Chocolate Fruitcake Brownies

                                

As the holiday season quickly approaches, I find myself searching for new recipes that will yield edible gifts for friends and family.  I saw a Martha Stewart recipe (Big Batch Triple Chocolate Brownie Bars) online which seemed tasty but really huge for a pre-holiday taste test. I love fruitcake and brownies and this recipe appeared to be a delightful combination of both desserts.  However, I also didn't want to prepare the recipe because I already had a box of Ghiradelli brownie mix in my pantry.  Mainly, I wanted to taste test out the combination of dried fruits and nuts in a brownie.  What you see on this post is the result of a  box of brownie mix for an 8x8 pan and 2 cups of dried cranberries, golden raisins, dates, walnuts and pistachios.  I think the end product is worth trying again with the original Martha Stewart recipe.  I love the texture and taste that the fruits and nuts add to the brownies.  I think in the future I will reserve some of the fruits and nuts to sprinkle on top of the brownies before baking.  That will make the brownies more attractive and give the consumer a hint of what's inside.  I used a mini nine loaf pan to make the fruitcake brownies and paper liners to make clean up easier.  You can probably find both the mini loaf pan and liners at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  There are lots of baking/candy making supplies available at all the HM Ben Franklin stores. The messy photo below shows why you should use paper liners.  I plan to freeze the brownies and then remove the liners before wrapping them in plastic wrap or decorative wax paper before packaging them for gift giving.  Wouldn't they look yummy in a pretty hand decorated gift bag?

Autumnal Mushroom Fairy Treat Bags

                                     

When we travel on Hawaiian Airlines to places beyond the islands, I look forward to the snack/meal bags they pass out...not because of the food inside but because the bags are charming and perfect for decorating.  This time I chose to use a Penny Black stamp set (Missing You) to stamp out images, color with Copic pens and fussy cut.  I added the images to the bags with adhesive foam dots.

I added some artificial autumn leaves (cut off from a garland purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts) and  glued on some die cut fern fronds and mushrooms.  These were made with Hero Arts Mushrooms and Ferns Fancy Dies. Some specialty yarn (from my collection) was added to the bottom of each bag to give the appearance of a forest floor.

For the back of the bags, I decided to add some ribbon and wax seals with mushroom designs which were leftover from my previous post about mini calendars.  These wax seals on the back of the bags, as well as the autumn leaves on the bag fronts, were added for decoration and to cover up the Hawaiian Airlines logo.     

I am hoping that I will continue to receive a supply of the Hawaiian Airlines snack bags even though the airline was bought out by Alaska Airlines. This year my decorated HA bags will be used to hold homemade cookie hostess gifts. If you are a frugal crafter who likes recycling, I hope that you will start saving HA snack bags too.  I'm certain you can create something fabulous from them.

Autumnal Mini Calendars with Wax Seals

I recently purchased a large wax seal tool with a mushroom design. Because I couldn't wait to try it out I immediately started to melt some wax pellets with my hot air gun (done on a silicon mat).  Although the hot air gun blows the pellets around a bit, little pools of melted wax can be formed.  I pressed the wax seal tool into the puddles of wax and after the wax hardened and cooled, pretty, shiny ovals resulted. (You can still purchase wax sealing candles to make the melted wax puddles, but I don't like using fire in my craft area.)

I glued these wax 'jewels' and ribbons to the top of calendars.  The calendar bases were made from 4"x12"  printed card stock folded into stand up forms that can be flattened to fit into an envelope. I admit that I'm a wax seal junkie so I am very happy that HM Ben Franklin Crafts sells both the wax pellets and the handled metal sealing tools.  If your pressed seals don't look quite right you can always remelt the wax or even trim it into a more pleasing shape before remelting the edges.  Using wax seals is a very old fashion stationery decoration, but it is really fun to create and collect all the different metal sealing tools.  I hope you'll give making wax seals a try but be warned, "It's addictive!"  

P.S. I haven't purchased my 2026 mini calendars yet.....hence the use of old 2025 calendar pages for my mini 2026 gift calendars. 

Halloween Bookmark Treats

 Sometimes it's nice to offer trick-o-treaters something other than candy for a treat.  This year I decided to make bookmarks from my Halloween paper scraps and give our trick-o-treaters a sweet no-sugar treat.  It was easy to use my paper trimmer to cut the card stock into bookmark-sized pieces.  I glued two pieces, facing plain sides together.  Next, I added stickers and Halloween ephemera to the fronts.

