Coming up with an unique gift for the holidays for a family member or friend can be a bit of challenge. This is one of the reasons why I started an annual Holiday Gift Guide on this blog, so I can help other people pick out the perfect gift for their loved ones.

I am recommending "journals" as a Christmas gifts. Journals can be either cheap or expensive, all depending on what type you are buying.

Today, I am highlighting three beautiful Ellie Claire Art Journals from Worthy Publishing Group - Illuminate Your Story Journal ($18.99; Amazon, B&N), The Illustrated Word: An Illuminated Bible Coloring Journal ($15.99; Amazon, B&N), and Faith & Lettering Journal ($15.99, Amazon, B&N).


Illuminate Your Story Journal is a lot more than just your average journal. It's a step-by-step guide to teach you how to draw illuminated letters, like the ones that once adorned the pages of books and Bibles. The first few pages gives you an introduction and a brief history lesson about the world of illuminating. Then you are given instructions on how to use the journal. In six steps, you'll learn how to illuminate each letter in the alphabet. Plus, you'll learn how to draw a flourish shape with leaves. There is a two-page journal entry after each letter, where you can put your new illumining skills to use.


The Illustrated Word: An Illuminated Bible Coloring Journal is a coloring book journal. There are forty illustrations to color in the 160 page journal that are recreations of the ones found in ancient manuscripts. It also features fully-colored illustrations from the archives of the Museum of the Bible.



Faith & Lettering Journal features a step-by-step guide to teach you the basis of hand-lettering. The
journal has a short introduction by the author Krystal Whitten. There are several exercises through throughout the journal that will help you learn to hand-letter beautiful letters, saying, and phrases. There are also Pro Tips which will show how to draw banners, leaves, flowers, arrows, bibles, etc.. Lastly, there are many lined pages where you can put your hand-lettering skills to the test.

Final Thoughts

The Ellie Claire Art Journals are high-quality journals with sturdy hardcovers. My favorite out the three is Illuminate Your Story Journal, only because of the "History of Illuminated Letters" section at the very beginning of the journal. I've always been fascinated about illuminated letters and now I can learn how to create these marvelous letters.

Faith & Lettering Journal and The Illustrated Word: An Illuminated Bible Coloring Journal are both gorgeous journals in their own rights. Faith & Lettering Journal has easy to follow tracing and drawing instructions for making letters and phrases. The Illustrated Word features very detailed illustrations to color. The actual journal pages are beautiful.

Overall, if you're looking a great gift this holiday season, I recommend getting the Ellie Claire Art Journals.

Giving someone a simple calendar for Christmas might feel like a shallow gift at first, but there are so many different kinds of calendars out there, you can easily personalize it. There are calendars featuring sports, movies, television series, cartoon characters, superheros, animals, landscapes, and just about anything your heart can imagined.

Andrews McMeel Publishing releases a huge variety of wall and desk calendars each and every year, including the Garfield 2019 Day-to-Day Calendar ($14.99 USD; $18.99 CAD; $24.99 AUD; $26.99 NZD; €11.99 UK).

Created by Jim Davis, Garfield has been entertaining millions of fans since the fat cat first debuted in 1978. It's now the world's most syndicated comic strip and has spawned an slew of merchandise. From 1982 to 1991, the character starred in 12 animated specials. A popular Saturday morning cartoon series, Garfield & Friends, aired from 1988 to 1994. Two CGI/live-action films and three direct-to-video movies have been released, as well as a short-lived CGI animated series, The Garfield Show.

"February 21, 2019"

The Garfield 2019 Day-to-Day Calendar measures 6.2 x 1.6 x 5.2 inches and features 365 days of Garfield comic strips, which were original published in newspapers in 2015. Each daily comic is colorized with a "Garfield" log on the very top of the page and an image of Odie hugging Garfield in the lower right corner.

There's a "Daily Extra" on the back every page, featuring fun facts, world play of the day, jokes, quotes, trivia, puzzles, and other games.


All major holidays are listed on specific dates. All Jewish holidays begin at sundown the previous day.

The paper used to make the calendar came from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved sources. 

"March 22, 2019"

Final Thoughts

Disney; 43 minutes; TV-G; Amazon

Now available on DVD from Disney Home Entertainment is Mickey Mouse: Merry & Scary, featuring the new television special "The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!" and last year's "Duck The Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special." There are no special features, but the DVD does contain five bonus shorts.

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are trying their best to scare Mickey's nephews (Morty and Ferdie) and Donald's nephews (Huey, Dewey and Louie) in "The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!" by telling them the kids a very scary story. The problem is that no matter what story they come up with, the nephews are just not scared.

Like all other ducks, Donald always travels to the south for the winter, which means he always misses Christmas. Well, this year he decides not to migrate in "Duck The Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special," so he can spend the holidays with his pals Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie. Mickey tries his best to give Donald the greatest Christmas, but Donald quickly learns why Ducks migrate to the south for the winter.

The bonus shorts are:





 

Shopkins Hot Cocoa Mug Set

Believe it or not, there are only 21 days till Christmas Day, so if you haven't finished your gift shopping yet, then you better get to cracking at it.

Almost all of my shopping is finished, and most of the gifts are already wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree.

I know not everyone has their gift shopping finished ahead of time, so I've been posting a Holiday Gift Guide on this blog since Nov. 25th. However, I'm taking a one day break today from the event. Instead I've teamed up with Oriental Trading to bring you a neat little post that I have titled "Christmas Mugs & Sweets."

Oriental Trading is a party, school, and craft supplies company. Their website has a neat Christmas Store section featuring a variety of toys and games, Christmas party decorations and supplies, crafts, treats, candies, and gobs of other things.

Now finding the perfect gift for a loved isn't the easiest thing in the world to do as some people are just hard to buy for. If you happened to fall in this situation this year, then I would recommend the Shopkins Hot Cocoa Mug Set. Retailed at $9.98, the set includes two ceramic mugs with a Shopkins characters printed on them and two 0.71oz packages of Nestle Mini Marshmallows Rich Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix.


The Shopkins mugs are really cute with a colorful design that will easily appeal to children and even some adults. Nestle is one of the best brands of cocoas, so pretty much everyone will like the two hot chocolate packet.

DIY Travel Mugs

Now if you want to get really creative this year, you can always craft your own coffee tumbler set to give your family and friends. You can purchase DIY Travel Mugs (holds up to 16 ounces each) on the Oriental Trading website for $15.99 for a set of six. There is also directions on the website on how to decorate the mugs with Washi tape.

Now I've taken this idea, but I've changed a few things about it.

Along with the DIY Travel Mugs, the supplies I needed were the Jingle Bell Gift Tags ($6.49 for 24), the Red Washi Tape Set ($4.99 for three rolls), the Green Washi Tape Set ($4.99 for three rolls), and the Five Pounds of Holiday Chocolate Candy (currently out of stock), which can be purchased on the Oriental Trading website.