Winter Banner

  I've started to decorate our home for Christmas at last. Thanks to all my fans on Facebook who's "likes" showed me that they had already decorated their homes for Christmas! It showed me that I was not too early by any stretch! I've been putting decorations up bit by bit & our Christmas tree will be going up this weekend.

  This being my first Christmas blogging, I thought I would share with you some of my Christmas crafts of the past as well as some of my collections & special decorations.

  Today, I will begin with a winter banner I made a couple of years ago.

Please excuse the plastic coated window! ;)

  I made it with chipboard shapes I purchased from Stampin' Up! I painted the snowflakes & stars silver or white, punched holes with my Big Bite & connected them with blue ribbon. So easy!

If you would like to make something similar, here's what you need:

• Chipboard shapes
• Paint
• A heavy duty hole punch such as a Crop-o-dile or Big Bite
• Ribbon

  And since it's wintery, not just Christmasy, we can enjoy it into January & February.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers!

Enjoy your day!

Hanji Card Set

  This fall, I've had a very unique opportunity. A friend of mine who just recently moved to South Korea with her little family asked me if I would make a few sets of cards for her sisters-in-law & her mom for Christmas. She asked me if she could send me some handmade paper (called Hanji) from where she lives & requested that I made her mom's card set with these beautiful papers. I was ecstatic to say the least. When I received the tube of papers in the mail, they took my breath away. Whoever made these works of art is exactly that - an artist. If you look closely, you can see real leaves, blades of grass, & flower petals in some of them. The asian writing on the blue is another favourite. 

  I couldn't wait to start creating with them. But alas, I had other orders that came first. Finally, I was able to work with these papers last weekend. I used lots of earthy tones with touches of blues & rich pinks. Hanji is thin but surprisingly sturdy. It takes some doing to rip it. When you do rip it, it has a beautiful edge as you can see in some of the photos. I kept those edges on purpose. I think they add to the appeal.

  Here are my creations:

  I am loving the end result. I hope you do too. 

Enjoy your day!

Pretty Christmas Packages

  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go... The city workers were busily putting up the street Christmas decorations yesterday. Just seeing them go up & knowing that Christmas is getting ever closer makes me so happy.

  My Christmas shopping is getting closer & closer to being done. With me bringing gifts into our home, I'm coming up with hiding places for them as well as imagining pretty & creative ways of wrapping them. Wrapping gifts is seriously one of my favourite parts of Christmas. As usual, I've found lots of inspiring ideas on Pinterest. (A blogger's best friend!) :)

  Here are some of my favourites.

  I've found lots of packages wrapped in sheet music with touches of other elements added in. Silver or solid coloured paper with pinecones, ornaments, & hand made flowers add the beautiful details that make a gift so attractive. (All gift images via Pinterest. Specifically, these are collected in my Christmastime Is Here board)

  This grouping of brown paper packages has me humming "My Favourite Things"! I love all the different ways you can personalize brown packing paper! I especially thought the idea of sewing a gift into paper cut in festive shapes (3rd photo in) was super creative. 

  Lace doilies are easily found in thrift stores usually by the bag full. What a great way to upcycle them - on a pretty package wrapped with ribbon!

  And once your package is wrapped, don't forget about the tags! You can make you own, buy them, or there are many, many free printable ones you can download & print off at home. There are so many cute graphics out there. You can find anything to suit your colours or taste. (These printable images are collected in my Fonts & Printables board.)

   Are you feeling inspired? I sure am!! I am itching to put on a Christmas movie (maybe White Christmas or Holiday Inn - I love a good musical!) & wrap presents to my heart's content. 

 I'm curious. Do you wrap your gifts as you buy them? Or do you wait until the last minute & wrap them all on Christmas Eve? Do you wrap them & hide them or put them under the tree? 

  Every family is different. I enjoy hearing about the differences in people's traditions. Even the seemingly unnoticed traditions like wrapping gifts as you go or staying up late on Christmas Eve wrapping them so that your kids will think they're from Santa on Christmas morning. 

  Ooooo! Christmastime is here!

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

5 Minutes Just For Me

Merry Berry Cheese Bars

  So far, my Christmas baking is going well. Two recipes down, a few more to go. Today, I'm going to share a favourite recipe that I've been making all of my married life - 11 years now. 

If you like cheesecake or cranberries, then you'll enjoy these! This recipe originally came from Eagle Brand.

Merry Berry Cheese Bars a.k.a. Cranberry Cheesecake Bars
makes 24-36 bars


crust:
2 cups unsifted flour
1 1/2 cups oats
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened

cream cheese layer:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice

berry layer:
1 can cranberry sauce (you can use whole berry, but I prefer jellied)
2 Tbsp. corn starch
1 Tbsp. firmly packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350°.

1) With mixer, beat flour, oats, 3/4 cup sugar & butter until crumbly. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of the mixture. Press remaining mixture on bottom of greased 13x9 inch baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

2) With mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth, stir in lemon juice. Spread over baked crust.

3) Combine cranberry sauce, corn starch, & 1 Tbsp. brown sugar. Spoon over cheese layer. Top with remaining crumb mixture.

4) Bake 45 minutes or until golden. Cool & cut into bars. Refrigerate leftovers.

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I hope your family enjoys these as much as we do!

Enjoy your Monday!

Linkin' Up:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Craft-O-Maniac

Made By You Monday

Everything Under The Moon

Chef In Training

Ta-Da Tuesday

Today's Creative Blog

Let Birds Fly

Home For The Holidays

Handmade Holiday

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

Tatertots & Jello

Cup Of Delight

'Tis the Season for... Peppermint

  Christmas is drawing ever closer. Thankfully, I got a bit more of my Christmas shopping done yesterday. One step closer to being done. I personally like being done with gift buying by the time December rolls around. Then I can focus on wrapping, decorating, baking, cooking, & having fun with my family & friends.

  One of my favourite flavours of Christmas is peppermint. I've found a wonderful collection of Christmas goodies featuring peppermint on Pinterest. I'm planning on making some (not all!) of these goodies this Christmas season. I am having a hard time deciding on which ones though. Any votes for your favourites?

Frozen Peppermint Cheesecake

Peppermint Crunch Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peppermint Sugar Cookies

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

Peppermint Meltaways 

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Peppermint Profiteroles

All photos via Pinterest. 

So, what are your votes? Are you feeling inspired to make any of these for your family? I have the Peppermint Meltaways on my list to make this week.

Have a great weekend!

Linkin' Up:

5 Minutes Just For Me