12 Days of Christmas..Day 5

Hello Friday Friends. Welcome to Day 5 of of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas. Melissa and I are so happy that you're enjoying our holiday blogging event. We'll be taking a break over the weekend but we'll be back Monday for Day 6.
Today's them is so fun...doilies. Doilies are such pretty little things. I always love to pick through the real doilies at the thrift store and think about the teeny tiny little handiwork that some wonderful woman did. To me doilies make me think of Victorian settings...tables covered with a doilies and lavish silver tea groupings. Fancy little things. Today, doilies are making a come back in the sewing and paper crafting world. They're fun to add to purses and handmade items to give a vintage and feminine feel. For paper crafting, the paper doilies are nifty little embellishments.

Today, I'm showing you some gift tags I made using Medium Parcel Tags, holiday patterned paper and a Dainty Doily. Cut patterned paper to fit onto the tag fronts. Cut a Dainty Doily into fourths.

Adhere patterned paper and doily pieces to tags using just a small strip of adhesive. Using your sewing machine, stitch around the patterned paper rectangle. Sewing with the Dainty Doilies always lends a home spun feel to projects.
Using red baker's twine, adhere some felt snowflakes to the tags. I layered Papertrey snowflake dies, punched circles of paper and a wood button. These tags coordinate very well with the wrapping paper I chose for this year. You can see that in yesterday's post.
Now for some gift wrapping. I have loved to gift wrap since I was a kid. And now so does Jordan. Many times I have a larger gift to wrap and I often give away cards or some smaller gift along with the bigger wrapped packages. How about creating some matching paper sacks to match your gift wrap?!! I know. Get out, right!? Using my Brown Paper Sacks (which will be back in stock next week), I stitched on a piece of my snowflake wrapping paper. Love. To finish up the pretty wrapping, I folded a Dainty Doily over the top of the folded sack. I wrapped several layers of brown string around the sack, tying a bow. To that I tied one of my completed tags and a Tad Bit Bigger Tag so that I can write the recipient's name. Oh how I love this! I can see doing this with other wrapping papers like baby papers, guy themed papers, birthday papers, etc. And wait til you see what I do with some fabric that I just purchased. Note: If you take care to stitch close to the edges of the sack, regular A2 cards will still fit into the Brown Paper Sacks.
Next up, I wrapped up some Christmas presents with my matching snowflake paper. I added a Dainty Doily to each package simply by wrapping my brown string around the package several times then securing a bow. Gold foil bows finish off the packages. Eek, so cute.
And look at the little matchy-matchy gift ensemble. How cute will these be under the tree? Heck, they're so cute I might just leave them on the kitchen table as a centerpiece! I hope you try this out, it gives gift wrapping a whole new meaning.
And speaking of kitchen table centerpieces, how about a little peek into some of my holiday decor this year?

A story: I was recently at my favorite antique shop and made my way around the entire shop while the store owner worked diligently at a table. By the time I got all the way around to where she was working, she said *All done*. This two tiered , vintage letter tray was sitting in the middle of a beautifully decorated table setting, completely filled with silver and fancy glasses. I gasped at how beautiful it was and said *I'll take the letter tray*. She smirked and said *I just finished this display*. I replied *And you did a wonderful job*......and then thought *Now wrap me up that letter tray Sista*. And to my house it came to live happily ever after. The End.

At Thanksgiving I used it to hold soup bowls and small plates for a family soup night. Eric thought it was rather cool. I think the dark wood is kinda manly like. For the holidays, I've added some of my favorite holiday dishes and mugs that I have collected. My mom and I would shop Dillard's after the holidays and seek out any of these holly pieces I could find. Very special memories.
To create a darling but very useful hot cocoa tray, I lined the top tray with three doilies that I purchased at the thrift shop or auctions. I nestled in a few mugs along with some old silver spoons and candy canes for stirring. Giant marshmallows are nestled in vintage jello molds. A tea light candle sits nicely in a zinc jar lid while vintage ornaments sit all pretty like. Oh how fun this will be to have hot cocoa on a cold winter's night....sitting by the crackling fire....watching the pretty tree lights......as the girls shake and rattle their presents. A thought: This would make a fun soup bowl tray too. Life is so good for us here in the country. We are blessed. I hope you have a blessed holiday season too.
And these sweet little morslets might just end up in my hot cocoa tray too. So simple...but sweet and crunchy and marshmallow-y. One of my favorite holiday snacks.

