Christmas Craft and Goodies

I would like to share all of my Christmas crafts with you but that will have to wait until next year because I still have one family who hasn't received the gift that I've been making for my other family members over the last couple of years and I want to keep it a surprise.

Anyway, for my parents I made blocks with pictures of their grandkids on it. They turned out cute and were easier than I thought. There were a couple finished blocks that I would have liked to fix because letters covered faces and such but there is only so much you can move the letters so they are still on the blocks.

The first thing we did was go to Lowes and buy and cut the wood. Sooooo cheap. I think we spent about $4 on a piece of wood. Lowes cut the wood to 3" x 4" and they didn't charge us for the cuts. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. We sanded the wood and then painted it; blue for my dad and maroon for my mom.

I collected pictures from my siblings of their kids and then used Microsoft Word to size them and printed them on photo paper. Then I modge podged the pictures to the wood.

I had previously cut the letters out using a friend's Silhouette machine. You can buy the vinyl at Michaels or JoAnns. I stuck the letters over the pictures trying to show as many faces as possible though it wasn't always easy. Then I modge podged over the letters and photos to seal it all together. And voila!  One thing I did notice was once I modge podged the photos, they turned a little sepia colored. But they still looked nice.

Now for the goodies. I wanted to do an assortment of goodies this year so I went to Pinterest. Where else?! I made Mint Chip Cookies, Peppermint Bark, Caramel Popcorn, and Fudge. They were all delicious and again super easy. I won't describe the process because I just stuck to the recipe. I'll give you the links so you can see the recipes and try them out for yourself.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Cookies.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Fudge. I left out the walnuts.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Peppermint Bark. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Caramel Popcorn. The best and easiest caramel popcorn ever. And I dyed the caramel green before putting it over the popcorn to make it more Christmasy.

 

And here is my little goodie plate that we gave to family, friends, and neighbors.

 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!