Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Sneak Peek 2: Christmas Blessings and Winter Foliage

The new Gina K "Free with Three" set "Winter Foliage" is another lovely nature one this month (only a couple days left to get "Autumn Leaves" for FREE when you buy three, it will be available for purchase after our release on Thursday!) Men are going to really like this new set, the outdoorsy images make the most elegant, masculine cards! This little pine cone is my favorite. I love that shape and thought it would be fun to decorate it with some adhesive rhinestones to make a tiny tree!
It is mounted on classic and scalloped Nestabilitie cut mats, and SU! ticket punch for notching out the corners. The base is Kraft with white craft ink swiped on the edges, Threading water punch along the bottom. Another new ribbon from the new Gina K Pure Luxury assortment, (available tomorrow night!) I chose a dotted ribbon to go with my holes in the punch and all my little dots of bling on the focal point. I love how the polka dots are on one side and the other is solid for a little "reveal" when tied! FYI, the Pure Luxury ribbon colors in this assortment are a terrific match for SU! Real Red and Handsome Hunter in case you were wondering (and that's what I used on my card)

For me, Asela's new set "Christmas Blessings" evokes a lot of memories of going to the Christmas tree farm we love each year and browsing beautiful and rustic handmade ornaments. The tiny twig deer (colored with Copics here and an adhesive rhinestone for the nose) are a lovely reminder to me of creating Christmas crafts with family and how special a homemade gift is to give and to get during the holiday season.

It also makes me think of one of the simplest of gifts that really touched me to receive, which came a few years ago from a neighbor several doors down we hardly knew. She walked down a few days before Christmas with oatmeal and glitter in a Ziploc baggy with a note attached. "This is for your children," she said, it's "reindeer food" for them to sprinkle around your porch on Christmas Eve". Well, bless her heart, I just thought that was the sweetest thing ever! She wasn't a crafty person and made no attempt at making it look pretty, but I'll always remember how she introduced this fun tradition to our family (they are delighted to find the food gone* the next morning!) and went out of her way to do something special for my kids :) So here's my kicked up version of it for your inspiration! I inserted the poem on a scalloped circle inside the tin and tied more of that new luscious ribbon around it, and that's it! (You could also put a pic of your family on the back of the poem and attach a loop of ribbon to make a simple keepsake ornament...) There are several "recipes" online for the reindeer food, but since people aren't going to be eating it, have fun making your own festive-looking combinations! ;) You can include these simple instructions: "On Christmas Eve, sprinkle this wonderful Reindeer Food on your lawn. The shiny glitter will sparkle in the moonlight and the smell of oats will guide Rudolph to your home," OR a poem to go with (or "Winter Rabbit" following for a family that doesn't celebrate Christmas/Santa)
Reindeer Poem :
"Sprinkle on the lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle bright
As Santa's reindeer fly and roam
This will guide them to your home."

Winter Rabbit Poem (substitute this for last two lines of poem above):
"Winter Rabbits hop and roam,
This will guide them to your home."

Have fun presenting these in packages as big or small as you want, from a tiny bag to a large tin. A decorated tin can be repurposed after the "food" is gone, and one can never have enough cute little boxes and tins sitting around over the holidays to hold candies or for an impromptu gift!


What is one of the best homemade simple gift you've ever received? I'd love to hear! (Now if you'll excuse me, I must go sort through the pile of projects I've created to decide which ONE (two?) I will share here tomorrow (release day!!) to preview my new stamps!! I just can't pick, what do you think?(Sorry, I know that's a really difficult question to answer) Just promise you'll come back every day so you can see them all over time, okay? And please come join us at 7PM CST for our party and I promise I'll share a few more then...


More sneak peeks from Asela, Cathy Tidwell (In the Spotlight!), Gina K, Joanne, Jessica, Emily, Kurtis, Carolyn and Lee!

* hope I'm not spoiling the surprise for you, but...the birds eat it ;)

34 comments:

  1. A tiny tree!!!!! How awesome!!! And definitely wonderfully masculine!!! And OH MY GOSH!!! That little tin and reindeer food/bunny food is the cutest ever!!!! I've GOT to make my little niece one of those!!!!

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  2. Ditto! Am loving the adorable Christmas tree from a Pine cone! THANKS for the great idea!

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  3. OMGosh, Melanie, you always have the BEST ideas! That reindeer food tin is such a fun idea. Love your tree card. How clever is that?!

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  4. Wonderful! Love those little reindeer food tins!

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  5. I was wondering abou the color matches, thanks! I love the reindeer food idea - I MUST make one for Gabby!! thanks for sharing

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  6. Doing a little dance! I love the reindeer food idea Perfect!!!And the pinecone rocks!!! I love what you did with Rupa's set. You rock.

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  7. Love the reindeer food.

    My favorite homemade gift: I love cashews and my mom loves pistachios (well, we each love both). My Dad used to give us our favorite (fresh from a local shop) in a special container for Christmas. One year, we got sleighs and in the back were a bunch of little blocks of wood (that he cut)wrapped (by him) as presents. I now have a Christmas decoration that goes out every year.

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  8. Lovin the sneak peeks so far. That tree and the reindeers are so adorable. Love your inspiring cards. My favorite homemade gift would have to be one of the altered journals one of my stamping friends gave me.