Crunchy Peanut Bark

2 pounds white chocolate coating (also called almond bark)

1 cup peanut butter

3 cups Rice Krispies

2 cups dry roasted peanuts

2 cups miniature marshmallows

Melt chocolate. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper or divide between two greased 9" square pans. Makes 10 dozen.

Now don't forget to visit Melissa's blog for her sweet doily post. I'm on the edge of my seat just waiting!! Happy Weekend Friends!

12 Days of Christmas..Day 4

Edit #3: Sorry guys, but my vintage jello molds are not for sale. Remember that hoarding thing I have going on? I just love them too much to part with them.

Edit #2: Can I just add that I am totally envious of you that have all your shopping done!? I'm going to the city on Saturday with Eric before his company Christmas party. I am going to be organized with a list and conquer! Now don't even ask me about homemade Christmas cards.

Edit: Tracy Y wrote: At this season of thankfulness, I just wanted to tell you that I visit your blog every day, even though I don't post often, I am ALWAYS inspired by you and thankful for all you do!!! Blessings to you and your family!

I just want to thank you guys for nice comments like Tracy's. It takes an extreme amount of work do keep up with the blogging and to come up with fresh, new ideas. Your comments are SO appreciated and it's really what makes it all worth while. I read them all. I know it takes extra time to leave the comments so I thank you for taking those few extra minutes out of your day. I need to do the same when I visit blogs. :)

Welcome to Dat 4 of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas countdown. Today's theme is Altered Baking Tins. While I'm focusing more on ways to use baking tins for storage, I'm sure Melissa will have a beautiful project that we will all want to recreate for ourselves.

Today I'm going to show you my holiday wrapping station using baking tins for some creative storage. (please excuse the less than perfect photos...there is no natural lighting in my basement so I had to use the flash).

You've seen me use my favorite jello mold tins for years here on the blog. Oh how I love them. I thought you might like to see my ever growing stash. Every time I see these I just have to snatch them up. My mom picks them up for me too. I fully intend to share them in my Etsy shop but then I just hoard them for myself. They come in so handy, I never want to be short handed. Hoarding problem?
But they're so dang cute full of buttons.......
On to my gift wrap station. This is something I do every year in the basement. I have a nice big table that I clear off that transforms into a Santa's workshop of sorts. It all starts with the wrapping paper. Each year I buy wrapping paper on sale for the next Christmas to come. It's always fun to open my wrapping paper box to see what's in there. Looks like this year we'll be using red, kraft and cream. Love.
A couple big bags of shiny bows also make it into the sale stash. Here, I've got lots of gold bows with a few brown ones in the mix. I think the tags that I make this year will have the reds and a touch of brown thrown in......and then I'll use some brown twine to tie it all together.
To fancy up packages I have an old wooden berry basket filled with all kinds of little embellishments, tinsel ribbons, tags and more. The key to easy and stress free gift wrapping is to have a plan....have everything that you need in one spot. And then keep it organized.
I found this muffin tin one day and fell in love. The beautiful, worn blue and brown splatter ware enamel is so pretty. It's a little rusty to actually use for baking but it's perfect for storing crafty embellishments. And it fits perfectly in my berry basket as it can slide back and forth. This would make a wonderful centerpiece too, using the muffin spaces for little tea light candles.
On the opposite end of my berry basket is a waffle textured bread tin. I use this all the time to store Etsy kits, little projects I want to work on in front of the tv, etc. Baking tins are so utilitarian and are perfect for all kinds of storage. Here, I'm using this one to hold my vintage tape dispenser and stapler.....scissors and pens, etc.
And for added fun, why not spray paint old baking tins that are a little rusty and past their baking prime? I pick these up at Goodwill, yard sales, and thrift shops for usually less than a $1.00. I use this Chartreuse green color for most of my tins. Krylon spray paint is abundant in lots of colors at Walmart. Just spread out a large piece of paper and spray outside where the ventilation is good. Here I've used two sizes of bread tins and a fluted jello mold to hold tags and cards I've made, smaller bows and an empty one to hold tags that I intend to make soon for packages.

I love how these tossed away items take on a whole new look when spray painted. They all match and look great in a little grouping.

And here's a little glimpse of a smaller spray painted bread tin that I keep in this basket. This is my *junk drawer* of sorts. It houses all the supplies I use almost daily at my desk. And don't just leave it at spray painting the baking tins. I have spray painted lots of old wicker baskets and my whole office area is now coordinated. Love that.Now. All I have to do is go shopping for gifts and I'm ready for some wrapping! How are you coming along on your shopping? The girls just informed me while waiting for the bus that they're exchanging gifts with all their friends this year. Now we have even more shopping to do. Fun times! :)

I can't wait to see what Melissa's cooking up on her blog. I know it will be drool worthy. In the meantime, here's a wonderful recipe for you. Nothing like a good brownie...but even better with a gooey peanut buttery filling. Enjoy!

