Gingerbread House Party in a Box

Last weekend my littles decorated our traditional gingerbread house we always do as part of our Advent calendar. It's always lots of fun and good memories. And I love to see how the houses are evolving as they get older and another set of hands can help create them!

This year, I decided to gift a few of our friends with their own little Gingerbread House Party in a Box!  I thought it would be fun to give them a little something to do on one of our cold, snowy midwest winter afternoons...that get dark a whole lot earlier than any of us mommas would like.

These kits are so easy to make! Just grab a few basic house constructing supplies, graham crackers and a can of white frosting, and then add in your choice of fun and festive candies for decorations. I even added in a few packets of hot cocoa mix and stripey straws to keep the little architects bellies warm while creating :-)

I included starlight mints, gumballs, red hots, holiday sprees, holiday tic tacs, and holiday gumdrops along with a bunch of miniature candy canes which would also go great with the hot cocoa mix!

I wrapped the can of frosting in scrapbook paper to make it a bit more festive and called it "Cement". I even added a small muslin drawstring bag with a bottlebrush tree and a little deer to stand outside the gingerbread homes...it's the little things that make it more fun!

And there you go! A sweet holiday surprise to give to your friends or family. PS. how fun would this be to open on Christmas Eve or even to do on Christmas day!

Merry Christmas to you!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

TUTORIAL: Paper Rosette Gift Name Tags

I was asked by Joann's to be a part of their Papercrafted Christmas campaign that they are co-hosting with Die Cuts With a View (DCWV).  Me and 11 other bloggers are sharing some fun ideas on how to craft with DCWV scrapbook paper and embellishments this month. How fun!

With Christmas literally weeks away, and the fact that I have gift wrapping on the brain, I thought I would use DCWV's scrapbook paper to make some vintage-inspired Paper Rosette Gift Name Tags. I am always in search of fun ways to label gifts and these make my heart sing, so pretty and so easy to make...perfect for the holidays and more!

Here's what you'll need to make your own:

Paper Rosette Gift Name Tags

DCWV Christmas & Winter Paper Stack

Scissors

DCWV Christmas & Winter Embellishments (optional)

3.5 inch paper doilies

Hot glue

For these rosettes I used the DCWV Christmas & Winter Paper Stack. I found this paper was the perfect weight to make a small sized rosette. You can find this paper stack and a whole lot more from DCWV at Joann's here.

To make the rosettes...
1. Cut a 12 x 12 inch piece of scrapbook paper down to 3 x 12 inches. Starting on the short end, fold the paper back and forth in 1/4 inch increments.
2. Continue to fold the paper like an accordion until the end of the paper.
3. Press the accordion of paper in half and hot glue the ends that meet together.
4. Fan out the rosette and hot glue the other two ends together as well.
Hot glue the rosette onto a paper doily.

The Christmas & Winter Paper Stack also comes with a few pages that include small colored flags and other fun paper tags. I cut the flags out and wrote names onto them.

I also used a scallop paper punch to embellish the name tags a bit more.

You could even embellish the name tags with the coordinating DCWV Christmas & Winter adhesive embellishments, the pack comes with a big variety of pretty choices!

When your Paper Rosette Gift Name Tags are done they should look like this...so cute, right!

Such a perfect addition to your holiday gift wrapping this season!

And here's a coupon from Joann's so you can save when you buy your supplies to make these or an other fabulous project you might have in mind for the holidays: Click Here for Coupon!

 XOXO,

*This post is brought to you by Joann's but all opinions and ideas are 100% my very own :-)

TUTORIAL: Toilet Paper Tube Advent Calendar

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Cottonelle, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #CottonelleHoliday  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

Can you believe it is December already? That means only 4 weeks until Christmas!!! Well, 23 days to be exact, whoa momma!

With holiday parties and cookie exchanges coming up on the calendar, the last thing I want is to be stuck in my bathrooms always having to change the dang toilet paper! Hello, I have more important things to do like bake up some yummy goodies, set a festive table, and actually enjoy my holiday parties this year. Thank goodness for the Cottonelle Triple Roll pack I found at Target, triple the toilet paper on one roll means less trips to restock the bathroom for me!

And when you do finally get an empty roll, how about a fun holiday idea to make having to change that roll a little bit easier?

I saved our leftover toilet paper tubes and created a super fun Advent Calendar for my littles! It was so easy to do and the best part is that you already have the toilet paper rolls so that project material is free! This time of year you can even get scrapbook paper at most craft stores for 6 sheets for a dollar so this is one inexpensive project AND a whole month of fun for the kiddos!

