If they were mine, I think that I would strip most of the extraneous padding and so forth out of them and drill them for drainage (if they aren't already). I'd place a baby doll (or even just a doll baby head) filling with soil, and succulent plants to grow to look like a blanket covering the sleeping babe. :^)

Leaf prints. People love them. Perfect time of year. Buy cardstock, cut in half from 11 x 8 1/2 to 11 x 4 1/4. Double each sheet over and crease. That gives you a card 5 1/2 by 4 1/4; fits a standard greeting card envelope that you can buy by the 50's or 100's at an office supply. To make the prints, applying ink or paint with a brayer is nice, but you don't have to buy one if you don't have one. Buy the small RAISED inkpads at a hobbycraft store like Michael's. Dye ink dries faster but pigment ink is lightproof. Choose your leaves, and ideally put them in telephone books under weights for a few hours to flatten them, but you CAN skip this step. Next, put a leaf on scrap paper back side up (so the veins are up and will take the ink). Pat the ink on the leaf. Use complementary colors, or one color. Some people prefer just black. After the ink is applied amply, take tweezers or the petiole of the leaf and place it inked side down on a prefolded card front. DON'T LET IT SHIFT AROUND. Put wax paper or Saran Wrap on top (so you can see through it) and press the leaf to transer the ink. Do not let the leaf move. A clean brayer is good for this if you have one. Be sure you have pressed all areas of the leaf. CAREFULLY remove the cover paper, and lift the leaf off STRAIGHT UP. With a little practice, you can make beautiful prints. A "shadow" print can be made without reinking. Do about 3 on the card, overlapping them. A heavy image and two light ones looks nice. If anyone is remotely interested and I haven't been clear, reply or look up leaf prints on a search engine. Poison oak/ivy leaves are lovely, but I would pass those by. The more veinage the leaf has, the more impact the print has. Grape leaves work extremely well. Catamount

Punk, you always have good ideas and I always enjoy hearing them! Your Christmas table idea sounds lovely and I'm definitely going to try it next December. I do have some smaller trees that would work well on the table with him. Thanks! Here's a close-up of the ground jewels painting. It's done on silk, BTW. I don't know much more about the process or why they use ground jewels to paint with. It sounds like waste of good jewels to me. My guess is that artists use the chips left behind when various jewels are cut, but that's only a guess. I've just tried googling "ground jewels+paint" and didn't find anything. Hi Twomonths, and welcome to our forum! I see from your GW page that you're originally a Texas gal now living with your family in SoCal. Your ideas are great. I actually have a box of slender brass candlesticks in varying heights somewhere around here. I hadn't even thought of them until you mentioned this . . . thank you! Hope you post here more often now :~) Lynn

Fill them with spice mixes. Like chicken soup mix, or cinnamon and sugar, or Garlic salt and a big loaf of good bread. Maybe some really good jams or homemade jellys or seasoned butters. Use some colored sharpies to decorate. Fill with M&M's or nuts or something. If you know someone who likes lip gloss make them some lip gloss and fill a tiny cup. Fill it with bath salt or bubble bath. Wrap it with really nice wash cloths. What a fun way to get cash. Fill with bills folded to fit.I filled some puffes of cloth and stuffing with really good bath powder tied them with ribbons and set them in fancy bowls as party favors. Tons of stuff ya can do with glasses. Let us know what works for you.