Big League Brownies
“An out-of-the-park flavor combination”

Brownie:
1 pkg brownie mix (for 9 x 13 size)
½ cup oil
¼ cup water
2 eggs

Filling:
¾ cup peanut butter
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 eggs

Heat over to 350 degrees. Prepare brownie mix as directed on package, using oil, water and eggs. Set aside. In small bowl, combine peanut butter and butter; beat until smooth. Add sugar and flour; mix well. Add 2 eggs. Spread half of brownie mixture in greased 9 x 13 pan. Carefully spread peanut butter mixture evenly over chocolate mixture. Spread remaining chocolate mixture evenly over peanut butter mixture. Bake at 350 for 30-33 minutes. Cool. Enjoy!

Believe Revisited

Hi friends. How are you coming along on your holiday projects? Today the Papertrey Senior Design Team has some fun projects to show you using an older Papertrey set called Believe. It's packed full of timeless images and sentiments that will be perfect for holiday projects.

I have to admit that although I craft daily for the blog and my Etsy shop, I usually don't end up with a big stash of goodies to call my own. And with the holiday rush that seems to come around this time of year, it's hard to sit down and create a lot of goodies at one time.
Sometimes it's just best to create what you can when you can. If your schedule only allows a little bit of crafty time here and there, just make the most of it. Enjoy the process. Today I created one pretty card to add to my holiday stash.
I just dabbled here and there, pulling together the elements as I went along. I colored my image on Kraft cardstock with Copics. The pretty finishing touches were added with the help of snowflakes dies, felt, ribbon, baker's twine and scalloped dies.
While I had my supplies out, I used some leftover supplies and embellishments to create a fun tag to add to a glassine bag filled with yummy candies. In a pinch, I know that packaged candies will always make a quick gift for teachers, etc. I have an old bread tin that I use to keep my tags in until I'm ready for holiday packaging. Being prepared when it comes time to wrap up the gifts and get them out the door is the key to avoiding some holiday stress. It's hard to carve out time but even 30 minutes here and there can be a big help.
I hope you enjoyed my projects today. Be sure to do a little blog hopping to see what the other Papertrey girls have created with Believe.

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman
• Dawn McVey

12 Days of Christmas...Day 3

Etsy shop update: The Brown Paper Sacks are now sold out in my shop. I'll be having more in soon. Back in stock today...Mini Clothespins, Small Clothespins and Cork Paper. In stock soon: Long Sleeves, Short Sleeves, Notebook Slicks, Bookmark Slicks, Brown Paper Sacks...and more polka dot envelopes. :)

Welcome to Day 3 of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas! Please join Melissa and me as we present some more fun holiday projects for you. Today's theme: It's in the Bag.
Santa isn't the only one with goodies in his gift bag this year. Today I've created some fun gifts using my Brown Paper Sacks that I know you will love. (note: the sacks may sell out but I have more coming to the shop soon).
Actually I've created two fun projects from one nifty idea. All you need to do is take one of my Brown Paper Sacks and make a fold. Stitch around three sides to create a bag with pockets.
The nifty part is that there are now TWO pockets. More room for tucking treats and goodies inside. I'm calling these my Double Pocket Pretties.
To embellish my Double Pocket Pretties, I pulled out some holiday themed supplies including red Wrinkle Ribbon, shiny red sprigs, baker's twine, my jingle bells, patterned papers from The Girls Paperie, Metal Rim Tags and Dainty Doilies.
To embellish, I added patterned paper to the front of the paper pocket along with a sticker border from The Girls Paperie collection.
Wrinkle Ribbon tied up with baker's twine, jingle bell, holiday sprig and a metal tag embellished with word stickers add a nice finishing touch with lots of pretty details. For this pocket, I added a vintage holiday pot holder to the back pocket and holiday candies were tucked in the front pocket.
Now. I love this second version of my Double Pocket Pretties too. Here I've simply folded over the top of the pocket to create an envelope paper pocket. So cute. I folded my doily and adhered it over the sides of the envelope flap. Next I created a slider closure with a strip of patterned paper. A metal tag with a punched circle of patterned paper and more sticker words create a simple and easy presentation. I think I could make these all day. :)
You can tuck all sorts of stuff in the envelope. Here I used more candies but you could easily use embellished tags or small notecards, etc.
Ohhhhh, I see lots of crafty goodness coming out of my Artsy Studio soon. I love these Double Pocket Pretties. How about you?

