Christmas Gifts

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU ARE LACEY, ASHLEE, OR EITHER  MY MOM or MIL STOP READING NOW!

on the off chance that they check this blog and since I'm not going to wait to publish this until after Christmas you've had your fair warning. : )

First up I have the "neighbor" gifts I did this year. I had lots of good ideas but as my list was pretty long I needed to keep cost in mind. I have done this before but not for Christmas and not here in Vegas. I have a great recipe for a dill dip mix so I made some up, packaged it and attached it to a wooden spoon with the directions needed to make it. 

Second, we were finally able to participate in our family gift exchange this year. We had talked about having the kids draw each others names (all the cousins) and then having them make their gift for them. BUT we decided to do this a little late in the month so we drew a family instead. We had the option to make gifts for the kids in that family or do a "family" gift. I opted for the family gift. I saw this idea here on My Grafico Crafts blog for a movie night in a bottle. For some reason I had it in my head that the movie fit in the bottle too, but it doesn't. I filled mine with popcorn, M&M's, other smaller candies and in one went three little pandas to go with the Kung Fu Panda 2 movie that was going along with it. In the other I put three little penguin craft projects to go along with the Mr. Poppers penguins movie. 

They have the instructions on the site for assembly. I hope they like them!

And third is something that I really loved putting together. This year I got both my mom and MIL gift cert. to Hobby Lobby because when they come to visit it is a must do to go to Hobby Lobby. But I couldn't just mail the gift card so I found this great idea on Inking Idaho (she is amazing by the way)

It is a small box with a transparency slide. It hold 3x3 cards and 3 Hershey Nuggets. 

 Can you see my gift card sticking out?

 I made four different cards to go in the box. I probably could have fit at least one more but it was late and I could hardly see straight. Plus the flower card took up too much room for another card

 Love the wrapped nuggets!

 I'm so excited with how they turned out. I hope they'll love them and that they'll look inside to find the gift card. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

I'm linked up at:

Pinterest inspired projects

I Love, Love, Love Pinterest. SO many great ideas out there to be inspired by. These are a few projects I've done that I've found on Pinterest. 

First is my Christmas bulb garland inspired from this picture

 I used DollarTree bulbs and ribbon. I love the original ideas with the beads and hooking them on so that they don't move but because I used these plastic ones they didn't have the removable top. So I improvised.

Next are these wrapped gifts by the front door originally seen here.

I loved them when I saw them but wasn't sure I'd use this idea this year. Then I did my coffee filter wreath and well things just worked out that they were just what I needed.

I've seen lots of coffee filter wreaths out there and have done one before but here is my Christmas one for my front door. 

 Once I finished it and added the red bulbs I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I am a HUGE fan of polka dots and figured why not go with that.

So I made a ruffle garland from my red and white polka dot fabric, saw the poms at Michael's and envisioned more polka dots so I strung those as well. 

 I had the perfect wrapping paper to go with my polka dot theme and found the boxed at Walmart for something like $.54 each.

 I love how it all turned out and that it's a little non-traditional. 

I've seen MANY bulb wreaths out there and again used the Dollar Tree bulbs and made up my own. Here's the one that inspired me. I didn't use a coat hanger to do mine but I got the general idea for it from there.

 

Something new for me this year was having a stair railing to decorate. I saw this image from Martha Stewart and well did the best I could.  I'd love to have berry wreaths, maybe next year. I'll have to find them after Christmas when they're on sale.

 and well this year I had some left over bulbs from all my projects and found a great spot for them to go.

I'm linked up at Whipperberry

and TaterTots & Jello

and Sassy Sites