Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 December 2017

12 Days of Christmas // Day 6 // Why's Personalization Important?

Welcome to Day 6 of the party! How are y'all enjoying yourselves? Aren't there some pretty awesome posts coming up? Also...anyone see the super cool, super amazing giveaway that Faith's hosting? If not...you'd better go check out her blog! Here, I'll even help you get started and give you the link to her blog ;)


Today I bring to you...a hack in writing calligraphy

To start off, you're gonna want to grab a piece of paper and a pen and sharpie marker. The sharpie marker is optional, but it does make it easier - sometimes. Also, if you do decide to go for the sharpie, make sure it's the fine tip. 

Using the pen, write some words down; cursive works the best. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you go slow, your lines will end up kinda shaky. Just let the ink flow from the pen and just write. Ok so that's easier said than done, especially when you're a perfectionist (*points to self*) but try not to worry too much about it.

Once you've got the words written down, write a second line along any downward stroke on the word.

The rest of the lines maaayy look like they need to be thickened or made darker - but don't darken them. That'll ruin the effect of the final product later.

Once you've got those second lines drawn, start filling them it! And - try to stay within the lines. We're going back to the days of colouring pages y'all! ;)

So, the reason I said that sharpie marker helps but sometimes doesn't, is because of this. When you're filling in the lines, Sharpie makes it go a lot faster. However, especially depending on the type of paper you use, the marker will sometimes bleed out so then your curves aren't as smooth as you'd like. You can probably see some of that on that "J". So if you don't mind taking a bit more time, you can always use an ink pen too.

And another fun font you can use...if you use caps and then again drawing lines along any downward stroke on the word and just leave it like that.

And you're done! Super easy and super fun too. It does take a bit more time than if you were to just write a Christmas card, but hey. That's what makes it even more special, right?

Which brings me to a question I've had this year: Why is Personalization So Important?

It's the season where everyone's buying gifts for people - friends, family, the lady at the post office, your next door neighbour, etc. I've always liked writing cards (sometimes rather lengthy ones xD) to people whenever I give them a gift, but this year especially, I wondered if I could personalize the gifts themselves. 

Why? Well, you know the saying "time is precious and can not be bought"? Well, I believe that it's not how much money or how big the gift is that makes it special...it's how much time you spend on it. That's what makes homemade gifts so special to me, because I know that a person spent their time, precious time that once used can never be used again, on it. 

Now I'm not saying buying gifts is bad. No indeedy. But how do you buy gifts? There's a difference between grabbing a random thing off a shelf to stick in a bag and actually taking the time to look for the right gift. 

So this Christmas season when you're buying and wrapping those gifts - remember the true motive for it...and the reason behind it. Nothing can compare to the ultimately precious and amazing gift that God gave to the world, but we can use that as an example as to what we should follow. Let's not just give a gift because we have to or because everyone else is doing it. Let's give gifts to show people how special they are to you and to show how much you love them. 

Because that's the whole meaning of Christmas. Right? 


Thursday, 14 December 2017

12 Days of Christmas // Day 1 // Christmas in a Mug

Let the countdown begin! Can you believe it? TWELVE more days until Christmas!! Ahh...SO exciting!

Anyway...I come to you with The 12 Days of Christmas, hosted by the lovely Faith P. You can go to her blog HERE to see all the other wonderful bloggers joining us in this fun Christmas blog link up.



To kick off the 12 Days of Christmas, I'm going to start off with a Christmas gift DIY that I did this year for several presents. It's super simple, very pretty, and tons of fun too!

Christmas in a Mug


Sooooo...to start off, you are going to need: 

A Mug

Isn't this sweater mug just so cute?
 You can find a variety of Christmasy mugs at a dollar store. Heads up though, just cause it says dollar store doesn't mean it's actually a dollar xD But...they're still a pretty good price and usually pretty good quality too!
My sister and I went to the dollar store one day and came back with several types of Christmasy mugs like this one. I LOVE the sweater mug, it just looks so nice and cozy. 

A Pair of Fluffy Socks

'Cause who doesn't love a pair of fluffy socks? I think I wear these kind of socks all winter long. Lovely to snuggle up with a warm cup of something hot, a blanket, a book, and these oh so soft and fluffy socks!

A Candy Bar
Any candy bar works just fine! Kit Kat, Snickers, Mars Bar, etc. For this mug, I'm using a Coffee Crisp, but I also grabbed a couple Kit Kats for other mugs. 
A Variety of Chocolates
Choice of chocolate is completely up to you! To make it more Christmas-y, you can grab chocolates that are wrapped holiday style. And really, Bulk Barn is the place to go, y'all! I seriously love that place.
Peppermint Hersheys. SO good. And the wrappers add great colour to the mug!
Ooh, and these darling chocolates-wrapped-like-presents. Perfect for the theme!
Aaaand, almond Hersheys. Course...the wrapper again. Gold accents - perfect. 
Candy Canes
Just some mini candy canes to stick randomly in the cup. I was aiming for a heart...but it wouldn't really stay xD
(proof of this later on)
Other Small Gifts
Totally optional, but if you want to add even more to your mug, you can always grab other small gifts like gift cards or lip balms. One of my students from my English class makes and sells lip balms (her strawberry scented ones are THE BEST) so I bought several from her to use as filling in my mug. And I also got a Tim's card to slip in as well.
One Big, Glorious, Red and White Peppermint Stick

Ok so! To assemble the mug, you're first gonna take your oh-so-fluffy socks and lay 'em out flat. Then put the candy bar on one end and roll it up! Then squish it into the mug so that it fills it perfectly! 
Then stick the gift card in the back and the big peppermint stick next to the candy bar. 
Now for the mini candy canes. As you can see here, I attempted the heart and it didn't look TOO bad...
But then they closed together because yep, that's what they wanted to do. I "sprinkled" both types of Hersheys into the cup, but I will admit, I did a teeeeny bit of rearranging because some of the colours were clumping together. 

Then to finish it off, add the chocoate presents. 

And voila! You're done! 


And that wraps it up for today! Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you've ever tried this before! 

Don't forget to check by Faith's blog for more Christmas posts by a bunch of awesome bloggers! 

12 Days to Go!!!