Homemade Gift Week - License Plate Dust Pan

This may be the most useful homemade gift of all!  A dust pan!  But not any old dust pan....a special license plate dust pan!

When several of us went to Canton Trade Days in November, one of my sisters-in-law found these old license plates for $1.00.  She bought some and said she wanted to use them for her homemade gifts.  She was going to need some help from her husband with the wood part of the gift, but knew he could handle it.  He did, but it was harder than they both thought!  It ended up taking several hours of work to make them.  Of course, the rest of the family is really excited about this gift and the hard work involved in making them!  Thanks, D & R!!

I'm sure you can "Google" directions on making these, if you are interested.  It would be fun to keep license plates from a child's first car or a grandparent's car or something and use them for a special gift.  The possibilities are endless, really!

***After I wrote this post, I found this video on YouTube that shows great directions on how to make: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfRk3TTnjWA

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Homemade Gift Week - Screen Painted Cross

Another homemade gift I want to share with you is this painted cross made out of a screen....like a window screen.  Laura cut the screen with a heavy duty pair of scissors/cutters, then dipped it in brown paint....stencil painted the designs around the edge....and decorated the center by cutting out a flower design and curling the edges.  She finished the look with some flat stones and put a wire on top to hang.  So pretty,  and lots of possibilities for other crafts done in this way! 

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Homemade Gift Week - Day 1 (Cheesy and Easy!)

My husband's side of the family does a homemade Christmas gift exchange every year, and we had our Christmas together last Saturday. For the next two weeks, I'll be sharing these gifts with you.  There are some really unique ideas for cute gifts!  Some are easy and some will take a little more time, but all of them are great ideas for most any time of the year.  There are a few that will be strictly Christmas ideas.

The first I want to share with you is my own homemade gift.  I like to call it "Cheesy and Easy"!  Whoever came up with this idea (found on Pinterest), was smart to think of it!  I say "cheesy" because of the play on words, but obviously I liked the "easy" part!  We were gone for two weeks during Christmas break, so it was nice to be able to quickly get my gifts together before we left.

I used various kinds of Hershey's Kisses: Dark, Almond, Regular and Caramel.  I made the little tags on brown kraft card stock paper, using a cute font (www.kevinandamanda.com has LOTS of cute/free fonts!).

And the final tag words for my "Cheesy and Easy" homemade Christmas gift:  "We WHISK you a Merry KISSmas!"

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Recipe for a Happy New Year

Recipe for a Happy New Year

Take twelve whole months.

Clean them thoroughly of all bitterness,

hate, and jealousy.

Make them just as fresh and clean as possible.

Now cut each month into twenty-eight, thirty, or thirty-one different parts,

but don't make up the whole batch at once.

Prepare it one day at a time out of these ingredients.

Mix well into each day one part of faith,

one part of patience, one part of courage,

and one part of work.

Add to each day one part of hope,

faithfulness, generosity, and kindness.

Blend with one part prayer, one part meditation,

and one good deed.

Season the whole with a dash of good spirits,

a sprinkle of fun, a pinch of play,

and a cupful of good humor,

Pour all of this into a vessel of love.

Cook thouroughly over radiant joy,

garnish with a smile,

and serve with quietness, unselfishness,

and cheerfulness -

You're bound to have a happy new year.

-- Author Unknown

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14

God has blessed us with this new year.  Let's use this new year to serve Him, to glorify Him, and become more like His Son.  Happy New Year!
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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours!

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Snowman Snacks

You can't resist cute snowman snacks!  White bread peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut in rounds and topped with raisin eyes and mouth plus a carrot nose.

Little white donuts make cute snowmen!  Little Debbie works, but Hostess would have probably been rounder and less likely to fall apart.  Oh, yeah!  No more Hostess :(.  Little Debbie worked with mini chocolate chip eyes and an orange slice piece of candy (cut) for the nose.

And a friend also made these cute snowmen cupcakes!  They had mini chocolate chip eyes and I think orange Skittles or M&M's eyes.

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Veggie Christmas Tree

For our elementary youth group party, I looked up photos of Christmas themed food.  I saw a vegetable Christmas tree and decided to make one to serve.  I wasn't sure the young children (Kindergarten - 5th grade) would be too excited about eating veggies, but they were!  They did have an option of Ranch dip to go along with the veggies, so some probably liked that part, too.

Almost too pretty to eat, huh?  I used broccoli, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and yellow bell peppers.

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