Santa's Belt Gift Jar

Want to create a really cute and inexpensive holiday gift? I made these little beauties for my sons' caregivers at daycare. They're made from empty Starbucks mocha glasses (cleaned and sanitized of course). I washed them in hot water to remove the label and the gunk that adhered it. Then I filled them with holiday chocolates (mini Hershey's bars).

To create the Santa Bottle, you'll need scissors, paper, a printer, a glue stick, clear tape, aluminum foil, thin cardboard (like a cereal box), ribbon, and construction paper (red, white and black).

Step 1: Trim out a strip of red construction paper. You'll want it to be about 2.25" wide by 8.5" long. Wrap this around your empty bottle and adhere with a strip of clear tape at the back (have the back of your bottle be the side where they've printed the use by date).

Step 2: Trim out a piece of white construction paper, approximately .5" wide by 2.25" tall. Using the glue stick, adhere it on top of the red band (vertically oriented).

Step 3: Trim out a strip of black construction paper, .5" wide by 8.5" long. Wrap this around the bottle, adhering it with a glue stick.

Step 4: Cut out a small, square piece of  thin cardboard. I used an empty cereal box that I cut up. My square was about 2 inches square. Cut out a smaller square inside the cardboard square. My smaller square is about .75" square. Then I wrapped the entire thing with aluminum foil, just like a Christmas present. I used a sharp exacto blade to trim out the inside to create that hole in the middle of the buckle.

Step 5: I printed out the "Ho Ho Ho" label that i created in photoshop and glued it onto the top of the lid with a gluestick. You can download the free printable HERE.

After that, I just tied a bit of red ribbon around the neck of the bottle and filled the bottles with the chocolates. Super easy and super cute!

Teacher or Caregiver Gifts

So I've been MIA. Suffice it to say that some things got crossed off my to-do list. December is always a hectic month, but I have missed posting. Hopefully now that things have calmed down a bit, I can post more. Yay! At any rate, here's one thing that I've been up to lately:

Caregiver gifts for my boys' counsellors at their daycare. One of his teachers is moving back to the states at the end of this week so I had to get them finished. I think that they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. They're made from the drink carrier thing (cardboard) that comes with the starbucks mochas that you can buy in any grocery store. I wrapped the box with some cute wrapping paper that I had on hand, stuffed it full of goodies (more on that later) and wrapped the whole thing in clear cellophane tied with some twine and a gift tag. Drake and Lincoln loved giving them to their teachers and I think the teachers loved receiving them.

Some of the goodies inside the basket include a snowman Hershey's bar, a giftcard, chocolates, and an empty mocha jar filled with popcorn kernels.

I also included a packet of popcorn seasoning. Mmm ranch popcorn...

I turned one of the empty Starbucks mocha bottles into a Santa jar and filled them with Hershey's holiday chocolates. They turned out too cute! Tutorial coming soon.

Another overall view of my fun caregiver baskets. I'm so glad that the teachers enjoyed them. I wanted them to know that I appreciate what they do day in, day out for my kiddoes.