Christmas

Here's a few quick projects I did for Christmas:

This was the delivery men and teachers' gifts. There was a label that said "Warm wishes" (get it, it's full of warm colors).  The teachers' were a little more personal with my kids picking out specific gifts for their teachers that fit the theme, including nail polish for the the girl teachers and Carmex and hand warmers for the male teacher that also serves as a crossing guard. The basic fillings were a few packets of apple cider mix (in place of the normal cocoa packets), hand warmers for the delivery men, some Juicy Fruit gum, yellow and orange Starburst (my husband was so excited a bought a big bag and planned on getting rid of all the yellows and orange so he was left with his favorites), and fruit flavored Melt-Away mints. After we got the the big stuff in we just packed the candy in to fill it.

Here are the bows I made this year for my nieces- presents, gingerbread men, and Christmas trees.
It's almost becoming tradition for me to add to their bow collections on every occasion.

I apparently forgot to take a photo of my neighbor gift.
It was nothing too fancy because I forgot about them until about the 12th. I had been saving bottle caps to spray paint green and make a tree for the girls anyway, so we glued them to a canvas instead of paper and one went to each family. The decorated their trees with some simple jewel-like stickers that I bought marked down from Wal-Mart and topped it off with a foam star (from the same pack as the ones used for the Christmas tree bows).
I also made a more adult craft for them. I took some cubed glass ornaments (left over from last years teacher gifts) and filled them with green and red crinkle cut paper that they make for gift bags. Then I added their initials to personalize them. I used glittery alphabet stickers I thought were cute. Both of these came together pretty easily, and went over well with the neighbors.

Now here's just a few cute photos from Christmas break so far.
A round (or 2) of Reindeer Ring Toss (KK is too old to get her picture taken while wearing the ears) :

 And a few enjoying their Christmas gifts:

That's all for now,
Jo!

Inside Out Inspired Bows and a Quick Storage Show

For my brothers 2 girls I made a few bows inspired by Inside Out.
Here's how they turned out:

These were really fun! I kept the DVD case close so I could constantly be comparing features and I think they turned out pretty good (Fear is my favorite though).
Here's a run down on the "special features" on each (meaning the add-ons to emphasize the characters they are portraying):
-Joy: On the ends of Joy's yellow strands, I glued some yellow beads, to look like memories, since she's carrying a few through most the movie. My KL wanted me to make sure I had the blue bursts on her dress, but they only way I could think to easily do that was fabric markers and I was scared they would spread so I used a star shaped button in the middle.
-Fear- I used a piece of black pipe cleaner to make his air swirl, and covered hid connection with hid cute bow tie.
-Sadness- I used a piece of black pipe cleaner to form her signature glasses and added a few memory beads under them.
Anger- I added Anger's fiery head with angled yellow ribbon (my KK kept telling me it looked like a crown, and I can see that, but I see the flames too, maybe I should have added some orange in there too), and then I covered his center with his red tie.
-Disgust- I feel bad for Disgust because I feel like she's very minimal compared to the others but there really wasn't much I could do for her, So I added her purple scarf to cover her middle and used a "frilly" ribbon for added detail.


Now that that's done I thought I'd show you a little glimpse of my Christmas wrapping storage. I, personally, love wrapping gifts. I love making pretty bows and using all sorts of ribbons... and buying way more than I need when it's all on sale after Christmas. So I thought I'd share with you how I keep it all organized in case you're like me and haven't figured out a way to efficiently store it all.
So here's the big picture:

 (Pardon the fact that I'd just wrapped a gift so there's tissue paper and a package of raffia out.)
I keep all my wrapping paper in the tall storage, meant just for that. The short, wide one holds all my bags and tissue paper, along with my spools of ribbon. And that little box, is my secret weapon (or as close to one as you can get when organizing gift wrap). I bought a set of Christmas cards a few years ago that came in this box and I'm so glad I kept it. First of all, since they were Christmas cards, it's decorated to fit the season- which is always a plus, but also, inside there was a divider so there's two compartments. Here's how I use it:

It holds all the essentials. On the left is all my tags, along with a pen and marker (that always return to the box when used so I'm never searching for a pen to label). On the right is tape, scissors, glue, and a few fun decor (along with a few too big to fit with the other tags).  So all the the things I need are right in this box. The scissors are used only for wrapping paper, they return to the box after used.
The fun extras are Christmas stickers that I've bought, or came with Christmas cards (to seal the envelopes), and the plastic bag in there is full of fun shapes from a "build your own gift box" kit I bought for like $1 a few years ago after Christmas. (I have a tendency to glue the little snowflakes on to snowflake wrapping paper, giving it a 3-D look that everyone always seems to mention and adore.)  And there you have it. Just a quick glance at how I keep it all together for this major gift wrapping season. After I'm done with it all, the small box fits in the long box and slides under the guest bed, and the tall fits into the guest closet.


