Christmas Is Over, But We're Still Celebrating!

How was everyone's Christmas? Ours was great, and we still have one more tomorrow to go to. We kept things simple this year, so the kids didn't get an over abundance of toys that they'll only play with for a short time. What is crazy is that a few days ago the temps in Ohio were below zero , but today it it 65 degrees and sunny! I am in a fantastic mood because of it. I'm getting so much done today! It's the perfect day to get those outdoor Christmas decorations put away. On to the project... Using yet another of Lauren's Timeless Template found over at PTI

I was able to create this adorable holder for these chocolate covered marshmallows to be used as stir sticks for hot chocolate. I made the marshmallows by stacking two in a lollipop stick and covering them in melted bakers chocolate and covering them with crushed candy canes. I just placed them on wax paper and out them in the refridgerator for a few minutes to set up.
Here is a closer look. This went to one of my aunts that I had for a gift exchange. She thought it came from a gourmet shop we have in town! It was very inexpensive to make. Probably less than $4 all together. I am going to take advantage of this beautiful day and I hope you do too!

Warm Wishes

This is probably going to be my last post until the day after Christmas. I HAVE to get presents wrapped and last minute gifts put together. The pressure is on! The boys are getting so excited. I love it! On to the card. I picked up this cute little clear stmap set at Walmart for under $3. It has a moose, a polar bear, a couple of porcupines, a penquin, a snowflake, and a sentiment. Not bad for $3! I used Lauren's saturday sketch for this card. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Sending An Ohio Christmas To Texas

It's been a while, huh!? Not because I haven't been around, but because we got an ice storm that made my internet server loose electricity. This gift was sent to a friend in Texas. Hopefully, she has gotten it by now, but if not....act surprised when you get it Haley! I just wanted her family to know that we were thinking about them this Christmas, and she of all people understands my goal of trying to keep things inexpensive. The idea of the Christmas Tree Garden was born when my s-i-l and I were walking through Target in November and came across these little pots with seeds for Christmas trees in the dollar spot. I scooped them up because I knew they'd be a perfect match for the egg boxes that I just had to have from PTI they are sitting in my closet collecting dust. So I went to work covering the box with adorable d.p. Now the insert for the box had 6 holes. My pots were just a little too big to fut 6 so I covered the insert with cardstock and only cut out 3 holes. I made some cutey little picks to put in the pots , so she knows what's what when she plants the seeds. FPr shipping purposes I put the seed packets and instructions under the insert to keep them contained. So I hope she likes it. I thought it was a fun gift and urge you think outside the box this Christmas!

Final Gift Using The Stocking Stuffer Template

I hope that I haven't over used this template during this Christmas season, but it was so easy to make these stockings and fill with little goodies for everyone of my gift giving list. This last one goes to Cameron's student teacher who has finished her student teaching this week. Cameron is very fond of her and didn't want her to be overlooked just because she has left the classroom before Christmas break. I used the Sweet Always d.p. for this stocking. I can't remember what the stamp set is called that I used on this one, but all images were colored with Copic markers. I filled the bag for the inside with little carmel chocolate apples. Perfect for teachers. I found them at Walmart, along with white chocolate snowflakes, green frogs, and milk chocolate mittens. Too cute! A snow/ice storm is on it's way for this is evening so I hope everyone stays in and stays warm!

Gift Exchange Stocking

This year for my mom's side of the family we decided to go the gift exhange route. I drew my step dad's name. In an effort to keep the cost of the gift down, I used Lauren's (free!) stocking stuffer template to create the gift packaging for his gift card. I think that presentation of the gift is sometimes as important as the gift itself. I love how masculine this stocking turned out. I just went around house looking at my Christmas decoration trying to find the perfect "embellishments" to snatch for this project. The d.p. is by SU! called Frosty Day. I made the tag using my Marvy scallop square punch and a retired stamp from the Noble Deer set, by SU! I used that same pinecone stamp with Timber Brown Staz On to stamp the bag on the inside of the stocking that holds the gift card. I am really happy how this turned out and will be using this template a lot! Be sure to scroll down for my earlier post.

What A Weekend

I am so glad the weekend is over and hope this week goes much better than the last. It just seemed like one thing after another and I need a break! Here is a picture I took of Hemi yesterday. A few people have asked how she's doing. As you can see she's growing! She's almost 30 pounds. She spent the day with my mom yesterday because we hosted Christmas for my husband's family at our house. With nearly 40 people here I thought she would just be underfoot all day, so my mom offered to keep her. Grandma says she was a good girl, but I know my Hemi:)
As I said we had Christmas at our house, but unfortunately I woke up yesterday morning to the flu. Thankfully, I was able to get out of bed by the time guests started arriving, but I was a terrible hostess. The smell of the food was too much for me to stomach and the noise level was hard to handle. It would've been great if I had felt better and by midafternoon Dustin started feeling sick too. We were glad when the day ended so we could go to bed...at 7p.m! As you can see, Santa dropped in for a quick visit. He brought all 14 of the children matching pajama pants and a small toy. Carter has done so well with Santa this year. As a matter of fact, he wanted really didn't want to share Santa yesterday. He has made it very clear that he wants a blue 4 wheeler this year. Santa better bring this child a blue 4 wheeler or mommy and daddy are going to hear about for a long time!

