Keeping Christmas {Sweet Treats for You}

Welcome to this month's installment of the "Keeping Christmas Inspiration Blog Hop"! I was doubting my ability to get something made during this busy month of May, but look at me! Here I am! LOL! I actually finished these sooner than many  most of my projects! You'll want to head to each designer's blog for more inspiration!

Kelly Lunceford

Lesley Croghan

Anita Madden

(off this month)

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth
(Off this month)

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger

(off this month)

For this month's project I whipped up 8 tags that can, if the recipient so desires, to double as ornaments. Honestly, I am contemplating never gifting them and just using them as ornaments for my Kitchen Christmas tree. shhhhhhh....don't tell anyone! They would be such a great addition! I was actually inspired to make these because of the current Merry Monday Christmas Challenge, which I am the host of this week! After I finished my card, I was ready to make cookies!

The inspiration photo that I used had a felt garland of sweets and treats, so I decided to work with felt for my tags and the cookies.  To begin, I die cut 8 circles from Kraft cardstock and 2 each of  Sweet Blush Felt, Limeade Ice Felt, Simply Chartreuse Felt, and Pure Poppy Felt.  This particular felt is the best I have ever worked with!  On this pink one, I added a Holly Berry accent that I bought at Hobby Lobby and have used on other projects like this one HERE.  I've been able to find them two years in a row and they are part of their "Make it Christmas" line. They usually put these items quite early, so if you're interested, you could probably get them as early as August!

The "sweet treats for you" sentiments are from the Sweet Holiday Wishes stamp set. I used the coordinating Sweet Holiday Wishes Die set for the "sweet" portion as well as all of the cookies. The wreath in this particular tag is also from the "Make it Christmas" line at Hobby Lobby.

I used my sewing machine to sew around each of the tags/ornaments using white thread. I used red baker's twine as the "hanger" and made sure to tuck the ends in and secure with scotch tape before I  sewed around the edges. I considered using felt for both sides, but in the end chose paper for two reasons; I didn't want to use a ton of felt and the other reason being that I needed a place to stamp to/from and be able to write on it...that is, if I don't keep them all to myself! LOL!

Each felt cookie is adorned with Nuvo drops for added dimension. I just love the extra realistic detail that it adds to each cookie. I stamped "sweet" and "treats for you" using Pure Poppy Ink.

Once I had sewn around each tag, and created each embellishment, I used a hot glue gun to stick everything down. I wouldn't want to risk having things fall off, and hot glue is the perfect adhesive for this type of a project. 

 You can see the entire collection here. These were so fun to work on! I always find that when things are turning out better than I envisioned, I just want to keep going! That was definitely the case with these tags!

You can see the back side of the tags in this photo.  The to/from images are from the Painted Poinsettia stamp set .  I have quite a few stamp sets that include these, so you might have a few in your stash as well. Thanks for fluttering by! 

P.S. If you decide to play along with us, please use the hashtag #keepingchristmas2018 on Instagram so we can find your creations, or leave a comment with your blog address!