Deck The Trees!

Wow, November is around the corner!Is there anyone that I know, who puts their Christmas tree up in November? I'm just curious! I think I'm going to put mine up early this year! Anybody want to join me?

Deck The Gifts......INSPIRATIONAL CHARM!

Gingerbread greetings...I love these gift tags! Trace the outline of a gingerbread man cookie cutter onto brown paper;cut out and dress up the simple silhouette with bits of fabric, ribbon and rickrack for a personalized gift tag!
Seasonal Surprises...These fun and festive totes offer a creative way to put leftover gift-wrapping supplies to good use. Ribbon scraps are ideal accents for the ball ornament appliques, while small lengths of extra tissue paper secured with a colorful pipe cleaner add a merry twist to traditional treat sacks. (I have a friend in Mesa, who keeps small little gifts in gift sacks like these in a large basket by her front door, when guests come to visit through the holidays, she passes them out!)
Traditional tags crafted from colorful card stock give a whimsical touch to holiday gift-giving. Accessorize with buttons, stickers and scrapbook notions for three-dimensional appeal!

My Gospel ABC Book..A Gift that keeps on "Teaching" all year long!

This idea came from the creative craft room of Lynna Hall! Brianna has loved this cute little "ABC" Book from her Grandma Lynna! I have also cherished this gift! Lynna made each grandchild from baby to eight years of age a "ABC" Gospel Book along with a "I spy" rice bag and laminated pass along cards paper punched on a ring! She put all these contents in to small colored canvas bags with embroidered "My Church Bag". We have loved taking this little bag to church! It's a great Gift! These are a few samples from Brianna's book!

Deck The Trees Christmas Card-Hand Made by Brandi!

Brandi made this card at a Home Enrichment class last year! Brandi loves making cards, she's a great Little Santa's Elf!

Christmas and Laughter In A Bag!

In January of this year(2008), we were snow sking in Park City, Utah!. I was able to do some fun shopping with my sister Annette, which always involves a lot of laughter and good times! I was so amazed at all the cute hand sewn bags that are everywhere! My sister and I deciced to make one out of the Christmas Fabric that we had just bought!(Mormon Handicraft) Thanks to Annette, my professinal "sew" coach, I have a great Christmas Bag! The bags are lined with pockets, I love it! There are a lot of cute patterns for these great bags at most quilt and fabric stores! I started making bags all year long, they are addicting! We also made bags in Young Womens! I think the bags make a great gift, especially filled with Christmas treats!

Kitchens Are Made To Bring Families Together!

This was one of my favorite gifts for family, friends, neighbors, grandmothers, teachers or anyone that likes to cook! I made aprons! If you don't want to sew them, you can purchase canvas aprons at Michael's Craft Store! I found my pattern off of a Debbie Mumm apron panel from Walmart! I had so much fun making these aprons, my kids decided they wanted one also!

Inside the pockets of the aprons, I put recipe cards, cookie cutters, candy canes, Hot Cocoa mix, mixing spoons, measuring spoons, hot pads or towels, recipe book, and the Christmas recipe (shown below) rolled up with a bow around it! There are so many ideas of what you can put in the pockets! These are just a few!

DAILY CHRISTMAS RECIPE

4 Cups of Love
2 cups of Loyalty
3 cups of Forgiveness
1 cup of Friendship
5 spoons of hope
2 spoons of Tenderness
2 quarts of Faith
1 barrel of Christmas Cheer

Take Love and Loyalty and mix them thoroughly with Faith. Blend it with Tenderness, Forgiveness and Hope! Sprinkle abundantly with Christmas Cheer. Serve it daily with friendship to last all year!

You can Deck me later!

Christmas Inspiration---Let The Magic Begin!

I always like to seek inspiration early, so I can get started on projects and hopefully finish them by Christmas! I love the pillow wraps, but I love Fabric, and this project allows for FABRIC! Actually, you can use place mats and sew ribbons on the ends to tie them! I have seen the Terra Cotta pots with so many different ways to fill them! I also love the Cookie bags, they would be cute inside the aprons! The gift wrap is simple, but yet very classy! The ribbon and embellishments make it fantastic! I also love the Christmas wreaths on the windows!
I hope you feel inspired!

The Stockings Were Hung with Memories!

