New Years Eve Horns and Blowers with Handmade Tags

So sometimes I make little holiday treats for Meals on Wheels. I said this because I don't want people to think that I had a New Year's Eve party and they weren't invited. It would be boring to get a little horn or blower - but a lot more fun if it had a little handmade tag.

I bought this giant New Year's Eve bag of horns and blow outs at Party City.

It is hard to tell in this photo but I used a lot of "glitter" scrapbook paper to make the little tags.

Each horn gets a little tag. Everything in the party bag was black, gold and silver.

It took a little over an hour to make the tags and adhere them to the horns and blowers. Crafting is so relaxing.

These horns and blowers come in every color of the rainbow. They would look cute with a Happy Birthday or Anniversary message.

Wishing you a beautiful New Year!

Holiday Flowers in the Homemade Twine Vases

I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and bought some holiday floral bouquets to put into my homemade twine can vases.

I made six vases and was able to fill them all with 4 bouquets from Trader Joe's.

I am going to bring these to my neighbors today and tomorrow with little cookie plates and a homemade ornament.

I have always been partial to a wild flower look - but these vases would also look nice with cut poinsettias or roses.

I actually posted some of these photos yesterday afternoon on Instagram and totally forgot to post these pictures on my blog until this morning! I am hanging on by a thread!And my feet hurt.

Eggnog Bread

Last Christmas season I had a slice of eggnog bread at a party and wanted to go right home and Google eggnog bread recipes. However, I think I came home and fell asleep. Then I compulsively put all of my holiday decorations away. After all the holiday items are back in the storage containers I then compulsively clean the house. So I sorta forgot about the Eggnog bread recipe until this Christmas season.

I found this recipe on the just a pinch recipes and I am also planning on trying out at least one more eggnog bread recipe before the holiday season is over.

Sometimes I like eggnog and other times I have had eggnog and thought it was yucky. But this recipe is perfect. Eggnog lovers will love it! And eggnog haters will also love it!

I was without an oven for almost 12 days - once my oven was finally fixed I ran out and bought some eggnog so that I could make an eggnog bread!

This is a really easy recipe - in fact you probably have everything you need in your pantry and refrigerator with the exception of the eggnog and rum extract. I happened to have rum extract in my pantry so I only needed to get some eggnog.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup eggnog

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 teaspoons rum extract

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Glaze:

3/4 cup powdered sugar

enough eggnog to make a glaze

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 5 inch pan.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the sugar, eggnog, melted butter, rum and vanilla extract. Mix the ingredients until everything is smooth and combined. Gently fold in the flour, baking powder and nutmeg.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Let the loaf pan cool on a wire rack for about ten minutes.

Invert the loaf pan on the wire rack and turn the loaf over. Place the wire rack over a baking sheet.

Mix the powdered sugar and a few tablespoons of eggnog until the glaze is nice and thick. I actually made the glaze twice and because I like a lot of glaze.

Once the glaze is firm you can slice and serve the bread. Yum! This would make a great hostess gift or breakfast treat for Christmas morning.

I sliced mine a little two early and some of the glaze pooled a little.

Homemade Holiday Vases

Save your used soup or other cans - remove the labels and wash out the debris. Then you can throughly clean them in the dishwasher.

I often make little bouquets of flowers in these tin can vases. All you need is a glue gun and a roll of twine.

Just add some glue to the top of the can and wind the twine around the can four or five times. Add another line of glue and wrap around four or five times again. Keep doing this process until the entire can is covered in twine.

Once the can is completely covered intwine - glue gun a contrasting ribbon around the middle of the can. Then glue gun a silk poinsettia and leaf on top of the ribbon.

These cans make perfect holiday vases but they could also be used for treats like chocolate covered pretzels or candy canes. I am going to use mine for little floral bouquets. Hopefully I will remember to post the picture with the flowers in the vases.

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Party Favors Made with Mini Candy Bars and Scrapbook Paper

Today I crafted again and if you have been reading this blog for the past week you know that my oven stopped working last Friday - eight days ago! The part needed to fix the oven won't arrive until Monday to Tuesday. So.....it looks like I won't have a working oven until Wednesday! Therefore instead of baking I have been crafting and it has been rather relaxing!

I am planning to put these cute little party favors on my cookie plates for the neighbors and the music themed ones my daughter is going to bring to her choir friends at church.

For this project you will need:

Bags of mini candy bars

Scrapbook or wrapping paper in your theme

Scotch Tape

Scissors

Pretzel plastic bags

Coordinating ribbon

Coordinating doo-dad

Decide on your theme - is it Christmas or basketball or music? Then buy scrapbook or wrapping paper in your theme. You could even do this treat in team colors.

Make a pattern with a piece of cardboard and start cutting your paper. Then tape the paper around the small candy bar. Each pretzel bag will hold 6 mini candy bars with room at the top for a nice bow.

I found this music themed scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby.

