Boogers on the Wall

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I can’t do everything these days. Taking care of four young kids is harder than I thought. So this year I decided I needed to simplify a few things.

When I saw that soda was on sale at the grocery store I knew I could whip up a super easy, simple and inexpensive gift to hand out to our neighbors and friends.

I bought 30 big bottles of Fanta – some in orange, some in grape and some in strawberry flavor. I seriously got them for next to nothing.

Then I downloaded a couple of really cute Christmas fonts. Mountains of Christmas – you can download that here and Budmo – you can download that here.

I found a green chevron border online and made up a tag to go with the Fanta bottles that said, “Thanks for being ‘Fanta’stic friends! Merry Christmas, The Clemens Family.”

Super easy, super fast! Which is what I need these days. The hardest part was running to the copy store to get them printed because if you know me well, you know that I am always out of printer ink.

I found some red chevron Christmas ribbon at the craft store, punched holes into the tags and tied them to the tops of the bottles. It was so easy my husband even helped – until he found out that the ribbon had glitter on it.

I also made a few tags that said, “Thanks for being a ‘Fanta’stic teacher! Merry Christmas, The Clemens Family.” For my boys to give to their teachers.

I normally like to make a small craft to give to all my neighbor friends but it just isn’t happening these days. Even though I didn’t “make” them, I love how these bottles turned out. They are chilling in my basement storage room just waiting to be delivered.

One other simple, easy gift idea I made for a few family members this year is this countdown to Christmas.

I took scrap pieces of wood that we had leftover from finishing our deck this summer. I painted them antique white then cut out vinyl “Days Until Christmas” phrases on my Silhouette using the same Mountains of Christmas font that you can download for free here.

I found a cute Christmas label on the Silhouette store and cut it out of chalkboard vinyl. Who knew that stuff even existed? I just found it and I think it’s awesome. I love seeing my boys’ elementary-school handwriting each day as they erase and then fill in our count down. So fun!

Now if only I can come up with something to give my parents for Christmas!