Sweet Treat Gifts

Hi friends! I L-O-V-E the holiday season. As a matter of fact, I would say that I love all the days before Christmas more than the actual day.  I totally love shopping for presents for others, baking (especially cookies), making special handmade gifts, & of course, making holiday cards. Don't get me wrong, the spiritual part of Christmas is more important than any of the gifts or commercial aspects but I just love 'spoiling' others! So- just a warning...I get real sappy this time of year.

Today, I want to share with you some more of the treats I made as gifts. More bread - another 9 loaves of banana bread for my hubby's co-workers. For my Stamp Club friends, I made a treat jars filled with tootsie rolls (12 of these babies!). You've probably seen these before- not a new idea, but I enjoy giving 'the girls' a little something more than a card for our December swap. The jar supplies are strickly Stampin' Up out of respect for my wonderful demonstrator. The jars are recycled Starbucks cold beverages jars that we sanitize & save throughout the year. (My youngest daughter who is in college does a good job of adding to my jar supply each year!)

I'm gearing up for a modified Project Life for 2013. So be sure to check back with me to see how I'm doing. I'm avoiding perfection & believe I've come up with my own solution on how to capture our lives.
Enjoy your holidays! Hugs, Marilyn

Food Gift Wrapping

Today I am sharing the way I wrap one of my favorite gifts to give- mini bread loaves! I love making & giving these little bits of baked goodness to friends with whom we don't typically exchange gifts. It's just a little something that let's them know they are special but it's not a big deal. Just a little, non-store bought gift so they don't need to feel like a return gift is necessary. That is the really important part for us- we are so blessed & don't want for anything.

The wrapping puts a special touch to it especially with a personalized handmade gift tag. The hand wrapping also helps keep the cost down as I use plain foil loaf pans without lids & plastic wrap versus the fancy foil with hard plastic lids or the ceramic pans that some of the discount stores sell now.

On these two loaves, I used some retired SU! designer paper  & ribbon in Baja Breeze and my tag stamp was from SU! Tags Til Christmas stamp set. The tag was tied with retired SU! silver elastic cord (circa 2008...sometimes my supplies seem to last for-evah!). The SU! DSP is a nice thickness and gives the gift a sturdy feeling that thin wrapping paper can't create. I use Sookwang double stick adhesive tape to secure the edges on the bottom. The DSP with matching ribbon & gift tag make such a nice presentation- at least IMHO (in my humble opinion).

Enjoy your holiday season! Hugs, Marilyn

Merry

Hey there, Friends!
I hope you are having a good week. This week I have been catching up with friends that I haven't seen in a while.  I have been so blessed with good friends from different times in my life. Today I lunched with a girlfriend from my very first post-college job- we've kept in touch over the 30+ years & it is always so wonderful to see her.

My card today is for two challenges.

The Freshly Made Sketch #64 for this week was the design that I used. I have eight of these felt wreaths & I needed a sketch to accommodate. I think this FMS sketch fits the bill perfectly.

The colors I used were from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge #221. I'm so glad they chose Christmas colors because I'm still making my holiday cards. I love making Christmas cards- my favorite kind of card to make. I have so many Christmas stamp sets...I'm downsizing my stamp collection, but I can't part with any of my holiday sets. And look I barely used any stamps here...go figure!

That's it for me! Have a great weekend!
Hugs, Marilyn

Come to Bethlehem Cards

Hi Friends! Today I am sharing some cards I made recently with the Stampin' Up stamp set called "Come to Bethlehem". I was experimenting to determine which card to make in duplicate or mass production style (& getting DH opinion too). I intentionally did not add pop-up elements or many layers so the cards would be postal friendly.

The papers are: Concord Crush & Poppy Parade cardstock and DP (retired) & Old Olive. I used the new Champagne glitter paper in the SU! holiday catalog on some. Gold embossing powder and Concord Crush for the image. The ribbon on third card is a retired SU! ribbon package called Jersey. I added a rhinestone on the star on the non-embossed cards.

I ended up liking all of them & for different reasons. Some of which has to do with using retired supplies- LOL! but seriously!! DH's choice was the first one. There is something regal and Christmas-y when gold and purple are together.

What do you think? Have a great week! 

Hugs, Marilyn