When it comes to giving gifts at Christmas I like to make them fun, useful and easy to create! This family gift is all those things! I like to call it the “Be like Goldilocks and find the pair that fits ‘just right’ family Smart Wool Sock Bag!” Maybe that’s a little long for a title, but it says it all.
For this gift I purchase a pair of Smart Wool Socks for each member of the family for whom the gift is for. Toss them all in a gift bag, label it with a fun tag and voila! – A fun family gift that everyone will enjoy!
We all know our college students love to receive gifts from home. This year, why not create an advent calendar that not only counts down the days until Christmas, but more importantly, the days until finals are completed!
Everyone loves an advent calendar to help count down the days before Christmas! Last year, in the last days of November, my 17 year old son said to me, “you are putting up the advent calendar, aren’t you?” I was actually considering not doing it, he was getting pretty old for such a thing. Next thing I know, my 20 year old daughter is asking me if I was planning on sending an advent calendar to her college apartment!
What did I tell you? Everyone loves an advent calendar!
Years ago, when my children were tiny, I began this tradition. The socks I hung were all sewn together from fabrics that I had used on projects for the kids. The fabrics ranged from curtain fabrics and costume materials to pajama flannel. Some of the stockings had pointy toes, round toes, but my proudest was the cowboy boot from fake leather – so cool!
So – if you are a seamstress. Going this route would be very special for your kids! Pull out all your fabric scraps and get sewing.
If you are not a seamstress – no worries. Here is an idea that is cute, inexpensive and easy! Does anything get better than that?
What do you need?
Socks!
I used tiny socks because they are so darn cute! The sizes ranged from 3 months to 2 years! Pick an assortment of colors, stripes, whatever you can find!
Ribbon
Clothes Pins
Good Stuff to fill the socks with!
Along with candy, I like to add things like sticky notes, hand sanitizer, markers, and automatic pencils with accessories. In one sock they may get the pencil; the next day they receive the lead that goes with the pencil and then the eraser…
Other ideas: small toys, nail polish, money, lip balm, hair clips, a harmonica, fun paper clips…
Years ago, I put together an advent calendar for a beloved & wonderful niece ( She reads my blog!) The first year, I sent the socks fully stuffed with goodies so it was ready to hang up on the first day of advent. Each year after that, I would just send the stuffing and her mother crammed it in the socks for me. Because the advent calendar was also her Christmas gift, she had a 25th day and into that stocking she would find her Christmas gift – usually a gift card!
Just one more idea for those of you with a beloved and wonderful niece, nephew, blogger…
The final items to include in the advent stockings are jokes and riddles. Sometimes I will give the riddle one day and the answer the next. You will find tons of them on the web, but this year I found something special!
These are lunch box jokes from a fellow blogger and these are perfect for an advent calendar! Here is the link to so you can print up some of your very own – Christmas Jokes!
Now that you have gathered your supplies, the rest is easy.
The socks will need to be numbered from 1 to 24. I punched out circles of card stock, numbered them and hot glued them to the socks. Let me tell you, those numbers aren’t going anywhere!
Using clothes pins, hang the stockings on a ribbon, leaving plenty of ribbon on either end for tying up the calendar!
Brighten someone’s day with a fun, fall, edible bouquet!
The Peep bouquet is perfect for any college student. It’s an easy treat for your student to share with fellow roommates or dorm mates! It is easy, fun and inexpensive!
Peeps Bouquet
My daughter’s freshman year, she was living in the dorms and I thought it would be fun to send a gift easily shared with others. I sent her the Peeps bouquet and she was so excited to receive it, she promptly hit the hall and shared the treat with other homesick freshmen. It worked perfectly!
This year, even though she is in an apartment, I thought it would be fun for the treat bouquet to double as a Halloween decoration! OK – it probably won’t last long as a decoration, but it will be cute for a little while!
Peeps
Supplies:
Peeps – I used one package of pumpkin peeps and one package of ghosts – scary!!
Bamboo Skewers
Container – I filled the container with foam and covered the foam with dried moss! The container I found at Target for $1
Ribbon – I created a bow and attached it to a Bamboo fork with floral wire!
Pots for Peeps BouquetBow for Peeps Bouquet
Since I needed to mail my bouquet, I bagged the Peeps and sealed the moss covered pot with GLAD’s Press’n Seal (love that stuff)
Peeps Bouquet ready for sending!
Now go out and make someone’s day with a Peeps Bouquet!
Peeps Bouquet ready for sending!
Here is my daughter with her Peeps Bouquet!
If I’m not mistaken, I believe a few Peeps are missing!
Recently, while surfing the net, I discovered how easy it is to transfer letters using just an ink jet printer! I discovered this technique on a blog called littlebitfunky.com. This blogger used the freezer paper transfer to create a cute wooden sign. This was not exactly what I needed, but it was the start of something fabulous!
