Creative Christmas Gift Idea # 24 is fairly simple.

Cookies.

There are lots and lots of different ways to give cookies – almost as many ways as there are cookies – and we have come to learn that everyone likes a homemade Christmas cookie (even better if they are fresh from the oven). Our choice is to gather our friends and family together for an afternoon or evening of togetherness and cookie eating when we host our annual Christmas Cookie Party. But we also like to share our cookies and a Christmas greeting again throughout the Christmas season. Whatever way you choose to give them, cookies make awesome gifts.

It doesn’t matter how you wrap them. It doesn’t even matter what kind of cookies you make. Cookies are creatively made from your hands for someone else. What could be better? (Especially because Christmas cookies always taste good.)

So – you want to make some cookies this year, but don’t know where to start? The old family favourites are the best, so if you can dig out your great grandmother’s old gumdrop cookie recipe (these are my absolute favourite) or your aunt’s rum ball recipes (these are good too) or whatever else your family loves to eat, then go for it. If, however, these family recipes are lost, or you just want a change this Christmas, I recommend the recipes found for Christmas cookies on the Taste of Home site. This is where I got alot of my recipes this holiday season, and I can say that the ones I have tried have worked well (taste test approved!).

Cookies also make great tree ornaments, so if your baking skills need some improvement, bake to decorate the tree instead! Gingerbread ornaments are awesome and make the house smell festive, but then again cookie shaped playdough ornaments are fun too (here is a recipe for gingerbread playdough too). And don’t forget about the applesauce cinnamon ornaments – these are also wonderful on a Christmas tree (or a wreath, or hanging off a mantel…).

So – whether for ornaments, or for eating, put your cookies in a gift tin, a gift bag, a gingerbread tray, or make yourself a gift box or bag… consider cookies for your Christmas gift list this year.

And… happy baking! I will be back here on Monday with more great gift ideas. But for now, I am going to back to my baking…

Well I cannot believe that Halloween has come and gone, and I am left preparing for Thanksgiving!  My real life responsibilities have taken over full-throttle so my time to fold has been severely reduced.  However I have a plan to make it through this season saving money and saving my sanity.  What is this you may ask?  Origami ornaments as decorations and gifts.  Patti commented on a previous blog post that she has the same idea this holiday season as one way to conserve some much-needed cash.

So using the same model that I usually do (10 and 18 mette rings), I have gone into full holiday swing!  I bought some great red wire for the project and I have been having a blast making gifts for my family.  This one is made from chiyogami, but I have also been experimenting with foil and tissue paper as well.  The result is surprising nice!  If you work with 2″ square pieces of paper, the result fits nicely into a small organza bag.  They are just big enough to be used as a tree ornament and just small enough to wear.

But don’t let this limit your imagination! These can be done with various materials… Even paper cranes made out of wrapping paper look particularly pretty for the holidays. What can be better than a dose of handmade to celebrate!

My husband has a funny tradition when we decorate our Christmas tree. The first ornament that gets put on the tree is this one. It’s a picture of his little brother in 1st grade pasted on some yellow construction paper. Funny traditions are the best ones.

As Christmas is fast approaching , why not get organized and order a personalized grave memorial plaque for a family grave. We are offering a nice new service that allows you to have a personal grave ornament at a very low price, quickly and easily too. For example if you have an old family photo that means alot, then why not have that photo copied by us, and add a personal engraving also added to the plaque. We are based in East Cork, will only take 7-10 days to handmake your order and we will also deliver FREE to any home in Ireland all for only Euro 65. Please visit www.graveproducts.com to contact our family run business. Thank you.

I have been trying to keep myself from going overboard on Christmas ornaments. They can make a quick, easy project. In fact, I might keep craftin’ on ornaments throughout the year whenever I need a quick project – I’d love to do a bird series, for instance. Anyway…

My sister-in-law reminded me that we were invited to an ornament swap in a couple of weeks, and I (of course) wanted to make my own. I finally settled on my own design, and opted for simple and elegant:

I am not fond of working with the metallic thread, but that gold metallic makes a difference, doesn’t it? I mean, if you can’t go all-out on Christmas ornaments, really, when can you?

Are you busy craftin’ for Christmas?

I saw these Coca-Cola holiday ornament-shaped bottles at the store today.

