----- Original Message ----- From: "Spring" I make lots of gift baskets (tea sets, bath sets, gardening sets, etc...all include crocheted items, of course!). I have a little hint for gift basket makers...instead of buying the expensive shrink wrap in the craft stores, I buy the cheapest shrink film window insulating kit I can find. (They're always on sale in the fall.) I usually buy a patio door sized kit...it's really big and does alot of baskets! Just wrap the filled basket in the shrink film and heat it with your hair dryer. I've been very happy with the results. Another nice touch is to line the basket with a handmade doily. A teacher can't live by apples alone...she needs "hugs" too! Merry Christmas!! Fill a box, bag or mug with Hershey's Kisses Hope a merry "HO-HO-HO" fills your heart the whole year though Merry Christmas! Give with a box of Hostess Ho-Ho's...decorate the box or put in a Christmas type bag. Christmas is coming and so are the deer, Listen closely and bells you will hear. Along with them comes a special treat, Reindeer droppings for you to eat!! Merry Christmas!! Color and cut out a deer head (picture) and attach to a box of Whoppers or Milk Duds. Hoping you have a "ball" this Holiday Season! Merry Christmas!! Give with popcorn balls, or cheese ball and crackers. "Whisking" you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Give a whisk filled with treats. "By gum, you're great neighbors!" Have a Merry Christmas! Give a sack, jar or mug filled with gumdrops or gum. "You make friendship bloom all year round" Merry Christmas!! Give a poinsettia plant or other type of flowering plant. We're "ROOT"ing for you to have a won"DEER"ful New Year! Give a 2 liter bottle of Rootbeer with a deer head attached (picture) Have a Hot and Spicy Christmas! Merry Christmas!! Give salsa and tortilla chips. Here's some zesty salsa to spice up your holidays!! Merry Christmas!! Give salsa and tortilla chips. Give any kind of popcorn treat, microwave popcorn or you can give a 2 liter bottle of soda pop or a 6-pack of pop Baked with Love for you! Give cake in a jar, or other baked treat. "Dip" into a wonderful Holiday Season and a Healthy New year! Give veggies and dip mix or dip mix and crackers or pretzels. Or caramel dip and apples. Have an "udderly" moovalous Christmas!! Give anything with a cow or make a cow pie using an Oreo cookie crust filled with chocolate or vanilla pudding spread cool whip on top...make irregular black spots on top using crushed Oreo's Hope your Christmas is "tree"mendous!! Give tree pasta or fill tree shaped container with goodies or put goodies on a tree tray. Or can give a small Christmas tree. A friend always knows when you need a little "hug". Fill a bag, jar or mug with Hershey Hugs Kisses and Hugs!! Whether stirring up cakes, cookies, soups or souffles; You'll find this spoon useful in so many ways. But whatever it's use, whatever you do, It says"Merry Christmas from us to you. Give a wooden spoon with some sort of mix (muffins, cake etc....) "Season's" Greetings. Hope this will "spice" up your Christmas!! Give season salt in a salt shaker, jar or any type of spice Hope your Christmas is sweet. Merry Christmas!! Give a jar of candy or bag or sack of homemade candy. We tray-sure" your friendship! Happy Holidays! Give a Christmas tray with goodies. Have "ewe" self a Merry little Christmas!! Make a lamb out of frozen dinner rolls...or give anything to do with sheep or lambs. Have a "berry" nice Holiday Season. Give a jar of jam, Strawberry Cheesecake mix, or flavored berry syrups and pancake or waffle mix. May your Holidays "bubble over" with fun! Merry Christmas!!! Give bubble bath or bath crystals with any bath accessory. "S-breading some holiday cheer, from us, to you, this time of year." Merry Christmas!! Give a loaf of bread. Hoping your Christmas is Heavenly!!! Give anything that has to do with an angel...or you can give an angel food cake mix with toppings, or angel hair pasta. If friends were flowers, we'd pick you! Happy Holidays!! Give any type of blooming plant, a bouquet of flowers, or a flower arrangement... Just "popped" over to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Give any type of popcorn....(microwave, tin) or bottles of soda pop. Have a "whopper" of a Christmas!!! Give with a box of whoppers... Hope your Christmas is "Scent" sational!! Merry Christmas!! Give a bag of potpourri or a scented candle. Hope you have a "grate" Christmas!! Give with a Grater, cheese and nacho chips. Merry Christmousse! Give with a box of chocolate mousse mix. Wishing you a scrumptious Christmas!!! Give with any kind of treat. May your Christmas be Merry and "Sprite" Give with 2 liter bottle of Sprite. Decorate top of bottle with holly leaves and berries made out of felt. We couldn't re"strain" ourselves from wishing you a Merry Christmas!!! Fill a strainer with goodies. Friends like you are worth a "MINT!" Merry Christmas!! Fill a jar or mug with peppermints. Merry Christmas from our house to