I recently made some decorated candy bars for Christmas to donate to an organization that was collecting them to pass out to kids in need and senior citizens.  I've never decorated candy bars before so it was fun to create something different than what I usually do.  My goal was to just use craft supplies that I had on hand and not buy anything but the candy bars.  I pretty much kept to that goal but ended up buying some Hershey's kisses for the reindeer's noses.  This post is mainly just for ideas and inspiration, not a step by step tutorial, but I will share a few tips on how I made some of the creations.

The photo above shows most of the supplies I used.  I used just basic Elmer's glue to glue everything together.  The paper I used for the reindeer was a tube of brown kraft paper that I use to wrap packages to ship.  The paper I used for the santas and snowmen was a tube of white paper that is to wrap packages in too. 

The reindeer, Santa and short snowmen were all make out of Kit Kat bars.

 The longer snowmen were made out of Hershey's Cookies 'n' Cream candy bars.

I love how these Santas turned out!  They feel like a craft that I would have made in grade school!

For the Santa hat I unrolled a cotton ball (not sure all cotton balls are made this way) to use for the Santa hat fur bottom and some leftover pieces of cotton ball rolled up for the ball on top of the hat.  For the beard I cut full sized cotton balls into slices with a scissors. 

The reindeers were really fun to make!  I came up with the idea to use a red Hershey's kiss for that famous reindeers nose.  So you get a little bonus chocolate with the reindeer nose!  For the antlers I made a template to print onto construction paper and cut out a bunch of them.  I've included a pdf antler template for you to use if you would like to print the template onto construction paper.  I've always had success running construction paper through my printer.  I've made the template in 2 sizes...one for the reg construction paper size of 9 x 12 and regular 8.5 x 11 size paper.  If using the 9x12 size make sure your printer is set up for that size.  On my printer I had to make it a custom size in order to print it out correctly.  Click here for 9 x 12 template and click here for 8.5 x 11 template.

This is probably obvious how to attach the paper wrapper for the body or face but what I did was attach the underside with a little piece of tape to the back side of the candy bar to secure it and then wrap it around the candy bar and attach with one or two pieces of tape.

 The snowmen are a great way to use up small scraps of construction paper.

Do you have someone on your Christmas list who had a baby this year or a couple who got married? Give them a cute personalized keepsake to remember the occasion year after year.  All personalized cupcake ornaments are on sale now thru December 13th, 2015.  Sale valid only at AmyMillerDesigns.com

**FLASH SALE** going on this weekend only (Nov 21 & 22, 2015)!

Get this adorable "Cookies" Gingerbread woman themed DIY Printable banner for 50% off...only $4.00!! Great to hang up at Holiday Bake Sales, Cookie Walks & Cookie Exchanges & Swaps! It's an instant download file so you'll have your banner within minutes of ordering to print, cut and hang! Get your banner HERE!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: Twelve Cute Cupcake Ornaments! ; ) Christmas is approaching fast and so is the deadline to purchase items online.  Last day to purchase items from my shop to arrive by Christmas is Monday, December 16th. The 12 cupcakes below are just a few of the many styles that are available here! Traditional Christmas Colors:

Personalized: Get a personalized cupcake for someone you know.  Kids LOVE seeing their names on items!  Personalize one for a Teacher, Baby's 1st Christmas and recently married couples with Our 1st Christmas.  Want your cupcake to say something a little different, just let me know and I most likely can make it for you.

Patterns Galore: There are many beautiful and fun patterns to choose from including Chevron, Flowers, Animal Print and Damask.

Happy Shopping!

Do you have any teachers on your Christmas List to buy for this year?   If so below are some personalized teacher's Christmas ornaments that are available in my shop here!

Is a gift card more your thing?  I have a FREE DIY gift card holder and matching note card to add a little message with the gift card.  You can find the downloadable gift card holder and note card here.

Is anyone else tired and confused on all the Pre Black Friday / Black Thursday / Black Friday / Etc. sales?  I sure am.  It makes me start to think if anything is really a good deal at all on these sales or is it just hype.

 I don't participate in the whole Black Friday sales thing as much as I use to.  I do sometimes shop a little online that day if I'm not busy filling orders for my shop.  I think the last time I went out on Black Friday was a couple years ago and I went to Target at 5:00 am or so.  I found most of the items I was looking for and then went to check out and it was absolute chaos.  The shopping part of it wasn't that bad (except all the carts were gone and I had to carry everything I wanted in my hands) but the check out line was a mess!  People were cutting in lines, lines were wrapping around all over the store...just crazy.  I think I stood in line for about 45 minutes to 1 hour to pay and debated was this really worth my time and the anger it's causing me.  The older I get the more annoyed I get with large crowds.  Anyone else feel that way?  I think that's why I enjoy shopping online more and more...no stupid people in my way! ; ) So are you going to brave the crowds on Black Thursday/Friday?  I'm not going to say I'll never go out on that day again, but that so called "deal" better be a good deal to get me out there!

Planning a Cookie Exchange / Cookie Swap?  I've got an adorable DIY Printable Cookie Exchange Party kit available for you in my shop.  This kit comes with all the printables you see below!  It's a lot of items all done in a gingerbread woman theme.  All the artwork is original created by myself, you will not find these designs anywhere else.

