Christmas Project

What do you get when you cross a terrarium with a snowglobe and subtract the water? No, seriously, what do you get? Because I'm having a hard time figuring out what to call these. I love terrariums but either kill the plants or they grow too large. I love the miniature world in a snowglobe but don't care about the whirling snow (it doesn't "whirl" for very long, anyway) and hate the glitter ones.

Anyway, I made these for my mom and sisters for Christmas. I made the birds and mushrooms using Sculpey. I added some holiday picks from Michaels, decorated some branches with glitter from Martha Stewart's collection and sprinkled some fake snow (don't know what it is, plastic? I got it from Target and I think people use it for their Christmas village displays). Everything is firmly affixed to a styrofoam base (that is glued to the overturned jars "lid" or the bottom of the container), using craft glue. The birds are attached to the branches using hot glue. I didn't glue the lids on because I wanted to be able to make repairs, if necessary, but you'll want to make sure they are tight-fitting if you go that route.

Gingerbread Houses and Tips

Here are a couple pics of the gingerbread houses my sister Melanie and I decorated this year. We enjoy decorating gingerbread houses but the construction part.....hmm, not so much. So, what we do is buy a couple kits. However, I'm not about to spend ten bucks on something you can't even EAT so what we do is buy Target's Halloween gingerbread house kit on clearance after Halloween (this year we scored two for a dollar each once things were marked 90% off).



Making your own "glue" aka Royal Icing is easy if you have meringue powder. It's an initial investment of $6-$7 but it will last you a very long time as you don't use much to make a whole batch of icing (and you don't have to fiddle with egg whites). Royal icing is just egg whites, confectioner's sugar, water, and (optional) vanilla. I like to make my own because then you can control how thick it is.

My other tip isn't related directly to the houses. See the green polka-dot tablecloth? It's actually wrapping paper. If you have a square or rectangular table, wrapping paper over a plastic tablecloth (just in case of spills, we kept the same plastic one all season long) is a great way to decorate the table. We used it when we had people over to decorate cookies and it was great because the kids could make a mess and it was easy to clean up at the end of the party. It's cheap, too, if you buy your paper on sale after Christmas or at the dollar store.

Strange Vintage Tree

Do you like our strange vintage tree decoration? We found this at the Goodwill and spiffed it up a little (well, Melanie did). The elves are original and all of the sparkly, glittery items are new. The cats like to chew on parts of it and then pretend that they're not doing anything wrong (see pic above of Mr. Boots trying to look innocent).

No Fireplace? No Problem!

Do you like our new "fireplace"? Okay, so it doesn't give out much warmth (or any) but I wanted to have a mantel where we can hang our stockings When it isn't The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, this is three bookcases placed side by side. The bricks are two pieces of decorated foamboard (I used Sharpie to draw the brick pattern). I didn't have black posterboard so painted a piece of cardboard and cut out the flame shape with an exacto knife. It is backed with a piece of translucent paper ( vellum that was painted orange and red, in this case, but tissue paper could work). The red and yellow flames and the logs on the front were cut out of cardstock and taped on. The finishing touch is the light of the "fire" shining through - a string of battery-operated lights place on the empty shelf behind the cut out.

Emily's Zombie Cookie

Happy Undead Christmas! This is what happens when you give my sister a cookie shaped like Santa's face......

A good use for garland

I bought this garland at a huge discount after Christmas last year, not remembering at the time that I never know what to do with it since I don't like it on the tree. Anyway, I needed something to decorate the stairwell (it is drab and can be seen from the dining room), already had the star hanging on the wall, add some garland and bows and voila! To my surprise, the cats haven't messed with the bows. I thought those suckers would be irresistable!

Ribbon Wreath

I needed something to hang above our "mantel" - really several bookcases that we hang our stockings on - and didn't want to buy anything (having already gone over my holiday budget!). I started looking for round things around the apartment and came across this old plastic serving tray. I also have tons of ribbon (the paper kind) from a box that I got at a thrift store. I used double sided tape to attach the ribbon and just folded the ribbon like ribbon candy. What do you think?

Paper Source Event

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...in stores and on-line, anyway. I'm starting to plan my Christmas projects and have been looking around for ideas and inspiration. Luckily, one my favorite stores, Paper Source, is having free holiday demos and "make and take" projects this weekend! Check out the schedule on their blog: http://www.blog.paper-source.com/

If you're in the area, I recommend the one on Hennepin in Minneapolis because there is a Penzey's Spices store and an Urban Outfitters on the same block! Penzey's can get expensive if you have no willpower like me but smelling the spices is free :) If you aren't near a Penzey's, no worries - you can shop online: http://www.penzeys.com/ Urban Outfitters has a lot of overpriced crap but you can find some cute little gifts or decorations, too. They also have a website, of course, and they have a lot of things that are only sold on the web: www.urbanoutfitters.com

FYI - I have no affiliation with these companies but like their products enough to spread the word :)

Happy 2009!

All of the brouhaha of the holidays is over now. To be honest, it's somewhat of a relief. However, I have realized that after Christmas is over, I'm pretty much ready for spring. This is a problem since I live in a state covered in ice and snow for almost half of the year.

I am consoling myself by looking at the cool stuff I received for Christmas this year (see the neat vintage-y cups above!) and realizing that the cookie-baking madness is finally done with. I was happy with the cookies that I delivered and happy to pay some bills with the money. However, I don't know if I'd do again next year - unless I move into a place with a bigger kitchen.