They’re 13.5 oz., sell for $1 each and fit into no cup holder ever designed.

Next time, shape the cap so they can be ornaments, Coke.

*photo [via]

I woke up yesterday morning to my mail sitting on the desk infront of me (my hubby had brought it up) and w/my mail was a package. What a lovely surprise. So what was inside you ask? My ornament from the Holly Jolly Ornament Exchange. 

My first ornament of the season came from Brooke a really amazing crafter! Be sure to click on her name so you can check out her shop and blog. She used this bird pattern and it turned out super cute, i can’t wait til we get our tree!

Los Angeles Lakers Purple Snowflake Glass Ornament Review

Feature

Overview
Decorate your tree this holiday season with this festive Snowflake Collectors Series Ornament!

Nov 22, 2009 13:03:04

The holiday season is just around the corner and because I will not be spending the next 3 weeks with my husband, I decided to put up the tree a little early this year.  I was playing around with some of the ornaments, taking pictures, and here is one of my favorite ones.  Amazingly my cat Stormy sitting on the other side of the ornament played into part of the black background.  So to all of you far and near, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!

So I’m not sure if I’m going to make ornaments or put them in a garland or something, but I saw these little glittery skulls at JoAnnes for 90% off!  They came to about 60 cents.  I used some wire and now they’re much more useful.  I think they’ll get some hooks and go on my tree in my apt.  =]]]

I’m pretty excited for Christmas.  I’ll post pictures of my decorated apt before my jerk roommate rips all of my decorations down this holiday!  (unlike Halloween) and maybe some from my family home…

Happy Sunday!

Here’s a gift bag worthy of royalty, in my humble opinion.  I am really pleased with the elegant simplicity of this stencil – and I am really pleased that Stampin’ Up!’s Decor Elements line has introduced stencils as a design option.  They’re easy, they’re fun, and they can be so much larger than stamps!

• Vintage Ornaments I Decor Elements Stencil
• Always Artichoke and Ruby Red Craft ink pads, Encore Gold ink pad
• Stampin’ Sponges
• Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke cardstock
• Purchased kraft bag, gold wire ribbon, and tissue

I used a sticky note to mask off the top of the ornament in order to make it a proper gold hanger.  This image is equally beautiful using Classic ink, with a softer, more vintage look.

I’m looking forward to stenciling some canvas bags with this image.

So i participated in 2 Ornament Exchanges this year…

And i got both sets out this week.  

My original Plan of making a felted candycane didn’t work out to well, ended up looking more like a ying yang so i moved on, thought real hard and came up with a great idea for one of the crafty bloggers i was trading with. The first recieved her’s today so i feel good sharing what the ornaments i made looked like, and can’t wait to share with you what the ones i receive look like.

So here are mine…

i like  them a lot, i was able to use up some scrapbook supplies i had left over from a previous years christmas cards along with some wooden spools i had extra from when i did my egg nests and advent calender (which i will post soon).

By Annie

I refuse to mention why today is a big day in the lives of vampire-obsessed teen girls everywhere (needless to say, I’m not a fan). But the fact of the matter is, people love vampires. They love them so much, in fact, that the internet is full of vampire-inspired craft projects (some that don’t even involve the name Edward with a heart around it).

Crochet Bite Mark Necklace by Meekssandygirl

Vampire Amigurumi by Shawn

Felt Vampire Ornament by Geek Crafts

It is Friends with Flair {FWF} Friday at UNITY… a day full of inspiration from fabulous Unity Stampers.  The list of participating {FWF} hoppers can be found at Angela’s Unity Blog.  Just a hint… someone has a secret blinkie that could win you some awesome Unity rubber when you leave a comment on that post!!!!

This is a super quick card and I LOVE how it turned out.  I basically stole the idea from Kristina Werner’s card.  I used the Season of blessings stamp from Unity’s September 2009 KOM.  I need to use more stamps from this month.  They seem to be eluding me somehow.  I asked a friend today if she thought the saying was more for Thanksgiving or could I used it for a Christmas card?  She said, “Christmas is a blessed event, so why wouldn’t it be a season of blessings?”  I agreed.

