Still Time for Last Minute Gifts

Yes really there is, if you choose the right one there's still lots of time to make it.  Linda has been busy again making gifts for her girlies to give to their dance teachers.  A quick, easy and economical gift yet they will be recieved with joy and pleasure.   

The first photo shows a nicely shaped candle holder with  a lovely manger scene stamped onto tissue paper and then podged onto the glass.  Yes, that's it!  I told you it was a quick and easy craft.  You can see it with the tealight candle lit illuminating the babe and mother and then looking down into the candle holder you can just see the tealight flickering.  So how many are you going to make?  Wouldn't it look lovely with some holly and berries, a snowman or Santa.

Rachel was busy at school today with her classmates making an explosion box and I believe Jonathan and his class will be making one later this week.  I don't have a photo of what Rachel made today but we do have two samples in the store and here's another example I found. 

Two really fast gifts, and if you decide to make one or the other and need help, then drop into the store and we'll be pleased to explain in greater detail.

 

I'm also including a couple more of the little gifts Linda put in the girlies advent boxes.  You could make these as accents on a gift package too.  She made a christmas ball ornament by cutting and gluing together 6-8 small circles from pretty christmas paper.  Snowflake earrings in their own special colours.  A Snowman pin from a craft stick.  A photo keychain from an old keychain.  And two cute little pinecone elves with pipe cleaner legs and arms and embellished with felt.

Perhaps you are a needlecrafter though?  Well there's still time for some quick little gifts there too.Click over here for some quick little cross stitch patterns.  I loved the teddy bear and the snowman as you scroll down the page.

Here's another idea I found to dress up a simple pair of scissors.

 

 Or how about using your Silhouette Cameo to personalise a simple hairbrush like this.  Now that must surely get your creative juices flowing as you think of a thousand things you could personalise.

  

 Perhaps you're a jewellery maker and this is more your style?

 

Jump ring chain jewellery is something I like to make and though it's certainly not a quick gift, we do have  a really good book in the store that teaches this style.  Linda has it posted in the newsletter and if you mention that you saw this post on the blog, then you can purchase the book for 20% off regular retail price.

I wanted to share a touching story with you and it's about my great-niece Brianna, shown here in this photo

.  Most of you know of her Daddy, my nephew Brian who brought both a gold and silver medal home to Canadians in the last two Olympics.  Although he is undoubtedly proud of that achievment, he cannot possibly be as proud as he is of his lovely daughter.  Brianna wanted to donate to their local food bank, so off she went with I'm not sure which one, but her Mommy or Daddy and shopped for that donation herself.  Choosing all the foods she wanted to give to someone in need.  No she didn't have the money to pay for it herself, her Mommy stepped up to the plate for that one because Brianna had already used her money to buy a Lego gift for a six year old through the Santa's Anonymous program.  She surely has the true spirit of Christmas in her heart and I would challenge each of you as you read this to "pay it forward" in some small way and cause that spirit of Christmas to be spread throughout our community.

Until Later...Happy Crafting
Lilian