Christmas Paper Gifts

Hello again! Christmas is only 2 more sleeps! I AM SO EXCITED! I am also feeling a bit stretched out :( My family has family coming in from out of town and that excites me, they will be here tomorrow (or should be) and I can see some aunts and uncles from out of town. Then tomorrow night we are heading to Chris's folks house to spend the night and then Christmas day spending it with his family. The big suck in all of this is that Chris has to work late Christmas eve and early (four am early) Boxing day. I despise retail for that! SO when you are out getting your sales and enjoying your gift cards- please be courteous to the ones out there that are sacrificing time with their families so the stores can be opened crazy early. Me? Ima stay home :D HAHA I DON'T do well in crowds- I love small spaces, but being in crowds makes me claustraphobic. I forget what it's really called. But all in all I think we'll squeeze enough Christmas spirit in the small time alloted and remember- it may be cliche- but Jesus IS the reason for the season :)

In all that being said- here are some eye candy treats for you all- the only kind of candy I wound up making this year :S Usually I make homemade truffles and chocolates- but baby taking all momma's energy had DIFFERENT plans. Sleepy plans!

Here's what I whipped up for teacher's gifts this year. I posted one earlier on in Novemeber, using the box that a Martha Stewart border punch came in- I tore it apart and adapted it a bit. I used velcro to close them and they were so much fun and easy to make once I got the template down pat! Embelishing was simple and quick using border punches, Stampin' Around Jumbo wheels (have I mentioned lately that I LOVE them??? lol!) and STICKLES! Okay- Ranger industries??? You guys are officially GENIUSES in my book for inventing such versatile, colourful and PRETTY embellishments! I used acetate for the 'windows', but vellum would work too! I cheated- as I typed above I usually make candy- and have some GREAT recipes for caramel, hazelnut cream, peanut butter cups and nougat- but this year I just didn't have the energy- so I cheated and bought mini peanut butter cups and hershey's kisses! I have a great plan using this little template in a bit- and EP (energy permitting) I should be whipping up one today for a gift and posting it later :)

Another teacher's gift I whipped up was for a friend of mine- who, coincedentally enough is a teacher as well- my daughter's pre-school teacher- but she wanted me to make some for her son's teacher. She loved the stationary desk set I whipped up using an adaptation of my Milk Crate and adding pockets. Using a christmas theme for each of them I came up with these little cuties:

These 'crates' have two pockets in the front for 2x2 items- whether it's notecards or tags as seen here. Nothing is as cute as little homemade tags taped to the top of your Christmas package! then I made two mini boxes to seperate the 3x3 notecards- great for large gifts or gift bags and the back is storage for A2 greeting cards. I was able to fit 5 of the smaller cards and I made 4 greeting cards- tho you could add more. All sentiment stamps are from Inkadinkado, border stamps are All Night Media (acorn stamp on the pink) and Stampin' Around wheels. Then for embelishments I turned to simple border punches from EK Success, ribbons and stickles. I think next year I'm going to give myself more time because I'd definatly love to give these little treasures away- and keep some for myself!

So there are some Christmas ideas for all of you- if I don't post before then I hope you all have:

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST IN THE NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!!

Much love and God's blessings,

~Brandie~