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  9. OMG, using the pine cone as a little tree, you are ingenious Mel!! And its perfect on the kraft card stock with the red and green, one of my fav combos! And the reindeer food, too cute! I am going to do that for my grandson too! He's getting to the age now to really enjoy stuff like that. I think you should use your card you make with the ******, hahaha!

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  10. Mel, I love your Christmas tree pinecone!! Super cute with those little gems. Great idea and execution on the reindeer food container - I LOVE this.

    You're so creative!

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  11. What cute projects! Love the reindeer food, I'm SO doing this!!

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  12. thanks for sharing - I love all the ideas you throw out - this looks like it is going to be a fun release ... well that was silly - there are always great things on Gina's site!
    Sandra

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  13. OMG! I absolutely love the pine cone tree! The reindeer food tin is tooooo cute! My daughter would love it!
    My favorite homemade Christmas gift is two ornaments that my daughter made for me when she was in 1st grade using macaroni noodles, glitter and gold paint.

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  14. i love how u used the pinecone...and that reindeer food is adorable too!

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  15. love the reindeer food tin. Very cute. Thanks for adding the bunny line. i like that one-never heard of it.

    My fav homemade gift...well, i really never get anything. but i do give out gifts. one that i gave out was the whisk. tag said-we "whisk" you a merry christmas"-inside was a baggie full of homemade cocoa mix,marshmallows and a candy cane.
    My girls and i gave them to older people at our church. and they were a huge hit with them.

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  16. Reindeer/bunny food. I LOVE that. I may have to dig through my saved tins for this one!

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  17. OMG, the tree out of a pine cone is precious. And the reindeer food??? So cute!

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  18. Your project is so cute! Thanks for sharing.

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  19. I love the reindeer food idea. I saw it last year, and would love to use it this year, but I don't have kids, or have any friends with kids, so I will have to be creative on how I use it.

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  20. Wow, awesome idea! I love the reindeer food...never heard that before, but will definitely make it for my grand daughters! Thank you :)

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  21. Love the tiny tree...brilliant!! The tin is also absolutely adorable and such a great idea!! I think my fave gift is getting homemade hot chocolate mix in cute lil jars. It always tastes so much better than the stuff out of a box (even if it might be that just repackaged ;))

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  22. Love the card and absolutely LOVE the Reindeer food! Too precious!

    I'm not sure about simple gifts I've received but I know what I enjoyed giving the most: One year I painted flowers on clear glass ornaments, added lace and ribbon at the top and gave them away. I received so many compliments and they were a lot of fun to make. I still have a couple of them in my ornament box so I'll have to remember to post a picture at christmas time.

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  23. Love that Pine Cone Christmas Tree card.It's so very cute.
    My favorite holiday gift was a handmade advent candle holder made from a fallen birch branch 18inches long found in the woods.My friend drilled holes big enough to fit tealight candles into the holes. It looks so nice on the dining room table, especially when the candles are lit.

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  24. Love the tree card so pretty, but those lil deer just stole my heart, they are too cute. Any handmade gift is always a blessing and I love them all, but my favorites come from my son, who is a craft master! LOL!! The best Christmas gift ever was when last year our neighbors hitched up their horses and went around knocking on our doors Christmas caroling. We leave in the boonies and it was very icy, so it was no small feat. Made me glad we chose this as our home!

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  25. Oh my you always have the best ideas, that is why I love coming to your blog everyday. Thank you for sharing. My favorite homemade gift is all of the little things my son made for me. The best was when he was about three he found a rock that had a flat side and with a red marker drew a heart on it and gave it to me. I still have it today. Thank you for bringing back some great memories.

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  26. So do you think if I hang out with you long enough, your amazing talent will rub off on me? I hope so.

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  27. You are just way TOO brilliant. What an ingenious idea to turn the pine cone into a tree. I love how you bejeweled it. And that reindeer food! How fun. Love those little stick reindeer! The bunny version of the poem is adorable too. :O)

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  28. I am slobbering all over that little reindoor food tin. My kids would love a little thing like that! Soooo cute!

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  29. Love the projects melanie! I don't receive a lot of homemade gifts for the holidays.....but I love all the handmade christmas cards I get every year, I put them up all around my place for inspiration!

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  30. Love the pinecone with the rhinestones. Thanks for sharing the reindeer food idea. Connie NH

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  31. oH my goodness, these look just delightful, Mel! I love Christmas stamps the most and I am sure to need both of these sets! I love your tree card and the reindeer card--you have all truly outdone yourselves this month! The reindeer food is the most special of all. Don't mind me if I CASE that right up! Thank heavens for your sweet neighbor for inspiring this wonderful gift! :) Ummm, and stop messing with us...of course we want to see as many sneak peeks tomorrow as you are willing to share!!! hehe! : till then, visions of Gina K will be dancing in my head! :)

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  32. What a cute cute tree and the reindeer food looks like a treat for ME. I am on such a restricted diet, that I think it will fill the bill (but not me! lol) I like that idea so much. Thanks for all you do! The kiddos will love these cards and the reindeer food and poem. Linda Crowder

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  33. I love your pine cone tree, and adorable time!! You rock, Melanie!!

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  34. This is totaly adorable, love the little reindeer tin!! I used to make my nieces reindeer food every year and I didn't last year..I need to remember to do that!!

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