Holiday Treats Pt.2

This is a cute way to christma-tize some cupcakes! Here's what you need:

Cupcake mix (I used a simple devils food mix from the store), icing (I made a chocolate buttercream), nilla wafers, small twist pretzels, brown and red m&m's, small mints, mini chocolate chips

Start with your cupcake

1. Add the Nilla wafer 'nose' base

Dab some icing on the M&M and press it onto the nilla wafer

Add the pretzels first (what I should've done in the video), then the mints!

Dab some icing onto the mini chocolate chips, press onto the mints and voila!  Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Rudolph all wrapped up in a tasty treat!  Click here for the video tutorial.

Reposted from Heidi-and-Seek

skip the gift wrap with Caitlin / Real Swanky!

This Tutorial Tuesday, Caitlin of Real Swanky will be showing us how to wrap gifts without the use of paper! It's a great way to utilize your..

• spare fabric
• a bandanna
• a cute vintage handkerchief
• a dish cloth or towel, which may be part of the gift, to boot!

You will need:

• Your gift
• A square piece of fabric (or whatever you are using to wrap) that is at least 3 times the length of the longest measurement of your gift

For my gift, I'll be wrapping up my latest embroidered piece, an anatomically correct brain (details here). It measures 7" in diameter, so I made sure my fabric was at least 21" long. For placement, start with your gift at least 1-2" away from the edges of your fabric's perimeter.

Flip the whole piece towards the other end of the fabric once.

..and again..

Flip once last time, you may have a few inches of fabric remaining at the end, so flipping it one last time is a wise idea. As you can see above, the "wrong" side of the fabric is facing up on your left and right side.

Take the fabric on the left and right side, and tie it into a knot, as you would tie your shoes.

Then, tie one last time. That's it!

This method of wrapping is great for just about anything -- books, soaps and perfumes, cooking utensils, boxed goods, and a heap more.

WEST holiday flash sale! using online coupon code WESTHOLIDAY

WEST is pleased to announce a holiday flash sale featuring some of your favourite WESTies! From November 23rd to November 30th, 2014, enjoy a deal or two from the following proud WEST members...

Real Swanky, 15% off, excludes custom orders 
We Are Bound Together, 15% off, excludes custom orders 
Guarino Soapworks, 25% off entire store! 
MosaicPendantsPlus, 15% off 
Princess Peach Designs, FREE shipping on orders $75+  
Krista's Jewellery, 15% off 
Heidi-and-Seek Boutique, 10% off 
Little Feather Designs, 20% off orders $22 or more (please use code WESTHOLIDAY20) 
PrairiePeasant, 15% off, valid on in stock items only 
PrairieThreads, 15% off, valid on in stock items only 
Ryott's Findings, 15% off,  excludes custom orders 
Hoops By Gypsy, 20% off all Ready-to-Ship Hoops 
BarefootDesignShop - 15% off all Ready-to-Ship items, excludes custom orders &  patterns 
TBL Boutique - 20% off, excludes custom orders 

Holiday Tutorials: Felt Advent Calendar

It's 7 weeks until Christmas! We're going to be sharing some holiday tutorials here on the blog for you to get into the spirit of the holidays! What better way to start off than with an Advent Calendar! This is quite an ambitious project, and took me a few weeks to create so you could attempt a simpler version if you so choose, or keep in mind for next year!

 Here's what you need:
- Large piece of felt/fleece for background
- Colored Felt (I got some at Walmart, the dollar store, and the sparkly ones at my local fabric store)
- Velcro
- Glue Gun
- Felt Squares for the pockets (mine are 2"x2")
- Scissors (not pictured)
- Patience ;)

First I sketched out what 'ornaments' I wanted for the tree.

Instructions:
1. Cut the size of background you want (Mine is 28" x 24")
2. Cut out 24 or 25 squares for the pockets (depending if you want to put an ornament up on Christmas Day as well) in the size you would like them to be (Mine are 2" x 2")
3. Start making your little ornaments.  This part is just going to be how you choose to do it, I used one of the pocket squares as a guide for size for each ornament, and I drew the shape with a pen on the back of each one so as to avoid too many errors
4. Hot glue pockets to background as desired
5. Cut velcro into small pieces, the harder side on the pocket, the softer side on the back of the ornament
6. Cut out tree shape from green felt (This is hit or miss, trial and error with sizing, I just measured how much space I had left after the pockets were attached and that determined the height)
7. Glue the hard side of the velcro to the tree in the places you want the ornaments (I put all the ornaments on first and one by one took them off, making a pen mark where the velcro on the back of the ornament would be)
8. Glue on any extra details you want (I added the Christmas Lights along the edge to fill empty space)
9. Create your date and treat ideas on hang tags or small pieces of paper, and slide into pockets!
10. Pat yourself on the back, this is a lengthy process!


Because we're so busy during the holiday season, and I still wanted to do an activity Advent calendar, I made 3 sections: Dates, Treats, and the rest is more ornaments for the tree.

There's a lot of activity advent calendar ideas out there, but I'll share a few of mine with you to get you started!

Dates:
- Drive around and look at lights
- Go out for a Christmas treat!
- Build a gingerbread house
- Christmas movie with popcorn, hot chocolate and other treats!

 Treats:
- Terry's Chocolate Oranges
- Watch all the New Girl Christmas Episodes
- Husband gets a back rub
- Christmas CD swap

Holiday Count Down!

Now that Halloween is past it's time to put aside the orange and black and start thinking Christmas!

While many of you are still recovering from sugar shock the members of WEST have been busy making items to make your holidays jolly.

I love these kissing reindeer slippers from Magination.

I want a pair in adult size to wear by the fire and sip cocoa while I write in my journal from PrairiePeasant.

And while we're wishing how about a stained glass piece in the corner window by TaraSawchuk?

Totally foxy!