Cocoa for Two

When I bought these tubes, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  Then the idea of cocoa shots came to mind.  I planned on doing individual ones but then decided to make a set instead.  Two tubes filled with cocoa and one with marshmallows.  I also tied on a candy cane and an adorable tag.  It's funny, I didn't think I had anything cocoa or warm wishes themed.  I have some coffee stamps, but they are coffee pots not cups.  Anyhow, I checked with my stamping friends to see if I could borrow something from them and of course they were more than gracious to share.  Then I realized that I have a cup on my Season of Joy cricut cartridge with a tag option and I also overlooked that I have a stamp that actually says, Warm Wishes For A Happy  Holiday.  Perfect...

So I was glad I decided to actually SHOP MY STASH.  LOL

These photos do not do it justice, but they did turn out so cute.  The tops are covered with a scallopped circle and then tied with jute.

I placed the trio in a 4" cellophane baggie and then tied with burlap ribbon.  I placed the set in a mug to display, but what a great gift!  I'm hoping that inspires shoppers to purchase and present the gift in this manner.

Who Wants Candy?

I made a bunch of decorated candy bars.  One for everyone on  your list...Angels, Grinch, Santa, Penguin, Reindeer and Snowman.

Each candy bar was covered with a piece of patterned paper or cardstock and then decorated accordingly.
Angel:  SU! Pennant Punch (body), SU! Butterfly Punch (wings), 1" Punch (halo), 1/2" Punch (head); small heard for hands
Grinch:  Head Shape cut with the cricut, pennant punch (hat), circle punches for eyes and drew the smile
Santa:  SU! scallop circle punch for beard, 1 3/" circle punch for face, square punch for hat, 1/4" punch for nose and pom pom.
Decorate as you see fit.  I also made tags with just layers of scraps and stamps.

Reindeer:  Cut snowflake on the cricut and trimmed some antlers, random size circles for other portions of the face
Penguin:  Large heart for the face, oval for the belly, smaller heart for the beak, and half the butterfly punch for feet

I already forgot the size of the hat (I want to say 2 1/2" circle) and scalloped strip around the whole bar.  There are also skinnier ovals on each side of the belly for the wings.  They are hard to see since they are black.

The reindeer's tags are an assortment of scrap layers and the stamp is from SU!  These two are my favorites!  I didn't take a photo of the snowmen, but if you search past posts on craft faires, I made the snowmen with a printed wrapper with a fleece hat.  So cute!

Visions of Sugar Plums or Other Candy Goodies

I made these last year too.  The instructions to make them are on the website by Queen Bee's Quest.  I had a hard time filling the kisses into the trees but for some reason this year, it was easier.  I didn't love these initially, but after packaging, I did fall in love with them.  For the tags, I watercolored some green on paper.  After it dried, I stamped a Christmas tree.  Then I stamped a sentiment on green vellum and placed it on top of the tree tag.  Placed an eyelet on top and secured them together.

These house nine candy kisses and two nuggets.  CUTE!

Little Kisses

These fun boxes were created by scoring every inch on a 6 3/4" x 5" piece of cardstock.  Score every inch on the 5" side and then one inch on each side of the 6 3/4 side.  Make the top scored area in a tab shape (cut triangles at the edges).  After cutting the tabs on the sides, fold at each score line and glue the tabs together to form the box.  The box fits 5 kisses across the bottom, but I added an additional 4 kisses to really fill them up.  I used washi tape to seal the tab to the box and then tied bakers twine around the box and to attach the scallopped circle tags.

Just another cute little stocking stuffer or little gift for your coworkers and friends.

The stamp set I used is from CTMH and I colored the images in with CTMH alcohol markers.  These would be super cute with a sturdy patterned paper.  The punches are from SU!, scallopped circle, 1 3/8" circle and 1 1/4" circle.

Nugget Tins

I love these nugget tins.  I really wish I bought more, but it never seems practicle at them time.  So I wanted to come up with three different styles and these are what I came up with:

The blue ornament was featured earlier (see details on how I made them).  

Polar Bear:  this stamp set is from CTMH.  I used my Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge to cut the "stamp" rectangle that coordinates with the stamp.  You can't see, but I gathered a good amount of teal string and placed it on top of the corrugated cardboard strip that was wrapped around the tin.  The silver mesh ribbon was purchased at Joanne's as a after Halloween sale.  I paid less than $1 for the roll.  I love it!

