Christmas in July!

Welcome to my first ever Memories in Tyme Christmas in July Blog Hop!! We are hoping to inspire you to create your Christmas gifts this year and save in this tough economy. If you start spending a bit of time new-it won't sneak up on you in the end. We hope you enjoy all of the fun ideas we're sharing with you today! If you are starting at my blog, please click HERE to be taken to Linda's blog to begin! A special thank you to Linda for putting this all together for us today and allowing me to participate! As you're hopping through, you should be arriving here from Jenny's Blog.

Today I am sharing with you a fairly simple, yet completely elegant and enjoyable Christmas gifts-perfect for neighbors, the bus driver and special others that you don't want to leave out but may not spend quite as much money on-ya know?! We enjoyed handing these out to the office ladies at my children's Elementary School too-PERFECT! The key is the packaging and creating a beautiful tag to accompany your cocoa cone-remember, presentation is everything!

The hot cocoa is packaged first and in it's own individual clear packaging so it stays nice and neat. Do you recognize the 'clear cone packaging'?! Buy a set of the individual piping bags made for cake decorating using your 40% OFF coupon at Michaels! Add mini-chocolate chips and top it with mini-marshmallows. Seal the bag tightly (we used small, clear hair ties), then tie on your tag with a pretty bow. They start having great deals on Christmas ribbon soon, you could use your stash of those 'not quite long enough to do anything else with' pieces of stray ribbon or pick some up at a thrift shop. Use your scraps to make tags and then stamp them.

I used K and Company's Christmas line here and a package of embellishment brads to add something special. CTMH's stamps are PERFECT if you ask me. Make the assembly process quick by cutting the tags in the 'fill' feature on your Cricut. Everything looks better matted, so splurge on that extra sheet of paper and stamp To: and From: on the back if you'd like too.

Thank you for being here with us today! I sure hope you are a Fabulous Friend of mine (Follower). I'd like to give away a Christmas Craft surprise package for my blog candy, valued at $20. I'd prefer you are a 'follower of mine to win, but you don't have to be. Please leave a comment on this post and be sure to check back here on the 26th to see if you've won! I'll have many more giveaways coming up and more Christmas in July inspiration too! When you're ready, click HERE to hop on to Jennifer's blog and finish our Blog Hop. Then, turn on your Christmas music, crank up the AC and start on your projects early! You'll be glad you did!