Stamped brown bags

I had enough items left over from the Christmas goodie boxes I made for my daughter's class here, to make 4 more gifts. I didn't want to make more of the boxes, so I decided to stamp some 6x9 flat paper sacks and put the items in there. My daughter will give these to a few of her close friends.




I think these turned out SO cute! I stamped the reindeer in brown ink, and used a red colored pencil for his nose.




One of the unique features of this gift is that the candy cane and ribbon are used as closures for the bag. The only long handle punch that I own is this swirl punch that you see below, so I used that to make the openings to slip the ribbon and candy cane through. I did add a glue dot under each candy cane to hold it to the bag since the holes are pretty big. If you have a smaller hole punch that can reach in far enough that would work better.




Below is another bag, this time using a snowman stamp and PTI Fresh Snow ink. I used McGill Canyon Cutters to cut the tops of the bags.




I added a couple of jingle bells to each bag, I love the tinkling sound they make :)




WHEW! I think I'm actually finished with all my gift packaging now! Time to relax and start enjoying all of the holiday festivities to come over the next few days.

I hope that each of you, my dear blog readers, has a joyous holiday, and I pray that 2011 holds many blessings for you and your families!

Last minute gift idea

I have a quick, last minute gift idea for you this morning. Yesterday as I was moments away from leaving for my physical therapy appointment, I decided I wanted to take a little something to the staff. They've been so kind and they work very hard, and I wanted to show my appreciation.




I grabbed a Ball jar, and hung some candy canes around the rim. Then I emptied a bag of Hershey's Mint Truffle Kisses into the center of the jar. I took a strip of fabric that I had in my fabric stash and tied it around the rim of the jar. Tied on a tag (yes, another one of those that I had left over from last year, another recommendation for having tags on hand at all times), and that was it, a gift ready to go. It literally took me 2 or 3 minutes to put together!





I know I said yesterday that this would be my last post until after Christmas, but I'm working on something at the moment that I'll share with you later today ;)

Diane

Another gift idea

So, are you almost ready for Christmas? I "think" I am done making/buying gifts, I just have to finish some wrapping.




I bought a few boxes of the lotions you see below, they're small (stocking stuffer size), but they smell oh so YUMMY! I buy these at my hairdressers salon.




I decided to split up the package into several gifts. Two of the bottles fit perfectly into a medium PTI glassine bag.




I added a doily onto each bag to pretty it up :) The package below is for my Mom, I tied her Barnes and Noble gift card onto the front, along with some white stems I bought at Michaels. The gift card holder is one that I made last Christmas but didn't use.




These little packages were fun to individualize, I think each one has it's own personality. Below is a 3x3 gift card I also made last year and had left over.




And one last package, the tag below was also left over from last Christmas. It's been so great to have these things handy to put together quick, last minute gift packaging! Lesson learned, I need to make a bunch of tags for all occasions to have at the ready at all times ;)




So that's all for today. One last quickie post tomorrow featuring a super easy last minute gift idea, and then I'll be taking a few days off for Christmas. See you tomorrow :)

Christmas Treat Jars

Hello everyone! I hope this Tuesday before Christmas finds you all finished with your decorating, and shopping, and baking, and wrapping (yea RIGHT lol!) If you're like me, you'll be working on things up until the very last minute ;)

Today I have a fun post for you. There's a certain snack mix that I LOVE to make at Christmas (I'll include the recipe at the end of this post). It's one of the most delicious treats ever! So during the past year, knowing that I would want to make it for Christmas gifts, I started saving glass instant coffee jars as I emptied them. I make coffee protein shakes almost every morning for breakfast (it's kind of like a Starbucks frappuccino, only cheaper and healthier!), so I was able to save quite a few of these to recycle.





Decorating these jars was a lot of fun! I was able to use up some of my older Christmas paper.




I used 12x12 sheets, and when you wrap it around this size jar, there is about a 1 inch gap in the back, but that's OK, it looks like many actual jar labels that don't quite fit all the way around.




I added various borders, trims, ribbons and tags to these jars. The large tag on the jar below is one I had made last Christmas. I had several of these left over and it was handy to have them ready to use this year. Here is the post if you'd like to see how I made these.




I love how the ball fringe looks on this jar, I wish I had this in every color of the rainbow!




Another fun part of making these jars was decorating the lids. These Martha Stewart doilies were the perfect size for the lids. Then I added various stamped PTI Christmas tags on top.




These are Spellbinder snow flakes.




Love how this one turned out.




If you don't have any jars on hand, another quick and easy way to package the snack mix is to use a mini bread loaf pan with a lid. On the sample below I just wrapped a piece of patterned paper around the pan that coordinated with the tag. Some pretty ribbon tied in a bow finishes the presentation; easy peasy!




OK, now for that snack mix recipe I promised. If you love a salty sweet combination, you will ADORE the flavors in this mix. When I make this I have to get it packaged quickly because it won't last around this house lol!

SUGARED CRANBERRY TRAIL MIX

1 cup whole almonds
2 cups small pretzels
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg white
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Spread almonds evenly on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 7 to 8 min. or until nuts are slightly darker in color. Cool. Reduce oven temperature to 225. In a large bowl, combine almonds, pretzels and cranberries. In a small bowl beat egg white until foamy. Pour over pretzel mixture, toss until well coated. In another small bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Sprinkle over pretzels; toss to coat well. Spread on greased baking sheet. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely on pan. Store in an airtight container.

A couple of things about this recipe, first, I ALWAYS double it! The only part I don't double is the cranberries, use a heaping cup full; personally I think 2 cups is too much. Also, you can substitute other nuts for the almonds. This year I did a mixture of half almonds and half pecans. And lastly, I use a jelly roll style pan to brown the nuts AND bake the mix in (no need to dirty 2 pans!)

