And there it was .... gone!

So, it's all over for another year - and breathe.....

Hope you all had a lovely time and that Santa was good to you.  We had my parents here and, of course, Daughter was home from university, so we were surrounded by family and had a great time.  Much laughter, much love and toooo much food! 

So, remember that I said I'd made some shopping pads but couldn't find the photographs?  Well, I finally found them lurking in with all the honeymoon pictures so I've retrieved them and here they are.

These are just three of several I made for stocking fillers.  I found the blank refills at The Range and used up some scraps of paper to decorate.  A few buttons and bows completed the look and I attached some magnetic strips to the back so that they could be stuck to the fridge.  Each one was made with a particular person in mind and they were very well received.  I was so happy.

Another of my favourite Christmas projects were the money envelopes I made for our nephews who, with their parents, were travelling to Los Angeles for Christmas.  Thought I'd introduce an American theme (obviously) and we put dollars in the envelopes for immediate spending power.

This was really simple and was made from instructions found in a craft magazine, with a little adaptation.  The flap tucks under the bottom white stripe and the top right star is glittered (because you have to have glitter, don't you?).  'Happy Holidays' seemed a more fitting greeting than 'Merry Christmas', in the circumstances.  The boys were delighted.

Finally, I decided at the last minute that the selection boxes we had bought for our surrogate nieces/nephew, weren't special enough.  The contents were okay, of course, but I wanted to package them differently.  So I came up with these cute character bags, which I'm really pleased with. 

Much nicer than a manufacturer's plastic sleeve, don't you think? Unfortunately, the children have yet to recieve their bags as silly Aunty P forgot them on Boxing Day, when we went for tea.  Still, it means they still have a present to look forward to and, more important, at least this chocolate wasn't consumed for breakfast on Christmas Day!

Well, boss man is coming for tea tonight, so I ought to go and shop for ingredients.  I'll be back soon with another couple of cards I wanted you to see but couldn't post before Christmas.

In the meantime, happy crafting.

Px