Unique Gift Container

Who doesn't like the insulated canning jar cups that are out on the market now? I've found a way to use them as part of the gift AND the wrapping! They are coming out in some really great colors now & you can even buy extra replacement straws too!

This is going to be a really quick post, but I wanted to share it with you in case your scrambling for a last minute Easter "basket" for someone special. In fact, this idea is perfect for any time, not just Easter!

My older sister lives in a group home with 3 other ladies and they all have some kind of mental disability. My sister has Downs, and we just recently had it confirmed that she has the onset of dementia. I'm trying to figure out what I need to do from here, as it seems to be progressing quicker than I'd like to witness.

I always try to do something for each of the members of their house at the gift giving holidays and even a little something for their staff, because those ladies put up with a LOT!  Actually, I don't do enough for them, but I try.

I wanted something different from the usual basket that they really have no other uses for, and I hate to waste my money on such disposable items. I wanted them to have something useful & yet make it look a little pretty in it's presentation. I have a ton of tulle ribbon, so this was a another use for that, even though it barely made a dent. 

I purchased the cups at Walmart. They're less than $5 each for the smaller ones, like these. This cup is for my sister. Her favorite color is purple, but since they didn't have that in their selection, this is what I settled for. I tied hers with some turquoise tulle and the others have light pink. She loves bright & festive things, so this should please her.

This is one of the other cups that's clear, so you can see the contents inside. It's still hard to tell, but there's a little bit of Easter grass in the bottom to make it feel festive.

I'm hoping you were a little bit inspired to think outside of the typical gift box with this unique & useful idea!

 Happy Easter & God Bless!

I AM working on stuff...honestly!

Ever been in one of those in-between modes creatively? I am right now - again. I've started back into finishing that pink and black mini graduation album I started last May. I have managed to get the left half of the Senior page done and the background done on the right-hand side. I started to put together the little booklet for the photos and was trying to follow the tutorial from Kathy Orta's envelope mini on Youtube. 

 

It's a 5 part series so you'll have to look for the other 4 videos if you watch this one. I tried to get them all to load on here, but blogger wouldn't let me for some reason. I've never tried to link a video on blogger or anywhere else before, so bear with me. Anyway, this is a huge tutorial. I thought I could improvise by using some envelopes I had on hand. Well, as it so happens, they would not work for my application. I tried, I really tried to make those suckers work. They beat me, beat me bad. So I caved and went to Micheal's today to get the envelopes that are hopefully exactly what I need. While I was at it, I bought the blank cards too. I don't understand it though. I can buy the 5x7 size pack and get BOTH the cards AND the envelopes together, but to get the A6 size, and you have to buy them separately. seriously? And I didn't even need that many cards or envelopes. slight disgust here.


I AM determined to get this made, even if it's the last one I ever do (the Kathy Orta mini, I mean). I might be a staller, but I'm no quitter. hee hee...


And, if I'm feeling really froggy, I might even try my hand at doing a video of the finished book. Don't hold your breath, I'm just puttin' it out there. It kinda makes me a little more committed. 


So, how was your Super Bowl festivities? Ours was minimalist style. It was just my hubby, daughter and myself, so no big plans or going all out. Alan made the basic crockpot meatballs and cocktail weenies in grape jelly & cocktail sauce. It's pretty good stuff, in case you haven't ever had it. I made some bacon wrapped chicken bites that I seen on one of Paula Deen's shows.

(source)

Here's the link to her recipe: Chicken Bacon Wraps.
They are delicious! 

And for dessert, I made these ....

....giant chocolate chip cookies that I found on Hating Martha blog. The recipe is quite different than what I'm used to making with the Toll House recipe, but they're good! 


Anyway, I don't know if it's my age or what, but I suffered from heartburn overnight so bad that I've been up since 1:30 a.m. I have been having problems with heartburn for at least a month now and Pepcid AC isn't working and I still have to take a Mylanta tablet that doesn't work either. I just know I'm getting it whenever I eat anything anymore.

