12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 10 | Packaging

I really enjoy wrapping gifts. I always have. I do think it is more fun during the holidays, though. I love all the options for wrapping paper, bows, tags, etc. This year, we had a few gifts that needed to be mailed. I'm not one to just ship them in a boring box. For some reason, I didn't do a lot of wrapping, though. Each gift got wrapped in  a pretty tissue paper, before it was put in the box, but that was all. It's the rest of the packaging that I am excited about!! :D

While browsing the dollar store a few days ago looking for some mini elf-sized items for our elf, I found this faux snow!!! I knew I had to do something with it, so I grabbed 3 bags!! I already had somewhat of an idea how I wanted to package the boxes, but this was going to have to be added in!

I had these little wooden things (?) I'm not really sure what they are for. I've had them for a while. Maybe tied to a gift?? Anyways...I had Joy, Merry, HoHoHo, and Peace. Each box got one. See the pretty tissue paper?? This box is for my brother (mostly my niece) Her favorite color is red, so I wrapped her gifts in various red tissue papers. The bag is for my sister in law. It has some of the sugar scrub in it that I shared yesterday.

We love getting a real tree every year! We had a few clippings left over, so I added some pieces to the boxes. I also got a giant bag of cinnamon scented pine cones, and had some left over, so everyone got one or two of those, too!! :D

 And then...in went the snow!!

I may have added a little too much, but my parents are in Key West, and my brother and  his family are in Texas! I think they could use a little snow in their lives. Even if it is fake! I just hope they don't hate me too much when it comes time to clean it all up!! :D Hahaha....This stuff is no joke! Little L got into the bag and spilled it everywhere! The little beads don't like to be picked up so easy!

How would you feel about opening a box full of "snow"??

12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 9 | Sugar Scrub

Today's craft is all about the scrubs! Sugar scrubs, that is. ;) And three different kinds, to be exact.

This is probably one of the easiest and fastest gifts you could make for someone, and the possibilities are endless!


Here are the ingredients we used for the first two:
White sugar
Baby oil
Essential oil

The first two we made were with plain old white sugar. I added about 1 cup of sugar to a bowl. We then measured out 1/4 cup baby oil. This is the only oil I had on hand, so that is what I used. Olive oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil would make excellent alternatives! I then added about 15 drops of essential oil. We did one peppermint, and one grapefruit. They smell delicious!!

 I used separate bowls and spatulas for each one so that I did not have to wash in between. I was on the phone, and it was just easier to grab another bowl! I was done with each one in less than 5 minutes!
Each scrub got put into a little jar with some Christmas colored ribbon and a tag. :)

The brown sugar scrub was a little more involved than that!
The ingredients were:

1 1/2 C Sugar
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup baby oil
1/2 Cup Oats

As you can see, this one has more to it. I was able to divide this recipe into 3 jars. Small size mason jars. This means in less than 5 minutes, I made 3 gifts! :) The jars got ribboned and tagged like the first ones, and they were ready to go!!

I have no idea why I didn't get a photo of all three jars together. I really thought I did since they all looked so pretty...

And, of course, I had to make some for myself! You will want to, also! Your hands will thank you!!


 Tomorrow I will be showing you how they got packaged along with out gifts that had to be shipped out! I can't wait. I'm very excited to share! You should be, too! ;)

Head over to Facebook for a sneak peek!



If you would like to know more about Young Living Essential oils, or purchase any, you can view the website HERE  My Member number is 2322868 :D
You can also feel free to message me about any information you would like! :)

12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 8 | Cookies

Who doesn't love cookies?? K and I made some delicious sugar cookies. The dough came together pretty effortlessly, there was no time waiting around for it to chill, and when they came out of the oven...perfection!!

I found the recipe on THIS site. I am going to share the ingredients and directions here, but I highly recommend heading over to that link as soon as you can. There are bunches of great cookie recipes there!! :)

Let's get started! We gathered all of our ingredients:
1 Cup butter, softened
1 Cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups all purpose flour

And then got to work following the directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. In the bowl of your mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in extracts and egg.
4. In a separate bowl combine baking powder with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes too stiff for your mixer turn out the dough onto a countertop surface. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.
5. DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).
6. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

K always likes to have his own dough to play with while I am doing the hard parts. I think he could sit and play with dough all day!

Once all the dough was rolled out, we cut as many shapes as we could until there was not enough dough left to make another cookie. The extra was added to K's pile. :)

 K really enjoyed painting on all the cookies with the cookie markers!

 This one was my favorite!

 Can you tell which ones were decorated by K? :)

 At the end, we squeezed a big pile of the white frosting on to the last cookie and added some sprinkles.

 Of course, we had to do a little taste test to make sure they were good! I think they passed! What do you think?

We really enjoyed making these cookies, and we will probably be making them again soon since they were so easy!

12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 7 | Reindeer Food

Have you ever made reindeer food??? This is something my kids have enjoyed doing for years! I have made different versions of it, but I decided to go with something quick and easy today. (Have you noticed a theme this month??)

I grabbed a big Ziploc bag
1 cup of oats ( you could totally use packets of oatmeal, too!)
and my giant container of sprinkles that never seems to end!

Step 1:
Have a cute little helper open the bag and pour the cup of oats in!

Step 2: Start sprinkling!!

Wait until you hear, "This is so much fun!!" before checking just how many sprinkles are accumulating in the bag!

