Peppermint Cocoa DIY Neighbor / Teacher Gifts

I made these yummy peppermint cocoa gifts to give as neighbor gifts and/or teacher gifts (as well as some of the staff at my daughter's preschool). I gave these for Christmas but I was thinking about how great these would be as a "winter" gift because it certainly stays cold for several months and who doesn't love a bit of peppermint/chocolate in their tummies to warm them up when it's cold!?!  These are relatively inexpensive and very quick and easy to make.

The Peppermint Hot Cocoa Gifts have instant hot cocoa, chopped up peppermint candies or candy canes and marshmallows, layered over each other. Here's how you make them:

1. Buy medium Mason jars from my local craft store
2. Purchase a large 27 oz. canister of Nestle hot cocoa from Target. You could make your cocoa from scratch but I wanted to make this quicker and easier!
3. Buy 2 bags of peppermint candies. You can also use candy canes but the bag of candies were less expensive
4. Purchase 2 bags of mini marshmallows
5. Pull out your favorite Christmas or Winter ribbons and papers.

To assemble:

1. Scoop hot cocoa mix and fill the jars about 3/4 full
2. Add a layer of peppermint. I used more than I expected since they are heavier than the cocoa mix and the bottom layer kind of sunk into the cocoa.
3. Lastly, add a layer of marshmallows. I packed them in because I know how much kids love marshmallows!

To label them:

1. I created an instruction label document in Photoshop, which you can DOWNLOAD HERE. Just load it into Photoshop, if you have it and change the name! If you don'w have PS, I will try to create a PDF version and will post if soon.
2. I cut a larger tag out of red cardstock and then cut a smaller tag our of green and adhered it over the red.
3. I used my American Crafts Kringle & Co stamp to stamp the to/from frame over different kinds of pattern paper. I'm a variety, no two gifts the same type of gal. :) Plus, it's a great way to use up scraps.
4. I tied ribbon (also from American Crafts) through the tags and around the jars.

The kids and I really enjoyed delivering them to the neighbors and school staff. I only hope they enjoyed the cocoa as much as we loved making it for them!

2 Years Ago This Month

It was two years ago that I opened my email from my iPad late one night and got some of the most exciting news!  Let me tell you how it started and then stay for a BLOG HOP at the end of this post.

I had been on design teams for sketch sites, kit clubs and challenge sites and I was ready to take the leap to a manufacturer when I saw a call for Imaginisce. I bought bits and pieces of their Christmas and birthday lines and went to work creating these Christmas trees & photo tutorial, which even today, are one of my most visited posts from this blog. Perhaps it's the trees themselves or maybe it's the photo tutorial but these babies get a lot of attention.

I also made a birthday layout and a Christmas card and sent my application in to Imaginisce in response to their open design team call. Apparently these got the attention of Imaginisce too because I was invited to join the 2011 team and eventually the 2012 team too!

My 2nd term is ending in just a few days and I am still soo thankful to Lori Allred for originally inviting me to join the team and becoming such a fun friend to hang with here, there and everywhere. Also to Bridget because she's just cool and we repin each other all the time on Pinterest, plus when we hang out we always have fun. And of course Cari for asking me back for a 2nd term and being so supportive, especially during my job-related stress period this year, and Don for always making me feel awesome! I made such wonderful friends on both of these teams. I will miss you all but I will keep an eye on your artistry.

You will see a little bit of me in 2013 with Imaginisce though - I designed some layouts and an alterable using their CHA Winter 2013 collections. I'll be sure to share them here on my blog.

I'd like to show you a few of my favorite things and/or most visited items from my Imaginisce gallery. These span the course of two years and the links are clickable:

Veteran's Day "Hero" Card

Monkeying Around

Necklace & Bracelet Made by Me!

Mini Album VIDEO TUTORIAL

Best Friends Forever

Altered Gingerbread House Banner

Magic Reindeer Food

TUTORIAL: DIY Clay Pot Pumokins

Detachable Ornament Christmas Card

What I Love About You Mini Album

Vacation Mini - Click to See Additional Pages

World Travelers

DIY Accessories

Friends Are the Best Accessories

Back to School

Back to School Teacher Gift

Traveling DIY Bingo Game

DIY Stocking Stuffers

Splash Zone

Bundle of Joy Card

I wish the ladies of the 2013 design team the best of luck and thanks to Imaginisce for giving me my big break! 