For my use, I needed to transfer the print to fabric to create a personalized pillow for a family friend.
Materials Required:
The mirror image of the document you want transferred.
Not sure how to create a mirror image – just google mirror image for your computer’s word processing program. It is very simple. This is the link that taught me how to create a mirror image using a text box – super easy to do! Thank you TechRepublic!
Freezer paper cut into 8 1/2″ X 11″ sheets
The fabric to which you want to transfer the image.
Make sure the fabric is secure and will not shift while you are transferring the image.
Getting fabric ready for transfer.
That’s it! You don’t even have to go shopping to try this project! Unless, of course, if you don’t have freezer paper, an ink jet printer or a project to personalize!
Now let’s get it done!
Once your transfer fabric is ready, place a sheet of freezer paper between two sheets of regular printer paper and insert in the paper tray. Make sure the waxy side of the freezer paper is the side that will be printed on. Hit print twice. The first print will be on regular paper and the second will print on the freezer paper.
Some sites will suggest gluing the freezer paper onto a piece of card stock, but I like to keep things easy and simply sending it between two sheets of paper worked for me. The freezer paper likes to curl so the top sheet keeps it flat so it can feed into the printer. If this doesn’t work for you, try gluing the freezer paper onto a piece of printer paper or card stock.
I have also seen sites where they will glue the fabric to freezer paper and send that through the printer. I have a new printer and there was no way I am sending fraying fabric through my printer. Plus, it limits the size of your project to an 8.5 X 11 inch piece of fabric! Just not big enough for me!
Once your image has printed – do not touch it! It will easily smudge. Quickly and with care, I place it on top of my fabric! Make sure the image is in the correct spot the first time. It cannot be moved!
Secure the image with tape. I even have pieces of tape ready so I can hold the image in place with one hand while securing it with tape.
Freezer Paper Transfer
Finally – ready to transfer!
Using the back of a spoon, Rub the back of your image thoroughly! Make sure you rub over the entire letter of each word! I go over the whole image at least twice!
Freezer Paper Transfer
Once finished, remove the freezer paper. Then take a moment to gaze at the beauty of the image you have created!
Message Pillow
One more step – After my image is completely dry, I ironed the image to heat-set the ink!
Done! You now have a unique and personalized gift that anyone would love! Well – I wasn’t done – I still needed to sew my pillow together!
I have used this technique multiple times already!
It makes any ordinary gift -extraordinary!
When a bouquet of flowers will not do the trick for cheering up that someone special, give a lottery ticket bouquet! This gift was for my 84 year old father. Yes, I could have delivered flowers, but if you had seen the way his eyes lit up when he saw his special lottery ticket gift, you would understand how this was so much better. Young or old, everyone enjoys the opportunity to take a chance at winning with a lottery ticket!
Supplies for creating a lottery ticket bouquet.
Bow for the Lottery Ticket Bouquet
What you need to create a Lottery Ticket Bouquet:
Flower Pot – mine was filled with foam and covered with dried moss. Both are available at any craft store.
Bamboo Skewers – just dig in your kitchen drawer and pull out your skewers! I used two sizes because I just happened to have them, but whatever you find will work.
Lottery Tickets – You know where to get these!
Tape – for, you guessed it, attaching the tickets to the skewers!
Bow – this is optional. I created a bow with some ribbon I had on hand. To secure it to the pot I attached it to a bamboo fork.
Put it all together and voila – a gift anyone would love! Provided they are 18 or over and legally able to play the lottery!
For this gift, I purchased $20 in lottery tickets and my father won $12.
Yes – I lost money, which is the norm for lottery tickets, but I have to say it was worth the money for the surprise and fun the gift provided!
Make one today for your special someone!
A gift that is a party and present all in one! Great for graduations! It’s one way to put a fun spin on a monetary gift! To find out how to put one together, check my earlier post – Party in a Box Gift
College Graduate Gift
Graduation Gift
What do you give to a new college graduate? Here is a fun idea – My nephew recently graduated and I wished to give his gift of money a creative, fun twist. I purchased a dress shirt and on a card I wrote: “Now that you are a professional – the girls are going to expect a higher level of elegance on your dates. Here is a ‘Date’ shirt and $ for you! Congratulations!”
Gift Ideas for High School Graduates
Above is a gift I prepared for a recent high school graduate. He is heading off to college in the fall and I wanted to help him prepare by providing a few necessary items for his dorm room! Really – I just wanted to make giving a monetary gift fun, as you can tell from my “gift tags” and my choice of items…..I do whatever it takes to make it entertaining! To come up with a possible list of items to include in a future college student’s gift, I probed the mind of my daughter (former freshman, now junior college student). Here is her list of dorm gift ideas!
Extension Cord
Command Hooks
Febreze
Hangers…lots of hangers!
Plastic Silverware…her quote “because you know you won’t do dishes”
Set of tools…she used these many times!