Christmas Ornaments

Here is a felt seahorse that I made....

...and a retro santa that we've had forever.......

....some new ornaments on my mom's tree.....

....a button ornament I made last year......

...and a photo of our tree!

Sugar Cookies

Here are a couple pictures of this year's Christmas cookies. Typically, we make peanut butter cookie cut outs and decorate. This year I made sugar cookies from this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Rolled-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx Above you can see Melanie's Obama Tribute Cookie. The weird clown below started out as a regular cookie man but I just kept adding frosting until it was crazy enough.

Christmas Eve

It must be Christmas Eve because Santa is here! Ha! Okay, don't worry; this is not becoming a cute cat blog. I couldn't resist, though.

It's almost Christmas! I've been so busy with cookies and crafts for sale, that I don't feel very prepared. Above is one of the designs I made for Christmas cards this year.

Mr. Boots "helps" me make a wreath.....

I'll post a picture of the finished wreath (sans cat) soon. The battery on the camera died before I could get a good pic.

More Felt Ornaments

Yes, I know - more owls! What can I say? Owls are very fun to make. They all have their own quirky personalities, depending on how long the ears are, the color of their beaks, which buttons I pick for the eyes. Do you like the cupcake? I'm pretty pleased with it.

Peanut Butter Balls

My sister and nephew and I made these last weekend. They are a traditional Christmas treat in my family. I would give the recipe here but I don't measure the ingredients when making these.

You will need:

Peanut Butter (I used creamy JIF but you could use a crunchy type, too)

Confectioner's/powdered sugar

Semi-sweet chocolate, melted

First mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl. The best way to do this is to mix with clean hands or with plastic gloves on. I've tried to use a fork or a wooden spoon but it doesn't really mix it that well. Also, you will need to pinch a piece off periodically to see if it is the right consistency. You should be able to roll it into a ball pretty easily. If it is too sticky and won't keep a ball shape, add more sugar. If it is too dry and crumbles rather than forming a ball, add more peanut butter. After all your balls are formed (make them about the size of a quarter - bite size) refrigerate for about an hour. Melt semi-sweet chocolate in a double-boiler or microwave (15 second bursts on defrost, then stir - stop heating while there are still a few lumps so as to avoid burning the chocolate). We coated our peanut butter balls using two spoons but you could use tongs for dipping or pour the chocolate over. Once covered in chocolate, place balls on wax paper and put in fridge. These actually have no dairy in them, except the chocolate, so could be left at room temperature.

Christmas Eve

All the presents are wrapped (except one for my sister and I will wrap that after she goes to sleep). All of the baking is done. Nothing to do now but wait for Ol' Saint Nick :)

Button Ornaments

I have some white, brown, and black shrinkable plastic that can't be colored with the paints and pencils that I have. I bought a variety pack to see which kind I liked best (the previously mentioned Frosted Rough N'Ready won out) and have been trying out some projects to use all the different kinds. Anyway, I cut out the tree shapes from the plastic and punched a bunch of holes. Then I used some colored buttons for the "ornaments" on the trees. I guess you could use thread but I used colored wire here.

These pictures show the size of the white tree before and after shrinking. I am still entranced by the shrinking process...

Christmas Cookies

The traditional Christmas cookie in my family is a peanut butter cookie with buttercream frosting. This is not your delicate, ornate cut out cookie. Oh no, the point is to make it colorful and load on the frosting. Anyway, this year my sister and I decided to try out a chocolate cookie instead. I tried the recipe for Old Fashioned Chocolate Sugar Cookies from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. I wasn't that happy with the taste of them - not very chocolatey but I wasn't sure how much two ounces was and probably didn't put enough in. Otherwise, the dough rolls out well and is nice and buttery.

Here is a close-up of my sister's awesome cookie man, complete with white pompadour.

I am goofy and still don't have a rolling pin. I never remember this until I need to roll out some dough. Anyway, I used a mason jar with ice in it, and it worked okay. It was hard to get the dough to be the same thickness everywhere but the ice kept the dough chilled so that made things easier.

Shrinky Dink Pendant

What's in the bag? A homemade present, of course! Christmas is almost here so I'm trying to get everything wrapped up (literally and otherwise). I had breakfast with a friend yesterday and gave her the gifts I had made for her.

Here is a little pendant I made as a gift for my friend, Chris. She is crazy about birds so I thought this was fitting. I haven't done shrinky dinks since I was a kid. I had some Care Bear ones, I think :)

Anyway, I used Shrinky Dinks brand plastic - the "Frosted Ruff N'Ready" type. I drew and colored the design with regular old colored pencils and punched a hole before baking. It only takes a couple minutes to bake and cool. I applied a coat of clear nail polish over the rough side and then attached a bail to make the pendant.

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. Hopefully, Chris likes it as well.

My Christmas Ornaments

My sister didn't have a tree last year, so this is the first Christmas tree that Simon has seen. He explored it a little, as you can see, but has left it mostly alone. I was excited to get the tree up on Saturday, rediscovering all my ornaments and decorations. It is definitely an eclectic mix but I think that they all go together.

The one on the right is one that my sister, Emily, made in her ceramics class. It is one of my favorites.

The owl below is also a favorite. I got it at a store called Heavenly Soles when I lived in Uptown.