That's all for now,
Jo!

Hair Bow Gift

My family gift exchange (on my husband's side) included a list that asked for hair accessories [insert happy dance here].
I love making bows, but every time I pull the stuff out my husband says, "Do you have room to store that?" And the answer is no, I don't. Even after the adorable ribbon holder me and the girls made last year, I have no room because it's already been filled- maybe that's an excuse to make another holder, and therefor more bows...

Anyway, it was on the list of 3 year old, so even though she hasn't received it yet, I'm quite positive she won't see this, and even if she manages to see it- she won't know they're coming her way.

Honestly, I could have made her dozens of bows, but I settled on one for each month.
Here's the final bows:

Jan: A simple gold and white- fresh and clean like a new year
Feb: Purple and pink with plenty of hearts, for V-Day of course
Mar: A 4-leaf clover ribbon sculpture for St. Pats
Apr: A felt Easter Egg, even though Easter is in March next year
May: Blue floral bow, because April showers bring may flowers, right?
June: I wanted something fun but decided red, white, and blue for Flag Day also
July: A red, white, and blue bow for the 4th
Aug: A couple felt butterflies, just something summer-y
Sep: A cute fall colored bow
Oct: Orange and black for Halloween
Nov: Cute turkey for Thanksgiving
Dec: A felt tree for Christmas

And here's a close up of the turkey, because I think it's absolutely adorable:

I may end up sewing together a few headbands to throw in there also, but she's also getting some coloring stuff and nail polish. So, it's an "if I have time" idea.

That's all for now,
Jo!

A Few Christmas Gifts (Already Handed Out)

Here's a few things I've gotten finished for Christmas.

First off, here's the gifts we made for the teachers.

I'm sure you've seen the pin with hot cocoa in ornaments, that's what we did. And I wrapped them up in another popular Facebook pass-around of a paper plate gift box.

Here's a side shot of the ornaments:

In order, it was dark chocolate, caramel hot chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate mixes.
All the mixes were store bought, along with peppermint chips, caramel bits, coconut flakes, and mini marshmallows- and I used the collection of Christmas sprinkles I already had. The kids chose what sprinkles went with which teacher (with the exception of the caramel because it was a last minute addition) so no two teachers got the exact same gift.

For the gift box I cut a 10" circle of wrapping paper (because the paper plates are 9") and glued it to the bottom of the plate so when folded up you could still see the paper.

Top it all of with tags for descriptions and instructions, since some call for 6 oz of water/milk and others for 8 oz and then a ribbon to secure it all- BAM! Done! After finally getting everything all together and cleaning the ornaments (making sure they were dry was one of the longest parts of the process) they came together pretty quickly. I used a funnel to help fill- how else would you expect, and I had a skewer handy for when it slowed/stopped.

Next, here's the delivery men gift:

Growing up my dad was a UPS man (he's retired now, and this year is the first year he isn't delivering Christmas gifts- he's quite happy about that). Long story short- I know how hard those folks work in the month of December. I remember my dad leaving before I got up, because there were so many packages they had to help load their own trucks, and not coming home until after I was in bed, because he had that many packages to deliver. And most of those memories are from before online shopping became popular and packages became more numerous.

So I always get a gift for UPS, FedEx, and the mail man (because they work hard for you all year long- lets face it, they're at your house at least 5 days a week). This year, I ordered from 3 stores online for Christmas, I did one site-to-store, and one store passes to USPS from the shipping company so they never made it to my door, so I only had FedEx and the mail man. (In case you didn't know, FedEx and UPS both have 2 people on the truck during December to make things move faster.)

Anyways- this year I did a reusable coffee cup, filled with hot cocoa packets, hand warmers, and a few candies (Reese's, Caramel Kisses, and Melt-Away Mints this year) and added a felt scarf cup cozy. Last minute I decided to add a skewer flag with a "Merry Christmas" on one side and "Thank You" on the other. It's made of Christmas themed washi tape.

Neighbor Gift...
I don't have a picture to show you, because I was so excited to finish my first Christmas gifts that I wrapped them up before I got a photo, but here is the idea I used. I made a snow man, a Santa, and an elf for each set.
The candles I found were shorter so they took a minor tweaking, but not too much. And then I wrapped them up in a wine box, because they fit perfectly with tissue paper wrapped around each candle.

That's all for now,
Jo!