As I have said before, Cameron is really into the magic of Christmas. He asks a lot of questions. He really wanted to know how Santa knew that he took pigs to the fair, or that he's done a lot of camping over the summer, and fights daily with his brothers! Santa is always watching,Cam! He wants a new bike, but he recently got a 4 wheeler, so I'm not sure that Santa will deliver on this one!

And finally, my big man, Ausitn. Too cool to sit on Santa's lap. And totally mortified when Santa asked about his girlfriend. He was as red as Santa's suit! But he stood there long enough to humor me so I could get a picture.

Nugget Tin Gift

Just a quick Christmas gift to share with you today. This will go to the boys' bus driver. I always feel that we also need to thank her for making sure my boys get to school safely each day. Most people remember the teachers during this time of year, but forgot people like the bus driver, or the school secretary, or principal. I simply wrapped some Hershey nuggets with some of the d.p. left from the I Wish SSK. and added a belly band and tag. Then I put them in a hinged tin that can be purchased at Specialty Bottle or PTI. Very simple!

C.C. Designs Meets Today's SCS Color Challenge

I feel like I make excuses when I haven't been posting daily. I feel guilty , but I shouldn't. I've been nursing a cold and now Carter has it, so I haven't felt much like stamping. I must admit that I cased this card for the most part with one that Lauren made yesterday. I used today's color combo for the SCS color challenge which is Riding Hood Red, Taken With Teal, Baja Breeze, and White. There are a few things I would change now that I look at it, but oh well. I do have other things I want to share, but I want these gifts to get to the recipients before posting them.

Since I had everything still out from my previous post, I decided just to use it again for Lauren's Saturday Sketch. This is a great sketch for quick cards and because my main image is solid, there was no coloring involved. It took less than 10 minutes to put this card together. Now I'm off to take the boys to CCD and hope to get the rest of my Christmas gifts completed.

Get In Gear...

This card is for one of Carter's little preschool buddies. He was invited to his birthday party today. Of course, I can't just buy a card and since the gift bag is from the movie Wall-e I had to pull out my only robot set- Gizmos & Gears. My colors came from my d.p. by Scenic Route. It has gears on it, so I thought it would be perfect for this card. I'm hoping to be back with Lauren's Saturday sketch, but no promises since I'll be doing lots of running today.

Sleeping Santa & Peppermint Snowpals

I'm going to start off by saying how proud I am to be a mom. I know most of you come here to see my creations, but once in a while I have to share my family with you. I took this picture of Cameron last night after he went to sleep. He's been sleeping with his Santa hat on the past few nights. Why is that a big deal, you ask? It reminds me that there is magic at Christmas time for my children. Especially for Cam. He is at that at that age where he really believes in this whole Christmas spectical and it makes me realize even more what a special little boy he is. Being the middle child he is often overlooked, but he holds such a special place in my heart. He wears his heart on his sleeve and isn't afraid to show it. He is always telling us he loves us and he is full of compliments. If you're having a bad day he knows just what to say. The other day was Dustin's birthday. After we sang happy birthday to him, Cameron tells him that he is his hero. Dustin asked him why and Cam said because he protects us. My heart exploded and he made me so proud of him! So this year at Christmas I urge you to look through your children's eyes at the magic and wonder of this holiday instead of getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of it all.

The next picture is just of some quick snowpals I put together with my leftover peppermint patties. I call them snowpals instead of snowmen because yesterday while going through some of my lesson plan books (I used to teach preschool), I remembered that we were taught not to say snowmen because that was sexist. They taugh us a lot of other goofey thing to say, but that's another post. Enjoy your day!

There's No Day....

Here's a card from last week that I never got to post with the craziness of the holidays. I think it was from Julee's Mojo Monday sketch, but I'm not positive. My main image was from last year's CC Designs release. Lulu is building a snowman, I love the colors in the My Minds Eye d.p. that I used. There is lots of glitter on this card for the snow. I colored my main image with Copics. Dear Santa, if you're reading this....I NEED more. Lots more!

Weekend Wrap Up

I could share tons of pictures with you from the weekend, but I'll spare you. But here is a potential family photo for our Christmas cards. What a wonderful long weekend, huh!? We have been on the go from 10 am to midnight or after every night since Wednesday. We are exhausted and having a hard time jumping into the Monday routine. I'll be back later to share a card and hopefully a Mojo Monday sketch!