Giving an Escape Room Experience as a Gift

I really enjoy escape rooms. If you've never been to one, the concept is that you are "locked" in a themed room with around a dozen puzzles you need to solve in order to "escape." The puzzle difficulty varies and require you to be a keen observer of what is around you in order to find the clues you need to tackle each problem. It's a great activity to do with friends, family, or coworkers. 

We recently treated Steve's family to their first escape room experience, a Prohibition-themed room rated Intermediate/Challenging. There were six of us and it was indeed a challenge. It took a little time to find our groove and work together, but we got better and better as time went on. We didn't make it out in time, but we had a great time. 

For Christmas this year, we gifted them another escape room experience. I love experiential gifts, but the question is always how to present it in a way that the recipient can unwrap. I came up with scrolls. This is what they looked like under the tree. 

I started by designing this in PicMonkey. 

I printed the design on buff paper, tore and inked the edges, rolled them into scrolls, and tied them with twine. It was a hit. I'm looking forward to our next escape room adventure!

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If you don't have an escape room near you, there are plenty of options for having a similar experience at home. Some options include: Escape Room in a Box, Clue Escape, Escape Room the Game, and many more (affiliate links). Enjoy!

100 Grand Hidden Money Gift

For Christmas 2024, I decided to make a hidden money gift inspired by the money-themed 100 Grand Bars.  

Ordinarily when you open a fun-size 100 Grand wrapper, you get a tasty treat of caramel, crispy rice, and chocolate. If you are very careful, you can open the wrapper without tearing it, remove the candy bar, replace it with rolled-up money, and then seal it back together again using the glue that's already on the wrapper. It's surprisingly easy. If you hide the money-filled 100 Grands in a jar with regular ones your recipient won't suspect a thing until they pull out bar and it weighs less than it should! Affiliate links below. 

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100 Grand Hidden Money Gift

Materials:

• fun-size 100 Grand Bars
• cash
• mason jar with handle

Steps:

Carefully open a 100 Grand Bar by pulling the wrapper apart, the way you'd open a bag of chips. I was able to open three different bars without tearing the wrapper or compromising the adhesive. Remove the candy and replace it with rolled-up cash. Press the wrapper back together to adhere it. 

Fill the mason jar with a mixture of candy bars and money-filled wrappers. Pack them tightly. You won't be able to tell by looking which have candy inside and which are filled with hidden money!

One Little Word 2025

It's hard to believe, but 2025 is my fiftteenth year participating in Ali Edwards' One Little Word. My past words, which you can read about here, include: Balance (2011), Celebrate (2012), Try (2013), Enjoy (2014), Relax (2015), Share (2016), Connect (2017), Believe (2018), Reach (2019), Focus (2020), Strengthen (2021), Thrive (2022), Play (2023), and Learn (2024).

My word for 2025 is Adapt. 

2024 brought a lot of change to my life. Between my cancer diagnosis in May and becoming an empty nester in September, my life looks very, very different than it did this time last year. I've struggled with that. I can wish that I didn't have to be a cancer patient for the next 10+ years, and I can reminisce about life as a mom of a child I saw every day rather than of an adult who I miss very much, but ultimately I have to adapt. So that is my focus for 2025. 

When I was making my tag and how to represent the word Adapt, I thought about direction. I stamped a really subtle squiggle pattern all over the tag (too subtle- you can't see it in the scan) to show that life is unpredictable. I added the compass rose, then put the winding road on top to show that our paths aren't always straight. Everyone faces twists and turns - some good, some not - but the only way to get through is to adapt. The arrow is facing upward; better times are ahead as we adapt to our circumstances. 

As always, this year's One Little Word doesn't replace the previous words I chose. I continue to live with Balance, Celebrate, Try, Enjoy, Relax, Share, Connect, Believe, Reach, Focus, Strengthen, Thrive, Play, and Learn. All fifteen tags hang together in the craft room to motivate me. Currently, there are seven on the first string....

.... and seven on the first string, which hangs directly below the first.

Adapt is alone on its own string. I think I'm going to adjust them - maybe 5 on each string for this year. We'll see. 

Did you pick One Little Word for 2025? If so, let me know in the comments what it is and why you chose it!

Creative Resolutions for 2025

Happy New Year!

I've been making creative resolutions for around 20 years, which is even longer than I've been blogging. I wish I could go back and see my very first set of resolutions, but they're long gone. The oldest set I have documented are my 2011 resolutions. It is so interesting to me to see how my creative priorities and focus have changed over the years.

Before setting new goals for 2025, let's look at how I did in 2024.

Of the eight resolutions I made, I completed five and made partial progress on two. All things considered, I'm extremely happy with this. It's much better than I expected.

First, the resolutions I completed: 

• I greatly exceeded my goal of taking two creative classes by enrolling in Sketchbook Revival. I attended all 33 sessions and completed the projects for six of them. 
• I took an in-person cookie decorating class, which is where I tried a new technique in edible art. I've never used a stencil with royal icing before, like we did with Madame Leota. I had no idea that stiff tulle netting helps make complicated stencil designs come out crisp and clean. I used another new-to-me technique when I made my personalized candy bar. 
• I read a lot of art-related books (at least a dozen), courtesy of my local library. I love the library. 
• At the end of June, I had at least four craft ideas for 46 of the 50 states. Six months later, all the states have more than 4 and I'm continuing to add more all the time.  
• I several new-to-me art supplies, including: Woody 3-in-1 pencils, masking fluid, and Ohuhu's Pupe paper-friendly markers. 

I gave myself partial credit for two resolutions:

• I finished 40 scrapbook layouts in 2023. That's twelve short of the one-per-week goal, or 77%. Definitely a solid effort, considering. Fun fact: I didn't make any two-page layouts this year. Every layout was a single-pager. I've never gone a whole year without making a double-pager before.
• I tried a handful of ideas from Pinterest, including a fireplace craft, a card featuring lots of patterned papers, and multiple recipes. I didn't make a layout inspired something on my Pinterest board. Oh well.

There is one resolution I didn't do:

• I did not make Caldecott-inspired art. I actually checked out a bunch of Caldecott winners from the library, read (and enjoyed) them all, but wasn't inspired to make any projects. I'm not sure why, but I just wasn't.

Here are my creative resolutions for 2025:

Have you made creative resolutions for 2025? Want to join me as I tackle one of my goals? If so, please tell me in the comments!