Tree:  After placing a doily on top of the tin, I cut a tag shape from the same cartridge as above.  The tree was created by cutting three trees, scoring them in half and then attaching them back to back on one side each to create the 3D shape.  I used glitter glue and drew circles on all layers.  Tied them together with red twine and added a strip of silver glitter paper and a small white tag.  

Each of the 12 nuggets that are in the tins are wrapped with a 1x3" strip of paper and just scotched tape to the back.

Papers are an assortment of Christmas papers I have in my stash.

Even the Naughty Deserve Something Nice

I have been busy, busy, busy in the Command Center getting ready for the Tracy High School holiday boutique on Saturday, December 6th.  Here are some of the things I've been working on:

 I'm going to do a separate post for each item to give more details on each item.  Stay tuned...

Pattie Holders

Oh my gosh!  I'm in love with these little guys.  I saw something similar on Pinterest with the Santas, but you know me...I had to do more with them.  Here's some photos:

The triangles start with a sheet of 3 x 3.5" cardstock.  Mark 1" from top and bottom and then cut from corner to mark, etc until you get two same size triangles.  

Santas: SU! scallop punch, word window punch, 1/2" circle punch and my Creative Memories oval cutter for the face.

Penguins:  CM oval, SU! Three in One heart punch, banner punch for both the hat and trim.

Trees:  lots of scrap paper triangles and a CM star punch

LOVE these!

Cute as a Cupcake

So it seems that everything is cute and easy in Pinterest land.  I saw these cute baby item "cupcakes" and checked out the instructions and it seemed sooooo easy.  Just layer the items and roll.  NOT.  I brought the items to work to finish them.  Yeah, no...they basically looked like baby items rolled up.  Not a cupcake like the Pinterest photo showed.  So, I tugged and re-rolled and messed around a little more and finally came up with something that me and my co-workers thought looked like cupcakes.  So add some ribbon around each one, cute handmade tag and put it all together in a cellophane gift bag.
viola...

The cupcakes are a receiving blanket, onesie and cap rolled up.  The key is to gradually lower the roll instead of straight across.  I don't know if that makes sense, but if you try it, you'll get it.

Another key...cute packaging and of course expecting parents.  Congratulations Becky and Jeff!

Snowflake Ornament...How Adorable Are You?

I've been pinning a lot on Pinterest looking for new ideas for the upcoming Christmas craft boutique. I saw these cute ornaments and decided to take their idea and make it my own.  First of all, they hand measured and cut their petals...I used my Cricut Art Philophy cartridge to cut the petals and then cut them in half.  The petals were cut at 3 1/4".

After cutting, stamping and inking all sides.  I then cut a snowflake for the middle.  The snowflakes were cut at 1 3/4". 

I tied a snippet of ribbon to the back of the button using the thinner ribbon to create more fullness.  Then put it all together...

I will add ribbon to the back for hanging but I basically made these to top some Nugget Boxes I'm making for the boutique.  I'll take photos of those later.

Funny

I received this package at work...do you like my new name?

When I told Kenny about it, he asked why he was getting packages at my work.  LOL

What a name!?!

How Many Weeks 'Til Christmas?

Yesterday Carly and I participated in a Fall All Handmade Boutique in Manteca.  The weather was wet the day before but was nice and dry on Saturday.  There were plenty of black clouds threatening to let loose, but nothing but dry skies between 9:00 - 4:00.

There were plenty of customers and lots of great vendors.  We did OK.  Wish we would have done better but we didn't concentrate on the Christmas treats that we normally do.  It just felt too early to bring those out.  So, another great day spent with my daughter and I did my own shopping.  I bought a beautiful dream catcher for a good friend of mine's (not yet born) grandchild.

I'm excited to gift it to her soon!

Here are some photos of the booth:  There was a misunderstanding and we thought we were going to be indoors with a one table limit.  Well, that's not what happened.  We were outdoors with the normal 10x10 booth space.   We made it work...

We still had fun!  We're looking forward to the Christmas Boutique at Tracy High School on Decembrer 6th.  I'll post more details later...