A Very Crafty Christmas

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays.  I know I am enjoying the time off to be with my family and to rest up for the new year.  It has been a super busy year and I could not have done it without the help of my wonderful parent volunteers.  To thank them for all that they do, I made these Pinterest inspired gifts:

They are Hersey bars covered in white cardstock, decorated as snowmen, and topped with a pair of gloves, one tucked inside the other, tied with ribbon or a bit of fabric.  The original idea called for popcorn, but I went with chocolate.

Here's a closeup of one of these cuties.  They were "snow" much fun to make!  You can find the original project here.  You can find a different version here.

These little guys got me in the mood to make even more fun crafts, so I made these cute reindeer, also inspired by Pinterest,  for my son's teachers.

I used punches from Stampin' Up for the circles and the "hair."  You can find the original project here.  There is a similar version here.  

But I didn't stop there.  I had seen some cute apples made from the bottom of coke bottles and was inspired to make a winter version...chocolate filled snowflakes!

First, I started by cutting off the bottoms of clean, dry 20 oz. coke bottles.

Next, I wrapped some yummy kisses up in tissue paper.

Then, I placed the wrapped candy inside the bottoms and taped the seam to keep the two pieces together.

To cover the tape seam, I added some ribbon and hot glued the ribbon to keep it attached.

Next, I added the snowflake design.

One snowflake "arm" on each "bottle bump," plus a little ball at the end of each snowflake "arm."

In between each bump, I added a smaller arm and then crossed the long snowflake arms.

I added a cute snowflake stamp to the top.  The stamp is from Stampin Up.

To finish, I used a scallop punch and Christmas stamp that I hot glued to the front.  So cute.  To see what inspired me, click here.

And finally, I was inspired by the coke bottles to decorate some water bottles for my grandmother for Christmas.  It was a gift I know she would use and would love.

I simply removed the water bottle label and replaced it to one I personalized for my grandmother from my boys.

Viola!  A personalized waterbottle for Great Grammie!

And finally, yesterday was my birthday and since I was feeling crafty, I decided to make myself a couple of presents using some fabric I had left over from decorating the Media center.  I made a pillow for my office chair (I have a really bad back) and a polka dot purse.   I really like the way they turned out and the fabric just makes me happy!

So did you have a very crafty Christmas, too?

P.S.  If you're on Pinterest and would like to follow my DIY Gift Ideas board, just click here.  I must warn you, though.  Joining Pinterest can lead to a "pinning" addiction.  Be prepared to spend lots of hours finding neat ideas.  =)

P.P.S.  The frames around the pictures are from Mel D.  of  From the Pond  http://frompond.blogspot.com  She has tons of cute frames on her blog. Check 'em out!  =)