December Daily - Day Eight

December is flying by right before my eyes! I'd like to slow the clock down a little to enjoy sitting by the tree with another cup of cocoa or two!

On this eigth day of December I'd like to share a fun little ornament that doubles as a gift card holder. This mini lunch pail is the perfect size to hold a gift card or some cold hard cash. And when the money is gone, your recipient is left with an adorable ornament to enjoy year-after-year.

I started this project with a mini Sprite lunch box that I found at Target and added patterned paper to the front and back to hide the Sprite logo. Then I embellished it with a chipboard tree that I painted red and glittered. To the tree I added punched snowflakes and layered them with stitched micro mini buttons. The final touches are the chipboard date accent, the ribbon and jingle bells.

In my etsy shop, I have these mini lunch pails available for sale along with the 'Ho Ho Ho' ribbon and jingle bells for anyone who would like to make this project.

Now I'd like to share a couple of our holiday traditions. In 2004 we moved from California to North Carolina and decided at Christmas to start collecting nutcrackers. This year marks the sixth one who is standing proudly up on our mantel in the family room.

He's a pretty special guy because the drum he stands on is also a music box that plays the theme song from the Nutcracker ballet. This next guy is from last year and proudly plays his drum for us. He's displayed on an antique folding card table next to our Christmas tree in the living room.

I can't remember off hand the years we received the next few nutcrackers. They are marked on the bottom of each piece. I love the bright colors of this next red one who has a list of good girls and boys in his hand. He's on the living room coffee table under a glass cloche. Don't let my dear friend Audrey know, she'll tell me he can't breath under there! :)

This next one, a fine pirate, is sitting between all the photos of Christopher with Santa Claus from his first Christmas in 2001 to last Christmas. That's the other tradition I want to share. We see Santa each year and have collected different frames to display each photo taken. I love to see how much Christopher has grown each year. This display is also in the living room.

This last nutcracker graces the opposite side of our fire place from the newest nutcracker in the first photo. We have one more downstairs somewhere, but it seems I missed taking a photo of him. Anyway, you get the picture.

Maybe you will feel inspired to start a nutcracker collection or new tradition this year? We started a new one this year, a collection of Department 56 village houses. What a fun display we'll have in 10 years!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by and take a peek at our Christmas traditions and my craft project for the day. Hope you can come back tomorrow! :) Kathy