BRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
I cannot believe it’s snowing outside. A good sticky snow! Now that puts me in a HUGE Christmas mood.
WHERE IS THAT CHRISTMAS MUSIC??
I’m SO into it this year. Maybe because I started early? My Christmas cards, and teacher/other gifts are made?
Or maybe its the HUGE excitement my kids have! YEAH! That has to be it.
Kids make this time of year just so magical.
Remember being a kid, and having that magical feeling during the holidays? I know I do. When I hit like 9 or 10 it went POOF!!!! Every year I so missed that feeling.
It really hadn’t come back till my kids have now gotten the Christmas Spirit.
Seeing them be so excited, and already counting down the days. We have been watching Rudolph and Frosty for like 3 weeks now! LOL!
We put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, and go all out decorating inside the house. I cannot even wait.
Through Make-A-Wish Alexa gets a HOUSE visit from Santa himself! She is going to pee her pants! I dont know if it will be from TERROR, or excitement! LOL!
She loves the “idea” of him, but doesn’t like “HIM” in person. Wait till I post those photos! LOL!
I have no idea what Amber and Noah will do.
We are wrapping their most wanted toy ( Baby Alive for Alexa, Scooby Doo video game for Noah, and Dora Dance mat for Amber) for Santa to bring them! We leave it on the porch for him and Mrs. Claus to present as they come in! Now if that doesnt make true believer’s of Santa NOTHING will!!!! I think Im more excited than they will be!
So to the shopping-
I got mega deals at Target last night, and the best part-NO ONE there!!!! It was very quiet. I have just about finished shopping for my kids 😀 Only 3 little things left to buy! GO MOMMY!!! We are only doing about 10 gifts each. Plus stocking stuffer’s. I don’t know about you, but my kids stuff is SO expensive!! Each toy is like $30 plus dollars! What is up with that??
I dont want to overwhelm them or spoil them too much either.
The cool thing was my Publications/Design work paid for my kid’s Christmas gifts 😀
Now that is rewarding.
I also want to add that every year each of my kids picks out a toy for Toys for Tots, and we go tothe Giving Tree, which is a tree at Walmart, where you pick a gift for a child off the tree, and purchase it. I get so sad when a child asks for gloves or PJ’s or something they NEED as oppose to want. Make’s me realize how fortunate my family is. I usually add a toy to those requests.
OK now onto the stamping part. No one wants to here my blabbering. But I would LOVE to hear what you love to do this time of year to prep for the Holidays.
I’m sitting here with my steeping hot cup of Dunkin Donuts (I am a DD coffee snob) coffee, and thought I’d share some more gift idea’s with you.
One’s that will warm up even the COLDEST of days!
I made a few more samples with my sets from A Chemistry With Paper.
I used one of my fave’s Hot Holiday Drinks.
I LOVE coffee/tea sets!! You can never have too many of those. I love theirs because of the possibilities for words! Some I have never seen in a set before. So this was HIGH on my list.
Cocoa Cones
Can you believe this SAME idea, not nearly as nice as mine (wink) retails for $4.99 in stores?? Oh My Word!!!
In case you haven’t realized it, I LOVE Archer Farms items! They are high quality, without the price tag! The cocoa you see in th photo is DELICIOUS!!! It retails for $3.99. It comes in a variety of flavors :D, This is my personal favorite.
I put 7 tablespoons of cocoa mix, in the disposable frosting bag. This will make 1 1/2 cups of cocoa.
I added the marshmallows, and 2 delicious Ghirardelli peppermint bark squares (crushed up) to each one.
So, to break it down for you-to make 12 Cocoa Cones-
here is the list
3 containers of cocoa- $12 ($1 each bag)
1 pkg 12 disposeable frosting bags $4 (0.33 cents each)
1 pkg marshmallows$1 (easliy fills 12 bags 0.08 cents each)
1 9.3 oz bag of Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark $5 (24 pieces = 0.20 each)
A grand total of $22.
That means each Cocoa Cone adds up to be about $1.83 to make! A far cry from $4.99, for cheap and stale cones.
Now that is with top of the line ingredients! This doesn’t count using a coupon, or getting items on SALE!
How cool is that?? Plus the personalized touch-PRICLESS 😀
Now to make my bag-I stamped the peppermint image from Holiday Treats with White StazOn on my frosting bag. I colored it in with a red Sharpie marker. Copic markers work as well.
