Get Scrappy For Christmas with Hand Made, Upcycled Gifts and Cards

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

Since that most wonderful time of the year is approaching, I thought I'd get together a blog full of crafty ideas and inspiration that will help you make it through, with a smile. I make a lot of digital, hybrid and hand made goodies as gifts. I thought I'd share some of those with you so you can amp up your arsenal of ideas for this holiday season.

These all come from previous blogs so you can simply click on the images and get to those blogs to see more relative information or even get step by step tutorials and coordinating free stuff.

We started making cards to send out a few months. I'll share a few of those with you here.  You can use nearly all of your cards for scrapbooking.  Even if it's just for the rigidity of a well made card. I often just paper over a card that is very rigid or with a unique kind of format.

I often wonder if any of my recipients remember that an element from their card was from a card that they have given me.  Hehehe...

Cut out the part of the card that works for you and get creative crafty!  Try to keep those colors coordinating for a less busy, clustered finish.

I used this really pretty card for the cover of an album I gave as a gift.  Easy, right?

Look carefully at all of those inserts. Even those pretty, gold metallic strips are from cards and they match perfectly with my gift. All I had to do was add a touch more gold around and these pages were finished.

The above ornament is not just an ornament with a picture. It's a mini album and ya see the money coming out of the sides?  The picture served as a page cover and a pocket. These are upcycled CD's.  There is a step by step tutorial for this one. Click here or on the image.

This was a small, mini album in a tin can. You can use cards as backgrounds and or use goodies from cards to decorate the pages because they are so small, you don't need a lot of things to put on them. I went way back and used really fun pics of times long ago and even dared using pictures of those no longer with us. It was a tear jerker!  Hehehe...

Just last week I showed off several different ways to use our free folding mini template. I've got a video and step by step for them. They can be made in minutes and use a minimal amount of supplies. Great when you are caught up in the rush.

I totally recommend going to Pinterest and looking up recycled Christmas cards. There are some phenomenal ideas there.  've also got a lot of boards there to help you with recipes, gift ideas for the difficult ones, stocking stuffers, home made gifts, patterns, printables...

I hope we could help you out this holiday season. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Gift Giving, Christmas And Autism

Welcome to another special edition of The Cherry On Top.

If you are a new arrival, we've got two boys with Autism at very different spectrums.  It has certainly been a learning experience for us as for with anyone who is living with Autism.  In Cherry style, we like to offer our experiences as means to enlighten others or show people that they are not alone with the struggle.

We'd like to share some tips on gift giving for Autistic recipients as we've found useful as well as let you know how it could be this busy, magical and festive time of year.  Perhaps you are attending a party and or are bring gifts, too.

If you know the child or person very well.  Then you probably know exactly what they will like or what their interests are.  Just get yourself ready for any kind of reaction.  Even one that may not be so positive.  My youngest may drop the gift and shout that he hates it only three days later, he will call it his favourite.  Some kids need time with their gift.  Especially, if it's totally new to them.  They will need to look at it, study it, smell it maybe even taste it and perhaps, trust it.

Try your best not to be offended.  Smile with understanding and encouragement and just give it time. 'Tis the season after all, right?  Try not to take it personally and certainly do not push the gift on the recipient.

I would highly recommend, asking the parent or even the person, what they would like.  Especially, if you can't handle a possible back lash.  Hehehe...  Our family made the arrangement that we'd buy all of the gifts and they would reimburse us.  Not everyone is keen on an idea like that and personally, I 

can understand that, too.  I like the thought of our kids being introduced to new stuff knowing full well how it "could" be.  It's all needed experiences and the chance to try to get the boys to understand that it's not acceptable to react in this way, to a lot of people.

I made this Advent Calendar this year for the boys.  It was largely a success.  However, I put tiny cookies in the boxes everyday in-between the other goodies, you see above, so they wouldn't receive a toy or candy everyday and my youngest had a complete, ugly meltdown after days of receiving these little cookies.  Hehehe....  Just a tip for you.  The candy was all great, but those darn cookies every couple of days ruined it.  Now, don't jump to the conclusion about spoiling and that he should just learn to "deal".  I wanted this to be a very fun and positive thing.  I wanted it to be fun everyday and it wasn't.  Lesson learned.

Remember, this time of year can be very hectic and of course, every year is different.  I know I feel the stress of the season.  Sometimes more stressful than joyful.  So I can only imagine how difficult it must be for the boys.  Keep that in mind if you see behaviour that you find unfitting or annoying and try to understand just how hard it is.  I often think my boys have hundreds of tabs opened in their brain and it's tough to focus on the main page. If you see clapping, jumping, screaming or other types of behaviour, know it's just a coping mechanism.  Disapproving looks and opinions are not at all helpful.

We truly hope that the season will bring the gifts of peace, understanding, tolerance, acceptation and unconditional love to all. One can dream and we can all be the example. 

Thank you for joing us.