yours! Make a sack look like a house...then fill it with goodies. Have a holly "jolly" Christmas!!! Fill a jar or mug with jolly ranchers Wishing you a "Souper" Holiday Season! Merry Christmas give soup packet with crackers in mug or soup bowl You're getting 'muffin' for Christmas!! Give with muffins or muffin mix. Full of Christmas Love! Give decorated bag full of goodies. Have a "pasta-tively" Happy Holiday! Give Christmas shaped pasta in a jar or bag. Or give any type of pasta along with a pasta spoon. Have a "beary" sweet Christmas!! Give a bear shaped bottle of honey... or a mug filled with gummy bears Lovin' from my oven. Bake a cake in a jar...can include recipe if you want to. Ho-Ho "Ho"memade Bread!!! Give with a loaf of homemade bread. May your Christmas be festive and fruitful! Merry Christmas!!! Give a fruit basket or jar of dried fruit. Hoping you have a holiday "jam-packed" with fun!!! Give a jar of jam. It's that "Nutty" time of year again, so please don't lose your cool. Relax and munch this little treat, and have a Happy yule!! Give with a Nutragious Candy Bar, or any type of treat with nuts in it. May your days be happy, and your heart be light, your Christmas Merry, and the New year Bright!! Give with a candle. Best Wishes for a bright and beautiful Holiday Season. Give with a candle. May your Christmas be "sprinkled" with laughter and love, Merry Christmas! Give with cookie sprinkles, cookie cutters and a recipe for sugar cookies. Here's a little "dough" for Christmas! Merry Christmas!! Give a roll of cookie dough or a tub of cookie dough and cookie cutters Ho-ho hoping your Christmas is Merry!! Give with any type of Santa. Wishing you joy beyond "measure" Merry Christmas!! Fill a measuring cup with Christmas treats or goodies. Can also include a measuring tape or ruler. Have a "M"erry and "M"ost wonderful Holiday Season!! Fill a jar or bag up with M&M's Just a little Christmas cheer from us, to you, this time of year. Merry Christmas!! Give with a bottle of sparkling cider or sparkling grape juice or other bottled spirits. Warm wishes for the Holidays. Give hot chocolate mix in a mug or hot Wassail mix. Wishing you a warm and wonderful Christmas!! Give with hot chocolate mix, wassail mix or russian tea mix and a mug. Remember Santa "chex" his list twice to see who's been naughty or nice. So be good for goodness sake! Merry Christmas!! Give with a bag of Chex mix. Here's a "squeeze" and a "kiss" with Christmas Cheer, to remind you your're loved all through the year! Give with a bottle of "squeeze-it" juice and a Hershey kiss on the tag Have a "COOL YULE"!! Give ice cream and topping Nibble, nibble like a mouse, We hope you'll nibble at this house! Merry Christmas!! Give a gingerbread house. ~~*~~*~~ ~*~ Last year for Christmas gifts I made cookie/candy jars from clay pots/saucers. To do this you need a 6" pot, 6" saucer and one 2" wooden knob. If you are using this for WRAPPED candies/cookies then you don't need to worry about plugging the hole or making them food safe. All you do is paint the pot/saucer and then finish with whatever technique you want. Paint the knob, invert the saucer, glue the knob in the center and you have your lid. In place of the saucer for the lid you can use a wooden circle instead. I painted one a navy blue stippled it with butterceam and then decoupaged little fabric gingerbread men and fabric cookies on the jar. I also decoupaged a fabric "Merry Christmas" on the rim of the jar and wrote "Cookies" on the side of the pot. Another one I painted with a buttercram/hunter green combo and used apple rub-ons for decor. To make them completely food safe is a much more involved procedure. First you have to plug the hole with a special kind of clay and have it fired in a kiln. Then you have to use a special ceramic glaze on the inside of the pot and have it fired again. If you take your project to a local ceramic shop they can help you with all this. ~*~ Couple 'o crafts for the kids Reindeer Plastic (brown) spoon. Add antlers fashioned from pipe cleaners. Give small ears cut from brown felt. Glue moveable eyes. No mouth, give him a red nose (med. pom pom) add bow and jingle bell. Frosty made from dowel: Wooden dowel: 3/4 diameter, 2 3/8 inches long. paint dowel white, fix a face on top half, add black hat, use felt or material to cut a scarf to wrap around his neck. ~*~ Here's something we started last year, and it really worked great! I took a bunch of jingle bells and tied a red bow on each and used gold thread (I think it was x-stiching thread) to tie on a loop for hanging. I put them all around the tree but mostly on the bottom...I could hear the kids touching the tree from the other end of the apartment) I made mine really simple..but you can get into it. Buy medium sized bells and glue on a few sprigs of leaves and berrys....you can even paint the bells a different color..the list goes on) Oh, I also took a long piece of red velvet (feeling) ribbon, and glued on large sized bells about 