Hot Chocolate Cones

It's always a nice touch to give gifts to your children's teachers for the holidays.  When I counted up all the teachers and aides that the girls have between them for preschool and Sunday school, I was faced with providing presents for 14 people.  It can be pretty tough to stay both meaningful and economical for 14 gifts.  Once again, Disney's Family Fun magazine came to the rescue with their recipe for Hot Chocolate Cones.  (I've seen this idea from a number of other sources, as well.)

I purchased cone-shaped cellophane bags from Party City, ten for a dollar, as well as a jumbo cannister of hot chocolate, two bags of mini-chocolate chips, and a bag of mini-marshmallows from Target.  The magazine suggested topping off the Hot Chocolate Cone with a red gumdrop, but we used a red Gummi Bear instead. 

All I had to do was pour the hot chocolate into one of the cones, closing it off with a rubber band or twist tie.  I then trimmed the cellophane above the tie, and dropped that bag into another one.  I poured mini-chocolate chips right on top, and then mini-marshmallows on top of that.  Then I topped it off with a red Gummi Bear, and twist tied the second bag closed. 

Now their teachers will have everything they need for a few warm, delicious mugs of hot chocolate this winter!

I will probably be tying a reindeer thumbprint or jingle bell tag with a ribbon to the top. 

Kids who are four or five can definitely help with the gift preparations, and I think that a child of eight or nine would be able to put these together all by themselves.  They make a great gift for teachers, friends, or stocking stuffers!

Happy Holidays!

Another Christmas Quickie: Thumbprint Reindeer

Today the girls and I created Christmas cards featuring reindeer made out of our thumbprints.

The original project, as it appeared in Disney's Family Fun magazine, called for tiny little google eyes and little pom-pom noses.

We made do with drawn-in eyes (I offered to make a trip to JoAnn for the googlies, but the girls opted to stay home!) and paper-punched circles for noses.

I think they came out pretty cute.

Well, my three-year-olds' reindeer looked maybe just a little bit spooky!

She's not "into" crafting much, and likes to take things in her own direction.  She had a grand old time drawing antlers that swooped around the entire page.  And her mouth placement showed me that she didn't quite understand that those were noses she glued at the bottom of the reindeer faces!

My five-year-old sent me into fits of laughter when she decided to give one of her reindeer a mustache.  (More questionable nose placement...)  Priceless!

And I was not to be left out!  I created some thumbprint reindeer of my own.  It's so funny how a project that takes a grown up about five or ten minutes to complete will fill up at least 30 to 40 minutes of a preschooler's afternoon.

Now, don't you think the girls' teachers will enjoy getting little thumbprint reindeer cards? 

You don't need kids to try this one, folks.  Just a brown ink pad, a brown marker, and a hole punch with some brown and red paper.  It's the simple things that make the holidays sweet!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Quickie: Gift Tags

I recently bought myself a pretty orange sweater from Anthropologie, and it had the sweetest little jingle bell gift tag pinned to the front.  I knew I wanted to make my own version of their tags, and was happy to find all of the supplies I needed already in my stash. 

To create the tags, you need:

1. a basic shipping tag (I used small-sized pre-cut white tags)
2. a jingle bell (You can find a set of 12 for $1 at the dollar store, or at fun stores like Deals Variety Store in Media, PA)
3. ribbon
4. decorative punches
5. letter stamps

The process is as easy as 1-2-3:

1.  First, I stamped the "To" and "From" with letter stamps. 

2.  Second, I punched the shapes in the lower right corner; I used a star, a Christmas tree, and a swirl.  With a larger tag, I would have loved to use my snowflake punches. 

3.  Third, I strung the jingle bell on the piece of ribbon and then strung it through the hole in the tag, securing it by tying the ribbon into a bow.

And that, my friends, is all there is to it!

I took photos of a bunch of objects on my work table "wearing" the gift tags, so that you can imagine them on the gifts under your Christmas tree!

My ribbon candy box is destined to become a duct tape journal cover!

A Christmas rubber stamp set from Pamela will be a gift that keeps on giving as I use it in many mail art projects to come.

I use the box from my Kelly Rae Roberts coffee mug to hold my index cards from Tammy's ICAD project.

The duct tape journal from my mom is a treasured gift.  I made a duct tape journal for each of my daughters, too, so they might just get a jingle bell on their books on Christmas morning.

Happy holidays!