A Week of hot glue, late nights and unexpected blessings!

Today at our women's Christmas breakfast, I had the privilege of giving a "homemade gift" presentation. I promised the ladies that I would blog about it so that they could see up-close pictures and get more directions. I used Martha Stewart's website exclusively and she has great instructions and templates too. So hopefully I can leave the links here for everyone that wants them.

Everyone (45plus women) got one of these as their party favor:

Here's a picture of one:

This is how they looked at Martha's site:


http://www.marthastewart.com/article/cookie-cutter-ornaments?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/christmas-ornaments#slide_27

My favorite one:

I made one of these button wreath ornaments. (They are really easy and super cute!)



http://www.marthastewart.com/article/button-wreath-ornament?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/christmas-ornaments#slide_23

Here's some gingerbread baked right in a clean, recycled tin can. Fill the can 2/3 full and keep an eye on it baking...then after it cools you add the tissue paper and a string or twine and it's an adorable gift presentation. The gingerbread can then be sliced and powdered with sugar by the recipient.

Mine:

Martha's:

Do you remember when I blogged about these peppermint jars a couple years ago? I had to show the ladies this one. The contents are candy canes that have had the arch carefully cut off (so that they are just sticks) and carefully placed against the glass periphery of the bottom of the large mason jar. Add tissue paper in the middle so that the sticks stand up straight. There should be no gaps between the sticks. Then layer marshmallow jelly beans, and lastly wrapped peppermint discs. The jar lids were previously spray painted red and left over night to dry, and to finish the presentation, wrap a red and white ribbon around the jar.



I found this cute way to display and give your holiday cookies. The sleeves are cheap, and Martha Stewart has great templates for making on adhesive paper. I used ribbon and computer labels instead to decorate mine. What a fun party favor, or quick thank you gift etc etc....


http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=f5ef3a6f5c470110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&backto=true&backtourl=%2Fphotogallery%2Fholiday-clip-art-crafts#slide_6



I also showed them creative ways to wrap gifts. The empty wrapped boxes also served as the table centers at the breakfast.

Here's some ideas for letting the kids make wrapping paper:



How mine turned out:


I found the plain, glossy white wrapping paper at Walmart in the regular wrapping section - it's great for paint, handwriting practice and marker pictures. Also old calendars are fun for wrap too!


Here's an idea for a whimsical present topper:
http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/bows-ribbons-gift-toppers#slide_22




This is a great way to decorate your gift and make it personal for the one receiving it - you might even get away with a gift card this way:

Martha's staff used recycled Christmas cards:


I used pretty cardstock:




http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/gift-wrapping-ideas-for-kids#slide_10

I love this classic holiday look...I used sweet red and white ribbons and a bit of hot glue. I used the plain white roll again and all red wrap too in that same section at Walmart. Since I had to wrap empty boxes, I think I may save them for decorations under my tree or around the house! Okay, I actually ran out of empty boxes and had to wrap cereal, our leather furniture cleaning kit and some other things that will have to be unwrapped:(



This last gift is possibly my favorite. It's a natural, home made body scrub. The recipe is 2 cups of Epsom salts or sugar, 1 cup carrier oil (I used grapeseed oil from Winco's shelf), and 8 drops essential oil (from our health food store - I chose peppermint and grapefruit. Oh, and one drop food coloring too. Once again, the following link has templates for labels....I used sheets of clear labels and cut mine out. They turned out super duper adorable!

These are mine:



Now Martha's:

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/natural-beauties-body-scrub?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/our-25-most-popular-gifts#slide_3

Just in case you don't know what "essential oils" look like (and they are spendy - 7 to 10 bucks each...but last a long time)


This was a LONG week for me. I did all the above, plus the girls' advent activities, subbed two half days, have a little internet job right now too , and entertained/cooked in my home Friday night. Did I add laundry and dishes? I really thought I might NOT survive it. But I enlisted some friends to pray, took one day at a time and tried to breathe. Mike was super supportive and helped a lot too! I really had a fantastic week - God covered me for sure. I did only get 4 hrs of sleep the last two nights in a row, but even that was blessed with Hallmark Christmas movies, and a girlfriend "night owl" neighbor who texted back and forth with me in those late hours. Even now, my girls are all parceled out- an unexpected surprise and I'm all ALONE doing this lengthy blog post. God is good.

Now, I may take a LONG WINTERS NAP....and btw, I picked up these little treasures at the health store. I leave you with a picture of this newest discovery of mine: