Dec 23, 2012 | Big Shot, Christmas, Cookie Stamps, Holiday catalog 2012 |
Here is a quick idea to wrap up some cookies or other treats for a neighbor – Holiday decorated Kraft gift boxes.
I got this cute idea from Jackie Bolhuis. We made these in my Cookies & Milk class a few weeks ago. Everyone also made cookies to go inside the box using the Stampin’ Up! Cookie stamps. If you don’t have much time you can use store bought cookies dough – the gingerbread dough worked really well with the cookie stamps. Make sure it is a little chilled and that you dip the cookie stamp in sugar each time.
I love the idea of the steam coming out of the mug – that idea came from Ann Schach on a card that she made.
Here are some quick instructions:
- fold up the Kraft box
- cut a piece of Designer Paper the width that you want it and wrap it around the box – the ends just meet at the top – they won’t overlap – but that’s ok – and this is just a band so we aren’t actually glueing it to the box
- cut a piece of matching card stock about a 1/2″ wider that your designer paper, glue the designer paper to it and make crisp folds all the way around
- punch a hole at each end where the meet at the top of the box and pull some ribbon through and tie in a bow – your band should just slide off the box when it’s time to open it – you don’t even have to untie the bow
- punch a 2-3/8″ scallop circle and run it through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Embossing folder
- ink up the mug with Cherry Cobbler ink, use a cotton swap or blender pen to remove ink from the inside – the part that’s the hot cocoa – then ink that with an Early Espresso Marker- now stamp it on some Very Vanilla card stock, cut it out with the matching framelit
- ink the steam up with Early Espresso and stamp it on some Vellum card stock, cut it out with the matching framelit – then trim the bottom flat, use a mini glue dot to attach it to the mug
- add the punched circle and mug to the front of the box with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
- And finally add a Rhinestone to the mug
Fill with some cookies or other treats. The Kraft Boxes from Stampin’ Up! are food safe. But I still wrapped up the cookies in some plastic wrap so they would get the box dirty. You could also add a piece of paper on the inside for decoration too.
And just a quick family note for you – Friday afternoon I took Ryan to take is driving test and get his driver’s license – yes the youngest member of the family was about to be a legal driver. The line was so long and even with an appointment (which didn’t seem to matter by the way) we waited forever. Finally it was Ryan’s turn and the testing lady came back with a young girl who was in tears – apparently she did not pass. She came up to Ryan and said – “well it hasn’t been a good day” – oh no – not really what you want to hear. I got out and told her that hopefully her day would improve now and she smiled and got in the car with Ryan. Off the went and left me waiting and being a nervous mom – he was ready and is a good driver and knew everything – but still he was a little freaked out because of the girl in front of him crying. After a while he came back and as he walked up I saw the grin on his face! Yeah – good news! He passed with a 100! And the lady was much happier – told him he was the only one all day (and remember we were there in the late after noon – it was almost 5 by the time she got in the car with him) that aced the parallel parking, and the only on she gave a 100 too. And she said he did so well that when he went back in he should make sure they give him a key chain. So yeah all the boys are now legal to drive and I no longer have to be mom’s taxi service – time to celebrate!
Merry Christmas!
Dec 12, 2012 | Christmas, Cookie Stamps |
It’s 12-12-12 – so doesn’t that make it a dozen day? Did you make a dozen of anything or buy a dozen of anything? That’s what I keep thinking about. So I’m going to package up a dozen cookies to take to my friends house tonight. And what better way to do that than to use some cute Stampin’ Up! products –
Plus I used the Stampin’ Up! Sweet Pressed cookie stamps too. In the past I have been using the Sugared Shortbread cookie recipe that comes with the cookie stamps but this time I wanted to try something different. I went to the grocery store and wanted to try some of the store made dough – it comes in a roll – and I found Gingerbread dough and Peanut Butter to try. Both of these work! But some tips – the dough does need to be chilled – if it is too warm/soft it just gets sticky and sticks in the stamp. And this tip seems to be the key – dip the cookie stamp in SUGAR every time. I rolled the dough into a ball, put it on the baking tray (covered with parchment paper), dip the stamp in sugar and then press it into the ball of dough. I wasn’t sure how well the cookies would turn out – I thought the dough might rise and make the design disappear but it didn’t they all turned out!
We used the Gingerbread dough for my Stamp Club Friday night and I made up some more with the Peanut Butter dough on Sunday. Now I’m going to package them up in these sweet little cookie pouches for tonight.
Have a great dozen-dozen-dozen day!
Aug 27, 2012 | Cookie Stamps, My Digital Studio, Recipe |
Yesterday I had my Stampin’ Up! Getaway Celebration Party. What a fun afternoon it was! I wanted to have a celebration party for everyone as a Thank You for helping me earn my first incentive trip. Today I thought I would show you the decorations and things for the party.
First I made a bunch of paper flowers – using the idea from page 70 of the Stampin’ Up! Annual catalog. My color palette came from the colors in the Patio Party Designer Series paper. I arranged the flowers in mason jars that were filled with beans and then tied some of the matching ribbon around the mouth of the jar.
