Christmas 2009

Looking for a last minute gift?  Looking for a way to wrap your gift of homemade baked goods, so that the outside of the box is as irresistible as what’s inside?  Look no further.

Grab your scrapbooking paper, decorative punch, double-sided tape, paper cutter or scissors, and embellishments, and your box, and let’s get started.

Cut a strip of paper almost as wide as your box (or smaller, if you want the box to show in the margin).  Next, cut a coordinating strip of paper about three-quarters the width of the first strip.

Use the decorative punch to punch one side of the smaller paper strip.

Wrap the bottom paper around the box, making sure it is centered, creasing the corners.  Secure with double-sided tape.  I like to slip the paper band off and make sure the tape is pressed down securely and the edges are creased.

Repeat with the second strip, aligning the non-punched edge with the edge of the bottom paper.

Add an embellishment to the top of your box.  Three-dimensional scrapbooking stickers are perfect.  I also used gift tag stickers, with the recipient’s name written with a ball-point glue pen, from Martha Stewart Crafts, then topped with super fine glitter (also from Martha).

For an alternate layout, punch both sides of you top strip and center it over the bottom strip.  There are so many ways you can make this project reflect your own unique style.

You can fill your boxes with anything from soap to fudge and everything in between.

And, if you see this post after the holidays have passed, just remember that you can use this technique to decorate boxes for any occasion.

Christmas is only a couple of days away, so I am sure you can’t possibly be looking for a last minute Christmas dinner menu, but if you are, you’re in luck.  All of these recipes have been tested out on my parents-in-law to rave reviews.

Appetizer

Sweet Onion Dip

Dinner

Slow-cooked Cranberry Roast (I doubled this and cooked it in a 6qt slow cooker)
Potatoes Anna
Sauteed Peas and Red Onion
Roasted Parsnips and Carrots
Rolls

Dessert

Holiday Fudge Torte

For a quick and easy to make, but lovely to receive, Christmas gift, try making vanilla-infused sugar.

Just place a few vanilla beans in an air-tight jar and fill with sugar.  Allow to sit for a few days and the sugar takes on a wonderful vanilla essence.  This vanilla sugar can be used in place of regular sugar in everything from baked goods to coffee.

For added elegance, print out a white mailing label and punch the top and bottom with a decorative edge punch before applying to the jar.

Gingerbread cookies are a must at Christmas.  Martha Stewart has a recipe for Gingerbread Snowflake cookies that is just dreamy.  Since I do not have a snowflake cookie cutter, I made gingerbread trees, instead.  I piped the outline with royal icing and topped with Wilton Cake Sparkles.

Note: Martha’s cookie recipe is a bit spicy for younger children.

I am so far behind on Christmas crafting, baking, and blogging.  I just can’t seem to convince myself that it really is almost Christmas.  The dusting of snow we got today helped.  Hopefully, the 3 – 6 inches we are supposed to get tomorrow will even more so.  I did make Gingerbread Cookies today, though.  I will post the recipe and pics after I decorate them with icing tomorrow.

I thought I would link to a couple of my Christmas posts from last year.  Here are a couple of simple melt and pour soap tutorials that are fun to make, give, and receive.

Christmas Tree Soap

Snowflake Soap

Last month, I had the honor of hosting a Martha Stewart Crafts house party through House Party.com.  House Party sent me all of the materials to make some fantastic craft projects using the Martha Stewart Crafts product line, available at Michaels craft store.

Here are two of the projects.

Using the same techniques of layering punched and decorative papers and embellishments, I made Christmas cards and gift boxes today.

That holly edge punch is from Martha Stewart Crafts.

Did you know that Christmas is only 5 weeks away!  Yikes, I had better get posting and crafting!

Above is the cold process soap I made for Christmas this year.

First, I made the trees in a tree-shaped silicone muffin pan.  When I was making soap, I made a bigger batch of soap than I needed and colored the extra with green chrome oxide and scented it with Holly Berry fragrance, both from Brambleberry, and poured it into the tree mold.

After the trees were hardened and unmolded, I embedded them in a loaf, again scented with Holly Berry, and colored with gold mica and a burgandy oxide swirl.

Here is the loaf before I cut it.

I can’t wait to box these up in white boxes decorated with punched craft paper.  I’ll be sure to post a picture of the packaged bars.