Happy New Year!

Japanese Craft Books = A Happy Birthday

"Card Wrapping Stationery" ISBN978-4-05-404387-9

This past week I celebrated my birthday with a trip to the Kinokuniya bookstore. I ended up finding this Japanese masking tape craft book at the store (picture above). I also picked up a stationery book and some mt tape which I'll share about later. In the mean time, here are a few pictures from the book, Card Wrapping Stationery.

Some cards made with tape. Check out those cute envelopes that the pigeon is holding. You might need to click on the picture for a better view.

Bucket decorated with tape pencils.

Decorated boxes

Umbrella handles wrapped with tape.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

A Merry Thriftmas

1959 Holt-Howard Santa Pitcher - Christmas gift to myself

Here's one last idea if you're still on the search for a few more gifts, think vintage. The great thing about antique and thrift stores is you're not going to run into the crazy Christmas crowd. You can shop leisurely and find some great gifts. Is there someone you know who likes to have tea parties? An antique tea cup would be a perfect gift. Also, think about nostalgia, is there something from their childhood they loved? And who doesn't like jewelry? You can find some beautiful rhinestone pieces or some unique cuff links at these stores. It's all about getting creative.

Here's a cute Noritake sugar and creamer set I got at the thrift store. I'll be giving it to a friend this Christmas. She loves to host tea parties.

Will you be giving a cookie plate to friends or neighbors? Pick up unique plates at the thrift store for anywhere between $.25 to $3.00. It looks much better than a paper plate, it's green and they won't have to give you the dish back!

Merry Thriftmas everyone!

Easy Butter Mints

As promised, here's what we made for the Sunday school teachers, butter mints! The kids made most of the mints. They had a lot of fun picking out the mint shapes which was probably their favorite part. Well, that and eating the candy.

We used our old advent calendars as the candy molds.

We used Cindy's butter mint recipe on Skip To My Lou. I did have to double the powdered sugar to get it to a dough like consistency.

I found these adorable printable gift tags over at Orange You Lucky! by Helen Dardik. I erased the "to & from" part and added my own message. I also printed them on sticker paper to make it easier to attach the tags to the containers. And of course, I snuck in a little Japanese masking tape in the wrapping. I don't know why, but I can't get enough of that tape. Sometimes I wonder how I ever lived without it!