The Christmas Challenge. A beautiful idea from Marilyn.

The last week saw me add bottles of vanilla essence to my gift stash. I already gave two away. I started this brewing in about October last year. Finally I had some lovely bottles to use and printed some labels I found online to finish them off.

They are generous sized bottles and I think they will go in with kitchen gifts well. A bottle of vanilla, some jam, some bay leaves...  that kind of thing.

There are printable labels for just about anything you can think of and these make things look much better!  This one had great instructions I thought.

My bubble bars were not very successful. I have been using them but they won't be gifts. They didn't dry hard and remained mushy! Still they smell good and do bubble so at least I can use this all up.  Back to the drawing board on that one!

Now over to Marilyn B.  She emailed me with a great idea that I think needs to be shared. This covers everything we are talking about... something that can be made from what we have,  inexpensively and even really good to post.  And very versatile!

Marilyn decorated her Christmas table with coasters she made from old cards.

She laminated them so they are sealed,  waterproof and re useable.

I love to make a table setting special and straight away thought oh my goodness you could do this for any occasion! Valentines Day,  Easter,  children's birthday parties with any theme you want,  a baby shower with Beatrix Potter or Wiinie the Pooh coasters! 

Marilyn used cards she recycled. You could also use any gorgeous images you have,  picture books, magazine images. If the image had writing on the back you could just have a layer of plain cardboard to conceal that.

Then she made them into little gift packs as well to give away...

And next she applied the same thing to making book marks...

I have access to a laminator as Chloe has one. But you can look online and see that you can use an ordinary iron to seal laminating sheets!  

So I am looking for the images I want to do this with.  I want to do both coasters and bookmarks.  Watch this space as I am planning on sealing glitter and sparkles, confetti, rose images, birds and some of my favourite verses.  

I also thought how you could make children's place mats from pictures they have drawn or an image you know they are going to love.  There are so many possibilities! 

Thank you so much Marilyn for sharing this with us and taking the time to email me with photos and explaining what you did.  What a great idea, thank you! 

I noticed Aldi recently had laminator pockets. I hope they might still have them!

This week I am making (or trying to) a copy of Lush "Angels on bare skin" cleanser.  I hope this is successful!  I think so as it doesn't have to set, it goes into a jar.  

I am crocheting little cotton wash cloths to add to my spa themed gifts and packaging up Bay Leaves as they are now dry.  (they will go into the kitchen themed gifts!) 

Truthfully, I might not get so much done as we have a new baby due in 8 days! I would really appreciate prayers for Lucy and the new baby if that would be ok.

Also Mel S (she is the one who lives in Adelaide also... we have more than one Mel!) has lost her Dad and if you would pray for her that would be wonderful.

I hope your week is going well! It is sunny and mild here and perfect just now! I have a few more peaches to pick! 

What have you been working on? Finding wonderful bargains, adding wrap, cards or anything you need for gift giving also counts towards your gift cupboard! xxx