Apologies...it's been too long!

Hello craft world!  I have been somewhat MIA.  After looking at my blog today I realized I have not posted in 3 months!!!  Oh my....where did all that time go?  I have been hard at work on some awesome projects.  And I have even been looking into doing my very first video.  Just trying to figure out exactly how that's done :)  I have a few things to share today.

This time of year is super busy, but this year was especially busy because my family was VERY involved our churches production of "The Christmas Post".  If you've never seen this musical, it is truly something special and SO much time and effort went into making it a success.  My family and I live in a pretty small town and pulling this off really impressed everyone in our community.  They are already talking about next year!  Being a part of it was truly a blessing, but it was a ton of work.  We spent nearly every weekend at chuch and two weeks before the performance, nearly every day!  Here is a video of one of our songs from the show.  If you ever get a chance to be a part of something like this, I highly recommend it.



Now that all that is done, I have also had a ton of things to do to get ready for Christmas.  Like many, the economy has really had devastating effects on my family.  I am SO blessed and thankful to God that we have been able to continue on this long keeping food on the table, a roof over our heads, and utilities paid.  Tax time can't get here soon enough! :)  So due to our money situation, this year is going to be a lot of homemade Christmas. 

I've always bought all of our gifts and have never tried to undertake a big project like this.   I now know why everyone does just buy things.  It's so much easier!  But it's also so much more special.  Over the next few days I'll be sharing with you the Christmas projects I've been working on. 

Last week, we had a Christmas party for our cub scout pack.  We have a very large pack, and every year at our Christmas party, Santa visits and gives the boys presents.  I wanted to have something for the siblings too so I made goodie bags for all of them.  I did 20 goodie bags.  Here's a picture of them:

To make them, I just filled cello bags from Clear Bags (size 3.75" x 6") with a variety of miniature candy bars and made toppers for them.  The toppers are from last year's DCWV Christmas stack cut at 4x2 and folded in half.  The layer used paper from both the DCWV Christmas stack and Cosmo Cricket.  The stamp was from Clear Dollar Stamps "Christmas Blessings" set (I LOVE their stamps by the way.  Check out their website, the stamps are inexpensive and awesome quality) and the ink is from their Clearly Coordinating Collection in Spring Leaf and Red Velvet Cake.  The images on the bags are from Cricut cartridges Paper Doll Dress Up and Create a Critter.  It probably only took about 2.5 hours to make all the bags from start to finish.  Not bad!

I hope you enjoyed this post for today.  I'll have another post either later today or tomorrow.  I have so many things to post.  I promise I won't be so far away from now on.....and keep in mind that I'm still trying for 100 followers.  If I get there, I'll have a Cricut cartridge giveaway!!!

Happy crafting!