Let's go in for a closer look.  Below is the custom invitation.  You send me all your party details and I'll make you a custom invitation.

Next up is a cute circle banner that spells "Cookies" to hang at your cookie station.

Let's zoom in a little more on that banner.  The letters on the banner are made to look like frosted sugar cookies with sprinkles.

Also in the kit is a Welcome sign to tape on your door or put in a frame in your entry way.  There are blank tent style food label cards to use to label all the variety of yummies that everyone will bring.

Three different favor tag designs are included.  You can use them to label everyone's cookie boxes or plates and attach them to party favors.  The 3 designs are a gingerbread woman, Thank you! (with the "o" being the gingerbread woman's face) and a fill in the blank style with sprinkles around the edge.  You can use these for the box/plate labels and write the person's name on them.  The tags can be cut square (like the one on the plate) or cut into circles with a 2" circle punch.

Matching recipe cards print 4 to a page.  You can use these as a little party favor and include a cookie cutter and package them in a cellophane bag and attach with a matching favor tag.

Let's zoom in a little more on the favor tag, recipe card, food label and peppermint whoopie pies!  FYI those whoopie pies are so yummy, I'll share the recipe soon!

One more close up!

I told you it was a lot of cute designs!  Get a jump on your cookie party and get your printable kit here. If you don't need the whole kit you can also buy some of the items individually but the kit is a better value.  Here are the direct links to the individual items:  Invitation, Cookie Banner and Favor Tags.  All the individual items except for the invitation are all instant downloads.  What's an instant download?  Once you purchase the item/design the PDF file will be sent to your e-mail address right away. FYI, I get many requests from customers that want the Cookie Banner to say different things like "Cookie Swap", "Welcome", "Cookie Exchange" and other wording.  I am able to make the banner say different things (for an additional fee) for your needs, just let me know! In a few more days I'll share some pictures of this cute kit in action at a real cookie exchange party. Are you hosting a Cookie Exchange this year?  If yes, I'd like an invite!  ha ha ; )

Are you sick of the hot weather yet?  Dreaming of Christmas time and some cooler weather?  I am!  To go along with dreaming of Christmas time I decided to throw my first Christmas in July Sale in my shop.  Everything in my shop will be 25% off when you use the coupon code CHRISJULY at checkout.  FYI - I very seldom run sales especially on my faux cupcake decorations so take advantage of this now!  The 25% off discount will be valid from July 26-29, 2013.

What's included?  Well like I said before, everything!  Here's a little sampling of some of the items. FAUX CUPCAKE DECORATIONS - I make a variety of cupcake decorations in many different patterns.  Here are just a few.  I started making cupcake ornaments because I was trying to find a realistic yet cute cupcake ornament and couldn't find any I liked so I made one myself.  I then had other people ask me where I got my ornament and they wanted one so that's how my little cupcakes were born!

PERSONALIZED FAUX CUPCAKE DECORATIONS - These are made with the very popular cupcake circle toppers!  The personalized Baby's 1st Christmas cupcake is one of my popular sellers along with Our 1st Christmas for married couples with their names and marriage date.  Kids love having their own names on items so a personalized cupcake would be sure to please!

PRINTABLES -  For those that don't know I'm a surface and graphic designer and will keep adding more designs to my printables line.  All my printables are available as digital .pdf files that you can print from home and print as many as you need for your celebration.

ART PRINTS - All my current prints are 8x10, professionally printed and shipped to you ready to just pop into a frame.

Now get to shopping!!

Do you have a Holiday decoration that you put up every year just because you have it but don't really like it?  Well that's the story of my Christmas wreath that I hang on my front door.  I made the one below about 10 years ago and liked it at the time but over the years many things have fallen off, the pine cones keep disintegrating and so on.  I read somewhere that a wreath on your front door says something about your personality.  I didn't like what my old wreath was saying about my personality, so this year I pulled my wreath out from the attic and said I'm not putting this up again, I'm making a new one.

So off to Michaels I went to get a new wreath, ornaments, ribbon and fun glittery poinsettias and curly-Q picks (love these)!

The first thing I did was make a new bow:

I found my bow maker I made and used for a bunch of pew bows for my wedding about 10 years ago.

I made my bow maker out of some scrap wood and dowel rods I had.  You can find a similar one here that you can most likely find at one of the mass craft stores.  I haven't used it since my wedding and just stared at it and couldn't remember how to go about using it.  So off to the world wide web I went to see if I could find out how to use it again.  I found this great step by step video that showed how to make a wreath bow and that's exactly how I made my bow. I decided to use floral wire to attach all the decorations to my wreath.  The old wreath I made I just hot glued everything onto it and I live in a very warm weather climate and store my wreath in the attic of my garage.  I think the glue might have kind of come unglued with the hot weather temperature.  We'll see if this new one holds up a little better over the years being attached with wire instead of glue. So here's what my new wreath looks like.  I think it shows my personality a little more than the old one! ; )

A close up view:

I didn't get my new wreath made until Dec 24th (can you say procrastination?) so I'm looking forward to putting it up next year!