An Inland Empire Christmas and Handmade gifts

Christmas 2011 was spent in the Inland Empire in sunny California.  My daughter hosted her first Christmas and cooked her first turkey.  Everything turned out great from the table decorations we used from my mom's Christmas tea to the turkey and all the trimmings.  Yummy!  She did a fabulous job on everything.  This year I made all the adult girls in our family a bunchy scarf.  I also made soup mixes and homemade treats for the kids - chocolate covered marshmallows with candy cane stick. It was wonderful spending time with most of our family.  We missed our loved ones who could not make the trip.

                               The beautiful decor

Homemade soup mix

Yummy chocolate marshmallow treats

The bunchy scarf

Christmas Jars

These jars turned out so cute.  I used everything I had stored away in boxes to create these Christmas jars.  They are waterless snowglobes using  canning jars.  I glued the trees and figures in the bottom of the jar with Tacky glue and then added the snow.  I painted the lids black with acrylic paint and added a snowflake ornament with red rafia.  I plan to give these as gifts to special people.  Making gifts this year has been economical and a lot of fun.

Sheet Music Roses for Packages

I just love these roses.  They are made from sheet music or old book pages.  They are a beautiful addition to any gift, especially for Christmas. 

 

First you take a piece of sheet music and copy it - double sided.  If you are using a book page with words rather than music on it, just find an old book and tear out the pages one by one.  Your flowers will be smaller using a book. 

Cut a perfect square out of the page and then draw a spiral circle on the page.Then cut the page following the lines you just drew.  You will then have a long spiral looking piece of paper.  Start rolling from the big end in and keep the center tight.  You will soon have a beautiful rose.  Secure the bottom of the rose with  hot glue to hold in place.   Enjoy

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Merry Mantles

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  I have the most fun doing holiday mantles.  This year I used shades of purple on my mantle.  I found sales at Michaels and Joanns to add sparkle to my mantle along with some canned snow.   I'm also posting a previous mantle done in red.  Happy Holidays everyone. 

Easy Christmas Table Decor

I just love using muslin to decorate. It's affordable and has many uses. I had a bolt of white muslin left from a patio canopy I made last summer and decided to use it around the house for my Christmas decorations. I first used it around the base of my Christmas tree and then decided to use it under my gingerbread village to give it a snowy look. It turned out great. I also wanted to share some pics from a Christmas Tea Party my mom had today that I helped her decorate for.

Gingerbread village on muslin

Christmas Tea Party