Toilet Paper Tube Advent Calendar

25 toilet paper tubes

a variety of scrapbook paper

glue stick

scissors

twine

number stamps and ink or number stickers (1-25)

glue dots

white foam board

old picture frame

The first thing you need to do is cut your scrapbook paper to size, I cut mine 4.25 x 6.75 inches which gives you a bit of overlap for the edges when you wrap.

Then just glue the paper around each tube.

Once it is dry, mine seriously took like 30 seconds to dry, you just push the ends in slightly to form a pillow box...easy peasy!

But don't forget, before you close up you newly made pillow box you will want to add your advent calendar gift! This can be anything small like a toy, a piece of candy or gum, or even a piece of paper with an experience for the day like these here. For this advent calendar I decided to put little figurines inside that, in the end, would create a wintery Christmas scene.

This is what the finished product of this Advent calendar will look like!

Each day there will be a little something to set up...a sled, a wrapped package, maybe even a few letters :-)

A deer, or two, or three...or a snowman.

Even a teddy bear!

Once the tubes were filled and closed, I wrapped each in some twine and hung a little number stamped circular tag to each for each day in December leading up to Christmas.

I had an old frame I found this summer at a garage sale for $1 that fit a piece of white foam board perfectly and I just used glue dots to place the tubes onto the board.  They are pretty lightweight so it only took two glue dots per filled toilet paper tube to hang.

And there you have it! An easy, inexpensive, and really pretty Advent Calendar using toilet paper tubes!!! 

If you want to make this fun project or maybe you just need to stock up on some toilet paper for all your holiday parties, CLICK HERE for a "Buy Cottonelle Triple Roll 12 pack or larger and get a FREE box of Kleenex" coupon while supplies last and head over to Target to redeem this great deal! 

XOXO, 

Hello Kitty Let's Play Clothing and KuKee!

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and KuKee, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #helllokittyletsplay  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

My little Penny has been a fan of Hello Kitty ever since she was a wee little thing. So we were both thrilled to find out that Evy of CA has a new Hello Kitty Let's Play DRESS UP Clothing Line at Macy's (in stores now and ready to buy up for Christmas gifts!) When we heard the news we went online and found a super cute black and hot pink coordinated active hoodie and pants that is just perfect for our cold fall and winter weather. 

The adorable little hoodie even came with a cute pink Hello Kitty bow headband!

Can you tell Penny absolutely loves this outfit? She is a headband girl through and through so that was the icing on the cake for her :-)

I love that both pieces are interchangeable with so many of the clothes that she already owns so she can get lots of wear out of each item!

She begged to wear it to school the day after it arrived in the mail. How could I say no when she looks this cute in it?

One of the neat things about this line of Hello Kitty clothing is that each piece from the line has a clothing tag/marker that you can scan using the KuKee app and the Hello Kitty Dress Up experience comes to life. So your little girl can dress Hello Kitty up in different outfits, crowns, and accessories. Plus you can take a picture, glam it up, and share it with friends.

Here is what the clothing tag looks like. You just download the KuKee app and scan it with your phone like the picture on the right, above.

To get the KuKee app, you go to the iTunes store, here, or you get also get it on Google Play, here. It's a FREE app too! Just click the FREE button at the upper right hand of the screen (via the iTunes app store) and it will begin to download to your phone. Next you scan your clothing tag to open the app and then you can get started dressing up your Hello Kitty!

So easy and so fun!

You can also open the app by scanning KuKee markers like this one above! You can find different colored ones on the Hello Kitty KuKee pinterest board HERE. 

You can use the KuKee markers to go on a scavenger hunt (and you can even get started by scanning one from this post)! Here is a little bit more info on how the hunt works:

This clothing line is not only adorable and super cozy and comfy it is also interactive and so entertaining and, with the combination of the dress up puppet show and this scavenger hunt, my kids could spend a whole lot of time playing with this app that's for sure! 

Macy's is having great Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales so if you have a Hello Kitty lover in your family you will want to stock up on some of the great items from the Hello Kitty Let's Play line!

You can find more about KuKee here:

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 XOXO,

Simple and Pretty Gift Card Packaging

Here's another simple and easy idea to say Thank You to someone this holiday season. The kids decided they wanted to give their teachers gift cards to Starbucks as a thank you for working so hard to teach them every day. They know how much their mommy loves her Chai Tea Latte with soy, so they figured their teachers would love something from there too, haha!

We placed each gift card into a small kraft bag and folded it closed with a gold paper clip with a touch of lace. The kids flattened some colorful polka dotted cupcake liners, stamped "a surprise for you" in the center of a paper doily, and then we glued them together and tucked them underneath the paperclip.

 So pretty...and a simple enough project that all of my school-aged kids could help put them together :-)

I hope this inspires you to thank someone today!

Thank you for stopping by to read!

XOXO,