Holiday Goodies from Crafty Friends

 

Today I'm sharing some of the fun and adorable handmade goodies I received from my crafty friends for Valentines Day and New Years. First up are these two Valentines Day treat holders from my dear friend Kris that really blew me away...

Here's an absolutely amazing candy dispensing vending machine that really works! Pressing the rubber band activated heart lever allows the candies in the dispenser to fall into the clear tray below. How cool is that! I'm not mechanically inclined at all so I can't even imagine how Kris constructed this fun toy.

This second Valentine treat box from Kris is another fun and novel interactive box.

This box has an unusual side magnetic flap closure. When you pull open the lid, a large glittered heart filled with treats spills out of the box...what a fun surprise! Hope to learn how to make this one day!

Next up are these wonderful handmade projects created by crafty friends Bev and Lorna.

This beautiful glitzy hexagonal pop up New Years card was put together by sweet Bev. Hexagonal pop up cards are one of my favorite styles of card to make and receive. I really like the way she added the die cut word "Thanks" to the banner on the top so her card would double as a thank you card as well.

Then a few weeks later, I received another fun card from Bev. This time a Chinese New Year box card. This has got to be the cutest Year of the Horse card I've seen! Beverly constructed her card using Lori Whitlock's "Horse Stable Box Card" and very cleverly gave it an Asian twist by adding the Chinese Character for "Horse" on the front and hanging an Asian lantern on the panel behind the horse.

Every year I look forward to receiving  Lorna's lunar animal daruma creations. They are always so kawaii. This year she created a horse daruma and I love that she even added an easel on the back so it could rock back and forth, just like a real daruma!

This year we celebrated Chinese New Year just 3 days after Valentines Day, which made things a little hectic for crafters trying to make cards and treats. Lorna solved the problem by ingeniously combining the two! This Target wannabe shopping basket is so adorable... look closely and you'll see the holes in the basket are really tiny hearts. She added the familiar target bulls eye to the center of the basket but look again to see a heart shape in the middle. She also added an image of Hello Kitty riding a red horse as a nod to the lunar new year. Her tag with a cute horse dressed in lion dance garb and blowing heart shaped bubbles together with her sentiment say it all: "Happy Valentine;s Day and Kung Hei Fat Choy"!