Ornament Exchange Invitations

Corinnea-- Jessica, a friend and I had a party. We can't prove it because we did not take one single photo. 

Not. A. Single. One.

We were busy having fun.

Our only evidence are these invitations. 

Jessica-- To be fair we were busy having fun and trying to make sure our 30+ guests were also enjoying themselves... yes 30+ I think our final count was 35... in Mum's house! Awesome turn out, considering we invited over 60... yes we are crazy! So on to the invites...  

J - Remember that over 60 number? Well we had to make a lot of invites and we wanted them to be fun but most of all affordable. Since we had just shown you the cinnamon ornament recipe we thought it would be neat to include an ornament in the invite so we made a lot of little trees. We kept the rest of the invite pretty plain- just printed it on a heavy card stock and tied a tree at the top.  

C - The lovely little tree graphic is a Jessica original.
J - It's printed on a 2x3" mailing label that I cut the curved corners off of and then each invite was stuffed into a treat bags that we found in the $1 bin at Target. 

 C - The house was full of food and friends. Silly games were played. Ornaments chosen, stolen and chose again. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

J - Since we did the party potluck style we also included recipe cards in the invite, this time from the $1 bin at Michaels. So after the party my slave driver mother sent me home to work on a small gift to give out to everyone who attended.

 J -We just scanned in all of the recipe cards and then resized them and printed them up into a small book.

J - I think Mums first huge event at her house was a success... tomorrow we will be back with a tour of our holiday decorations. 

Thank You!

First of all, thanks so much for following us over to our new space! We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Ours was spent with family, friends and food. It was good.

So on to our winners!

For her choice of pouch from Mums shop number--

 Crafterhours - Adrianna


For her choice of garland from the my shop number--

 Sherie Lee

And for the Suprise number--

Kelly's Korner

So what is the surprise? Well Mum and I were feeling festive and I stumbled on this photograph for sale on etsy the other day. (shop here) 

It inspired me because I remembered Mum told me that the Cinnamon ornaments were very popular back at the Patch Craft Shop... (Mum still has the ornaments she bought from Mary) and I thought wouldn't it be awesome to make a cinnamon garland?! (I am not sure what they are made out of in this photo- maybe FIMO? )

So we got to work - and decided it was amazing and we must send it out to someone to enjoy or we'd be fighting over who gets to keep it... which would be messy... mainly because of the glitter but also because we both really want it! (I still think I would have won)

We enjoyed it so much we realized  we should just show everyone how to make their own because it's so easy and fun and it will make your house smell like Christmas.

Cinnamon Ornament Garland Tutorial

We used this recipe with variations (I bolded them below).

Ingredients

• 1 cup ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon allspice
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 2 tablespoons wood glue

Supplies

ginger bread cookie cutter- we used the Dad from this set which we found at Michaels

Craft hole punch or circle icing decorating tip

Glitter - We used Martha Stewart Glitter in Brownstone

Glue/paint brush - We used Martha Stewart Glitter Glue which includes a brush inside

Ribbon

embroidery needle

Directions

In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Mix in the applesauce and glue. Work the mixture with your hands 2 to 3 minutes to form a ball. If mixture is too wet, add more cinnamon. If mixture is too dry, add more applesauce.

Lightly dust a clean surface with cinnamon. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out gingerbread men. You can re-roll dough to get as much as possible out of each batch.

Use a hole punch or circle icing tip to make a hole for hanging with a ribbon.

Dry in a slow oven, 200 degrees F (100 degrees C) for several hours, or air dry in a sunny spot for 4 or 5 days. Some people suggest flipping to keep them nice and flat. 

When dry coat top with glue using a paint brush, sprinkle generously with glitter and then knock off  the excess for reuse.

When dry, string on ribbon. We used a continuous piece of ribbon and just went through each arm twice to create a loop, then ran the ribbon along the back to keep each gingerbread man from moving

Enjoy decorating your house with garland or ornaments- these things smell wonderful and with the glitter addition the sparkle like crazy

**Winners** Please contact us with your picks and address information so we can mail your prizes.
(jessica_m_m@hotmaildotcom)


Thanks so much for playing along!