Quick Rustic Ribbon Christmas Card

When I spied this wide printed woven ribbon, I knew I had to get it for making cards and tags.  It was simple work to to apply Authentique Xmas card stock rectangles to a Kraft paper blank card.  I used thin strips of olive green textured card stock to separate printed card stock that was too similar in color tones.  The ribbon was cut and the edges of the rectangles frayed to add to the rustic look.  The cards are equally charming in a vertical or horizontal layout.  The wooden lazer cut star and bottle brush tree are both from HM BFC....great Xmas decorating stuff sold there!  Check us out! Happy Xmas Shopping and Decorating!

Local Style Cookies

 A few months ago I tasted some delicious furikake cookies and just knew that I needed to make local style cookies this Christmas.  There are so many local treats that can be added to a basic cookie base that it was hard to decide what to choose.  I finally settled on  crushed ginger senbei and mini yakko arare.  Although they sort of looked the same after baking, they definitely had tasty differences.

 After cooling the cookies, I packed them in( Great Lines Hawaii) stand-up zippered pouches purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  I used a Tepra label printer to make a professional looking label for each cookie pouch.  I hope you'll give the following recipe a try.

Ingredients

1-1/2 sticks salted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup toffee chips
1 cup crushed ginger senbei
1 cup mini Yakko arare

Procedure

Mix together sugars and butter.  Add in egg and vanilla.  Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Combine the dry ingredients and the egg mixture.  Mix in the toffee chips.  Separate the dough into two parts and add the senbei to one half and arare to the other.  Roll the dough into 1-1/2" balls about 15 per type.  Flatten each ball onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.  Yield: 2-1/2 cookies  Enjoy!

Chocolate Dipped Treats

Looking for yummy, easy to make treats for Christmas gift giving?  For these chocolate dipped goodies all you need is a microwave oven, assorted dried items (coconut strips, pomelo slices, ika strips or li hing guava skins) and Ba Da Boom Ba Da Bing Dark Chocolate pieces. (I bought my chocolate from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.)

The chocolate can be easily melted in a coffee mug at about 7 power for 1 minute. Dip each piece and place it on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  If desired add decorative sprinkles before the chocolate dries.  A spoon will help you get the last bit of chocolate to drip over the fruit.  It will take about 1 hr. for the chocolate to harden enough for packing.  The Ba Da Boom Ba Da Bing chocolate tastes delicious and melts easily.  It also dries to a professional shiny finish.  My son's favorite dipped treat is the ika (sorry no photo) so I better get going and pack his gift box of homemade goodies so he gets it before Xmas. Yummy holidays to everyone working hard in blogland!

P.S. HM Ben Franklin Crafts has a new line of cellophane packaging that are really cute. Shown here are the clear mouth frog and clear stomach penguin. There are lots of other styles which are suitable for any occasion gift treats. I labeled the packs with The Tepra label maker which is sold at HM BFC.

Christmas Puppy Tree Tag

I bought the Mama Elephant stamp and die at the beginning of the holiday season (from HM BFC, I think). I thought it was so cute but a busy schedule made me not want to color the design with my favorite Copic pens.  Instead I stamped the image on watercolor paper with gold ink and heat embossed it with NUVO  'Gold Enchantment' powder.  My original plan was to use Ken Oliver pigment powders to add color to the tags. However, I didn't like the outcome so I was about to discard the tags.

However, I hate to waste time and supplies so I decided to try a different idea.  I thought the tags needed a soft pastel look so I tried my Gansai Tambi Pearl watercolors.  By just dabbing on some color here and there, I got the look I desired. Yay!

As you can see the opalescent colors look fabulous but are a bit hard to photograph.  I die cut a second tree from printed card stock so that the messy watercolored back could be  covered up and there would be a surface for writing.  I glued a specialty yarn between the two die cut trees so the tag can be attached to a special Christmas gift.  I hope you are wrapping up your Christmas gifts attractively, even if it's only to attach a pretty tag....I'm sure the recipient will be excited!

Lynn's Prune Mui

This is the time of the year that my husband is always willing to chop, mix, and serve as official taster. Prune mui is one treat that is often requested by friends and family.  The photo above is what it looks like after it is just made so it will be much juicier later.  Every year I change up the recipe depending upon what scrumptious ingredients I find.  This year Trader Joe's had candied lemon slices and Costco had giant bags of Sunsweet prunes and organic dried mangoes.  I also found some huge li hing mui seeds from Chinatown.  Here is this year's recipe for those of you who want to give it a try:

Mix sauce:
1-1lb bag of brown sugar
1 T. Chinese five spice powder
3 T. coarse Hawaiian salt
1-1/2 c. lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
3 T. white rum

Cut up 3.5 lbs. of pitted prunes, 2.5lbs. of dried mangoes, 2 pkgs. of candied lemon slices, and two bags of large li hing mui seeds and mix them with the sauce.  Let stand covered for days, mixing as needed. Pack the prune mui in zip loc bags and flip bags twice daily.  Pack in containers and wrap attractively.  Give with pride! Onolicious Holidays to All!

Yeti Tuck-In 2020 Calendar

I am quite pleased with how these calendars turned out and they were so easy to make!  I started by stamping the Yeti images (Lawn Fawn stamp set from HM Ben Franklin Crafts) in dark blue Memento ink onto white marker paper.  Next I applied crystal Scribbles onto the Yetis and sprinkled them with  Martha Stewart iridescent hair-like glitter. Once the Yeti were dry, I used the LF dies to cut them out.

While the Scribbles was drying, I cut out the calendar bases.  I picked double-sided card stock and cut out 3"x 8" strips.  Next I started on the left of the length and marked at 1/2", 1-1/4", 2", and 5" on both the top and bottom of the strip.  Using a bone folder, I scored the strip at the markings. Then the piece was folded and pleated. The 1/2" tab was adhered to the back with Heiko double sided adhesive tape (from HM BFC).

To make the back of the calendar more finished, I used the dies to cut out the Yeti shapes from the matching printed  card stock. (Be sure you die cut the Yeti on the right side as they are similar but not identical.)  Before attaching the Vippies calendars to the base, I stamped the words (from the LF stamp set) 'The Best Is Yeti To Come".  I thought this sentiment was perfect for this calendar.   

I used foam adhesive tabs to secure the Yetis to the calendars.  The Yetis remind me of my cute and cuddly twin grandsons who ARE identical.  This coming year will certainly be the 'best' with another Yeti to arrive in late May! (My second son's first child!).  I hope that you will try making this style of calendar which you can 'Tuck-In' to hostess gifts, give to co-workers or even attach as tags to Xmas gifts.  Be creative and stay happy all year long!

Thank You Hugs Card

 With all the festivities around the corner, I decided I should get a jump on my thank you cards before I get too busy.  I like to mail out my Xmas gift thank you cards before New Year's Day....a childhood habit encouraged by my mother.  The Mama Elephant stamp and die sets that I purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts seemed like a perfect choice.  I used my dependable Lawn Fawn 'Hugs' die to cut out the word from foil or pearlescent paper and used a small stamp to print 'Thank You' on a matching paper.

 I used double stick Heiko tape to adhere the front printed panel to the card and then used a small Sizzix circle die to cut out the circular opening.

Small squares of foam adhesive were added to the back of each  Copic colored die cut image so they would have some dimension.

 A colored pencil line was added to ground each pair of huggers.

 As you can see by changing up the pattern paper, image and colors many different cards can be created.

 I am happy that I will be able to send out my thank you notes before the start of 2020. Well, onward to  Yeti calendars to give out to friends. Check back to see what I am talking about.  Jolly Holiday Crafting!