Desk Lamp Desk Organizer
Highlighters/Pens/Pencils
Sticky notes
Shower shoes
Shower Caddy
Alarm Clock
Framed Family Picture….picture of mom (that was my addition, not her’s)
Money!
Last fall, I purchased a bag of white tulips on clearance with the plan of forcing them in a pot. I tossed the bag in my garage, so they could experience 12+ weeks of cold!
Tulips need to experience winter weather in order for them to bloom and this year that was not a problem – many, many, many weeks of cold winter weather!
Patiently, I waited until March when small signs of springs were emerging to plant my bulbs in a pot.
Planting the bulbs
Following the directions on the package, I knew my particular tulips needed to be planted 6 inches deep. I half filled my clay pot with potting soil and tucked all 14-tulip bulbs into the soil – bud end up, rounded end down – it matters! I then buried the bulbs, watered my pot well and placed it back in the garage.
Spring has arrived!
Waiting for tulips!
Waiting for tulips!
Two weeks later I checked my pot and voila – tulips were popping out.
I moved the pot outside on my porch and continued to wait…
One day while brainstorming gifts for college students, my daughter and her friend suggested an egg hunt as an idea. This year, that’s exactly what I did – sent an Easter Egg Hunt to college students! No- they are not too old!
Because there are 4 girls in the apartment, I had to decide how to accomplish this task. Who hides the eggs? Who finds them? It needed to be quick and easy, so as to not take too much time from studying!
Bags of Eggs
My solution was to place 10 filled eggs in 4 paper bags. Each bag contained eggs of just one color. The girls could then select a bag of eggs and hide them from the others. The hunt begins with the four of them hunting for eggs of all colors, but their own!
Because I can never do anything the easy way – that’s just who I am! I needed to come up with creative fillings for my eggs! Candy alone was not going to cut it. Since they are college students, I thought something inspirational would be great. Something to inspire them to work hard.
Easter eggs, bags & quotes
While searching for fun quotes I came across some great ones from television shows. I finally decided to use Phil’s-osophy from Modern Family! For those of you who don’t watch the show – Phil, a father of a college student on the show, makes a book of his philosophys. The quotes are hilarious with just enough stupid and a little bit of inspiration all wrapped in one funny quote!
Egg Hunt Directions
Easter Eggs
Suggestions for fun egg fillings: Favorite Candies…Gum… Money – always a favorite…Post it Note study accessories – there are tons of study accessories, small post it notes, tags for flagging pages. Check out the Post it Note site. They have fun stuff that encourages studying!…Nail Polish…Short socks – find fun, crazy colors!…Fun messages of encouragement from YOU!…Inspirational Quotes – from television shows, Dr. Seuss, check the web and you will find an endless supply!
Some of these items are a bit large and may require a larger egg!
After packing my bags of eggs in the shipping box, I enclosed a Happy Easter Card with a poem of Happy Egg Hunting directions – check out the picture!
Final update: The girls had a great time with the egg hunt. It was quick and easy and didn’t take too much time from their studies! They especially enjoyed the words of wisdom from Phil’s-osophy! One thing they changed, was that each roommate picked only one color egg to find. It sounds like that was the way to go. It provided them an opportunity to laugh at each other as they struggled to find their final egg!
Years ago a niece was graduating from high school and I felt bad that we were unable to attend her celebration. Wanting to do something special for her; to send her more than just a gift; I came up with the party in a box. Inside the party box was a mini celebration that began as soon as the package was unwrapped. It was so well received that I replicated the same idea for a group of my daughters close friends when they graduated from high school.
What you need for a Mini-Party Box
Balloons and Streamers- This made the filling for my package. After lining my box with tissue paper, I used curling ribbon for streamers. The curling ribbon works well since it will remain in excellent twirled form even after bouncing around the mail truck!
I also added small blown up balloons. Because I didn’t fill the balloons with too much air they were unlikely to pop and made for a festive package filling!
Gifts- Wrap your gifts or cards and include them in the box. I usually send cards with money for graduations and the party box makes getting a card all the more special!
A banner- Every congratulatory party needs a banner and the party box is no exception. I taped together long narrow strips of colored paper. After writing out Congratulations, I used my favorite scrap-booking accessory and punched out colored circles for each girl’s name. I than rolled it, tied it up with curling ribbon and placed it in the box along with the gifts.
Cake- Since sending a cake was not an option, I sent this wonderful box of chocolate Lindt Petits Desserts. It was perfect! They looked like petit fours and are quite delicious! You can locate them by checking the Lindt website.
There are lots of wonderful options available!
Guests Lastly, every party has to have guests. So I created a tri-fold, stand on it’s own, guest card made with cardstock and filled with pictures of my family. I even included a picture of the dog! I folded it up, labeled the outside and tied it with ribbon.
Party in a box gift
The party box idea can be used for any celebrations. Send me ideas on how you have used the Party in a Box idea for your out-of-reach celebrations!