I can't wait to see what Melissa has crafted for us today. Be sure to check her blog today too.

Please remember: The Double Pocket Pretties and other items that I share on my blog are for your personal use only. You can create them for friends and family and teachers, etc as much as you want. But please don't sell these items in your Etsy shops or else where. :)

My Recipe: Great for holiday brunches!

Southwestern Crescent Rolls

1 pound sausage

1 (8 once) cream cheese

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies

3 packages crescent rolls

Brown sausage and drain. Combine with cream cheese and green chilies. Add heaping spoonful to each crescent roll triangle. Roll and bake as directed on package. You may have a few crescent rolls left over. Enjoy!

Update: Etsy Orders

Hi everyone. I just wanted to let you know that if you ordered items from my Etsy shop on November 17th or 18th, there will be a slight delay. All of those orders from those two days went directly into my spam folder for some reason. By the time I figured out the problem, the holiday was upon us and I didn't get to the post office. Rest assured, your orders have been sent and you should be receiving them within a day or so. So sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

All order received up to Sunday have been shipped out.

Also, I am shipping out lots of international orders lately. I ship your orders out usually within 2-3 of receiving the order. These have been taking more than a week to arrive via the postal system at times. Feel free to email about your order. However, I do not add tracking to an order unless it is specifically requested and added to your shipping costs. I'll do what I can to help you out though. :)

Mish

12 Days of Christmas...Day 2

Etsy Shop Update: My new kits inspired by today's post are up in the shop. Perfect for a fun crafty session on a cold winter's night. Enjoy! And thank you for your nice comments....Melissa and I have done a ton of planning for our 12 Days of Christmas, so of course your nice comments are just icing on the cake. :)
Hi friends. Welcome to Day 2 of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas. Today's theme is Shimmer and Shine. During the holiday season, the sparkles and glitters seem to take on a magical feel. I am particularly loving the look of Mercury glass latey in our home. The vintage, worn look of it is so pretty.
I even found some candles that have that same look. So sparkly resting on our fireplace mantle.
And even prettier when grouped together on a mirror with a glowing candle. These pieces from my home were my inspiration for today.
I wanted to recreate that beautiful shimmery, worn, silvery look on my projects...thinking of old cards and letters from long ago...tucked in an old hope chest. With the nice variety of products these days, it's easy to get the look you're after. Here are some of my favorites when wanting to create that mercury glass look: Real German Glass Silver and sparkly glitters. These are made from real glass and have a fine but chunky, shiny look to them......Papertrey's Vintage Tea Dye Duo inks....Wrinkle Ribbons in wonderfully faded and muted colors....Papertrey's Chocolate Baker's Twine....found objects like these beautiful, real glass sequin pieces.....faded sheet music and vintage ledger sheets.....my Dainty Doilies that you can distress with inks.....little envelopes in Kraft....you just have to do a little searching, then group all your goodies together.
Here, I've used all my goodies to create a very soft looking card with beautifully faded yellow colors. Old sheet music ties my card and envelope together by the use of Papertrey scalloped border die and the envelope liner die.

By using old ledger paper along with newer patterned papers, the old and new blend together beautifully. A little glitz from some Silver German Glass Glitter on some clothespins and a little German Glass Glitter on a felt butterfly embellishment adds just the right touch. A few of my glass sequins finish off the card along with some nicely faded Wrinkle Ribbon. To get a faded, old look on my Parcel Tags, add a section of a doily and simply ink the edges with the Tea Dye Ink Duos.
I love to add these little clothespins into the mix. So pretty to clip on a little note. I use Scor-Tape to get a nice, sticky adhesive for the glitters.
I used some of my extra supplies to embellish the inside of the card too. So fun to write your card message on lined, vintage ledger paper.
For my next project, I created something that evoked a lot of memories for me. Jordan loves to open my grandmother's hope chest that is full of old items from our heritage. As we took out the items one by one the other day, my heart swelled with love just thinking of my ancestors that have passed. We saw my pink baby quilt that my grandmother made for me...my brother Jeff's and my baby brushes....some silver pieces wrapped in soft cloth....aprons and potholders that my grandmother made.....a tiny, faded bible that was given to my grandmother by her sister Ruby in 1912....my grandmother's clip on earrings that she wore every day....an old rouge compact that smells just my grandmother.....so many items that are treasures to me. And will some day be handed down to my girls.

