Crafty Holiday Treasures

2020 was a year that we'll all likely remember for a long time. Things weren't always easy, and probably many, including myself found solace immersing ourselves in our hobbies. Maybe that could  explain the huge amount joy I felt in receiving so many wonderful handmade treasures this Christmas.

                            

My long time friend Bev always wows us with her handmade Christmas cards, and this year was no different. I love the beautiful and intricate holly/star swirl design she used for the front of her card, not to mention her paper and color choices. 

But the best part of this "Peek A Boo" style card happens as you open it... the "Happy Holidays" sentiment in the window disappears and is replaced with a photo collage of Bev and her family engaging in a virtual meeting. With travel restrictions in place everywhere, many of us, including Bev and her daughters, could only spend time together "virtually". What a wonderful idea to use screenshots for her  holiday photo collage!

My always amazing crafty friend Lorna outdid herself again with this super creative tropical Sand "Snow"man under a coconut tree. 

The coconut tree is actually a tall box filled with candy canes and chocolates! And how adorable is this little "sand man" with his cool hat and shades and even a string of Christmas lights!

This adorable bonnet girl Christmas card and super kawaii Dandelion Designs kimono girls coaster magnet calendar were put together by my very special blogging pal, Karen of "Have A Scrap Happy Day" blog. Karen has made it a holiday tradition to send out her beautifully designed stamped cards and coaster magnet calendars every year. In fact it was she that inspired me to start making my annual Chinese lunar animal calendar magnets too.

How cute is this Hello Kitty snowflake ornament?!!! This meticulously paper pieced Hello Kitty angel was created by my dear friend Claire. I apologize that my photo does not fully capture all the intricate little details of this project, from Hello Kitty's garland of teensy. tiny flowers to her glittery little halo, dress and wings. Claire attached her Hello Kitty angel to a sparkly resin ornament topped with a shiny gold bell... cuteness overload!

This pair of handcrafted treasures was created by my sweet and crafty pal, Kris. 

This  super adorable fuzzy teddy bear with his watermelon is a "tear bear", which Kris created by layering and adhering many tiny pieces of felt together... truly amazing, right? After piecing her teddy bear together, she adhered him to the front of a notepad holder. Imagine this, a notepad with a mini plushie on it... love it!

Kris also put together this delightful matchbox Santa giftcard holder. I especially liked that she used glossy enamel dots to give his eyes that special twinkle! SVG cutting file for this adorable giftcard holder can be found at the Lori Whitlock store.

Here's a fun vintage style shaker card that was sent to me by my super creative blogging pal, Patti, of Creations by Patti blog. Did you recognize Siren, the two tailed mermaid in the center of the shaker of "snow" beads?

Yes, of course you did! That's because all the "patterned paper" that adorns this amazing gift card holder was cut from an actual Starbucks cup. Very clever, and so beautifully put together... definitely a keepsake piece!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed seeing the fun creations put together by some of my sweet crafty friends and that you may have been inspired by them as I always am. 

Holiday Gift Card Tree Boxes

 I put together a little over a dozen of these little tree boxes to use as my gift card holders for nearly everyone on my gift list this Christmas. 

Designed by Pebbles In My Pocket, the svg cutting template for these boxes can be found at their Etsy Digital Store. To be certain I 'd be able to get my giftcards to fit, I enlarged the template for the box as large as possible to fit onto a 12 x 12 mat.

Before cutting the trees, I joined various sized star and circle svgs to tree template so it would cut out as little stencils on the tree. I then added red glitter paper to the backs of the trees so it would show through the front as glittery round and star shaped ornaments on the trees. Then I added another tree shaped layer of green text weight paper to sandwich the glitter paper and box tabs in to give everything a cleaner look.

It takes four tree cuts standing back to back and meeting at center folds to create the desired 3 dimensional tree and keep the box closed. However, since my tree cuts were 3 layers thick, I couldn't get the trees to stand snug enough in place to keep the box nicely closed.  After a bit of fiddling, I ended up punching a hole in the center of the star, threading and tying a length of gold thread into a tight bow to keep the tree sides snug and the box closed.

I stamped and heat embossed a Christmas sentiment from a very old Inkadinkado stamp set in gold metallic powder and backed it with gold glitter paper to create the labels for the front of the boxes.

These pop up gift card holders were put together from a tweaked cut file of a Christmas card created by my dear friend Kris a few years ago. 

After the gift cards were put in the boxes, each was wrapped in a cello bag tied with gold ribbon. The final touch were these very simple round tags with a cut out tree and gold star. I really liked the finished look of these tree boxes and hope everyone enjoyed getting them as well.

Holiday Treats From Our Kitchen

I decided to change the packaging for my holiday Chex Mix this year from the kraft takeout boxes I've using for the past few Christmases to these clear mylar bags. I like that they can be heat sealed and also have a zipper closure so they can be resealed after opening. Best of all, unlike boxes or bottles, they fold flat and take up hardly any storage space in my closet.

I came across an idea for labels on Pinterest that used this clever play on words: "Merry CHEX mas" for Chex Mix, and decided I wanted to use the same for our oval print and cut tags too. Used Cottage Cutz "Santa Bear In A Pot" die for the cute paper pieced peeking polar bear.

In addition to our usual Chex Mix, this year we decided to make a couple batches of  one of hubby's favorite local style snacks, Prune Apricot Mui to share with friends and family as well.

We packed the mui in plastic portion containers and created fun labels using print and cut for the wording and stamped Dandelion Designs' "You Make Me Smile" panda.