For the backs I adhered sticker letters, mini cats, and candy stickers.  On the top of each bookmark, I punched a hole and attached some colorful specialty yarn.  It was super simple to make these Halloween bookmark treats but you could also offer mini soap bars (be sure to label them, 'Do Not Eat'), small toys (Daiso and HM Ben Franklin have lots) mini books,or perhaps sticker sheets.  I hate wasting even small scraps of paper, so making bookmarks is super satisfying.  Surprise the trick-o-treaters this year and offer them something that will make the fun of Halloween last longer than some sugary sweets.

Gnome Sprinkle Birthday Card

I love gnomes and my daughter-in-law loves cats so I decided to combine the two themes into her birthday card...also I just bought a gnome stamp set (Whimsy) which I just couldn't wait to ink up. LOL!  I started this card by cutting the colorful heart frame using the Sizzix die on some heart print card stock.  I used the same die to cut out a frame out of plain white card stock.  I saved the inner piece of the white card stock frame and stamped the 'Happy Birthday' and gnome with cake onto it before coloring the image with Copic pens.  I also used white glue to add some fine clear sparkle glitter to the cake.

I glued down the white scalloped frame to the front of the blue card and then inserted and glued the inner piece with the gnome and words inside the frame.  Next, I added  double stick foam adhesive to the backside of the heart frame to form a complete seal for the confetti. (I had to cut the foam tape to make it 1/4" as I only had 1/2" tape.) I carefully placed the scalloped rainbow heart frame onto the white scalloped frame. Before completely sealing the pocket, I added the heart, cat paw print, and cat face confetti into the clear window pocket.

For the inside of the card, I stamped the melting gnome image (Trinity, Simon Says) and the cat images (Poly Clear, Hero Arts) onto white card stock.  I cut out the images after coloring them with Copic pens.  They were adhered to the card with glue and adhesive foam dots (behind the cats).  White glue was used to adhere some fake confetti sprinkles.

.  

I think this birthday card is successful because it makes me smile.  I'm hopeful that the birthday girl will enjoy the humor of the card. (The cats are gray like hers and they often cuddle up with her husband (my son) while he is sleeping...Hahaha!) Hope YOU have an extra sprinkles kind of day!

Halloween Treat Bag Cards

 Yes, these are CARDS, not trick-o-treating bags.  These bag cards fit into standard 5x7 envelopes.  I created them as a way to send treats to my favorite trick-o-treaters who live too far away from me to knock on my door this Halloween.  I started by cutting up some large brown paper bags and their handles.  Using just a ruler, serrated scissors, and glue, I formed the 4"x5" mini bags and added the handles (made from the original large bag handles).  It was incredibly easy to cut the Whimsy printed Halloween card stock sheets (from a paper pad) to fit the bag fronts.  

Next, the Happy Halloween words were die cut from gold foil card stock using the Whimsy die.  Fabri-Tac 3 in 1 glue was used to adhere the words.  Also glued on in the upper left corner of the bag was a cobweb cut from vellum using the Sizzix die.

On the back of the bag card, I plan to write a message to my sweet trick-o-treaters.  I didn't want to leave the back of the bag bare so I sprayed it with Tim Holtz Distress paint and stuck on some puffy candy stickers.  Rather than sending candy through the mail, I decided to eat the candy and fill the empty mini candy wrappers with folded money.  This way the recipients of the Halloween Treat Bag cards can buy their own treats....toys, books or even CANDY!  I hope this post has inspired you to make your own treat bag cards to surprise your favorite faraway tirick-o-treaters!

Autumn Agate Necklace With Pendant

While looking in my stash for beads to string into strech bracelets, I 'found' an agate pendant.  In the plastic zip bag were two strands of beads hat matched the pendant.  Since I had my jewelry tools out, I decided to whip up a necklace. The two strands of beads were not the same size or colors, but they did both match the pendant so it wasn't hard to complete the necklace.  Since the pendant had a sterling silver bail, I finished off the necklace with silver ball beads and a silver hook clasp.  It was simple to use crimps and a crimping tool to make sure the closure was secure.  I'm glad that I took the time to complete this piece whose parts were patiently waiting for me to put them together.  I know that I will happily and proudly wear this Autumn Agate Necklace this fall.  Hope that you will take the time to check out the beads at HM Ben Franklin Crafts to select the perfect ones to make into some autumnal and holiday jewelry.