Give the bag a good shake, and you're done! Now all we have to do is wait for Christmas Eve so we can sprinkle it on the lawn for the reindeers. They will have some carrots, too, to balance out all the sugary sprinkles! :)

 You can see the other 12 Days of Christmas Crafts here:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6

12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 6 | Pillow Covers

Today's post actually comes from a couple weeks ago. I took a trip to IKEA. I really really love that place!! I found these great pillow covers for only $6! I couldn't decide which one I wanted more, so I got one of each. I don't have enough pillows in their size to get two of each. Our living room couch has 6 pillows on it, 2 of each size. I had the middle size covered, so I needed to find something for the others. I ended up going to JoAnn Fabrics a few days later on a mission. I wanted something Christmas-y, but I didn't want Christmas Trees and Presents and such. I also wanted a heavier fabric than all the holiday prints offered. Our living room is very neutral, so I wanted to bring in some seasonal color. I ended up finding a solid marigold color and a green printed fabric that I love.

I usually make envelope-style pillow covers, but I found a bunch of zippers in my stash that I decided to use this time! They were the perfect size! I even love how the colors compliment the fabric, but aren't the same color (or just plain white!) There was no method to these covers. I laid my pillow on top of the piece of fabric, added about an inch, cut it, and sewed it shut. I wanted something quick and easy, and that is how I accomplished it! I don't always have time for pre-planning and measuring and pinning and such!

Here's how they all look on the couch! What do you think??
I am very pleased with how they all turned out. I love walking into the room to see the bright colors. It's even better to know that I MADE it! (Except the two from IKEA, of course!)

This guy is sure enjoying them! :)

 I have no idea what we will be crafting tomorrow, so be sure to check back!! :)




Find me everywhere!

Facebook
Instagram

12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 5 | Christmas Cards | Addie Lynn

Today we are doing a special kind of craft. Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, so I planned on helping K make him a card. Then I came across THIS post in my Facebook feed from the Today show. Breaks my heart. So we decided to make an extra card to send to Miss Addie Lynn and her sisters for Christmas.

I just grabbed some cardstock, photo tape, and Christmas stickers.

I love this stuff. I only use it for special occasions because I'm afraid I'm going ot run out and not be able to get more! :)

I took a piece of patterned cardstock and taped a plain piece on the inside so we would have somewhere to write.

Then we decorated the outside with stickers, and wrote a message inside.

I even decorated the outside of the envelope, because who likes a plain envelope?? ;)

And there it is...a fun handmade Christmas card on its way to Addie Lynn and her sisters!!

If you have time to make a card, or even just mail an extra, you can send one to Addie, too!!
Here is her address:
Addie Lynn and Sisters, P.O. Box 162, Fountain Green, UT 84632


You can also donate to her medical bills HERE and visit Addie's Facebook page HERE!

Now I must get a move on our other Christmas cards!!





Find me on Facebook!
Have a question? Send me a message!! kajpics@yahoo.com :D

12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 4 | Popsicle Snowflakes

Today's craft does not include a lot of photos, unfortunately. There are two reasons for this: 1. It went so fast. 2. L decided he REALLY wanted to help and kept sticking his cute little chubby hands in every photo! :) (See below!)
 I do have enough that you can get the general idea, though!

Here are the supplies we used:
 Popsicle sticks (K chose blue because we had them in the stash, but you could obviously use any color!)
Those awesome double sided sticky dots from yesterday's craft
MORE buttons!!
That's all!

We started by using the sticky dots to build the snowflake.

K then chose which buttons he wanted to use, and we added the sticky dots to the back and stuck it on a popsicle stick. We did this until he was satisfied with the results, and added a huge one to the center at the end!

This craft took less than 10 minutes! The perks of not having to wait for glue to dry!! ;)
I am probably going to add some string to this so we can hang it on our tree! :)


Tomorrow I have a very special craft to share, so be sure to check back!! :D

12 Days of Christmas Crafts | Day 3 | Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer and Tree

HI!

Today we are using up some toilet paper rolls I had saved for a Thanksgiving craft we never got to!!
For the first one, we made a cute little reindeer!
Here are the supplies we used: (I didn't get them all in the photo!)
A tp roll
fuzzy pompoms (red)
two small black buttons from my stash
textured brown cardstock
Kyle's hand
scissors
pencil
tape
double sided sticky dots
black marker

 I first traced both of K's hands onto the cardstock and cut them out.

Then we taped them to the back side of the roll.

K picked a red pompom for the reindeer nose. He wanted it to be like Rudolph. I used a double sided sticky dot to add the nose and eyes. I didn't feel like being patient enough for glue to dry!

To finish it off, K drew a mouth on Rudolph. He said he wanted it to look like he was saying hi! I think he accomplished that! Haha

The second one we made was a Christmas tree. I used a piece of green cardstock, and cut out a (not perfect) triangle shape. Then I fringed the edges.

The button stash!

After that. I let K go to town with 'decorating' the tree. He decided to add all the buttons in a straight line. I used the double sided sticky dots again to adhere the buttons to the paper. L even tried to get in on the action!

All done!! He topped it off with a yellow pompom 'star'.

I used some more sticky dots to stick it to the tp roll, and because I cut the tree little tall, I had to use a popsicle stick to secure it in the back so it wouldn't fall over!

Tomorrow we will be making snowflake ornaments with popsicle sticks!!