I baked little mini cupcakes and made cream cheese frosting – yum! I used My Digital Studio and the template from the Patio Party Collection DVD. I printed out the little flag banners for my cupcake picks – I just replaced the “Happy Birthday” with “Thank You”. I printed it at home on Whisper White card stock – I cut them and scored in half then glued to the top of a tooth pick.
I also cut strips of the Patio Party Designer Series paper and then punched out butterflies from the card stock left from the flowers. I wrapped the water bottles and glued the butterflies to the front. They were really cute.
I also made cookies using the Sweet Pressed Cookie stamps from convention. I made lots of Thank You cookies which everyone used to make a project and then I had all the others out on a plate. I used the Sugared Shortbread cookie recipe that comes with the cookies stamps. By the way most everyone that I have showed these too is surprised out how big these are. In the catalog they seem smaller. They are 2-3/4″ diameter – so it makes a large cookie not a small one.
I also made an Almond Chicken Cheese Ball which is a favorite for everyone. The recipe makes two large cheese balls and we finished the first one and made it half way through the second one. I’d say everyone loved it. And many people asked for the recipe. I had actually posted it on my blog a long time ago – here is the post.
Here is a picture of all my food –
I had some little parfaits – yogurt, brownie bites and raspberries. And finally I made corn dip – here is the recipe for that:
CORN DIP
2 cans (15 oz) Fiesta Corn, drained
1 can (4 oz) Chopped Green chilis (I don’t always use the whole can)
10 oz. pkg shredded cheddar cheese
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup mayo
1 Tbs Cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or less)
1 1/2 Tbs Chilli powder
Mix & chill overnight.
Serve with Tostito or Frito scoops.
Yum. Yum.
I know I had a fun afternoon and I’m glad so many people were able to make it. I’ll share the projects we made on another day.
Feb 6, 2012 | Cookie Stamps, Demonstrator, Occasions Mini 2012, Stampin' Up! Events |
Hi Stamper’s! Well it’s cookie time – at least around here I have been making cookie dough and cookies using the Stampin’ Up! Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. The Occasions mini added 3 new designs – a flower, clover, and a bunny – ready for the spring. I made cookie dough last weekend and everyone at my PAWS downline meeting got to stamp a cookie and make a little cookie pouch to put it in –
This idea was shared at the Leadership conference. One problem with packaging cookies is that they have they leave a greasy spot on paper because of the butter in them so I thought this idea was really great. This was from Donna Griffith’s on stage presentation – she lined the Designer Series paper with wax paper – how do you do it – well it is easy – you use the multi-purpose adhesive sheets that we sell.
I cut the piece of Designer Paper to fit inside the 4×6 cello bag. Then cut a piece of the multi-purpose adhesive sheet to the same size. Peel one side off the adhesive sheet and adhere to the top of the Designer Paper (the side that you want to see). Now cut a piece of wax paper (I cut mine bigger this time). Peel off the other side of the adhesive sheet and add the wax paper on top of the designer paper. Use a bone folder or decor elements applicator to smooth out the wrinkles and then trim off the extra edges. Now you have wax paper covered Designer Paper and you can put your cookie on top without it staining the paper.
For this pouch – insert the wax covered paper into the bag, insert the baked cookie, punch two holes with the crop-a-dile, add ribbon, then add a tag.
I made cookies again this weekend to take to an open house on Sunday. While making them I took some pictures and here are some tips on what I did. First I used the Shortbread cookie recipe that comes with the Sweet Pressed Cookie stamps. I did have to add more flour to my recipe – I think I added 1/4 cup more. I live where it is humid and I think that is probably why I need more flour – that just my logical guess since Stampin’ Up! is in Utah and they said the recipe is perfect for them but their climate is much dryer than mine.
There is my cookie dough. Then what I do is put the extra sugar on a plate and I use a cookie scoop to make balls of dough – roll them in my hand, roll them in sugar and then put them on a tray. I roll all the balls and then stick the tray in the fridge to cool.
Last weekend I made them a couple of hours ahead and this weekend I made them the night before. I had to let them sit out a little longer this weekend so they would be soft enough to press. I use the cookie press to press each ball of dough – then I use a biscuit cutter to cut them into a nice circle. You don’t want to press them too thin though. And if you get one that doesn’t turn out – just roll it back into a ball, roll it in some more sugar and then do it again. If dough gets stuck in the cookie press use a tooth pick to get it out before doing the next cookie. I hand washed the silicone pieces but it says they are dishwasher safer. And then just wipe the wooden handle clean.
The cookies were really good. Have a sweet day!
Oh one more thing – when I came home last night – Ryan had been working on a school project – he has out card stock, snail, dimensionals, cutting mat and craft knife, paper trimmer, Stampin’ Write Markers, the gel pen, and lots of tools from Greg’s workshop. He is suppose to be finishing it today to take to school tomorrow – I’ll have to take a picture once the creation is complete – and I better check my supply of card stock and dimensionals to see how much he used.