I love this fun gift idea! I was inspired by a dear friend Rebecca, which Rebecca got the idea from a dear friend Sabra- Better Homes and Garden! Last year around Thanksgiving, Rebecca pulled out 12 pairs of black dress socks from a box that she was getting ready to send off to her brother-in-law who was serving a mission. She lined all 24 socks up on a rope, hung with clothes pins and put small gifts in each sock with a note inside! They were all numbered from one to 24 with the last sock of the 25th being a special sock or something that can easily be hung! These black socks were serving more then just socks to wear, they were 25 stockings hung with gifts of LOVE!

I started thinking about all the people that could benefit from this kind of gift.
one, our kids-- Two, grandparents, Three, teachers ( a note from each student in the class) How fun to find a note each day with a treat! My dear friend Brie made one for her kids and they had to do all their chores for the day, before they could get a treat out of the sock!

I decided to do this for my Dad, as he is alone. I thought it would be great for him to have a note each day that he could read from our family.(I actually did this as a Family Home Evening Project). I had everyone in our family write three notes, that covered 24 days! We put a note in each stocking with a special note for December 25! These 25 notes told their Grandpa what they loved about him or a favorite memory! When my Dad received his package, he called me up and was wondering why I sent him so many Christmas socks! I told him to look inside the sock titled Dec.1st and each day for the next 24 days, he would find a note inside a sock to him! He wanted to hang up immediately and read all his notes! I reminded him he had to read one a day! He looked forward to these notes each day! He saved all of the notes and was very grateful!

I think my children realized how important it is to give from the heart when we were visiting my Dad after Christmas! They all saw their notes saved on the counter! My Dad expressed his joy to my kids and how he looked forward to opening a note each day!

We also did this for our sweet Grandparents! My kids wrote notes and we put them in handmade stockings, which Grandma saved the stockings and made a darling scrapbook with the notes along with the stockings ( one on each page) with a picture of the kids.

A Stocking Tree would be very cute! Instead of hanging your hand made stockings on rope, place them in a box under the Christmas Tree and add to the Christmas Tree each day.

You could also do this as "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" for a neighbor or friend!

There are a lot of fun ideas with this project! This is how I got started:

1. I was able to find great socks at Target and Kohls! (They often go on sale at 50% off). You can even get them for a dollar at Target and also the Dollar Store! The really cute ones are at Target by the shoe department! Remember you only need 12 pair! For December 25th I hung a special stocking with a gift inside! ( I gave my Dad a gift card to Walmart on the 25th day) He loves Walmart:)

2. I got some cute Christmas braid from JoAnns or just use rope! I got clothes pins and put the socks along the rope how I wanted them to appear.

3. I purchased small treats and other small items for the socks. I prepared the tags, which it is best to laminate them if you want to use them year after year!
You can also use numeral stickers for the tags! (I used a black permanent marker)

4. For FHE, we tied the tags to the clothes pins and attached the socks to the rope!

5. Remember to send them early, so they will receive them by December 1st!
Buy treats that are not heavy, because when you fill all 25 socks, it becomes pretty heavy!

Happy Holidays! You can "Sock" me later!

Gifts From The Heart--"What I love about You!"

This is a sample of two pages taken from Brandon's book!



Last year at this time, I was pondering about Christmas and what I wanted to give my children for Christmas. I wanted less toys, less electronics, a more spiritual side of Christmas!

I decided I would make them a small scrapbook of What I love about them, what makes them special in my eyes! I was inspired by the fact that if anything ever happened to me, they would have this as a memento of my love for them!

I kept it very simple since I had 6 to make! Target has books where you just add photos. I like the 8X8 size! You can even buy 8X8 card stock paper to fit! It's best to do your own handwriting, because even your handwriting becomes a keepsake! I used stamps and found quotes that I liked and used a lot of words that best describes their personality on their pages. I have worried less about all the embellishments. The journaling and what is from your heart is far more important! If I have used embellishments, they are simple and fast!

My kids have loved them, even my older kids! It was fun to see them look at their books and see their smiles! It may seem over whelming at first, especially if you have a large family, so remember to keep it simple! This is how I got started! Scrapblog.com is a great resource if you choose to do it digital! You can print out your pages!

1. Write down the things that you love about your child, I included their strengths and accomplishments as well. I listed at least 8-10 things about each child.

2. I went through my pictures, and chose some of my favorite pictures that went best with how I felt about them, and the ones that best portrayed their personality and accomplishments!

3. On the first page, I started with a baby picture and expressed my feelings of gratitude and how blessed we are to have them in our family!

5. Put your pictures in the order of how you want them to appear in your book.

6. Have Fun! I found after making these books, I had a greater appreciation and a little more patience for my children!