I wished as hard as I could yesterday, but none of the rare Texas snow reached down to my part of the state, or even city! Outside of Houston, to the north and to the west got a few inches of snow which looked beautiful but it just didn’t come my way. Just rain ALL day and cold. Just not cold enough for snow! It’s been three years since we have seen snow, and I can tell you even a few flakes can be quite exciting here!

The cold and the snow reminded me of Christmas gifts I made using the Mini Coffee Carrier (retired) and the Mini Coffee Cups. Inside the cups I put a package of hot cocoa mix and plenty of candies (and maybe even a little cello bag of marshmallows). When I ran out of cups, I improvised with some retired bags from last year.

I decorated each Mini Coffee Carrier differently and decorated the cups as well. I didn’t own the dies to wrap paper around the cups so I had to decorate them some other ways because it is next to impossible to just wrap paper around a cup like that!

In the top photo, I used some Heartwarming Hugs Designer Series Paper (retired) to decorate the Mini Coffee Carrier and cut out some houses from the Trimming the Town Designer Paper (retired) plus a stamped and colored tree with some red enamel dots for the decoration. In my gift wrap I found tags I made last year from a Stampin’ Up! kit. How great was that to pull out some cute tags I had already made and were ready to use!

Here’s one made with the cute Gnome For the Holidays Stamp Set (retired) and colored with Stampin’ Blends! You can use lots of different shapes and sizes of die cuts for the focal point on these carriers.

Here’s how I decorated the cups to go with the gnomes. I used the Stitched Stars Dies in Gold Foil.

I’ll miss this Snowman Season Stamp Set! I used some adhesive Snowflake Sequins (retired) around him. I also used the Glitter Star Ornaments (retired) on each Mini Coffee Carrier, just tied around the handle. I decorated the cup with a big die-cut snowflake from the So Many Snowflakes Dies. I ran out of cups so I just put the treats in a retired gift bag and tied some retired Christmas ribbon from last year around the package to make it look festive.

You might notice some German words on this one! That’s because it was for my son who took German in high school and went to Austria for his semester abroad back in college. One sheet of the Trimming the Town Designer Paper had all Christmas words in many languages plus English printed in thin strips so I just found a German phrase on there to use and cut out the words! He also got a package wrapped in Merry Christmas ribbon from last year instead of a cup, but I think that was cute as well!

This Mini Coffee Carrier with a poinsettia is one I posted HERE back in November. You can see more details about these Mini Coffee Carriers on that post, if you already purchased some and have some extras to use.

And here’s how I decorated some cups just by cutting out images from the large paper in the Trimming the Town DSP that had the town scene with the mountains in the background, people ice skating, etc.

If you didn’t get to use your Mini Coffee Carriers and Cups, maybe you can think about ways to decorate them for next Christmas or even during the year with other papers and decorations, maybe for a birthday or other celebration. These were fun to make and easier than I would have thought! Once you get going, the ideas start flowing!

I didn’t get my snow yesterday but I’ll keep hoping!