Christmas Creativity

Christmas makes me want to make fun things and be creative in my gifts.

This year, we made homemade salsa and banana bread

for our neighbors and made a fun label for it.

 For Brayden's preschool Christmas party, I made these cute reindeer

candy bars that I saw on Pinterest.  I wrapped the Hershey's bars 

in brown cardstock, made antlers with a dark brown cardstock 

and glued them on, then I glued on googly eyes and a reindeer nose.

Another thing I saw on Pinterest was a way to make

super easy "homemade marshmallows"...made from Cool Whip.

1. Spread the Cool Whip out on a cookie sheet or in a pie pan.

2. Freeze   3. Cut out with any shape cookie cutter

 Place in your hot chocolate!  It makes it super creamy and delicious!

Craft Day - Best of My Days Notepad

This next project from Craft Day was one of my favorites...and I'm super excited to do this each day next year.  It is straight from one of my favorite blogs - Under the Sycamore. Ashley is so creative and comes up with the best ideas.  It's a notepad that you put together where you can record the best of your day at the end of each day.  I love this, because I feel like I always need a way to reflect back what happened and memories that were made, but in a "nugget" sort of way.  I don't always have a long time to journal, so this is a great way to get a snapshot of something great that happened or that I want to remember.  

To get started...

Head to Under the Sycamore and get one of Ashley's 2 free printables for this project.  It includes January through December 2012 with all the dates for each month.  There are 3 months per page; cut them into even "pages."

Stack the months together and punch a hole through the top left corner.  I put a metal ring through so the pages can turn easily.  

I copied Ashley's cute way of wrapping with a Starbucks cup sleeve (can never have too many of these!).  I turned it inside-out and wrapped around the cards, then wrapped some baker's twine around it all.

This makes a super cute gift for family, friends, or teachers.  I can't wait to use mine this next year to help remember all the great stuff that God has blessed us with and help record some great memories.

Craft Day - Chalkboard Mugs

For awhile now, I've been wanting to have a Craft Day with some girls inspired by Meg's Craft Weekends.  I love being creative, and it was especially fun getting to put together some fun crafts for me and 13 of my good friends to get to do together.  We had such a fun day where we did seven different projects together.  I'll be sharing each of our crafts over the next few days.

I set up tables in my living room with all the supplies we needed to do each craft.  Each girl had a bag to load up her goodies in after the day was over.  

Today, we're going to start with an easy one - Chalkboard Mugs.  It's a simple one, and it doesn't cost a lot of money.  It's great for gifts - put a couple packets of hot chocolate and a candy cane...wrap it up in cellophane, and it's a perfect gift for a neighbor or teacher!

First, gather all your supplies: 

Mug - These were $0.99 at IKEA.  The Dollar Store also has white mugs you can use.

Chalkboard paint - You can get this at any local hardware store, Michael's (Martha 

   Stewart brand is there) or Hobby Lobby

1" foam brush

Chalk

Ribbon to tie on chalk

Each person received their own mug to paint.  

Using a 1" foam brush, you can brush on the rectangle

shape.  It may take 2 coats to fully cover.

All the mugs drying...
Note: use painter's tape if you need a little guide to help you paint.

Tie on 3 pieces of chalk, and now your mug can be personalized!