Annual 12 Days of Christmas Post

I wanted to share my version of the 12 Days of Christmas gifts with you again this year.  This is another tradition that I have been doing for several years.  It started with friends who stopped by every day for the 12 days before Christmas one year.  I'm never quite that good so I have made it a habit to bring 12 gifts for my niece and nephews to enjoy.  This year, I pared down the gift giving - my niece and nephews are getting kind old for it.  I made this set for our good friends who have children that span the ages. 

I used my Graphic 45 12 Days of Christmas stamp set again this year.  I chose a warm color theme based on some patterned paper in the stash.  These bits are the last of a set of patterned papers purchased for cards prior to 2011.  I think it was time to put to good use, don't you?

The brown paper lunch bags were stamped with emblems from my Pretty Pink Posh Stamptember Damask Greetings stamp set using brown Archival ink.   The centers are gems and metal embellishments that I adhered with my heat tool similar to this.  I can't for the life of me remember why I don't use this more often.  It worked great and these bags seemed much more decorative because of it. 

The back of the tag included a teaser of sorts that the kids could use to guess what was included in the prize.  The 4 calling birds always bring handmade cards (more on that in a minute), but I'm guessing the kids won't remember what they are because they probably don't enjoy that gift as much as mom or dad....

This year I decided to go a little bit bigger than usual so some of the gifts took up more space.  I used some kraft handle bags to spice it up.

For the cards from the calling birds, I used my Clearly Besotted Stamptember My Best Friend stamp set to create this beautiful spray of flowers.  Everyone could use a good set of thank you cards and I thought these were quite wonderful once finished.  A one layer card that makes gifting easy.

One of the gifts was apple cider and this mix spice it up.  I just love things in mason jars with a cute little tag, don't you?  I ended up make several of these and dispersing at work too.  So fun!

































I ended up filling two trays of gifts this year.  A photo of them under the Christmas tree right before Christmas giving began...

One other treat, my daughter has a boyfriend this year.  A young man with a good heart who brings her home to see her mama occasionally.  We thought that every young man paying his way through college (not so common these days, actually!) needed some good supplies for the coming days.  This is why we filled his bags with an assortment of practical supplies in quantities matching the day - like 1 roll of toilet paper, 2 Dove bottles of shampoo/conditioner, 3 chicken noodle soup cans, 11 different candies, and a Chick-fil-A calendar for 12 months of free treats (he particularly loves Chick-fil-A, so I thought that brilliant!!).

Unfortunately our college bound young man has more gifts that can fill his tray, so he's carrying a couple extra wrapped gifts (that is a very heavy box of ten (10!) capri sun drinks) back to college next week.  Hopefully, he'll think it fun and useful.

Sending our wishes for an excellent start of the new year as we wrap up pictures from a few of these older projects. 

Thank You Cards

My SIL and her family usually come to our house on New Year's Eve to celebrate in relative safety.  It seems silly now that our children are older, but when we were having babies it was a way to celebrate without requiring a babysitter and the noise and difficulty of being out with littles.  Now, it is just something we've done for so long (her oldest is my daughters age which makes this the 19th year, I think!, celebrating this way).  I'm ever so looking forward to tonight's fun.

I thought I'd share this card with you.  I used my SSS Stamptember Damask Greeting stamp set along with my MFT Fishtail Flag Frames die along with some fussy cutting.

Ultimately, I've been using these cards to express my gratitude all throughout Christmas (which is the end to birthday season in my family).  The stamps are easy to use and create a beautiful result.  I see more goodness with these stamps in my future.  My 2018 future that is!!!

Since this is my first endeavor with the Damask Greetings stamp set, I'm posting this card to Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday Challenge.

Happy New Year.