Christmas - The Idea Room

Chalkboard art gift label

**If you are new here and are visiting from The Ellen Show, we are glad you stopped by! I hope you like what you see here. Looking for the Peppermint Candy Cane Sugar Scrub Recipe that was shared on Ellen’s site? You can find that by clicking on this link: Peppermint Candy Cane Sugar Scrub! You will find a full tutorial with step by step photos and instructions. I also offer a free download for the fun labels! Thanks for stopping by!

I was hoping to share this with you earlier,but it ended up being a “last minute” project. With the events of the last weekend, I found myself wanting to distance myself from the computer and the internet…so this years Teacher Gifts sat undone.

I always like to give the kids teachers a practical gift that they will actually use. I have made a few different versions of these unique and personalized Hand Sanitizer Bottles and this year was no exception. The kids teachers have always “claimed” to love them so we continue to give them out. I always add a fun gift card for the local Movie Theater or a Restaurant for them to enjoy, along with the Hand Sanitizer.

If you are new here, you might want to check out some of the other Hand Sanitizer Bottles I have shared:

Hand in Hand Sanitizer Bottle

Monogrammed Hand Sanitizer

Christmas Joy Hand Sanitizer

Thanksgiving Hand Sanitizer

This year I decided to show you an example of putting the label INSIDE the bottle, which is the same as I have done for all our past versions of this along with putting the label on the OUTSIDE of the bottle. My personal preference is for the label to be on the inside, which is printed on a sheet of Transparency Paper (film). And the label on the outside of the bottle is simply just printed on a laser printer onto some white cardstock.

For complete, step-by-step instructions, please refer to this hand sanitizer tutorial. If you are going to make labels to go inside the bottle you will need to print onto your transparency with a laser printer. This is a CRUCIAL step. Every year I get emails from people who use an ink jet printer and wonder why their ink slides off into the bottle.

If you don’t have a Laser printer or copier, or your printer is not made to print on transparencies (check your owners manual), then you can simply have your local copy center print it onto a transparency for you. They usually charge a small fee but in the scope of things, this turns out to be a very affordable gift!

I have provided you with a free download of this fun Chalkboard Art Christmas Label. Simply click on the link or the image below to download the labels for your own use. You will need to re-size the labels to fit into the bottles you end up using. I made them a bit larger so you could use larger bottles if you would like too. Just re-size the image in your printing program before printing.

I printed mine out so that the width measured 2.75 inches (if my memory serves me right).

Merry&Bright Chalkboard Art Label

*As always please remember to link back to this post and send others here rather than sharing them on your own sites. These are for your own personal use and are not for resale or redistribution.

I am really enjoying this trendy Chalkboard Art…so of course I had to put my own little twist on it. Aren’t they so much fun? And, if you don’t want to make the hand sanitizer bottles (or soap bottles) you can simply print these out and use them as a gift tag or frame it for your desk!

December 19, 2012 · Filed under: Christmas, Christmas Gifts, Crafts, Gifts, Teacher Gifts Tagged with

Holiday Projects with 3M

20 Comments

I was recently asked by 3M, the makers of Scotch Blue Painter’s Tape (Visit ScotchBlue.com for more information. ), to come up with a fun and festive project using Scotch Blue Tape. Now, I don’t know about you, but I LOVE glass jars. Do you? I love to use them around the house as part of your Christmas Decor and for all sorts of other things. One can never have too many decorative jars.

So, I thought it would be fun to use some Scotch Blue Tape to dress up a couple of jars that I could then use as part of my Holiday Christmas Décor. I wanted to make the jar fairly classic in design and color, so that I could use it year round for several different holidays and purposes.

I love how clean and simple the end product came out. I can already see several ways to be able to use the jar. Throw some a berry garland and some battery powered Christmas lights in the jar and set in the middle of a Pine Wreath to make a sparkly table centerpiece for your Holiday Table, or drop a candle inside (carefully) to create a festive mood in your home. (I light my candle with a piece of spaghetti…true story!)

