Simple, Affordable Christmas Gift Ideas

Every November, I host a "Great Gifty Ideas" workshop for my customers, and the goal of this workshop is to give them fun, affordable projects that they can make as gifts for the holidays.  Here's our lineup for this year's class!

 

Here's the first project I've got lined up!  It's a purse made from ONE piece of patterned paper (I used paper from our Yuletide paper pack).   This purse is large enough to hold cards. . .below you can see some cards I made to with it (NOTE:  for the Great Gifty Ideas Workshop, we'll just be doing the purse--not the cards).   I got the instructions for this purse from a YouTube video by France Martin (http://youtu.be/MT6HhvXPZTc )--so feel free to check it out!

I embellished the purse with our Gold Shimmer Trim, Gold Bling Gems and the Black Striped Twill Ribbon.  The poinsettias are cut in Cranberry Cardstock from the Artiste cartridge, p. 80.

 

 

I got this super fun idea from Consultant Amy McGrew.  Amy used our Kraft Containers (shown below), and turned them into adorable snowmen!  Because these containers are so incredibly sturdy, you can fill them with any kind of small gifts--jewelry, socks, mittens, gift cards, candy, cookies, etc.  If you're wondering about the stocking cap, it is made with a toddler-size sock.  I tied a knot in the sock and sewed a bell on to the end of  it.

 



I've seen this cute little card box idea several places on the internet, but the inspiration for this project came from Jacquelin Green--I loved her Snowhaven cards that she made to go in the box and had to make a few for myself.  The scalloped card base is on the Art Philosophy cartridge (cut them 3").   

I've made a bunch of different Hershey nugget holders over the past few years, but I like this one because it's super fast.  The bottom is just a cardstock "tray" that holds your nuggets in place.  The bags are pretzel stick bags, which you can find in the candy making section of the store (I actually found them at Walmart).  To make the tray, cut a piece of cardstock 4 1/4" x 2 1/4".  Score a line 3/8" from each side down the length of it and fold the sides up.  To cover your nuggets, cut your patterned paper 1" x 3".



So, this time of year, my purse is an absolute mess--full of receipts, etc. from my shopping trips.  To help out with that, I designed this fun, three-pocket receipt organizer.  Each section is 3 1/2" wide, so you've got plenty of room to slide your receipts down into it.  You could also use it to store/organize coupons or cash.  Below is a picture of the inside.  I used the Brushed paper pack and the "Your Own Kind of Wonderful" stamp set.  You could make these out of cute Christmas papers, but I wanted it to be something you could use all year round.