Christmas Gift Idea: CD Holder

Last year some of our friends gave us a CD filled with their favorite Christmas music, and it was in an adorable handmade CD holder. It was one of my most favorite gifts! I loved it so much that I decided to copy that idea for friends and family this year. So if you get this gift from us this Christmas, act surprised!!


Here's how I made the CD holder:
Cut paper to 5" x 11" and 2 7/8" x 11"



Score both pieces at 3" and 8".



Fold at the score lines like this.


Fold the smaller paper around the bigger one. Glue or put adhesive on one side and fold closed.

Put glue or adhesive on the edges (where the two arrows are) of the bigger piece and fold up.

All done! Now it's ready to decorate however you want!


Here's the finished product...

And a view of the back...

I added a velcro dot to keep it closed....so cute! These come together really fast! It's going to be hard to wait until Christmas to give them out!

I hope to share more of my 'handmade' gift ideas in the coming weeks. I don't want to spoil the surprise for those who will be getting them.....I guess I just won't say who's getting what!

What I've Been Up To....

Hello Everyone! I am so happy to be back! I almost hugged the 'internet man' when he got it all hooked up for me today....but I held back because I didn't want to scare him!!

Since I didn't have the internet for a whole month, and since my craft supplies were boxed up for most of the month, I had to find other things to do to keep busy.

So I learned to make wheat bread....

....and white bread. I've found that making bread is an art. And I'm not quite a 'bread artist' as of yet. My bread always tastes good, but it doesn't always look pretty. I'm now working on learning to form the loaves better. Any advice would be welcomed!

I also learned to make and bottle applesauce. Just between you and me...I am not a big fan of applesauce. I don't mind baking with it, but I HATE eating it! My husband and kids, on the other hand, LOVE it. So I made these for them. I hope they taste okay....I couldn't bring myself to taste it before bottling it.

I stole this idea from my sister-in-law. She has a table at the top of her stairs that she uses to display her holiday decorations. I modified it to work for my house and used the top of a bookcase for mine.
The framed picture was my first 'project' after unpacking all my craft supplies. I made several of the 'kids' and used them for these.....

Since we live near my husband's parents, sister, and Grandparents, I decided to make them some Halloween treats. And if you know me, you know I can't make treats without having something cute to put them in! They each got a cute box filled with my yummy sugar cookies!!

I can't wait to catch up on what everyone has been up to this past month!! And I can't wait to share more of what I've been doing! Thanks again for being patient with me during our move!

Back to Posting Soon!

This is Misty's favorite sister posting. :)

Misty wanted me to let you all know that she's getting her internet hooked up on Wednesday November 4th and should be back to the world of blogging then. She has missed posting and can't wait to show everyone what she has been up to this past month. She thanks you all for being patient as they have made the move.

~Melinda

We're Here!!

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that we have arrived safely and are busy unpacking. We are still without the internet, and BOY DO I MISS IT!! I'm hoping to get it hooked up soon so I can check out what everyone has been up to the past few weeks. And I'm anxious to start crafting again....I've got lots of ideas in my head! My craft supplies are still boxed up (boo hoo), but that is the next space I hope to tackle.

Thanks for not giving up on me!

Too Cute!!

Tonight, a wonderful family from our ward brought over a goodbye gift. It was so cute and thoughtful, I had to share!

Attached to the "Boo" sign was this poem:

"Boo Hoo!
The (our last name)'s are moving!
We will miss you!"

I told you it was cute!

As I've mentioned before, we are moving this Saturday and I will be "off the grid" for a few weeks. If you don't see any new posts for a bit, don't be alarmed! Just know that I am unpacking as quickly as possible so that I can get back to crafting. And I promise, I will have some cute ideas to share for the holidays!

See you soon!

I don't always get it right the first time....

We're friends, right? So if I share a project that totally failed, you won't judge me too harshly? Good...I'm glad to hear that!

I've been wanting to make these cupcakes for a while now. I LOVE everything Hostess (Cupcakes, Ding Dongs, Twinkies, Ho-Ho's), so as soon as I saw these, they immediately went on my 'to do' list.

We're in the process of moving right now, and after a weekend of cleaning, painting, and packing, these cupcakes were calling my name. It wasn't until after I had already baked the cupcakes and made the filling that I realized all of my cake decorating supplies were sitting in a box over 200 miles away....UGH! So I tried to improvise with what I had. I poked a hole in the bottom of each cupcake with a wooden dowel, put the filling in a Ziploc bag, and did my best at filling them.


As you can see, the filling stayed toward the bottom of the cupcakes. And some cupcakes ended up with hardly any filling in them at all! And if I'm being totally honest, I added a little too much sugar to the filling, making it a tad bit gritty....

Now, on to the frosting....the recipe calls for melted wax to be mixed in with the chocolate. I have no idea what kind of wax to use for this, so I just mixed in about 1 Tablespoon of shortening. It was still good, but really thick. Almost too thick.

So, after totally failing at these cupcakes this time, I am determined to make them again when I have all of my supplies (and when I figure out the whole 'wax' thing). If anyone has made these before and knows anything about the 'wax', please share! I really want to make these the right way....they're still calling my name!

Christmas Planner...

We're moving in a couple of weeks and I really should have been packing today. Instead, I got out my craft supplies (which will be the very last thing I pack!) and made this cute Christmas planner.



I wish I could take credit for this idea (isn't it fabulous?!), but I can't. It came from here.

I made a few changes to her measurements and added a pocket on the inside (the Walmart receipt is just to give you an idea of how big the pocket is). My measurements were:
*cut paper to 8"x11"
*score at 4.75", 9 7/8", and 10 1/8"

The measurements for the little pocket are:
*cut paper 5" x 3.5"
*score 1/2" on 3 sides
*cut the 2 corner squares off
*fold, adhere, and decorate as desired.

I think I'm going to make some of these for my girls....decorated 'girly' instead of in Christmas paper, of course! They love to doodle, so these would be great to keep everything in one place. And if I'm lucky, it'll keep them entertained on our long drive to our new home {crossing my fingers}...