Naughty or Nice Cake Balls

 I have been looking forward to making these for the last few years, but I never had time.  Finally, this year, I made time.

 I bought this little jewel mold on Amazon and I put some of my cake balls inside and placed it in the freezer overnight for the cake balls to harden.

 I dipped them in black colored melting chocolate, and dusted them with Sanding Sugar.

 I also made squares and dipped them in green, and added red molded ribbon (I used a chocolate mold to make the bows, but you could also use red melting chocolate and create a piped bow).

Nativity Cookies

 I have been wanting to do this for several years.  Gingerbread Nativity Cookies.  I bought a pkg of nativity cookie cutters...and I lost them.  Finally, this year, after going through my garage-I bought a different set on Amazon.  Oh well.

 I used this gingerbread recipe-they are soooo good.  Soft and flavorful.  And I used this icing recipe.

 I iced the cookies by simply creating a border, letting it harden.  I added about 1/2 T to the rest of the icing and flooded the cookies and then let them dry.

 I packaged them up individually and put them in boxes with crinkle paper with a star ornament on the outside.

Gingerbread Cookie Decorating Kit

 I did this a few years ago, and I decided to do it again-gingerbread house cookies with diy decorations.

I used my favoriting soft gingerbread cookie recipe.

 I got some little jewelry containers and filled them with candy.  For the packages I mailed.  I secured the sprinkles in a little baggie so they wouldn't shake around.

I added icing, individually packaged cookies, a plastic knife and all the decorations and mailed or boxed them up

Christmas Popcorn

 I decided to make a bunch of different treats for my gifts this year.  For the ladies in the office, I made this chocolate drizzle popcorn.

 I bought some super cute sprinkles (Sweet Tooth Fairies) from Michael's.  I also got some red and white melting chocolate and popcorn.  I found a little gingerbread mold and melted my red chocolate in advance.

     I laid the popcorn out, but the white chocolate in a ziplock and heated it in the microwave.  I 'squished it around' every 45 seconds until it's melted. I found that about 1/3 of a bag took 2 45 minute segments and one last 30 second segment (don't overheat it or it crystallizes).
    I snipped a corner of the bag and drizzled it back and forth over popcorn I had laid out on wax paper and tossed on sprinkles before it hardened.  Drizzle more than you think.

I added some cake balls with matching sprinkles and rolled these out.

Christmas Golden Book Album

I made this golden book album for a friend of mine.  I did a full video on youtube walking through the whole thing.  You can find it here.  

 I borrowed the photos of her boys sitting with Santa for the last 16 years and made pages with tags she can write on embedded in an book I cut off the binding and rebound after decorating.

 She loves vintage things too, so I think this should be a hit!

12 Day of Christmas

 I did this once before for my cousin's daughter, and it was a big hit.  I bought a bunch of little crafts at craft stores in the area and I wrapped them each individually (12 crafts to be exact).  I added a tag with a number and the date to each tag (because my goddaughter, who is getting these gift, does not like to wait).  This way she can look forward to opening a gift each day, and she will soon learn they come with a little something for her to do each day. 

Her house should be well decorated by day 12! 

Christmas Potpourri

 I shared some gift ideas today on Good Morning, Texas.  I also shared some garlands.  I posted both of those segments via facebook, BUT I wanted to share where I got this printable.  When I was trying to come up with some gift ideas I thought back to a few I loved. One year friend gave me some stove top potpourri from William Sonoma.  I simmered it before having  guest over and I just loved the way it smelled.   I love homemade gifts, in particular the consumable kind b/c I don't have to worry about someone having to find space. I looked up some different ways to make these and found this free printable.

Basically, you place an orange, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 c cranberries, 1 T coves, 1/8 t. nutmeg into a jar.  When you (or whoever gets it) is ready to boil, slice the oranges and toss the rest into a pan, bring it to a boil and then lower it to as simmer.  Your house will smell amazing. One tip, for the cinnamon sticks I used a coupon at the craft store since they weren't going to be consumed, these were safe.  :)

Christmas Soap Idea

I saw a soap packaged like this on pinterest and I had to give it a whirl.  I'm sharing homemade gift ideas today on GMT, and I wanted a fun way to finish up some homemade soaps.  I initially searched for a stamp....but then I remembered the sheer number of supplies I just organized in my craft room and realized I did not need one  more. thing.  SO....I went online and searched for vintage truck clipart.  

I copied the truck and typed a little message and then printed it on to cardstock.  Next up, I took a brown lunch sack and taped the four corners.  

I ran it through the printer again and this time the truck printed on the bag.  I used this, plus a bottle brush, and some twine to gussy up my soap.  I'll post the full craft later on facebook.