Scrapbook paper goes on sale all the time at Michael's, Hobby Lobby and JoAnne's Fabrics. Once you find a good sale - stock up for all your upcoming projects!

I found this rich green satin ribbon in my craft cupboard and while I was routing around in there I found this Holly themed doo-dad!

I don't even remember every buying this doo-dad. Perhaps I bought it on super sale last January?  Someday I am going to make everything nice and neat in my craft cabinet and make little holiday inventories. Yeah - right!

I simply attached the holly doo-dad to the ribbon.

The holly makes the party favor look just a little more festive.

I tied the music treats with a tan wired ribbon - the color complimented the scrapbook paper.

The I decided to add a little rhinestone to the middle of the ribbon. I love a rustic with elegant touch look!

This was a fun and easy project! It can be made for any sport, hobby or holiday. They have scrapbook and wrapping paper in so many great patterns. The pretzel bags are usually near the baking supply section.

Let me know if you make this project and if you send me a picture of your project - I would love to post it (with your permission)!

Doilies Filled with Holiday m&m's - Party Favor

My oven will be fixed on Tuesday or Wednesday - that will be 10 or 11 days without an oven. So I have been crafting until my oven is fixed and I can bake.

This was a fun project that is easy to make while you watch television. For this project you will need:

Doilies

Red embroidery thread

Large needle

Scissors

Holiday m&m's

Holly sticker or other Christmas themed sticker

Thin red or green ribbon (optional - needed if planning to hang on tree)

Cut a long piece of red embroidery thread and thread your needle. Take two doilies and start sewing them together - following the outside holes. Once they are almost completely sewn fill them with the m&m's and continue sewing.

Once the doilie is sewn shut tie the thread off and add the sticker. If you want to hang these on the tree you could sew a thin red or green ribbon loop on the back of the dolie.

These make darling ornaments or party favors. They would also be fantastic place cards - just write the name in red or green pen instead of the sticker.

I bought all of the supplies for this project at Michael's - but you could buy these simple supplies at any craft or fabric store.

Keep checking back - I will be crafting until at least Tuesday! After that I will be posting holiday cookies!

Rustic Twine Christmas Ornaments

Noelle and I made some ornaments this afternoon. My oven is still not working - they ordered the part and it will be fixed on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. No baking until mid next week.

Until then - lots of ornament and party favor ideas!

To make this project you will need:

Styrofoam balls

Twine or Jute

Paper clips

Glue gun

Scissors

Pretty raffia bows (optional)

Little pearl/rhinestones to glue on raffia bows

You can get everything you need at any craft or fabric store. I happened to get everything on the above list at Hobby Lobby.

Try to buy smooth styrofoam balls - they are a little easier to work with for this project.

Push the paper clip into the ball - this will be where the ornament hanger connects to the tree.

Start gluing and winding the twine - starting at the top around the paper clip.

I found these raffia bows and little pearl and rhinestone doo-dads at Hobby Lobby and I knew they would look cute on my twine ornaments. I just used a little glue to adhere the too-dad.

If we could make 25 or so of these they would look fantastic on a tree. But it took a couple of hours to make four. If we want a full tree of these next year - we need to start making them in November. Perhaps if we made 10 a week up until Christmas.

Keep checking back - I have a lot of simple ornament and party favor ideas.

Spode Christmas Tree Ornaments

I found these little silver framed ornaments in my craft cabinet - I had eight little ornament frames from Crate and Barrel. The ornament price said $3.50 each but I am sure that I probably bought them at 75% off.

So I cut out the Spode Christmas Tree from a recipe card and popped it the frame.

I bought the recipe cards in the dollar section at Michael's.

The card is easy to cut out using the cardboard from the frame as a guide.

The best thing about this ornament is that it came in little boxes. So I wrapped the box in brown craft paper, tied with string and added a little spring of holly.

I think these came out really cute and will look fantastic on my homemade cookie platters for the neighborhood friends.

Keep checking back for even more simple and fun ideas.

Breakfast at Tiffany Christmas Ornaments

Today I was wrapping Christmas gifts and was searching for red ribbon in my craft cabinet. When I came across this black pearl ribbon and I thought it would look fantastic on a Breakfast at Tiffany Christmas ornament.

So I found some  silver and turquoise scrapbook paper and using a scalloped punch, and two different sized round punches I quickly made around 10 ornaments. The punches go on sale at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. But if the punch isn't on sale just use a coupon!

The Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany photo is from a pack of playing cards I bought at Michael's in the dollar section. I bought the black pearl ribbon at Hobby Lobby. I used a glue gun to adhere all three circles and the black pearl ribbon.

Then I used a thin piece of turquoise ribbon taped on the back of the ornament for the hanging  hook.

While I was in my craft cabinet - I pulled out a bunch of other supplies to make some fun crafts! I really don't need to go to Hobby Lobby or Michael's for a few months! My craft closet looks like a really messy craft store right now!

So keep checking back - I have some fun and easy ideas!