For my tag I used the Hot Holiday Drinks set. Colored with Copic Markers. I colored the glass with my Clear Glaze Sakura gel pen. Makes it look so real in person.
White Liquid pearls make the “whipped cream”. YUMMY!!!
My paper is by Paper Salon -Holiday Swatches collection. Ribbon is by American Crafts. Did a bit of sponging to add to the chocolatey feel.
Now for the coffee lovers!
I covered this coffee bag! Super simple!
I just took ALL the words I wanted from the Hot Holiday Drinks set, and put them on a large acrylic block. Stamped my bkgd “paper”. EASY PEASY.
Now I have a personalized gift. You could put coffee flavored candy in there, or special cookies, like Biscotti. Possibilities are endless!!!
Hope you enjoyed. I was really long winded today-YIKES!!!
Till tomorrow.
41 Responses for "Warm up with these gift ideas!"
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These gift ideas are great, love your packaging and tags.
[…] unknown had some great ideas on this topic.You can read a snippet of the post here.I also want to add that every year each of my kids picks out a toy for Toys for Tots, and we go tothe Giving Tree, which is a tree at Walmart, where you pick a gift for a child off the tree, and purchase it. … […]
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Oh WOW…you are soo very talented and creative! THese are amazing and such wonderful gifts. LOVE the colors you used. 🙂
[…] Coffee Bubba.com | Bubba Loves All Things Coffee and Great Food! wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptNow for the coffee lovers! I covered this coffee bag! Super simple! … Now for the coffee lovers! I covered this coffee bag! Super simple! […]
Lauren – Been meaning to post for a while – but I have loved the gift ideas you have been posting over the past few weeks! They are absolutely gorgeous, quick and relatively low cost! TFS these great ideas with us! Love the cocoa cone, the gingerbread house, the card sets, and the recipe holder.
Would you believe I listen to Christmas music all year? I love it…my fave! Anyway, I couldn’ t help but pass on a radio station that is already Christmas music 24/7 http://www.99wmyx.com/
I love your cocoa ideas! And I love that Santa gets to come into your house to visit bringing gifts!!! I look forward to the photos!
You STINKER! These are adorable! Off to order!
Awesome and yummy! ♥
You have snow!?…
Here it is 79 and I am wearing a tee-shirt and capris and the air conditioning is on! LOL! It’s hard to get in the Holidays spirit!!
I so wish someone would come up with a stamp set with a “sandman” instead of a snowman, and a palm tree with ornaments….maybe I’ll have to!!
My next “Season’s greetings” card is gonna have flip-flops on it, wait till you see it… 🙂
You seem to be in a very cheery mood lately, I’m glad for you, ENJOY!!
Those are, of course, MOST adorable…I saw said ‘expensive stale’ cones the other day and thought WOW…I could make those, and see??? I love how you give the cost breakdown…you smart cookie you.
I hope the visit from Santa isn’t too traumatic! I too, love this time of year, and yes, I totally know what you mean by the magical feeling, especially seeing Shannon…yesterday, it flurried here, and the first thing she did was stick out her tongue to try and catch some flakes…I LOVED that! WTG on having almost all of your shopping done! That’s great!
Us?? Since we got an artificial tree, it goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving, and we leave it up until the Epiphany. The house gets decorated inside and out that weekend too…closer to Christmas in years past I would get together with some of my sister-in-laws to make cookies, lots of them, but last year, it didn’t happen, but DD and I had our own ‘cookie day’ and we will likely do that again this year.
We also have a local station that is already switching over to holiday music…I’m ready for it!
Sorry to be so long winded…happy decorating!!!
Actually my mistake, it is 82 outside… ;-)…
What a(nother) cute gift idea! Thanks for sharing. I know what you mean about Archer Farms – I love the stuff too. I have tried a lot and haven’t found anything yet that we didn’t like. These are also such a cute idea to make for my kids to give to their friends – what kid doesn’t like cocoa? Thanks for sharing – I love your ideas!!! Please keep them coming!! And don’t worry about rambling on — I love hearing all your thoughts and goings on – feels like visiting a friends blog! Keep up the good work – your blog is one of my absolute favorites.