The sentiment is embossed in Midnight Black embossing powder. Urban Prairie paper from Basic Grey has a repeat appearance in this card as well.  I love how this paper looked like a Christmas sweater and it wasn’t even trying to be.  In some spots you might find a part of a lady bug or caterpillar, but I tried to avoid them when I was punching out the ornaments.  Haven’t really heard of a Christmas lady bug… yet.

The ornaments were punched out from with an EK Success punch.  I don’t have the exact name, but all three ornaments are in one punch.  I will take a wild guess that the name has “ornaments” somewhere in it.  I just free handed the loops with a Sharpie pen and also used a ruler to draw the outline.

Limelight Papercrafts has a big sale going on:

*All TaDa Rubber Stamps 30% off!
*Smooch Accent Ink 15% off!
*All Stampendous Rubber Stamps Buy 2 Get 1 FREE! (Free stamp of equal or lesser value.)
*All Unity Stamps Buy 2 and Choose a Single for FREE!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Materials

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Urbane Prairie)

Stamps: Unity Stamp Co (September 2009 KOM)

Ink: Versamark, Sharpie pen

Other: EK Success punch (ornaments), Stampendous embossing powder (Midnight Black)

I absolutely love and appreciate all comments.  Thanks for the love!

And you thought you knew Santa’s reindeer inside and out?

http://artstarphilly.com

Just in time for Christmas two great new Free Standing Lace ornaments have been added to the website
You get your choice of either a baby boy snowman, or a baby girl snowman
Either will make a great gift for a expectant mom, new mom or new baby
Use as an ornament on a tree, or as decoration on a gift the choices are endless

Click here for Baby Girl

Click here for Baby Boy

Find all of our great Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments Here:
Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments

Just in time for Christmas two great new Free Standing Lace ornaments have been added to the website
You get your choice of either a baby boy snowman, or a baby girl snowman
Either will make a great gift for a expectant mom, new mom or new baby
Use as an ornament on a tree, or as decoration on a gift the choices are endless

Click here for Baby Girl

Click here for Baby Boy

Find all of our great Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments Here:
Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Just in time for Christmas two great new Free Standing Lace ornaments have been added to the website

You get your choice of either a baby boy snowman, or a baby girl snowman

Either will make a great gift for a expectant mom, new mom or new baby

Use as an ornament on a tree, or as decoration on a gift the choices are endless</p>

<p style=”text-align: center;”> <a href=”http://www.sewdragondesigns.com/embroiderydesigns/fsl-baby-girl-snowman.html”><img title=”Free Standing Lace Baby Girl Snowman Ornament” src=”http://www.sewdragondesigns.com/images/fslbabygirlsnowman.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”380″ />

Click here for Baby Girl</a>

<a href=”http://www.sewdragondesigns.com/embroiderydesigns/fsl-baby-boy-snowman.html”><img title=”Free Standing Lace Baby Boy Snowman” src=”http://www.sewdragondesigns.com/images/fslbabyboysnowman.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”369″ />

Click here for Baby Boy</a></p>

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Find all of our great Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments Here:

<a href=”http://www.sewdragondesigns.com/embroidery-ornaments.html”>Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments</a></p>

Just in time for Christmas two great new Free Standing Lace ornaments have been added to the website
You get your choice of either a baby boy snowman, or a baby girl snowman
Either will make a great gift for a expectant mom, new mom or new baby
Use as an ornament on a tree, or as decoration on a gift the choices are endless

Click here for Baby Girl

Click here for Baby Boy

Find all of our great Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments Here:
Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments

Just in time for Christmas two great new Free Standing Lace ornaments have been added to the website
You get your choice of either a baby boy snowman, or a baby girl snowman
Either will make a great gift for a expectant mom, new mom or new baby
Use as an ornament on a tree, or as decoration on a gift the choices are endless

Click here for Baby Girl

Click here for Baby Boy

Find all of our great Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments Here:
Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments

Just in time for Christmas two great new Free Standing Lace ornaments have been added to the website
You get your choice of either a baby boy snowman, or a baby girl snowman
Either will make a great gift for a expectant mom, new mom or new baby
Use as an ornament on a tree, or as decoration on a gift the choices are endless

Click here for Baby Girl

Click here for Baby Boy

Find all of our great Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments Here:
Free Standing Lace Christmas Ornaments