharpie pen eyelashes. For his nose I again used the 1' circle punch trimmed down to my liking. I free handed the mouth with my Sharpie pen. I used a standard size hole punch and curling ribbon to attach the Tic-Tacs to the inside and again to attach the two cards together. Took me about 20 minutes to make both cards! Merry Christmas, Everyone!!

Peppermint bark!

Every year I make Peppermint bark, my children look forward to it all year long! My recipe is extremely simple and delicious! Here's how it goes...

First, I buy 3- $1 bags of peppermints from Walmart and chuck them into the food processor till they're finely chopped! Set that to the side, we'll get back to it later! Next, I melt one brick of chocolate almond bark, in a GLASS bowl, for 2 minutes in the microwave, string every 30 seconds.

 Next I line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil and pour in my melted chocolate. Once it's spread out and even, I stick it in the fridge, make sure it's sitting flat and wait 30 minutes.

 Once it's set I repeat the steps above with a brick of white chocolate bark, but before I stick it in the fridge I top it with the crushed peppermint. Press the bits in, very gently, just so the chocolate latches on. Then repeat the chilling step.

Once it's all set, I take it out, using the foil, so it stays in one large sheet of bark. I break it, into small chunks, with a pizza cutter and I place it in a pretty jar on the counter! 

It disappears quickly, but it's great while it last!! Total cost for this is just under $9, but it makes a TON!!! Enjoy!!!

Rudolph treats for the teens!

We had a Christmas party, for the teens, at our house last night! We had an amazing time, good food, fun games, and intelligent conversations! I wanted to make a little something for each teen, to say Merry Christmas, but cost effective! So I decided to make these! 

I used my Stampin Up Owl builder punch, but I cut the feet off, so it looked more like a reindeer. I used a Martha Stewart Snowflake punch for the antlers, I just cut them up. I used Stamp' in up Polka Parade paper for the strip. I filled the little bags, that I picked up in the jewelry section of Walmart, with holiday Mint M&Ms and Candy Cane Hershey Kisses. The little stamp in the bottom corner, is from a retired Stampin' up set, and I stamped it in Gumball Green, also from Stampin' up.

Here is the finished project! I made 30, but not all are pictured!

Happy Crafting!!

Homemade Peppermint bath salts

I seen the idea for homemade peppermint bath salts on the Today show Monday morning and just knew I had to make some, for Christmas gifts and for home too! They were very low cost & simple to make, and turned out adorable!! 

Here's what you need, 4 lbs Epsom Salt, 1 container Sea Salt, red food coloring and Peppermint extract. 

 You also need clean, glass jars. I save every jar I buy all year long, salsa, spaghetti, etc just for things like this! 

 Split the salts in two halves and combine them, so you have two bowls of 1/2 Epsom Salt and 1/2 Sea Salt. In one bowl add the Peppermint extract, just a few drops, and enough red food color to make it pink. You will need to stir and add until the color and smell are to your liking!

 Then it's just like sand art! Add a little of each color, one at a time, alternating to make layers.

 Here are some of my jars. I was able to fill 22 jars with the supplies listed. This means it cost me about $12 for all 22 jars. I already had the jars, all I had to buy were the ingredients. That is a GREAT price for a home made Christmas present!

 I hot glued some peppermint material to the lid and tied a huge red bow around it, just to make it look pretty!

Here's a pic of most of the jars finished, I had already given some away before I got them all finished! I'm going to pick up some more ingredients to make more of these for a few other special people for Christmas, also just to have on hand as Thank You and Birthday gifts! I'm thinking I will make some for Birthdays in rainbow layers and the one for Thank Yous I will make in neutral colors like violet, blue, or pink! Each with matching ribbon and material covering the lids! Also I'm thinking I will use other extracts, like almond and vanilla, the possibilities are endless! Hope you enjoy these!!

I'm seeing snow people ....

I love snowmen...or women.... snow people!  Whatever gender they are I love them! So tonight I made a snow people card! I used a retired Stampin' Up set, It's Snow Time. I got it at yard sale sometime ago, but I hadn't even mounted the stamps, until tonight! Super cute and not too time consuming!

Post it note covers with pen holders.

I made these once at a Stampin' Up workshop and loved them! So I decided to make some as small Christmas gift for some friends! There is no better place than Target to get cute note pads & matching pens! They never fail me!! I was super excited to find Christmas Story sets, Rudolph and Frosty too! They usually carry matching ribbons too! Here are the ones I made....

 There are super easy to make, but difficult to explain. I used this fantastic tutorial to refresh my memory, since it had been a while. video tutorial

I used my Stampin' Up Owl Builder Punch, my 2 3/8 Scallop punch, my Petite Pennants Builder Punch, my Perfectly Preserved Stamp set and matching Framelits. For paper I used several different kinds from my scrap box along with my Stampin' Up Polka Dot Parade and Orchard Harvest, both are Designer Series paper pack. I love the Santa owl and the 3D tree. They turned out super cute, only cost about $3 each to make and they make a nice, homemade gift.

Candy sleighs!

I saw this adorable idea on Pinterest and I just couldn't resist making them for my teens, and as presents for a few of the other teens! Here's if the link from Pinterest Sleighs

 They were super simple to make, all I needed was Christmas candy, curling ribbon and my handy dandy glue gun!! Cost just under $20 to make all 7 candy sleighs! I made several different versions, each time I ran out of one kind of candy, I would have to revise my design! Took about an hour to make 7 of them. 

 

Christmas card

I love Christmas!! I love Christmas cards!! I always hang up all the cards we receive and leave them up through the first of the year! This year I made over 50 Christmas cards to send out to our friends and family!! I made a couple different ones, just to spice it up!

 The first one I made using the Stampin' Up Top Note Bigz with Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper and the Petite Pennants Builder punch.

The second one I made using the Stampin' Up Top Note Bigz and the Stocking Builder Punch.

The third one I made using my Stampin' Up 2 3/8 Scallop punch, Owl Builder Punch, Petite Pennant Builder Punch and Polka Dot Parade Paper.