Blog Hop 
Make sure to leave a comment on my blog (and become my newest follower if you like what you see). Your next stop is the last stop - the Imaginisce blog. Make sure to complete the entire hop for a chance to win a Love you More collection pack (full details on the Imaginisce blog)!

Shellye McDaniel

Tiffany Hood

Guiseppa Gubler

Rhonda Van Ginkel

Cari Locken

Adora Concepcion

Heather Leopard - YOU ARE HERE

Imaginisce

Wonderful Winter Home Decor

Happy very, merry day after Christmas! I hope you and yours had a wonderful day! I know I did. It's been hard to feel all Christmasy here in Houston, since the weather's been in the 60's and 70's but we had a pretty big wind storm roll in yesterday, which knocked our power out right as we were about to start cooking Christmas lunch. Just as my parents got to our house, we opened gifts and moved from our house to my theirs, since they had power so it was all good. Our came back on a few hours later. Anyway, the storm brought the colder temps and it's definitely chilly willy and wintery today, which is perfect for this bit of home decor I am about to show you. I made it with the Winterings collection that Little Yellow Bicycle sent me.

Pin this to Pinterest: 

I created this frame to mimic the look of subway art. The Winterings Wintry Words/Worn Denim 12x12 paper was perfect for the various Winter sentiments. I just moved the paper around behind the glass until I captured the words just right and then cut them our using the glass/temporary photo that comes with the frame as a guide for the perfect fit.

I then adorned the frame with various elements from the paper crafting kit, as well as a few stickers, chipboard and clear cuts. I just love walking in the front door every day to this fun decor.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies from the Little Yellow Bicycle Winterings collection: 

WI-103 Wintry Words/Worn Denim 12x12 Paper

WI-305 Paper Crafting Kit

WI-140 Cardstock Stickers - Fresh Verse

WI-135 Cardstock Stickers - Favorite Pieces

WI-279 Chipboard Shapes

WI-230 Clear Cuts Shapes

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Favorite Winter Memories Mini Album

Here in south east Texas we rarely get any snow but that doesn't stop us from pretending like we do. Our neighborhood has a Christmas party each year for the kids and they have been known to bring the snow in.  It's more like shaved ice but we don't care.  These are photos of my oldest daughter several years ago. I took way too many photos for a layout and when I got the Winterings collection from Little Yellow Bicycle, I knew I had to pair the photos and this fabulous collection together.

Pin this mini album to Pinterest:

I used the new burlap mini for the album. I just love how the icy colors pop on the burlap. I mixed in stickers, chipboard, stick pins and pieces from the paper crafting kit to create the cover.

Pin this mini album to Pinterest:

I decided to use the winter text paper from the 6x6 pad and a portion of the WI-105 12x12 paper for the inside front cover. I did not add embellishments since the paper highlighted so many wonderful things about winter all on it's own.

I wanted to focus on one of my favorite photos of my daughter all bundled up. I matted it on distressed papers from the 6x6 paper pad, used banners from the paper crating kit as well as some I cut on my own and topped it off with clear cuts shapes/words, snowflakes and the "Bundle Up" sticker, which I matted to make sure it didn't blend in to the photo.

We were able to form some small "ice balls". My mother-in-law was playing catch with my daughter. To make this spread, I punched 2 different papers and adhered them behind the blue paper (cut from the 6x6 paper pad). I added a journaling card, then the photo and then I added a clear cut tree (it's hard to see to you might want to click the photo to enlarge). I also added a rosette with a small clear cut doily and snowflake circle. I completed this page with a pair of mittens. The 2nd page also features a journaling card with snowflakes from the paper crafting kit, stick pin stars and a sticker which reads "memories are made of this", which is soo true!

These photos are of my daughter exploring the ice cold snow. She had a blast filling her cup up and dumping it out, over and over. I covered the left side of the page with this gorgeous snowflake paper. When I was playing around with it, the photo was getting a bit lost so I made an extra large banner (hand-cut) and then I just added different layers of distressed paper, a chipboard sentiment and another snowflake and clear cut shape to achieve this look.  The coordinating page has the same distressed papers with a journaling prompt, sentiment sticker, chipboard house and 2 clear cut shapes, one layered over the other.

