Simple Christmas Care Package

 Tiny and adorable artificial christmas tree about 1 foot tall was purchased at Target in their 1$ - 3$ section for 3$, they also had some in the back near all the christmas decorations, lights were purchased separately at Family Dollar for 2$ and they are perfect length to light up the tree.

16 piece tiny tree ornaments for 1$ in the Target 1-3$ section

I used  really cute wrapping paper I had left over from gift wrapping. Paper purchased at costco in a 4 pack for 11.99$ lots of paper on each roll and very strong and durable so it doesn't tear at the corners when you are folding, I definitely recommend it!

Add some elmers glue on the flaps of your USPS box 

(I always use the Medium flat rate boxes) And glue the wrapping paper down.

I decided to top off the box with a strand of sparkling green garland purchased at dollar tree and glued down with a hot glue gun.

Before shipping the box we added wrapped up personal gifts and a box of nestle's hot chocolate with marshmallows to help keep our army friend warm. 

Now he can decorate his mini tree and put his gifts underneath to help bring in some holiday cheer. 

Thanksgiving Care Package

Items needed:

Feathers

construction paper

googley eyes and pipe cleaners

elmers glue

hot glue gun and glue sticks

postal box

Scissors

I decided to post this care package a little early because I know there are some friends and family who are trying to figure out how to include their service men and women for the holidays.

My personal favorite part of care packages is the decorating of the box. 

I found some feathers from Michael's art supplies store that reminded me of a turkey and decided I would turn the box into a turkey!

I covered the flaps of the box in construction paper with elmer's glue and then I hot glued the feathers on the two longer flaps of the box and the top of the box. 

Once the glue dried I doubled up with the left over feathers to make the turkey look much fuller and fluffier. 

For the bottom flap of the box I added some green construction paper (grass) and just a little bit of feathers (cut to fit) and glued down some turkey legs and toes made with black construction paper.

With the eyes and beak I used some googley eyes and pipe cleaners, I had to shape the pipe cleaner into a triangular shape and then glued them down with my hot glue gun. 

The items I bought to put in the care package:

Hormel compleats meals, these are awesome! They have over a year of shelf life and when I saw a turkey and dressing (stuffing) meal I was way too excited! I also picked up a breakfast one these run for about 2$ each and I purchased them both at Walmart. 

The second thing I was most excited in sending was some sparkling apple cider in a singles serving size, these little bottles are too cute!

Since our care package is for my Fiance's best friend he had a lot of fun helping me pick out the rest of the items. 

We bought dried cranberries (the kind you'd add to a salad) in place of cranberry slices

Banana cream pie snack pack puddings 

Microwaveable velveeta mac n cheese and Idahoan mashed potatoes

Microwaveable turkey gravy 

Turkey Jerky just to add a little more turkey on top of the hormel meal. To top it all off we did add some little Debbies apple and cherry pies before shipping the package. Not in the picture but very easy to find in a grocery store.

Quick Birthday Care Package

As I have said before my fiance's Best friend is stationed out of state and we like to send him some love from home when we can. This was his Birthday care package. I bought an individually packaged pound cake at Walmart for 3$ and a pilsbury chocolate funfetti frosting along with some other much needed goodies that he could share with his buddies. We bought him some games and a book to help pass his down time and then I made the happy birthday banner so that it would pop up when the box is opened and filled the box with confetti. He was so happy! He face timed us while he was opening it and kept saying how happy he was even though he might end up with diabetes.
We added a few goodies he could share with his barack roomie like orbit gum, q-tips and equally divided ziploc baggies filled with the iced animal cookies.
A lot of other Birthday care packages I seen had home made "cake in a jar" but most of those can spoil fairly quickly in the mail so when I bought the pound cake i made sure to buy one fresh with 7 days shelf life and mailed it the same day to ensure it would get to him before spoiling. Also for those of who do not know, mail and packages are not retrievable on weekends on a military base so make sure to ship it on a monday or tuesday.

As always thanks for reading! Don't forget to ask Homemakin secrets questions if you have any. 

Very Quick Halloween Care Package

This entry is going to be short and sweet, my fiance's best friend is stationed with Air force out of state and every so often we like to send him some love from home. This month I made him a Halloween themed care Package and I had a lot of fun with it.

First things first we had to pick up a medium flat rate box from our local postal office Just like the one below

Next we got to go SHOPPING!!! At what better store than Dollar tree?

We loaded up on Shipping safe candies, it is october though so I am not too afraid of anything melting. We also bought decorations for the inside of the box.

 

I glued down the "infection zone" tape with elmer's glue

Hot glued the Pumpkin garland

And filled the inside up with fake spider web, candies, and a dino mask, then covered the top in more fake web. It came out great!