Christmas Gifts 2011

This year Travis and I decided to make Chex mix for our co-workers. Not just any Chex mix. Pumped up Chex mix! We settled on 4 different kinds: Original, Chipotle, Apple Cinnamon, and Dark Chocolate Coffee Toffee. (I bet you can't guess which one was my favorite! Ha!)

The recipes we used were modified from the basic recipes on the Chex website. Of course we couldn't keep them all the same!

Our chipotle chex mix was modified to include canned chipotle in adobo instead of powdered chipotle. The apple cinnamon chex mix was modified to include cinnamon chex and cinnamon apple chips. The dark chocolate coffee toffee chex mix was modified to include dark instead of semi-sweet chocolate, extra pecans, big chunks of Heath bar, and Starbucks Christmas Blend instant coffee!

 We packaged them in treat boxes from HobLob with that great black/red/white ornament motif. Love it! Also, I saw some cute red glitter gift tags for sale while I was shopping for the treat bags. Unfortunately, they had "To" and "From" written on the back, and they were made with crummy glitter (that kept falling off everywhere). So....I made my own! The glitter paper in the scrapbook aisle was $1.99. It cost exactly the same to make 12 ornament tags as it would have been to buy them. Only mine don't shed glitter everywhere, and I wrote whatever I wanted on the back.

Here's another perfect bow! (squeal!)

Christmas Presents 2011

Our wrapping theme is red, black, and white to go along with our Scarlet and Black Tree this year. I found all of my wrapping paper at HobLob over the past 3 years. I tried to stick with graphic prints in the target colors. Polka dots, stripes, and swirls. Also, HobLob had a whole black, red, and white sparkly ornament line of Christmas decor this year! Yum!

Also, note that there are no plastic-y bows to be found! Mr. Baxter and Mr. Winston love plastic-y bows...and curly ribbon...and sparkles. So, in order to avoid a ginormous vet bill, we opt for classic fabric bows. A tad more pricey, but not as expensive as an x-ray and surgery for the little ones!

I love tying bows. I don't know why. Just plain old bows. Not fancy ones. I love the look of a perfectly tied fabric bow.

I also added a few embellishments this year, including a sparkly snowflake and some jingle bells.

Christmas Tree 2011

Our house is a perfect Christmas house. I know a lot of people say this, but ours is, too! We have a great space to entertain, a warm and neutral palate that compliments Christmas colors, and a perfect spot for our tree right in front of the window!

We didn't have a Christmas tree for our first Christmas. I saved a bunch of money for a whole year so that I could buy Christmas ornaments on the day after Christmas. Then, I saved a bunch of money for another whole year so that I could buy our perfect first tree. We ended up having to call the tree company because the middle strand of lights was out, but it was well worth it!

And let me tell you...this is our perfect first tree!

Our tree is a red, black, and silver Texas Tech tree! Since we are both alumni living in Lubbock, we figured there would be no better time in our lives to have such a tree. We've been collecting Texas Tech ornaments to add to the shatterproof (kitty-proof) red and black bulbs.

It's still a work in progress (as every tree is), but I'm so happy with (and proud of!) what has taken 3 years to come together!

Tacky Christmas Sweater Invites Round 2

So earlier I showed off 2010's Tacky Christmas Sweater Invites. Here are this year's invites!

• To make these, I used my Silhouette Studio to create mini sweater outlines which I arranged into a Christmas tree shape.
• Then, I printed the invites on white cardstock using St. Nicholas font. 
• After printing and drying, I used my Silhouette SD to cut out the Christmas tree sweaters.
• I glued glitter cardstock in appropriate colors to the back of the cardstock and mounted it on some more glitter cardstock. (The tackier, the better!)

Once again, I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season!

Tacky Christmas Sweater Invites Round 1

Fact: I love Christmas weather.
Fact: I love Christmas time.
Fact: My house is a perfect Christmas house.
Fact: I like to have fun and be goofy.
Fact: It's Tacky Christmas Sweater Party time!

Invitations are an easy way to spend extra creativity. Also, they're necessary for a part-ay. There are some important things to remember when crafting your invitations.

1) Crafting invitations is not cheaper than making them (unless you use what you already have...in which case they're free!). Well, its not cheaper than the invitations I would buy (but I'm a cheap-o with paper products), but it may be cheaper than custom ordered invites.

2) Buy on sale. Buy on clearance. Or with a coupon. Basically never pay full price for your paper or craftiness supplies. Most stores have email coupons, newspaper coupons, online coupons, and in-store coupons. Use them.

3) Plan ahead. I always plan my cards out in powerpoint or paint.net so I know what they'll look like, print like, and what supplies I need.

These are last year's invites. I love that each one is different.

• The font I used was Bodie MF Holly found here.
• First, I printed on the white card stock in green and red.
• Second, I matted the invite on red or green card stock.
• Third, I cut out and glued my sweaters from glitter paper in red, green, and silver.
• Finally, I glued on my embellishments and sequins to create a truly tacky sweater.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Christmas Decorations

So I know I'm a little late posting about my Christmas decorations, but I still love them. Here they are!

Front Door
This is a new bow wreath I made this year. I really like the overall look, but I want to make another one with ribbon that better matches my style.

Tree!
My tree is a mixed pine from good old HobLob. This is our first Christmas tree as a family. Last year (our first Christmas married) we didn't have a tree. I saved all my money from my "crafting budget" for November/December (oh yeah...all $50) and went shopping on the day after Christmas with my Mom. We shopped our hearts out and I got a ton of great deals at stores like Target, HobLob, Dollar Tree, Walmart, and Pier 1. Packed it all away after we got back to the LBK. We ended up purchasing our tree for 40% off in October. I was a bit paranoid that they would run out of my favorite tree.
This November, it was like Christmas came early! I got to "unwrap" all my new ornaments and decorations. Of course, I added a few new homemade ornaments and a topper to my tree, but overall it didn't cost me more than $75 to decorate the whole tree and make the rest of my decorations!

Stocking Holder
I wanted a cool stocking holder since we don't have a fire place. I looked and looked for what I wanted but found it nowhere. So....I decided it was just time to give up for this year and make one. I used my silhouette cutter to cut stencils for the wording.
$3 plaque + FREE paint + FREE hooks = $3 Stocking Holder!

Presents
I love using a theme for the wrapping of my presents. My current theme (2 years running) is black, white, & red (Wreck 'Em Tech!). I have used fabric bows for the past two years thanks to the two little munchkins running around (Mr. Baxter & Mr. Winston) who will chew/eat ANYTHING plastic. Simple tied bows are sometimes the most elegant!