The jar was really easy to make. I simply took a nice glass jar and then used some Scotch Blue Tape to mark off areas that I did not want to be covered with paint. Be sure to thoroughly clean the jar so that the tape and paint stick.

Feel free to get creative here. Now, my personality likes clean and simple lines…but you could do a chevron pattern, plaid or skewed lines…or, punch some circles out of your tape with a round circle pattern and make polka-dots. You can also get creative with punch letters and other punch patterns. There are so many ways you could use Scotch Blue Tape to dress up your jars.

Be sure to cover all areas of the jar you do not want to be painted. Then take your favorite spray paint and spray your jar. Frosted glass spray would also be fun to use to! Let your jar sit for a few minutes (till it is no longer tacky) but not fully dry and then remove the tape. If you remove the tape when the paint is still damp, the paint will not pull up off of the jar.

The possibilities are endless. I want to make another jar and fill it up with some red and white Christmas Candy for me to ~~eat~~ use as decor.

Another fun idea would be to pretty up some jars and gift them filled with some Holiday goodness. This is such an easy way to add some festive fun to the Holidays. Be sure to stop back by The Idea Room later this week for a free printable for some Oatmeal Cookies in a Jar!

Disclosure: This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape. To join the creative community, visit the ScotchBlue Facebook Page.

You can also find out more about Scotch Blue here:

ScotchBlue Facebook Page

ScotchBlue Tape’s Twitter Page

December 10, 2012 · Filed under: Christmas, Christmas Decor, DIY Tutorials Tagged with christmas crafts, Christmas decor, glass spray paint, scotch blue tape

Red Velvet Swirl Pancakes

12 Comments

Do you serve a special breakfast for Christmas morning? Or do you fill up on your stocking stuffers and candy canes? Honestly, we tend do do a little bit of both. I usually try to get around to making a late breakfast for my family. Something that is a “little” bit healthier than Christmas Candy. This year I think I am going to be making these Red Velvet Pancakes with a “candy cane” swirl.

I decided to glam up the traditional Red Velvet Pancakes and add a festive Holiday swirl. I know Red Velvet is not for everyone…but these tasted pretty amazing. My kids LOVED them. And I love how pretty they are!

And here is the thing, I love eating a hot breakfast in the morning…but don’t always love getting up extra early in the morning to make it. So I have a little trick that works pretty well for us. I will make up a big batch of pancakes and then pop them into the freezer.

I put them into a Freezer Ziploc Baggie and separate each pancake with a small square of parchment or wax paper. Then in the morning we pull them out and pop them into the toaster. Bingo! A quick…no mess…hot breakfast for the kids. They also make great on the go snacks to.

I whipped up a quick and easy Vanilla Cream Cheese Syrup that was the perfect touch of sweetness to the Red Velvet Pancakes. Or…top it with some whipped cream and some frozen raspberries! Yum!

Here is the recipe:

Red Velvet Swirl Pancakes

Ingredients

2 cups Flour
2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups Buttermilk
4 Tablespoon Butter, melted
red food coloring

Vanilla Cream Cheese Syrup

3 Tablespoon Cream Cheese, softened
3 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
¼ to ½ cup milk

Instructions

Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add eggs, Buttermilk, and butter.
Stir together, but don't over-mix. There will be a few lumps in your batter.
Pull out about 1/2 cup of the batter and set aside in a squeeze bottle. This will be your white swirl batter.
Add food coloring to the rest of the pancake batter.
Let sit for about 10 minutes so the batter can rise a bit.
Pour batter onto griddle and then take your white batter and squeeze a thin swirl onto the top of your pancake.
Cook on medium to medium high heat until bubbles form on the top of your pancake.
Flip and cook on the other side.
To prevent your pancakes from browning and hiding your white swirl, the key is to cooking them slower over a lower heat.
Mix together your syrup and add just enough milk to get the desired consistency for your syrup by adding a couple of Tablespoons of milk at a time.

http://www.theidearoom.net/2012/12/red-velvet-swirl-pancakes.html