I’m leaving for Florida tomorrow!!

My mom, dad, sister, husband and my husband’s mom and dad are all going to Disney World for Christmas. We’re staying at the Pop Century Resort which should be pretty neat. I’ve always thought it would be so much fun to go to Disney World ON Christmas and see it all decorated and stuff. The only bad part about going to Florida is having to leave Pouncy behind. My uncle is going to feed her every day, but I’ll be worried about her just the same.

Here are some updates on my holiday crafting. I bought some unpainted wooden trays from Hobby Lobby. I had planned on painting them and then putting all the goodies I’m making for people on the trays. I didn’t really know how I was going to paint them though. I started off painting them all a wintery blue color, and then it hit me: I’d paint snow on the trays! I painted a layer of snow around the bottom edges, and then added some snowflakes. On the inside of the tray, I painted some snow and a snowman with more snowflakes. They turned out really cute!

Another thing I’ve been busy doing is making picture frames. You know those really plain, wooden picture frames you can get from Michael’s for $1.00? I found the cutest thing to do with them. All you need is some paint and some scrapbook paper. I added some 3D stickers as embellishments. They turned out so cute! Some of the paper didn’t match up exactly, but I think it turned out very well. Needless to say, I’ll be making I made more of these and added them to my tray of goodies for family members! (Actually, the trays were full so they got to go in their own bag. The whole frame ended up costing me around $2.00 since I already had the paint. Can’t beat $2.00 for such a nice gift! (strike>My Michaels is out of the 3X5 frames. Lots of the craft stores are wiped out of stuff. Michael’s got more frames in! I bought 10 to stock up. See more pics here on Flickr!

I did manage to get all of my things mailed the other day, so Jessica, Miranda, Bubs, Heidi, Diane, and Melissa - expect something to arrive from me (hopefully soon!). I had hoped to get all of my Christmas Ornament Trades up on my Quilt, but didn’t have time to do that after all. If you have emailed me a trade request, I do accept! You may go ahead and add my ornament if you’d like, and I’ll add yours as soon as I get back from Florida, if not before!

P.S. I have got to fix my smilies!

Edit: Yes, I have a new theme. Hit Ctrl+F5 to see it. (I seem to be having some issues with IE. I am working on it….)

Happy December everyone! I can’t believe Christmas is just around the corner! I’ve got so much to do before Christmas and our trip to Florida. I still can’t believe I’m going to be at Disney World ON Christmas! I am a little disappointed that “the” Disney World Christmas Parade doesn’t actually occur on Christmas Day. Don’t get me wrong, they have a parade on Christmas, but THE Christmas parade with all the performers and such happened yesterday (November 30th). You have to buy special tickets for it, and they sold out in six hours apparently. Oh well though, I’ll be in the “happiest place on earth” on Christmas Day! I’m still very excited!

So here are some of the things I have been working on lately. First up, I decided today to go ahead and mix up a big batch of peppermint bath salts that are part of the goodies I am making for my aunts and cousin for Christmas. They smell super yummy! I love the little jars too. I got those from Hobby Lobby for 99 cents each. They’re very good, quality little jars. I love little containers and such.

I’ve also been busy painting cupcakes. I guess it was last week I went shopping and found these adorable cupcake ornaments at Joann’s. I bought all that they had. I also found some really awesome glitter paint. I used the glitter paint to paint the tops of the cupcakes. They are really sparkly though the picture doesn’t really show very well. Only one has gotten it’s cute happy face so far. They will all be smiling soon. I haven’t decided whether or not to sell these, give these away in ornament exchanges, or keep them for myself. They are so darn cute! Luckily, I bought lots.

Another thing I have been doing is making more little charms out of polymer clay. It’s not really as easy as it looks. It takes practice and patience to get the shapes and sizes just right. I’m getting better I think. It’s also tricky painting their little faces sometimes. It is time consuming, however, to shape the clay, bake it, let it cool, and paint several coats of paint on. In the end though, they’ve turned out pretty cute I think. I’ve got several I need to still paint.

One other thing I did this morning was make up a big batch of peppermint lotion. Now, I don’t know how happy I am going to be with the end product. The red dye really turned out more pink. I’m not sure if I got enough peppermint oil in the mix either. After it all cools, I’ll try it out later and see what I think about it.

I have so many more things to do: paint Christmas trays, finish the cupcake ornament faces, paint more clay charms, wrap presents, make sugar face scrub, make my peppermint soaps, and try out my new button makers! Yes! I am now the proud owner of a 1 1/4 inch button maker and a 2 1/4 inch button maker. I’m going to go crazy making cute buttons and mirrors!

Oh yeah! And here are the two Santa ornaments I made the week of Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, my family has an ornament exchange. Everyone brings an ornament. We number them, and then everyone draws a number and gets an ornament. I gave away the Santa on the left. My grandma got my ornament again this year.

You can see more pictures of my craft adventures on Flickr.

Oh, and both Karin and Jessica tagged me to post a list of seven facts about myself. I was already tagged before with that same topic (only it was six things). Since I didn’t have time to make a new list of seven things, here is a link to my previous answers.

Are any of you working on handmade gifts for Christmas?