My daughter wanted to get gifts for the family that she works for. I suggested she make something for them. I had seen an idea for glitter ornaments on a couple of different blogs. I had all the supplies and my daughter loved the idea.

The ones that Joy made for the CricutChristmas blog really inspired us.

These are the ones my daughter made. I think they are just beautiful!

She picked up some of those boxes at Michael’s that are shaped like Chinese food containers but made of decorative paper. She wrapped each ornament individually in tissue and put it in its own box.

"The Reason for the Season"

The wise men still seek Him...

Glad Tidings! 

The King is born!

I pray your Christmas day is blessed.

Merry Christmas!

Donna

Little winter vignette

I just love my little winter vignette. I just think it is so very cute.

I got the idea after seeing a couple of different styles while blurfing. I had this old glass container that we once used as a fish bowl for our tetra.  I found these cute little deer and trees at Michael’s as accessories in with the little snow villages.

My 5 year old niece was visiting and she helped me put it all together. Isn’t it cute? I love the expression on the snowman’s face as the deer tries to nip his carrot nose right off his face. 

(sorry - the trees look crooked because of the distortion of the glass )

Idea from House of 3 Glass Apothecary Jar Idea

We have friends that host their annual "Soup Day" on Christmas Eve Eve (that's December 23rd).  It is an open house and they have many varieties of homemade soup available all day long, as well as other goodies.  It is a wonderful time of fellowship.  People come and go the entire day.

They are one of my favorite families.  They are so willing to spread their joy to others.  I wanted to make something special to bring them this year and I saw this idea on House of 3's blog. 

Mine is different, but I just loved Rhonna's idea. 

(I spread out the ribbons so you could get a better look at the attachments)

I found this fabulous glittery reindeer to add to all the goodies.

I just added some ribbon and tags and a little note card to tell them how much they are loved.

And of course I filled it with clusters of pecans and gourmet popcorn-

If you get there before me - don't spoil the suprise!

My new Christmas card display...

Remember the "clip it up" project I told you about back in October?  Well, I finally got it painted black.  I got an idea (from someone's blog) to use it for our Christmas cards this year.  I have it in the corner of our dining room.  As I look at the photos I am thinking of adding some ribbon to it and maybe something on the top - any ideas?

Also, I found this great "happy holidays" sign/ornament at a Dolle's Candyland in Ocean City, MD a few weeks ago when I was there.  It was half price and I just love it! 

I hope your holiday preparations are going well and you are enjoying this season of Advent.

Winter Retreat

 This past weekend I was at the beach for a three day retreat with a group of girlfriends from church.  The weekend was called
"a cup of Christmas tea". 

There were twelve themes -

FRIENDSHIP * FAMILY * JOY * LIGHT * SHARING * PEACE

* TRADITIONS * THANKSGIVING * GIVING *

DREAMS * HOPE * STILLNESS

My girlfriend Jan found these great little plain white tea cups and tasked me with coming up with a favor for the weekend.  I love tags and ribbons, so I decided to make a little tag book with a separate tag for each of the words.  That worked out to 12 x 13 = 156 tags, each with their own ribbon.

I used an American Crafts Christmas paper set for the back of the tags.  Their paper coordinates so well! 

This was a simple project, but I was happy with the way it turned out.

The retreat was wonderful. 

I don't know that I came back so much relaxed as renewed.

Who doesn't like free paper- right???

Take a hop over to the Urban Swank blog. They are giving away paper - 50 sheets! Wow! Talk about an early Christmas gift!

Their blog says:
"The winner will be selected randomly and will receive papers from the following collections: Lulliloo, Blink, Just Add Color, Mooch, Happy Everything, California, Oh So Merry, Everyday Lily! I'll throw in a few extra papers too and make it an even 50!"

What's not to love?