2 inches apart all down it. I made a red bow at the top. It was hung on the closet door...so I could hear when kids decided to peek) ~*~ Candy Wreaths I have seen lots of variations of these over the years. I first got this idea from Carol Duval on the Home Show (what a great show). I take a coat hanger and have my husband bend it for me to the size I need. I make them small to large. Depends on who they are for and stuff like that. I do not take the hanger and bend it and then wrap the top hook, I am just not pleased with that look. I then go to the Brach's display and buy all of the candy with the wrappers that are tied at the ends. I mix them up and buy them all. I start out with about 3 pounds. Then I buy 2 of the big mixed colors of curling ribbon. I sit down and then cut them to lengths of about 6 - 8 inches. You will have to see what works best for you. I mix all the colors and cut them into one bag. Then I start tying the ribbons onto the ends of the wrappers. When I have tied a full bag, then I start tying them onto the coat hanger. I mix it all up. I tie the coat hanger full. I put as much on there as I can get. Then I tie a ribbon on the top with a card attached on how to get the candy off. You do not need to attach scissors, the wrappers will stay tied and you can take the candy out. It still looks pretty when it is empty. You can do this for lots of the holidays and you can also do a diabetic wreath. I have never sold them, but I may this year. In the new Lillian Vernon catalog, they have something like this, not as pretty as mine for $35. When my husband was in construction, the guys he worked with asked for these for Christmas every year. So they are for anybody. >> My nine year old daughter loves to makes these for everyone. Takes a while to do but she loves it. Wind Chimes: One year my brother made us all (there are 8 kids in my family with 12 neices and nephews and about 15 great nieces and nephews), wind chimes forChristmas. He used copper plumbing pipe. He just cut it into different lengths and it sounded so nice. I'm sure the hardware store would even cut if for you. ~*~ Gift for a Man I took a handkerchief (the white ones that come three or four to a package) rolled them and stuck a candy cane in them and then tied with ribbon! ~*~ Gift Idea I took poinsetta's for the holidays, but you can use any flower... I bought some cheap, silk/fake flowers, a package of 99 cent ball point bens, some small terra cotta pots, some moss, floral tape and either floral foam or clay. I took a flower with a leaf or two and attached it to the top of the pen using the floral tape. I used the floral tape all the way down the pen. I used clay, placing a small ball in the bottom of the terra cotta pot, placed the pen in the clay and covered with the moss. I prefer the clay to the styro foam as it gives the pot some weight. I use a couple flowers at the top of the pen instead of just one, it looks nicer and forchristmas, I took the time to paint the pots.They cost about $1.00 each to make. I saw directions (far better than I could give,) on the net a couple of days ago along with a picture but have not been able to find them :( Also, at a recent craft fair I saw where someone used a larger pot, and put 7 or 8 pens to the pot and created "bouquets" ~*~ Don't forget the pets-stocking and gift Ideas We have a spoiled rotten Dachshund named Cindy and I have gotten her something for Christmas and her birthday since we've had her, almost 3 yrs. now. Yes, my 'baby' has her own stocking and it hangs on the stand with our, and Santa Dog brings her stuff too, it's wrapped under the tree or in her stocking. Dog: biscuits, chewies, toys, new sweater, leash, collar, tags, frame for her photo,shampoo, brush,nail clippers,pillow to sleep on,blanket,doggie chocolates,pigs ears,bowls,treats,big bones. cat: toys, treats, yarn ball, cat nip, new blanket for bed, new bowls, bells, balls, frame, bird: new bowls, birdie treats, mirror, new perch stand, ~*~ Gift Idea for Girls Buy the packs of plain terry cloth pony wraps at the dollar store. Remove the stem and plastic base from a coordinating small silk flower and hot glue it to the pony wrap. Daisys and small roses work great. Sometimes you need to put a dab of glue on the flower insides first to keep it together. Also, hot glue or jewel glue for fabric two or three rhinestones to a terry pony. Stretch it wide between your fingers when gluing on to insure the stretch stays. Little girls like wearing these as bracelets, too. You can also use some of those glittered miniature Christmas or holiday ornaments that come in multi packs, to hot glue on the pony. I found some great mini glittered angels and all the girls loved their guardian angel hair accessories. And, if anyone still has real (LOL) polyester ribbon, you can wrap it around a metal knitting needle and put it in a 250 oven for 10-20 minutes, to get some permenent spiraled ribbons to attach under the jewel or ornaments. For rarely used Holiday