Jar Mixes

I've been accumulating items for our yearly Christmas baskets, and along with that, decided to acquire items that would allow me to make a bunch of soup in a jar mixes.

As I was browsing around, I found a few great sites with Soup in a Jar recipes, and it turns out that they're perfect for someone like my Nana, who is sometimes just looking for a quick and easy meal. I chose out recipes that I thought she'd like, and went to work.

First, pick out a recipe, and pick up the necessary ingredients (don't forget your mason jars - quart size are normally best). It doesn't end with soup, as you'll quickly see from these great sites.

1. http://www.allfreecrafts.com/giftinajar/
2. http://www.kitchenlink.com/holiday/merrygifts.html
3. http://christmas.organizedhome.com/recipes/gifts-in-a-jar

Second, start by laying out all of your ingredients, and washing your mason jars. 

The rest is easy! Follow the instructions , add a fabric circle on top of each one as well as your instructional tag, and you should end up with a gift that looks adorable and useful, just like these!

*Tip: Make sure that you have attached the instructions for how to make the jar mix into something edible! I made some of these last year, and forgot the tag, and it was so embarrassing!

Mini Elf Stockings

In an effort to keep gifts simple yet thoughtful this year for my young cousins, I'm creating mini elf stockings, by taking the same template that I used for Si and myself for stockings, and shrinking it by 50%. You can find the template here.

These will be stuffed with Christmas candy of any child's dreams (and a teether for the little one who can't quite manage candy right now).

I began with a few different kinds of cute fabric from JoAnn's. I chose an extremely soft cotton fabric that's kid friendly, but could also be through in the washer and withstand the force. Like I said, it's kid friendly. Here's a shot of one of the kinds I used:

I took the pattern and traced it out, of course forgetting that I was going to need to flip the pattern over, and getting two of the exact same thing (what you really want are mirror versions of the exact same thing. See Below.)

Fold them together pattern side in, and sew along the edge, about a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch in, whichever you feel most comfortable with. Go 1/2 inch for more durable, but skinny stockings, or go 1/4 inch for slightly wider, but less durable stockings. Either way, these are meant for a little bit of candy, not your standard stuff-until-it-can't-go-any-further stocking.

Following sewing, I got out the white fleece for a perfect "top of stocking" look. I cut two squares, trimmed them until they fit. They look like this:

That one on the top may look smaller, but it's not, it's just the camera angle (sorry guys!). With the stocking turned inside out, I put the white fleece on either side (half overlapping with the stocking, and sewed down the seam. This will attach it to the stocking. 

Post sewing the seams, I turned the stocking right side out, pushed the tiny tip out with a butter knife, and there we go! An adorable mini elf stocking perfect for stuffing with small candies, chocolate lollipops, and a wee bit of rock candy!