A Treat Banner

 I feel as though it's safe to show this by now. I had a treat box banner published in the Cricut "Holidays" magazine back in October. I haven't received my copy yet, but I had to have sneak peek at one of the issues in the rack at JoAnne Fabrics to see what they did with my project. You can only imagine how thrilled I was to see MY treat box banner as the FEATURE project for the Treat Box section of the magazine!! How cool is that? They don't show it as a banner, but it's still very pretty in print! ;^)  Here are my photos of the project - and don't forget that you can click on the pictures to get a larger view.

Here is a bit of a close up of the front of the treat boxes. I just love this striped scrapbook paper by Best Creations for this! I don't know what it is about pink with lime green and red that looks so fun and festive for Christmas, almost child-like, ya know?

                                          

I think this banner is a cute thing to do for a party since you can easily untie each box from the banner. I thought it would be fun to put a different surprise in each container, then you could put each letter in a hat and have a drawing for the letter on the container; the "s's" could be S1 and S2 for the 1st S and the 2nd one to eliminate confusion for that duplicated letter. Did that make any sense? :^/ Random thought here...Wouldn't it be cute with curly streamers hanging down? I should have done something like this for my daughter's birthday party, but I didn't make time for it.


Speaking of my daughter's birthday party, I never did get to share pics of that. It's been so crazy around here these past few months. I'm only a few weeks late on posting these since her birthday was Oct 23.

~The Table Setting~

It's not a Pinterest worthy design, but the girls were in total awe and that was all I cared about. My daughter had asked for a Tinkerbell themed party. Neither her friends nor her realized that the only thing Tink at this party was the tablecloth, but they sure thought it was a Tink theme because of the colors I used.

For the cupcakes, I used this is 2-tiered plate holder that I've only used maybe twice in 8 years? I was glad to bring it out again. I just wished I would have thought of it earlier than on the day of the party, then I could have looked for cuter colored plates. That was OK too, because I think the darker blue really set off the bright pink and green cupcake tulip wrappers. Those were from Wilton, by the way.

~Pink Lemonade?~

How cute are these drink glasses I made up? A friend of mine found something similar to this online and showed them to me back in May, but the ones she found had metal daisy cut lids. After a long drawn out process of finding those exact lids at the cheapest price I could, when they arrived, I was disappointed to learn that they were too small for these jars. hmmmm...that's ok, I'm sure I'll find a use for them somewhere down the road, but I had to come up with something else and quick! So I turned to my trusty Cricut machine again & made my own custom daisy cut lid inserts that was a little more color coordinated with the party theme. I put the glasses on a cake plate I picked up at a garage sale this summer for $2. I found the daisy designed paper liners a couple of years ago on clearance at the local Walmart thinking I would use them for scrapbooking. LOL!



I found the turquoise and green polka dotted straws on Etsy at Hiyoyo's store (I think that was the name?). She had smaller quantities and great prices and the fastest shipping I've ever seen. She was a treat to work with too. And did you notice the lavender colored drink in the glass? That's just pink lemonade Kool-aid that I added one drop of blue food coloring to a pitcherful.

~Let Them Eat Cupcakes!~

Hee hee hee! I wanted to make a full blown layered rainbow cake, but that wasn't going to make it in time with me. I seen on Pinterest that some people were taking a shortcut with them and just making cupcakes that they layered the colored batter all at once. It was a tedious task, yet still simpler than the layer cake, if you ask me. I know Brooke loved them....I swear her favorite color is rainbow! She colors everything in rainbow colors. LOL! I would have added rainbow sprinkles to the frosting, but Brooke doesn't like that stuff on her frosting. She likes them on sugar cookies that have no frosting though. I know, I have a quirky daughter. :)

~And MORE Cake!~

This is the bunt cake version I made for her actual birthday dinner when grandma and grandpa came over. I thought it was quite interesting to discover that it actually bakes like the shape of a rainbow! Brooke said the white frosting drizzle looked like white clouds. This is a terrible photo, since I had some major issues with the cake sticking to the bottom of the cake pan and I don't know how to cut a cake to make it photo-op worthy. You still get the effect tho. ;^)

I've been trying to catch up a little on my blog, but that's it for me today. I'm still trying to get more things made for my next craft show on Sat. I need to get more on the ball for this one since I sold so much from my show last week! That's a good thing!


God Bless and have a great day!

I'm linking up to Funky Junk Interior's Banner Sat. Night Special link party!