Mamie Made Christmas: Simple (and Cheap) Tags

I've just begun my Christmas wrapping and I am feeling a little organised, not quite there yet but definitely on the way. This year I bought some tags some beautiful shiny gold stars, I bought two packs each with ten stars in it.

 So I spent the morning wrapping teachers gifts etc and used up a whole pack of tags and well these tags weren't cheap (and I probably could make them myself with my silhouette) but anyway they save time right?

 So I devised a new plan that will work for any gifts, gifts that you would like to look a little pretty or all of those little gifts you give to your kids. Generally all those little gifts for your kids you really just want to get their name on it so you know who it belongs to. 

 So did you spot the little tag? Yep that little pennant shaped gold its a little tag, popped under a handmade tissue paper decoration. And they are so easy to make, they literally only take a second to make and you will already have out everything you need to make it when you are doing your gift wrapping

 So to begin with cut some of your gift wrapping paper, this gold paper was from Woolworth's and was only about $3. You want to cut a strip that is about 10cm wide for a small tag- it can be as long as you like. 

 Fold it in half then cut a small piece off, mine are about 3cms.

 Simply cut a pennant shape into the little piece of wrapping paper.

 Write inside of it!

 Then attach it to your gift, either with sticky tape or with some double sided tape.

These gifts have pretty decorations on them so I can stick these tags under the decoration but for my boys small gifts I simply sticky taped the tag to the top right of the gift with no other decoration.

This one has a simple raffia bow and some washi tape.

This has got to be the quickest and cheapest tag I've ever made and I love that they can match the wrapping completely.

So there you go I hope this helps and you find ways to simplify your wrapping this christmas!

Mamie Made: An Advent House

With all of the advent activities that we are going to be doing I thought it would be nice if i had somewhere to deliver them to, sort of like a post box. A place that the boys can go to each day to find their activity.

After a discussion about which activities all three of my boys (hubby included) wanted and didn't want to do this year  it was specifically decided that nobody wanted to make a gingerbread house this year so I figured that I could make a cute little home for the advent activities instead.

 Its still a work in progress, it still needs window treatments on the sides and some pretty decorations to make it more Christmassy but it is well on the way. Also the roof entirely comes off so that the kids can reach inside and pull out the activity. I'm also thinking it would look cute lit up at night with some lights inside!

 Don't you think that a sweet little potted real tree and a reindeer would look totally cute next to my advent house! I'm just trying to convince myself to spend the money on a reindeer ;-)

Snail Mail Incoming

Not long after I sent out the tea pouches I received some lovely snail mail in my post box.

 This gorgeous little pouch was all sewn up and fit right inside a normal envelope! What a fabulous idea for something small to send!

Inside was some confetti and I was super surprised to find that my boys had no idea what confetti is. A very long conversation about confetti was quite funny. She also added a Project Life Card with a lovely thank you letter inside. 

Thankyou pen pal for the lovely snail mail!

Advent Chocolates

Last year for Advent we did an awesome activity  every day for advent it was lots of fun and my boys really enjoyed it. This year I  asked my big boy Blake (8) if he would like to do it again and the answer was a big yes! Later he came back to me and asked if we could also do one of those chocolate things as well. My initial reaction was no only because Luke (7) is lactose intolerant and chocolate does not sit well with him. I thought about it for a while and decided that I would make our own chocolate advent that way luke can enjoy a treat that works for him.

I ended up deciding that my husband and I would also enjoy this little advent treat so I have made a set for each of us. I simply wrapped all the treats in blue and silver paper and printed out some numbers and stuck them on.

 Hubby and Blake have the naughty choccies and luke and I have something a little healthier. We are still also going to do an activity each day but since this type of food is not normally in our house it will be nice to have a treat!If you have lovely sensible children (or adults!) you may not need to number them but my boys would eat the entire jar in one go!!

 I'm yet to wrap mine up, I might wrap them in a little more girly colours I'm not sure yet.I was glad to have almost crossed this one off my list, its one more thing done in my orginisation for christmas and it always feels good to cross things off my list! 

 I think they will add to the decorations this year too, they fit in with the colour scheme of this room.

I must share our advent activities too. There are so many lovely advent ideas out there, what do you do for advent? And do you just let the kids participate in advent or do you do it too?