Gifts on the Fly

I don't know about you, but it always seems despite my best efforts I need last minute goodie bags for something... a party, classmates, Sunday school, etc. Well here is a quick and easy solution. I try to have those clear treat bags on hand at all times around the Christmas season. This year I also picked up several bags of Christmas candies and stashed them away for just such an event. Then all you have to do is fill the bags with goodies and staple them shut with a cute paper topper or tie them closed with curling ribbon. (or you could get really fancy if time allows...I'm hoping to share some ideas for grownup treat bags soon) These bags came with us to Awana on Wednesday night as a little reward for some hard work and great behavior by the kiddos in my Sparky class. I tell you, just a little bit of organization and it's so much easier to sit back and enjoy the Christmas season! Merry Christmas!

Teacher Gifts

I thought I'd share these fun and easy teacher gifts I made this year: Christmas Candy Cones. Ok, so first start with a pattern. Go here if you don't have one of your own. Trace in onto some pretty paper, cut it out, roll it into a cone and fasten with glue or double sided tape. Viola! You have a candy cone. Now if you want you can decorate the cone to your hearts delight or you can simply punch a hole on each side of the cone and tie on a ribbon hanger. Either way they are cute! Then fill your cone with goodies. I filled our cones with chocolate cause who doesn't like chocolate! ;) You could even tuck in gift cards, pencils, or other little trinkets.


This year I also made a bunch of treat bag toppers in photoshop and printed them out so I'd have some on hand for gifts. (you could make yours from scrapbook paper too, this was just quicker for me and sometimes quicker is better ;)) I tucked the cones in clear bags, added a topper, and set them in a basket ready for giving!

We started giving them out this week, and they have been a big hit! I had the kids make Christmas cards to go with them... and those have really been a huge hit. Everyone likes a handmade card with a wonky little Christmas tree and a child's handwriting! ;)

I have some more ideas to share later for quick gifts for classmates, friends, and neighbor children. Merry Christmas! Have a great day!

Gift of Gift tags...

I made these simple gift tags for a Sunday school project the other day, so I thought I might as well share them here! I don't know about you, but every Christmas it seams like I am forever running out of tags! These are nice to have on hand just incase I need to print out some quick ones!
Merry Christmas!

Journal Your Christmas Pages

I'm so excited about this project!! I received my 2nd email yesterday and I was really looking forward to working on another page. I'm so excited because by the time New Year is here I'll have an entire Christmas album created full of all the little details that make our Christmas ours recorded as they happened. I'm usually scrapbooking Christmas pictures eons after the events are over desperately trying to remember the cute things the kids said and did etc. BUT not this year. Thanks to good ole photoshop, the ease of digital photos, and "Journal Your Christmas" I will have this book off to the printers and back in the hands of my family sometime in January. YIPPPEE!
So here is the "manifesto" page... I used it as a dedication to my family.



... and here is yesterday's page. The prompt (each day there is a journaling prompt to help you record all the details of your Christmas) was all about snow and White Christmas so this is what I came up with.



I don't know if you can tell from these photos but I used some blue tinted textures on the photos and then "erased them" around a focal point. I think they turned out looking pretty wintery! ;)
Here is an example:
Before

After

Love to play in photoshop!! I'll have some teacher gift ideas to share soon. Have a wonderful day!!

Silhouette Ornaments

I found this wonderful little tutorial on how to convert your child's photo into a silhouette (don't you just LOVE Photoshop?) the other day and it got me thinking.... they would make great Christmas tree ornaments for the family!!


I can't believe how well it worked! My Maddie's little profile came out perfectly. I'm going to either mount them on chipboard and glitter the edges or frame them in mini frames if I can find them. I'll show you the finished product when I'm done, and while I'm at it I'm going to make some for me too! ;)

It begins today....

Yep, today is the first day of Journal your Christmas. It's an online scrapbooking class/inspirational thing (man I'm eloquent today ;)) meant to help you document all the magic of Christmas while the memories are fresh. I signed up for the class last year and the awesome thing is that once you sign up you can take it every year after for free!! I'm going to do this years digitally so I can keep up daily and still get my other projects done too! Go over to my sidebar and click on the blinkie to go to the site offering the class. It's not to late to sign up! You won't regret it. Each day you will receive some instructions and a theme/inspiration point for that day's page in your email inbox. There are also great freebies, printables, and tons of inspiration on the website too. Check it out!

I made the title page for my book yesterday... now I just have to work on today's page.


Have a great day everyone!