It's All About the Packaging...

So every year, my best friend Eileen and her Mom do an Annual Cookie Swap at the holidays. This is always a source of many hours of work. In other words, it's a big, fat hairy deal.

We always have to make between 12- 14 dozen of cookies. We make one dozen for each person in attendance, and one dozen extra for the party for us to eat.

We also do a grab bag, play some games, and it's just a really fun time. I look forward to it every year. It's a big girl event only, so no kids. I look forward to seeing all the gals that I haven't seen since the last cookie swap.

So, here's the thing...I can bake pretty good. Some years my cookies are better than others. Some years, they just suck. But for me, the cookie swap is more of a time to use my CRAFTING skills, rather than my baking skills. I am always wondering how I am going to package the cookies in a way that will be adorable. No cello bags with santa's on it from WalMart for me. Nope. It's got to be crafty and something you can't buy. I spend a lot of time each year trying to come up with something cute, and just a little better than last year.

I thought this year I wanted to make a house of some sort, and after playing around all week with loads of ideas, here is what I came up with.

This is made from a plain white gift bag. I cut the top part with the handles off, and covered the front and back with Kraft Cardstock (definately use sticky strip top adhere it so it doesn't come off). Then I cut another piece for the roof. The back of the roof adheres with Sticky Strip, but the front has velco closures so you can get into the bag. I punched 2 holes in the top of the roof and put in 2 Jumbo Pewter Eyelets. I then threaded the 5/8" Chocolate Chip ribbon through the eyelets and tied on the inside.

I stamped the snowflakes on front and back with White Craft Ink. The tree and bird are from the Season' of Friendship Stamp Set. The windows were made with punches. The red piece is 1.5" square, the Chocoalte Window is the 1 3/8" square punch. And the 4 little craft windows are 1/2" squares.

The door is simply a 2" x 3" piece of Kraft cardstock, sponged on the edge with Close to Cocoa. A Chocolate Chip Jumbo Brad acts as the door knob. The small heart is the smallest heart from the Heart to Heart Punch. The snow is simply a strip that I tore by hand, I added 2 way glue across the top and topped it off with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

The label "From Our House to Yours" was made for this project! It's from the Sweet Season Stamp Set. I stamped it in Chocolate Chip and colored the heart in with a Real Red Marker. It gets punched out with the Large Oval Punch.

I then punched 2 Real Red Scallop Ovals, and adhered them to the Wide Oval to make a background. 2 Gold Brads added to the sides, and a few Stampin' Dimensinoals, and viola!

I am pretty pleased how it turned out, although it did take me all day to design it. LOL.

Now I just need to find a really good Christmas Cookie Recipe! ;0)

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day!