Home-made Christmas gifts

It's a crazy time of year but I love the festive season...especially now that I have two young boys.  My 4 year old Oliver has really embraced Christmas.  We decorated the Christmas tree together and have been reading stories about Santa and his reindeer.  He knows all about Santa's list of good boys and girls, and how Santa won't come down the chimney and put presents in his Christmas stocking if he is naughty.  It's been a great way to keep his behaviour on track.  All I need to say is 'Santa can hear everything'.  I wish I could use this as a bribe all year round!

Last year I bought presents for Ollie's kinder teachers but this year decided to make something a bit more personal.  Of course, there had to be a sweet treat but I also wanted to include another item they could keep.

The winners were white chocolate, cranberry and macadamia nut cookies and hand-printed snowflake tea-towels, all bound together with cellophane and home-made gift tags.

GIFT TAGS
I made these by cutting rectangles from recycled card, used a sharp craft knife to slice the edges and a single hole punch for threading the ribbon.  Then I used an ink pad and some rubber stamps I bought from Riot Art and Craft to make my design.  So easy but I love the finished product and they were super cheap to make too!

HAND-PRINTED SNOWFLAKE TEA-TOWELS
In September my friend Nikki ran a couple of workshops on how to screen print t-shirts and tea-towels.  You can check out her website and blog at www.stylemyhome.net.au.  I got inspired from this class and went out and bought myself the necessary paint supplies, tea-towels and a snowflake stamp.  I made up my own fabric paint by mixing equal quantities of acrylic paint and textile medium in a bottle and used a foam brush to dab the paint onto the stamp.  Once the paint was dry I placed some baking paper over the tea-towel and ironed it for a few minutes to seal the paint.  Now they were ready to wrap!

Hanging on the oven....I kept one for myself!

The finished products...ready to take to kinder.  I think the teachers will be impressed, especially as Ollie helped make the cookies!

Merry Christmas and hoping you all enjoy a huge feast on Christmas Day.  I am praying the baby will create a little space for me to indulge in all my favourite Christmas treats - turkey, pavlova and potato salad.  Yummy!

Next project for me:  Getting ready for the arrival of baby number 3...only 3 weeks to go until DD Day (due date day that is).   Although the last two didn't want to come out so I could be waiting again!