Dec 5, 2011 | Big Shot, Christmas, Cookie Stamps, Fabric |
This is a gift idea that Becky shared with us at the PAWS meeting in November. It is a Cookie Mix Jar –
Fill a large jar with the dry ingredients for a cookie mix. Wrap a piece of fabric around the lid and tie with some ribbon. Add a quick tag with the recipe inside. The person that you give this too just needs to add the remaining ingredients, mix and bake – yummy cookies for everyone! You could pair this idea with the new Sweetpressed Cookie Stamps for a complete gift – the stamps have two recipes included.
Becky used the Deck the Halls fabric and Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding. The tag is cut with the Big Shot and the Two Tags die and one of the Snowflakes from the Northern Frost Decorative Strip Sizzlit die to decorate the front. This would be another fun activity to do with the kids and a great gift for teachers or neighbors.
So what did you think about the Up on the Roof Top Blog Hop this weekend? What were your favorite projects? I think my favorite ones were the wine tags that Rosemarie Diehl made and the Christmas Mantle Decor that Tara Bilbo made – but there were many other great projects on the tour. I have a list of a handful that I want to try to make. Since mine was a Countdown to Christmas I thought I might add the activities on my blog each day. These are activities to do with your family each day. So to catch up here are the first few days of activities that I have picked (my project tutorial includes 36 different ones for you to choose from) –
December 1st – Write a Letter to Santa. Make sure the kids write it and put it in the mail box.
December 2nd – Make Pinecone Ornaments for the birds. The birds can enjoy them all month long. I have had lots of birds the last week or so – a bunch of blue birds were here over the weekend and they were checking out some of the bird houses too – maybe some early house hunting go on.
December 3rd – Look at Christmas photos from past years. I love to do this and see how much the boys have grown and changed.
December 4th – Wrap Holiday gifts. I have a few things to wrap but mostly I still have shopping to do. I think I need to do this one a little bit later.
December 5th – Decorate the Christmas Tree. We bought the tree last night and we plan to decorate tonight. Since we have the new sunroom we are putting it out there this year. I’ll take a picture once it is done.
If you would like to see my project with the activity cards it is on this post.
Have a great day! I’ll have the Blog Hop Blog Candy Prize winner posted tomorrow so be sure to check back.
Oct 13, 2011 | Big Shot, Cookie Stamps, Season of Friendship, Stampin' Up! Events |
My Workshop Wow at the Stampin’ Up! Birmingham Regional was a demonstration on how to make paper bags using the recycled paper that comes as packing material in our Stampin’ Up! orders. Every box gets filled with paper to keep the items inside safe during shipment. I always hate to throw out the brown paper. Last year I used a bunch to wrap our Christmas presents, we also use it for a fire starter in the fire pit, but not too long ago I realized I could make my own little paper treat bags. And this is how I made them.
Brown paper from the Stampin' Up! boxes
I take the brown paper out of my Stampin’ Up! boxes and I smooth it out flat and then fold it on the perforated lines like an accordion so I can store it. To make four bags tear off one of the perforated sections. Fold it in half matching up the short ends. Then fold it in half again matching up the short ends one more time.
fold in half twice
Now fold in half in the opposite direction and then place the folded stack on your Clear Scallop Square Die so that the fold is inside one edge of the die and doesn’t get cut.
fold in half in the opposite direction
position on the die so that the fold is inside the edge and doesn't get cut
Now run through the Big Shot Die Cutting machine with a cutting pad on the bottom and on the top. When you cut through you will end up with four folded bag pieces.
cut with the Big Shot
To make each bag add glue to either side – leaving the top with the scallops open and the fold is at the bottom of the bag. I also took each edge and ran it through the Crimper a little bit and then back out.
glue sides of bag
Crimp edges of bag
So that makes the little bag and then its time to decorate. I had lots of fun creating all different themed bags. The one I showed at the Birmingham Regional was this one –
For this bag I pulled the edges through a Whisper White Craft ink pad. I stamped snowflakes (from Season of Friendship stamp set) in Whisper White Craft ink. In the top corner I added the phrase from Sweet Season stamp set in Early Espresso. I pulled a piece of Bashful Blue Satin Ribbon around the bottom of the bag – tie a piece of White Baker’s Twine around the ends. I cut snowflakes from the Northern Frost Sizzlet Strip Die. I added the snowflake with Stampin’ Dimensionals and then added a pearl to the center.
And what do you think is inside? Something sweet of course….
A snowflake cookie – made with the new Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. I made a whole batch of cookies – actually two using two different recipes. I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put one in each bag. These were my swaps at the regional too.
Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamp cookies
The cookies on the back portion of the tray are the made using the Sugar Cookie recipe that comes with the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. The cookies on the front portion are made using a Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie recipe that I found on Stampin’ Connection (a site for demonstrators). For both recipes I had to add more flour than the recipe called for – I’m not sure if that is because I live in the south and it is humid so the dough was too sticky with the regular recipe. Anyway the cookies them selves are very good. If you got a swap from me at regional you had the Cream Cheese cookie recipe.
I’ll be back later this week to show you the rest of the ideas that I came up with for these little bags. I had a whole bunch.
Thanks for stopping by!
