Gift bags deconstructed..

I love putting together handmade gift bags for Christmas dinner. This year I needed to make up six. Here they are..deconstructed:

A crocheted star ornament.. My mom actually still has the paper origami ornament I made for their gift baskets from last year, hanging in her kitchen with her plants. I found the tutorial for this one here. You can obviously use any color combination - I just really liked how hers looked so went with nearly the same colors. They were a quick knit.

I included these cute crocheted "hot plates". They are a six row granny square with a single crochet binding off edge.

Handmade candles. I purchased 4oz containers and wicks. I already had the wax, and I added a little bit of Fir Needle essential oil to give them a Christmas scent.

How could I possibly give gift bags without baking something up for each one?! These are soooooo good. I found the recipe here. I was going to frost them with light green frosting - but I just loved how they looked in pink. These come out more cakey and fluffy then normal sugar cookies. I never liked them when people rolled them out too thin and then cooked them too long so that they turned crunchy. No No No! Sugar cookies are meant to be fat, thick and fluffy!

They will all be receiving a bar of my winter mint soap. So minty good!

Various flavor lip balms.

And lastly a cute mailer with two peppermint tea bags attached. Downloaded here

Hopefully they will be a hit, last year I made each basket from newspaper. Weaving them back and forth. They were a lot of fun to make. Who knows what next year will bring..

Merry Christmas All!