Artful Avocations

Merry Christmas

It's 1:00 a.m. - Christmas morning.  I should be sound asleep, but I must be running on my second wind.  I  played bells and sang in the choir at both our 7:00 and 11:00 Christmas Eve services at church tonight.  The services were very beautiful and the 11:00 service was a candlelight service so it was really pretty in the church.  Between the services, I went to my mom's house with my family.  It's our tradition to exchange gifts on Christmas Eve after church.  Tomorrow we'll go over to my younger sister's house and have Christmas dinner. 

I hope that each of you is having a most blessed Christmas, celebrating with your family and friends the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Merry Christmas and every good wish for the new year!

                                 Jesus is the reason for the season!

You're the Apple of My Eye - Valentine

Yesterday, A Chemistry With Paper started taking pre-orders on their new Valentine sets.  This label is from one of the sets - Valentine Fruits.  I had bought a bag of these little caramel pieces to make caramel apples a month or so ago.  I finally used them last night and made a few caramel apples.  I wrapped this one up this evening and added the label.  Super quick and simple for Valentine treats...and even though it does have some caramel on it, I like to think it's a healthier alternative to traditional Valentine treats.  You can really tell in the picture, but the little hearts and the edge of the frame is colored with a red Copic glitter pen.

Thanks for looking!

Hot Cocoa

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to post anything here.  Like most of you, I've been busy with Christmas preparations...mostly at school and church.  Anyway, I noticed a friend of mine was drinking a Starbuck's coffee beverage from this bottle, so I asked for the bottle when he was finished.  Since I don't drink coffee, I've never had one of these little bottles to recycle into a sweet little gift.  A couple of years ago I made some homemade hot cocoa mix from a recipe I found on the Food Network site.  This year I opted to buy some ready made.  I think it was actually less expensive!  This bottle holds enough mix for three servings.
The tag was stamped using ACWP's  Hot Holiday Drinks set.  The marshmallows were given some dimension with white Liquid Pearls.  The Hot Cocoa and the entire image were traced and colored in with a clear gel glitter pen for a little sparkle.  The ribbon is from American Crafts.

Thanks for looking.  I hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season.