bows, curl lengths of metallic, plain and pearlized curling ribbons and tie tightly together in the middle. Glue to the pony. Top with an glued on ornament or a bead. Last year I got a pack of small back plastic spider rings. painted them gold with acylic paint and glittered them with gold glitter nail polish. I gave my nieces some for their fingers, and cut off the ring part and added to orange black and gold curling ribbon bows for their hair. for the week before Halloween. (Would also look cute as a pin with a pin back. - maybe) ~*~ Stocking Stuffers I started a new thing last year and it is what I call stocking stuffers.I think it is a cute idea... I buy baby socks...and these were Christmas designs at the dollar store, 2/1.00 so i actually got four for that price...i filled them with hugs and kisses and other little candies and threaded curling ribbon thru the top to tie closed and passed them out to whoever came along...anyone...i passed them out to people i never met...just to see a smile.. they are adorable...i put them on top of gifts also... ~*~ A cute and inexpensive stocking stuffer would be bean bags in circle or square shape. Or for a gift---a great idea would be to do bean bags in different colors,shapes and textures. This would be nice for a toddler! Do you have a color printer? You can cut the bags 8.5 x 11(the same size as the paper you feed through your printer), iron them so they are flat and choose some graphics with Christmas designs. I put on design on - then I copy it and flip it horizontally so that the two will go back to back. Print them on the paper. Cut them out and stuff them just like you were talking about. I love to recycle brown bags this way. You can also print them in coloring book format if you have that capability and paint them. They look really cute. I love them because they are very easy, inexpensive, and they are helping the ecology. ~*~ I like to recycle things and turn them into crafts. Last Christmas I gave my mom and dad a gift: from a round straw wreath .I hot glued acorn caps (that I found around my house from oak trees) on the wreath. Then I hot-glued wild dried grass/plants, placed an birds nest and such. It turned out to be really pretty. ~*~ Santa Baby Food Jar Just a thought about those baby food jars...... Every teacher should be given baby food jars year round by every recycling parent who doesn't want to do the following. The teacher can do this or the art teacher can but there should be tons of Santas in every home in the country.... Cut out eyes, noses and mouths for Santa to glue on the jars (LET THE CHILDREN GLUE one.....give them one made by parents or older children to take home forever but by all means let THEM do it TOOOOOO.....) and you can have white behind the black eyes for that matter....of course we're talking felt here, what else can a teacher not live without? Felt eyes, nose and mouth and a triangular shape to glue on the lid cover to make a stocking hat that ends with what? ALL AT ONCE NOW....COTTON BALL, just one. AGAIN, LET THEM GLUE THAT COTTON BALL ON and the hat glues around the rim. Fill that Santa up with not hard candy but M & M's. You'll be amazed how far a big bag of that candy will go if you don't eat them before giving the child EXACTLY enough to make it full. So give the child about 3 extra and say, you may eat 3 but put the rest in the container (and have something for the diabetic children or anyone who doesn't eat candy....greetings cut up in strips like Chinese cookie sayings that can be pulled out of the jar and read daily...or chores they will do for their PARENT....please don't say mom or dad automatically because someone may not have one or both so say parent...there are others who have this many step-parents, this many parents, and who knows what else for extended families.... If anyone throws a baby food jar away in this country, what a waste.....or a plastic coke bottle. Long live Santa! ~*~ Gift Ideas Buy a small wisk at a dollar store, some christmas colored hershey's kisses, and some sparkly ribbon. Cram a bunch of kisses into the wisk part of the wisk. Tie one end of the ribbon to the bottom of the wisk, weave, loosely(so you can still see the kisses) up the wisk, and tie a bow at the base of the handle. On a piece of paper (I use scrapbooking paper with a HoHoHo design on the back) write "We wisk you a merry Kissmass!" attach this to the top of the wisk with a little more of the ribbon. It costs about $2 to make if you can find the ribbon on sale. My sister also made these for her bus driver..only she used colored seran wrap to cover the wisk part and tied it at the base of the handle with ribbon. The kisses will find a way to fall out if you don't weave with ribbon or wrap with seran wrap or something. So far I have had the best responce from this gift..everyone likes it:o) ~*~ In years past, I have gone to the local 98 cent/dollar tree stores and purchased christmas plates/tins and filled them with cookies and other homemade goodies.