Christmas Gift Revealed

I created some handmade goods for my sister for Christmas. Now that Christmas is over and she has opened her gifts, I can share my creations with you. I made some paper crafts for her like a 3D snowflake ornament, set of cards and a scrapbook page, which she plans to add to a scrapbook I made for her a couple years ago. I'm happy to make these for her since she is not a "papercrafter", in fact she is a quilter. That's what inspired me to make these spool ornaments. I thought how cute they would be on her Christmas tree.

I found the little wooden spools at Michaels along with the toille paper. I wrapped the paper around the center then sealed them with some mod podge. The twine and beads were a bit tricky, but after some trial and error, and some hot glue I figured it out!

I will have to share what she made for me later! I simply emailed her a photo of something I was interested in and she made it. I love that we can share our different talents with one another! A homemade Christmas, my favorite!

Jars of Candy?

With a little inspiration from Pinterest I came up with a clever way to give gift cards this year! I filled some canning jars with the recipients favorite candy. Concealed in the middle of the candy was a little baggie holding a gift card. At first the recipient thought they were only getting a jar of candy which made it entertaining! They were pleasantly surprised when they discovered the card inside!

You will recognize the snowmen 3D tags from this previous post here. On the back I stamped who they were to and from and I included the year so that the tag could be used as a tree ornament.

Jar Snow Globes

It's time to decorate for the Holidays! I love re-discovering my Christmas decor projects as I unpack the boxes. I also like to add new projects every year. Perhaps they are current trends or the latest "must-have" products. This year I discovered these ball jar snow globes, thanks to Pinterest!

These were super easy to create. I started with some canning jars and painted the lids white. I found these cute trees in the Christmas section with the little village displays. I hot glued then to the lid, then added some faux snow to the jar.

On the outside of the jar I added some punched snowflakes and a little bling!

Such a festive addition to my Holiday decor! Love them! : )

"Candy" Corn!

Another project owed to Pinterest! I unfortunately don't have any one particular person to thank for this idea. I saw similar variations of it on several boards. So sorry that I don't know the true originator of this fabulous idea.

Making the tasty chocolate covered popcorn was the simple part. {The kids and I will finish a whole jar of this before we get to the middle of the Nightmare Before Christmas movie!!} The fun and creative process was decorating the canning jars. I pulled in some Dotty For You papers, black & white grosgrain ribbon, black and sunset twine, a fun dotted scallop from the Perfect Fit Frames stamp set and the "candy corn" label from an older Halloween Word stamp set. They turned out so cute, almost too cute to eat! {That's not going to happen!}

H2H Rock and Roll {sweet treats for fall}

Rolling right along with more challenges this week! I can't resist some rocking and rolling at the Heart2Heart challenges blog. This is always such a fun technique!

I found a great picture on Pinterest of some pumpkin doughnuts which led me to the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. So after I baked them {and sampled a few} then I thought of this week's challenge and how fun it would be to package these up as a fall gift for someone.

The Nature's Vein stamp set was the perfect choice for the rock & roll technique. After all, the fall leaves are never just one solid color, but vary in the yellow's, orange's, green's and red's.

For the top of my jar, I simply cut a brown paper bag into a large circle. I stamped it with some background dots in chocolate ink. I wrapped it together with some twine and a stitched orange ribbon bow.

You can click on the link above to get the pumpkin doughnut recipe. It originally suggest baking the doughnuts in a special pan in the oven. I don't have a special pan, but I do have the cake pop maker, so my doughnuts became holes! Here's a few tips I've learned through trial and error.

This is my cake pop maker, got it on sale at Kohl's.

 

 Rather than using a spoon to fill the holes, I place the batter in this handy

Tupperware cake frosting container, which I've had for years now!

So much quicker and cleaner than the spoon method.



See, quick and clean!

After they have baked with the lid shut for 2-3 minutes I use the little prong tool

to flip them over. The bottom of the machine cooks at a higher heat than the top.

I believe they now sell this machine with a handle so you can rotate it.

When they are baked to a golden color, drop them in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar until well coated.

They are super moist and full of flavor. Be sure to try this recipe this season!

 

P.S. I'd like to say Thank you to the folks at King Arthur Flour for pinning the picture and recipe. This is a fabulous recipe that I will be making again and again. I saw another pin that stated "Pinterest is just electronic hoarding", so funny, sadly true. I promise not to just hoard, but to try some projects, recipes and to also contribute my own art and ideas to Pinterest!