It got me to thinking that I need to add some of my own treasures to that wooden chest. How wonderful will it be some day for my girls to see some of my things in there. Then it dawned on me that I don't save many of my paper creations. So today I created an item especially for that chest. I made a beautiful little envelope that will hold a special message tucked inside.
I used more of the same goodies from my Mercury glass set up to create a beautifully embellished butterfly that is adhered to my envelope. I lined a Mini Kraft Envelope with more sheet music, adhered half of a Dainty Doily, some old sewing pattern pieces and some Chocolate Baker's Twine. A little rusty safety pin holds some yellow buttons.
Inside my little envelope, I used a White Parcel Tag that I distressed, then stamped and added some Cork Paper and Wrinkle Ribbon. I'm going to write a message about how I always enjoy going through Grandma's hope chest with the girls...and maybe to encourage them to add some of their own items from time to time.

Well I hope you are inspired by today's sparkly and shimmery post. I know that Melissa will have something even more beautiful so be sure to check out her blog. Stay tuned because later today I will be putting a kit up in my Etsy shop that uses some beautiful items from my projects today.....and tomorrow Melissa and I will continue our 12 Days of Christmas with our Day 3 post. :)

Edit: I almost forgot to add my recipe. This is a recipe that is very simple to make but very handy. We make a lot of veggie trays during the holidays and there always seems to be those last few veggies leftover, looking a little wary. This recipe is a great way to use up those scraps...hence the name Scrap Dip. Enjoy!

Scrap Dip
1-2 packages cream cheese

Desired seasoning: garlic powder, season salt, ground black pepper, coarse salt, red pepper flakes, parsley, etc

Leftover veggie tray foods: cauliflower, broccoli, celery, carrots, green peppers, radishes, jalapenos, onions, etc


Chop all veggies very finely. Dump into bowl with cream cheese and desired seasonsings. Mix thoroughly. Refrigerate to let flavors blend. Serve on crackers. Also great on bagels or sliced, crusty breads. Perfect for using up the last of the veggies from a holiday veggie tray. Enjoy.

Michelle Wooderson November 2010.

Polka Dottie Gift Card Kit

Update: The Gift Card kits and Mini Polka Dottie Envelopes are now sold out. Thanks so much for your orders. The kits will not be offered again but the red envelopes will be a standard item in the near future. Have a good evening everyone.

Hi friends. I'm back to introduce a new kit and some fun new products that I'll be adding to my Etsy shop shortly. First up is my Polka Dottie Gift Card Kit. Lots of traditional red and green colors with fun embellishments to create holiday gift cards...or just some fancied up envelopes if you want to add a card.

In the kit you'll see some new products that I'll be carrying in my Etsy shop. I've found some darling polka dot envelopes that are just too cute! They're making their first debut in my kit today. I'll also be selling some of the envies as separates too in limited quantities for the holiday season.

Each year it seems that sometimes the best gift might just be gift cards or cold hard spending cash. I know that I give out a lot of ITunes cards to the teenagers. These fancied up envies are the perfect way to package up those flat items that otherwise seem a little boring.
These are just some samples of what you can do with the kit contents. This gift card features a Small Red Polka Dottie Envelope Write the recipient's name on the tag and slip this little cutie to the Christmas tree. Then watch as everyone searches for the envelope with their name on it.
This next gift card comes in a mini size featuring an open ended Mini Green Polka Dottie Envelope. I'm lovin' the Dainty Doilies lately. Here I've cut up and used a small section of a doily on my mini envelope. So cute!

The mini envelopes are the perfect size to hold my Medium Parcel Tags from my Etsy shop. They tuck right inside to create an instant mini card enclosure. Love that!

Here's a looky at the kit contents. You'll receive all the supplies shown below to make at least two of the larger gift card envelopes and two of the mini gift card envelopes....plus red seam binding, additional tags, glittery trees and a snowflake, 2 Dainty Doilies, mini clothespins, red baker's twine and more.

Ohh, and you'll get two of these vintage holiday print fabric rounds to dress up the doilies. My favorite part.
The kits are all packaged up and will be in my shop shortly. The kits are in limited quantity so once they're sold out, they're gone.

I'll also be listing lots more envelopes in the shop today so be sure to look for those. What you see listed are the quantities available this holiday season. I'll be adding more colors of the Polka Dottie Envelopes at a later date. These will be regular items in my shop. Hope you enjoy!! It's time to get crafty friends, Christmas will be here before we know it!