I hope everything goes well with the Santa visit!
Lauren,
Adorable gift ideas. I am going to make some of those cocoa cones!! I love the Santa Clause story and the fact you have the kids pick off the Gift Giving tree. Happy Holidays. Chris
Your cocoa bags are out of this world CUTE!!! And thanks for letting us know the breakdown of ingredients! I still think you are Superwoman, or that there are maybe THREE of YOU!!! You are amazing…just amazing. And HURRAY on the snow…it does put one in such a festive mood!
HUGS to you, and Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Diane
what cute ideas!!! Love the hot chocolate gift cones!!! what an easy, inexpensive gift!! I think I might make them for some of my coworkers!!! Thank you for sharing
I love your blabbering Lauren! I also love your gift ideas. The cocoa cones is just too cute! One special Christmas memory I’m going to share with you. When my youngest daughter was 8 years old she loved Fi Fi LaFume (she was Pe Pe LePew’s girlfriend in some Disney movie). She wanted a Fi Fi stuffed toy so badly and they don’t make them. I finally found a lady who sews fantastic stuffed animals at a craft fair and I asked if she could possibly make a Fi Fi doll for me. I took her pictures of Fi Fi and this sweet lady made the best Fi Fi stuffed animal ever! When my daughter saw Fi Fi under the Christmas tree Christmas morning her dwindling belief in Santa was restored. We still have Fi Fi and that was 15 years ago!
your ideas are so stinkin’ cute, and who DOESN’T need a ton of inexpensive gifts at this time of year!! you be as long winded as you like…I am sure i won’t be the only one still reading!!
hugs,
Holly
Oh these are so S*W*E*E*T……
What a great idea. They’re on my list!
What do I do to get ready for the holidays….
Well, it starts with Thanksgiving and being with family. I try to start my shopping right after Christmas. Our tree goes up shortly after Thanksgiving. We rotate real and artificial tree each year. Then we decorate the outside and OMG, my husband thinks he’s Tim Allen.
My daughter and I will spend a few days making baklava and cookies. There is always a bunch of school activities to attend so that and everything else keeps us quite busy. My favorite time is having the kids home from school. 🙂
I love your idea of purchasing a gift for the giving tree. What a sweet and meaningful gesture to do.
Thanks for sharing your ideas with us. Have a blessed holiday with your family.
Hugs,
Renee
Ok, I now know first hand from our shopping excursion your love for Archer Farms and I am so right there with you. 🙂 Your orginial cones are so cute and I am totally digging the samples you have made with your new sets.
Tell Jason how much I appreciate you getting to come out and play on Saturday 🙂 I totally had a blast.
Lauren,
I loved your Gift Card Wallet. I now have made several. Thanks for the opportunity to share.
it was snowing here too. now it’s just raining. bah. i like the snow better.
i am really liking your gift set ideas, though. super cute!
super cute Lauren! wish I was in the mood to create today…oh well…maybe tomorrow!
Thank so much for the great ideas, I love what yu did and love how you priced it out
vicky
THANK YOU for turning me on to Targets Archer Farms chrispy marshmallow treats. My DD and I hit Target last night and I picked up 3 different canisters of the {yummy} stuff. I plan on putting one of each flavor in the Boxed Bag Holders you shared with us in this post:
http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2007/11/10/saturday-sketch-boxed-bag-holder/
This is the same post that “made” me finally get the Scor-Pal {GRIN!}
Rubber Hugs,
Char in So Cal
[email protected]
I love what you’re doing with the stamps from ACWP!! Last year I purchased some cone shaped cello bags and this year I can’t find them anywhere…grr. I never even thought to use piping bags! Brilliant!! I even have a ton of those in different sizes in with my cake decorating supplies.
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Great gift ideas.
Love you site.
Janine
Love those hot chocolate cones, I feel a case coming on:o)
thanks for the inspiration
-Gretchen
Wonderful gifts and presentation!!
Presenting a gift to our lovable persons and why don’t we present some homemade cookies which is very safe when we compare with market made cookies.
[…] Warm up with these gift ideas! […]
[…] now I have to whip up some candy cane style sugar cookies for him, and make another cocoa cone for Mrs. Claus. How […]
[…] Warm up with these gift ideas! […]
thanks for the gift ideas! i love your packaging designs too.
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