That's all for today folks. I have another gift packaging idea for you that I'll share tomorrow; see you then!

Howdy, Pardners!

Chrsitmas treat holders

Good morning! Even though this project isn't entirely finished, I wanted to post it in case any of you would like to copy this idea for Christmas :)




I'm always looking for ways to recycle the plastic boxes my PTI stamps come in. Believe me, I have TONS of these things sitting around lol! So I came up with these goodies bags for my daughters class mates. In all I made 26 of them, and was SO happy to use up 26 boxes! Below are the 4 different designs I made.




I filled them with a variety of items. Most of these were dollar store finds, so it really didn't cost that much! I still want to add a homemade cookie in a glassine bag but I haven't made those yet.




To make these, I flattened the plastic box and trimmed off the top closure plus a bit more (used my Tonic guillotene cutter). I only decorated the fronts of the boxes, that saved on time and paper.




I punched holes in both sides of the box, and used another dollar store find to make the handle. Aren't these pine pipe cleaners cute! These were really a lot easier than doing ribbon handles, plus I love that they stand up on their own! I also bought silver and gold pipe cleaners and used the silver on the box above.




I put some red paper shreds in the bottom of each box as a "nest" for the goodies :)





I used PTI's Tiny Treats Christmas stamps to make these, and did some quick Copic coloring. I really LOVE how they turned out, and I hope Ali's classmates do too!




Do you have some fun plans for the weekend? We're going to be doing our baking, Christmas cookies, mini loaves, and some treat mixes. I'll have more ideas to share with you in a few days ;)

Gingerbread House

We finally got around to finishing our gingerbread house last night and I wanted to share a few pictures! This has become a tradition in our family, making one each year. My husband does the work of assembling the house, and then Ali does most of the decorating (hubby and I do a bit too). Connor, who is 14 now, doesn't seem to want to be bothered with it anymore (sniff sniff, why do they have to grow up)!




We always buy a kit, although years ago I actually made one from scratch (that's a lot of work though!) Kit's are the way to go imo!




If you have little ones but haven't started this tradition in your family, I highly recommend it! It really isn't difficult to do, it makes a festive decoration for the holidays, and my kids love taking it apart and eating it on New Year's Day ;)

Thank you cards

Hi everyone! I was totally smitten with some card sets that Dawn McVey recently posted on her blog here and here. So I CASED a couple of her designs, just changing colors and a few of the stamps, and came up with these quick Christmas gift sets.

I recycled some PTI stamp boxes (the 15.00 size), to package the cards. Each box contains 3 thank you cards with envelopes. I used ribbon to decorate the outside of the box, and I put some red paper shreds to fill in the extra space (the box is 6X6 but the cards are A2 size).

The first card you see below in the gift box is the one Dawn made in Plum, Lavender, and Cream; I decided to use Pure Poppy and Berry Sorbet for my card.




For this next card Dawn used Aqua, Kraft and Cream, and again I went with the Pure Poppy and Berry Sorbet. I also used a different border stamp on mine (it's from Waltzingmouse Stamps). I don't have a picture of the 3rd card in the set, unfortunately I couldn't get it to photograph well at all.




I'm so grateful to Dawn for sharing these card sets, it really helped me to make some gifts super FAST!

sip, stir, enjoy!

Today I have a fun project to share! I made cute little holders for some spiced apple cider packets I picked up at the store recently. It's nice to have little gifts handy this time of year, you never know when you'll need one (or two or three :)




So to make these I used a 5 1/2 X 7 inch flat paper sack. I folded it not quite in half and stitched around the sides and bottom, making a pocket to slip the cider packet into. You wouldn't have to stitch across the bottom, I just did that for decorative purposes.

Next I attached a 4" paper doiley, and tied some gingham ribbon around the bag. I added the Mat Stack (using PTI Mat Stack 1 and patterned paper). Then I added the PTI Harvest Gold felt, and finally the cute little image from Tiny Treats Christmas on top. I finished the packet off by tying on a Harvest Gold button with some twine.




I really love how these turned out. I love the homespun feel of the brown bag, the doiley, and the gingham ribbon and button. I think it makes a very sweet little gift :)




If anyone is interested, I have these Kraft paper sacks and doilies for sale. I'm selling them in sets of 50 paper sacks and 30 doilies (see below). The price is 10.00, which includes shipping in the US! I'm asking for a 10.00 PTI gift certificate as payment, and I'll get them out in the mail to you right away so you can make your own holiday goodies :) Please email me at djaquay@yahoo.com if you're interested. I have a limited number of these sets available.





That's all for now, hope this day finds you happy and healthy!

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone! I've missed you all, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. I've been having some shoulder problems (I have a torn labrum in my right shoulder), and I haven't felt much like crafting because of the pain I've been experiencing. The good news is that I started physical therapy yesterday and I'm really hoping that it helps, and that I won't need surgery!




My card today uses 2 of my favorite new stamp sets, Merry Little Christmas from PTI and Musical Backgrounds from Waltzingmouse. The pink background paper is from Webster's Pages. I love how soft and feminine and "pink" this card is; I'll probably give it to my Mom for Christmas :)




Even though I haven't felt much like crafting myself, I've really been enjoying visiting blogs lately and seeing all of the beautiful Christmas creations out there! I'm always amazed at the many talented folks who I'm blessed to know :) I hope that you're all enjoying your December, and don't forget to cherish each minute and take time to smell the roses (or should I say pine cones ;)


Blessings,
Diane