Christmas Treats and Treasures

As promised, I am sharing more of my ideas for Christmas treats and treasures. Personalized gifts are wonderful projects for the frugal friend. I love to share the holiday spirit with my loved ones WITHOUT getting overcome by expenses. I have fun making things at home and even more fun personalizing them. Here is a bundle for our friends, the Fords.

On your left, you have a personalized soap dispenser with a festive ribbon. This can be done within a very reasonable budget or taken up a notch with more flashy accessories and expensive hand soaps.

Necessary items:

Soap Bottles

Goo Gone

Paper Towels

Wire-edged ribbon

Stickers

Scissors

This bottle had all the labels taken off and Goo Gone got the rest of the residue. Then, I personalized it with their last name in stickers. You could also use seasonal or inspirational words for those with names too long for a bottle. The ribbon used at the top had a wire edge which made it easier to form into a neat bow. As I am just now giving these out at Christmas, I didn't want to make the ribbon too seasonal. With the right color choices, this could be a party favor or gift basket item for any occasion!

In the center is a gladware container full of homemade candies: peanut butter balls, oreo dreams, chocolate covered ritz peanut butter sandwiches, thin mint snowmen, peppermint bark snowmen with dark chocolate bottoms,  almond bark pretzels, etcetera. . . Recipes for the snowmen below. The lid is decorated with scrapbooking paper cut to fit and topped with scraps on which to write a Christmas message. Glue dots made the creation easy to attach to the lid even with its ridges.

Peppermint Bark Snowmen
6 squares White Almond bark (melted)
1 Cup Rice Krispies (crushed)
1 Cup Peppermint Candies (chopped)
1 bag dark chocolate morsels (melted)
Candy molds (or an ice cube tray will work just fine)

Use your double boiler method or a small crock to melt the almond bark and the dark chocolate (separately). Of course, be careful not to burn either as they are finicky ingredients.

Place your peppermint candies in a food processor to be chopped finely rather than beating your counter to death! Combine with your crushed rice krispies.

Add the candie krispie mix to your melted white almond bark and pour into molds until 1/2 to 2/3 full. Then, pour the melted dark chocolate to fill the remaining portion of each mold.

Refrigerate to set and enjoy or share!

Thin Mint Snowmen
It's time to share those yummy girl scout treats you've been hoarding!
12 squares (full pkg) Chocolate Almond Bark (melted)
1 Roll Thin Mints (crushed)

Melt. Crush. Mix. Mold. Refrigerate. It's just that easy and they are yummy!

Finally, on your right is the apple butter recipe featured last month. To keep the gift set matching, I did a circle cutout of similar scrapbooking paper to tuck inside the lid. With a fine-point sharpie, a personal message adds just a little something extra to another homemade treat.

There are only two things that would have made these craft and candy-making projects more fun: company and more leftovers! Happy gifting and Merry Christmas!