Gingerbread Explosion Box

Those who know me well know that I would pick crafting over Christmas shopping any day. That's why practically everyone on our gift list (except my mom and our granddaughter who give us their wishlist) gets giftcards from us at Christmas. That may sound like a boring gift, but at Christmas I make every effort to make giving and receiving giftcards fun for me as well as the recipient.

The giftcard holder everyone received from us this Christmas was this gingerbread house explosion box. The basic pattern for the gingerbread house was adapted from a Birdhouse Explosion Box cutting file I picked up from My Scrap Chick. The decorative elements on the inside and outside of the house were created from a collection of new and old svg cutting files from Doodlebug, My Scrapchick and Lori Whitlock as well as a few old dies from Taylored Expressions and Quickutz. Not showing up too well in the photos but everything "snow" was edged with Stickles glue to add some sparkle.

Lifting the roof (lid) off the house"opens" the explosion box. I left one corner of the box attached so I could create a corner of the room to add a fireplace and window. I added pockets for the giftcards to the other two sides of the box that opened flat. 

It was so much fun decorating the inside of the box with fun little details like rhinestone ornaments on the tree, stockings on the chimney and the silhouette of santa and his reindeer in the window.

I used a Doodlebug print and cut clipart from the Lori Whitlock store to create giftcard holder inserts to slide into the pockets.

Doodlebug gingerbread girl clipart from the Lori Whitlock store was used to create these hang tags for the gingerbread houses.

Final step: wrapping in cellophane and red gingham ribbon. I amazed even myself that I was able to complete a dozen of these in time for Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Holiday Treats

After baking up two batches of Chex Mix and putting them into resealable mylar bags, I tried to give the bags a festive look by dressing them up to be little penquins.

 

The paper pieced cutting file for the penquins is called "Penguin Sweet Treat Belly" from My Scrap Chick, and is originally intended to be an adorable little treat holder for small candies like individually wrapped Ferrero Rocher chocolates. 

I used the same file but enlarged it to size large enough for my bags of Chex Mix to fit and used double stick tape to securely adhere the front and backs of the penquin to the bags. 

Greeting in red on penguin's tummy was done as a Print and Cut, and I added a glittery punched heart to add a little fun bling. I put together a colony of two dozen penguins and I was glad that they all came together pretty easily. 

I also made a couple batches of Prune Apricot Mui to share with family and friends. 

This sweet, sour and salty fruit snack of dried plums and apricots marinated in lemon juice and scotch whisky is a favorite here in the islands. After packaging into sealed plastic containers, I labelled them with this fun "homemade with love" panda label using Print and Cut on sticker paper.

I think sharing homemade goodies from the kitchen is always even more fun when I can think of  cute ways to package them!