Getting Organised for Christmas - June 6 and 7

Hello again all.

Will all the goings on on the blog I thought I would leave the posting to cover two days till today.

Today I thought I would give you a little food for thought in regards to wrapping ideas.

Hand cut snowflakes on brown paper

from The Happy Home Blog

Beautiful paper holly leaves

from Marcella Treybig Photography

Some great homemade wrapping ideas for the kids to make


from The Kleenex Mums

Absolute must do gift bag

from Scrapbook.com

As you can see the possibilities are endless IF you give yourself enough time. This is one of the reasons I start now so there is now mad rush at the end of the year.

What ideas do you have for wrapping presents to give away to others as gifts?

TFL, M x

LOTW - June 6th 2011

Good Morning Everyone.

Have been taking a look around The Scrappers Outlet gallery this morning over my morning coffee. There are so many yummy layout and card there to choose from for inspiration thats for sure.

This week however I have chosen a layout by Wendy to be the Layout of the week.

I love what she has done with the colours and the photo really is gorgeous.

I also love how she has clustered the embellishments too.

So Congratulations Wendy for being LOTW winner this week for your layout - A Sister's Kiss.
.


Happy Scrapping, Michelle xx

Getting Organised for Christmas - June 5

Hello all.

Just a quick post today as Sunday IS suppose to be the day of relaxation (hahahaha.. not in this house for those that know me well enough...lol).

Today while preparing food for a school party that is coming up in a few days I started thinking. Every year my children's classes hold a small party for the kids for Christmas. It seems though that the parties are always planned for the last week of school, which is only a couple of weeks for Christmas.

As most you you know I do baking and what not for Christmas gifts, so this time of the year before school is out can be EXTREMELY busy for me (last year we had to make 60 gingerbread trees and 60 gingerbread stars and that was just for school gifts and that was only with 2 children at school!!!!).

This year we have already decided on a few gifts.. though after making these little cookies today I have made the decision that these would make a great little gift or party food when the Christmas parties start this year.

I must admit I cannot take the credit for the idea. But I can give the makers at White Wings a HUGE kiss!! Sometimes it really pays to read their packaging for fun things to make with their products.

They are just a packet of White Wings Home style Splits. You then break them into four squares add a dollop of melted chocolate on top and decorate with a smartie. NOTHING could be simpler. The kids love them and they look good too. PLUS the kids can do them themselves too to give to their friends. AND there is no excess baking in December when the weather warms up too.

What quick and easy ideas do you have that you do for Christmas parties?

TFL, M x

Getting Organised for Christmas - June 4

Hello again.

With the build up to Christmas being so busy taking family photos for the Christmas cards can be a nightmare.

For the past few years I have tried to get nice photos of the children all together to send off to all the family so they can see how much the kids have grown. Now this can be an absolute nightmare with four kids that's for sure. This year how ever I think I will try things a little differently. Rather that trying to get a photo of all the kids together (have you tried to get four kids looking the same way, let alone smiling!!), I thought I would just take my favourite photo of the kids throughout the year and then use that as the Christmas photo.

I find that sometimes the more natural and spare of the minute snap shot is so much nicer that trying so hard to get the perfect shot.

This is what I mean...

This was our Christmas photo from a few years ago.


It is unedited.. and it took a lot of editing in the end to get it to be usable.. however I just had to use it as firstly this was the third day we had tried to take it, secondly the kids were over it and lastly I had taken soooo many I was over it...lol.

Now these are photos I took on Christmas day last year.




I only found them about a month ago. They were all caught all on the hop. I am soooo happy with them and after seeing them made me rethink how I take the Christmas photos this year. Yes .. I will kinda plan the photo process but let the kids be kids and take it from there.

Do you take a family photo for Christmas ???

Have you got any tips you might want to share ??

TFL, M x

Getting Organised for Christmas - June 3

Good Morning Everyone...

Another day of fun filled Christmas ideas...

Last year I made some super cute gifts that I wanted to revisit this year. I found them so easy to make and my kids could get involved too which made the task super easy. Plus the cost of creating the gifts was extremely low.

This was what we created for my children's closest friends to give out as a small gift.

Goodie Boxes


The other gift I gave last year was actually for a friends wedding... however I loved making it so much and they were so easy that my eldest daughter has asked to make them this year for her best friends.

Simple Lollies Jar

To find out more head over to the Fiskars Blog.

Get organised now as Christmas is creeping up FAST!

TFL, M x

Getting Organised for Christmas - June 2

Hello everyone.

Back again today to share with you a little project today.

Ever year we like to give a little gift to my children teacher just to say thank you for all they have done throughout the year.

This year we have decided to make up little stationery boxes.

Close box

Gift Card

Gift Tag and Note Card

View of box all filled

If you looking for the instructions on how to make these head over to the Fiskars Blog for the full PDF.

Get Creating.

TFL, M x

Getting Organised for Christmas - June 1

Sorry for the late post today everyone.

Long story but basically No desk top computer for two days. My desktop computer has some major issues at the moment (hopefully it comes back tonight, but will have to have EVERYTHING reinstalled before we can use it!)... the lovely world of the web has infected our computer causing us to loose some things and corrupt the whole computer. unfortunately the desk top computer is our main computer and has all my scrap booking photos and work on it !!!!

So anyways...with Christmas preparations all ready in my brain I thought I would share with you where I am at with my Christmas preparations for this year.

A couple of days a go I asked you to start planning by working out a list for your Christmas cards.

Today, I wanted to share with you another list that I start at this time of the year. The presents list. Or more specifically the homemade gift list!

We as a family love to be able to give gifts to friends and family that we have made. It seems more personal. Every year we have made something different. It usually involves a combination of craft and food. We have made a variety of things such as homemade jams/preserves from homegrown produce, gingerbread, chocolates, bath salts and homemade cookies in a jar mix all decorating in little gift tags and what not. It helps us to get into the festive spirit along with helping the children understand the importance of what gift giving is about.

So every year about this time we start a list of people we would like to be able to give homemade gifts to. This helps us to stay on track and prepare things in advance. Some things we make can be made well in advance and some things can only be given just before. We also have to keep in mind also that some gifts have to be given out way before Christmas arrives (these are the gifts given to school friends as school finished well before Christmas).

So our list looks something like this:

Thing being made:
- Passion fruit Butter

People being given to:
- John Citizen

Date needed:

Things needed to make item:
- Butter
- Passion fruit Pulp
- Lemon Juice
- White Sugar
- Eggs
- Small Jars
- Homemade gift tags

Total needed:

And the list goes on with other items that we look into making for the year. I like to keep it simple and have things that the kids can help make also. I tend to also make things that have multiple tasks that can be completed in stages by different children so that all can say they helped make it. By that I mean, My eldest daughter would help to make the Passion fruit butter, my son would help with making the gift tags, and my two younger children love the liking the bowl job !!

By doing it this way with the list it helps to work out about how much time we need to prepare everything food wise and how much craft time we need to set aside to get the craft side of things done. If I find that we wont have a lot of craft time then I can plan the craft side of things to be a bit simpler. Mind you with a little help of my favourite Fiskars Squeeze punches the gift tags take no time at all!

So if your planning on getting creative this year for Christmas, now would be the time to start planning realistic timeline for creating. That way you don't get too close to Christmas and wonder where all the time went!

Happy Creating, Mx