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Oh, a snowball did ensue but the snowballs were really ice balls so we lightly tossed them.  This grey woodgrain paper with the small snowflake/doilies is so beautiful and I really wanted it to stand out so I added some small itty bitty bling to the center of some of the flakes. The sentiment on this page is a happy accident. The "wonderful" banner was just fading into the grey background paper so I laid it on the dark grey and cut around it like a mat. I didn't like that so I matted it again on the blue and whattayaknow? I didn't like that. I laid them down on each other to think about it and after moving it around a bit and adding the snowflake accent, I had my design. I kept the rest of the page simply, adding some adhesive vellum tape to the photos. For the coordinating page, I layered 2 sets of clear cuts over the distressed papers, added a photo strip of photos and completed it with rosette and chipboard.

Finally, we were able to make a small snowman. We used little bits of tree bark for the eyes and a leaf for the nose. I used paper from the 6x6 pad for the background of the left page and then I just added a journaling note, chipboard, more clear cuts and snowflakes form the paper crafting kit. For the right side, I used the striped vellum tape to draw in the pattern from the left, added the snowman, canvas goodies, banners and more vellum tape.

Aww, more of my favorite photos. I added more distressed paper and then I actually pulled apart one of the canvas embellishments and added the Favorite sticker over it. For the right page, I did a clustering of snowflakes along the bottom and top and finished it off with the "let it snow" banner.

Pin this mini album to Pinterest: 

We had a lot of fun this day. I am looking forward to taking our kids skiing soon so they can experience some real snow! The left page include vellum tape over the photo and a canvas embellishment layered over a clear cuts Christmas tree. The right side includes the "Welcome Winter" sentiment I pulled off the canvas from the previous page as well as the "Beautiful" banner layered over a rosette from the paper crafting kit.

I am so in love with the colors of this collection. It truly gives off the vibe of a cold winter day playing in the snow. I cannot wait to show my daughter this album. 

Supplies from the Winterings collection:

CBA-1008 Burlap Covered Chipboard Album

WI-304 Winterings 6x6 paper pad

WI-109 12x12 Paper

WI-105 12x12 Paper

WI-305 Paper Crafting Kit

WI-222 Burlap Stickers

WI-160 Vellum Tape Strips

WI-230 Clear Cuts - Shapes

WI-279 Chipboard Shapes

OC-277 Stick Pins (from Once Upon a Christmas collection)

Project Life: School Fun Run

I've started a mini version of Project Life for each of my girls. It will be focused on school activities. I plan to do one for each year for them.  I am calling it a mini version of Project Life because I'm using the 6x8 Simple Stories Snap products. I have a pink one for the littlest since she's in preschool and loves pink. I'm doing the red album for my oldest gal. She's in 3rd grade and her school colors are red/blue.

I loaded up on supplies from the Paper Issues store and you can too! And if you use the Promo Code HEATHER at check-out you can save 20% on your entire order. Anyway, back to the album.

Paper Issues teamed up with Amanda Rose stamps for this week's mini blog hop. I got to play with the One Little Word...Recorded stamp and the bestie stamp! Oh my goodness, they were so fun and they stamped so nicely. I can totally see myself making cards, tags, layouts, you name it, with these stamps.

Take a look at my Project Life pages about the Boosterthon Fun Run at my daughter's school and then keep reading to see how you can get your hands on these fabulous stamps.

Supplies: Simple Stories Snap album, page protectors, Snappy Thoughts, Snappy Cards and Snappy Pages from the Paper Issues store

Did I mention that Cassie's Paper Issues Store has just about every scrapbooking supply you need (or don't need but really want!)? Everything is 20% every day off when you use my code - HEATHER - at checkout.

GIVEAWAY

Amanda will be giving away stamps to 3 different winners!!! Here's what you need to do to enter to win:

1. Do the mini blog hop and feel free to follow our blogs if you like what you see ;)
2. Follow Paper Issues on Facebook
3. Follow the Amanda Rose blog
4. Leave a Comment on the Paper Issues blog that you did both.
5. Link up a project on the Paper Issues blog for a bonus entry! Any project - how easy is that?

If you want the stamps NOW, you can always buy them. Amanda's running a buy 2, get 1 FREE deal! Get the details on the Paper Issues blog!

Now, go checkout what these amazing ladies did with their stamps and Project Life:

Heather <--you are="are" here="here" you--="you--">

Judean: http://sukeydookiedoo.blogspot.com/

Missy: http://www.missygener.com/

Kellie: http://www.kelliewinnell.com.au/

Aimee: http://aimeesarmoire.typepad.com/aimees-armoire/

Good luck!