Craft Fair--Saturday, Nov. 12

I'm all set up and ready! This photo doesn't even show everything in my booth. And, don't forget...my tablemate makes FABULOUS peanut brittle! The craft fair is going to be great...I was impressed with the other vendors who were also setting up tonight! Stop by tomorrow and say hello! Everyone at St. Paul would love to see you!

Craft Fair--Saturday, Nov. 12

Tomorrow my church, St. Paul United Methodist, is hosting its annual craft fair. It runs from 9-4 and entry is FREE. I will be there with many of my holiday gifts, plus other cards and crafts. I'd love for you to come by and visit! St. Paul is located at 852 W. Bedford Euless Rd, between Melbourne and Precinct Line...over by Northeast Mall. Call or email me if you need more info!

Christmas Card Buffet

It's time once again to start thinking about Christmas cards, and my Christmas card buffet can help you do that! The next 10 posts (labelled CCB #X) are the ten choices of Christmas cards. It works just like a buffet...you take what you like and you take as much as you like. Order in sets of four, and every four cards is $6. I will have your supplies cut and ready when you attend the class. The class is on Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 9 a.m. or anytime after 5:30. When you RSVP, tell me how many cards you would like to make and which cards you would like to make. To avoid any confusion, please give me the card number as well as the description I have in the post. I would appreciate RSVPs sooner rather than later, but can accept RSVPs as late as Dec. 4. :)

CCB #10--Present, Gingerbread Man, Tree

CCB #9--Three Stockings

CCB #8--Top Note Die Nativity

CCB #7--Colorful Trees

CCB #6--Three Snowflakes

CCB #5--Snowmen on Sled

CCB #4--Dear Santa

CCB #3--Bethlehem Scene

CCB #2--Piled Up Snowmen

CCB #1--Pennant Punch Trees

Christmas Gifts class--Nov. 18 and/or 19

The next few posts include many of the details about the projects you see in the photo. These are all part of my annual Holiday Gifts class. You can come over, be creative and accomplish some of those small gifts on your "to do" list. Please let me know how many of which gifts you'd like to make and which day you plan to attend. I will be offering the class on Friday, Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. and again on Saturday morning from 9-noon. Please RSVP no later than Wednesday, Nov. 16 in order for me to have all your supplies purchased and prepped!

Christmas Gifts--Ornaments and Packaging

Presentation is part of the fun when packaging holiday gifts! Use these fun boxes, bags, and gift card holders or for a final touch on a gift you've wrapped, tie on a cookie cutter tree ornament! The Rudolph ($3) and the stocking ($2)have a box "sandwiched" between that would be perfect for a small gift or gift card. The candy cane and snowflake medallions dress up a plain brown bag ($3 each) and could be taken off to hang on the tree. The embossed snowman gift card holder ($1) holds the "credit card" style gift cards. And, finally, the assorted cookie cutter ornaments (2.50 each) would make a fun gift topper that would double as a tree decoration!

Christmas Gifts--Dry Erase Boards and Post It Notes

These are some fun and useful gifts! The dry erase boards come with an easel to make them stand up and a dry erase marker. You can have your choice of ribbon colors (Basic Black, Soft Suede, Pretty in Pink, Daffodil Delight or Marina Mist.) Dry erase boards are $11 each. The desk top Post It Note holders fold flat and the create their own easel for standing up. These come with a matching pen. Choose from Certainly Celery with Garden Green or Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, and Melon Mambo. Post It Note holders are $4.50 each.

Christmas Gifts--Candy!

Candy boxes are always a fun holiday treat! Choose from the sliders (Whoppers with snow; Junior Mints with penguins; or Milk Duds with a snowman). Each box of "movie style" candy with the decorations is $3.00. Two more fun choices include the Holly Jolly Christmas box filled with four Hershey's Miniatures for $1.50 or the Embossed Window Box filled with soft peppermints for $3.

Christmas Gifts--Framed Art

Here are the choices for the Framed Art Christmas Gifts. Each of them come with the frame. The Christmas tree of circles is $10; snowman is $8 and the Come to Bethlehem scene is $4.

Think Pink Fundraising Class

These are three of the six cards we will be making at Nikki's Think Pink Fundraising Class. She is trying to raise $2300 to participate in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk. The class is Thursday, Oct. 20 at 10 a.m. or anytime after 5:00 p.m. Cost is $30...a little higher than normal card classes, but that's because it's for a good cause! And, I give 100% of your $30 to Nikki! Please invite your friends and let me know if you can come by Tuesday. We'd love to have a HUGE turnout! Oh, and if you can't come, but want to help...we will make your cards for you. Just let me know!

Quilting: Stampin' Up! Style

Stampin' Up! has come out with some beautiful fabrics that coordinate with their designer papers. I was inspired by the Spice Cake fabric to make some fall leaves. I've never really had any quilting instruction, so I make up how to do it as I go along. I thought it turned out pretty well. I made the first block and then decided to make three more and add some borders to turn it into a wall hanging.

The way Stampin' Up! sells their fabrics is in a package of three extra-wide fat quarters for $9.95. It really is a good deal. My next sewing adventure will use the Holly Berry and Candy Cane Christmas fabrics. I can't wait to try it...we'll see if I can make Christmas trees as well as I can make fall leaves! Such fun...or should I say...sew fun!

Stamped Sugar Cookies Experiment--Final Results

The final results were overall pretty good. Here are the three that worked so you can compare them all together: Clockwise from the top: bag mix, then pre-portioned dough, then Stampin' Up! recipe.

Since I am always honest with you about products, here are the questions I asked myself:

1. Did they taste good? YES, especially the Stampin' Up! recipe. :)

2. Were they easy to make? YES to all three types.

3. Would I go to the trouble to make these for a large party? Probably not...the WOW factor just isn't there.

4. Will I use the other presses that come in the package? YES...I'm thinking about the snowflakes being white with peppermint flavoring and the hearts being pink with raspberry or strawberry flavoring. Next time, I might only stamp half of them and then make sandwich cookies with frosting. In my world, frosting makes everything better. :)

5. If Stampin' Up! came out with more cookie stamps, would I buy them? YES

Feel free to ask me any questions about this process. It was fun to do the experiment. My family was thrilled that I was making four types of sugar cookies all in one afternoon!

Sugar Cookie Experiment--Part 5: Stampin' Up! Recipe

Well, surprise, surprise! The recipe that Stampin' Up! included in the cookie press package worked the best. Yes, it is a "from scratch" recipe, but it is NOT hard! I mixed up and again added the orange color and flavor and then used my small cookie scoop to make the cookies a consistent size. I had a little trouble with the stamp sticking, so I dipped the stamp in a little flour before stamping and it worked perfectly! They baked up very nicely and were delicious! There are two recipes included in the package...one is for sugar cookies (the one I used) and the other is for shortbread. I haven't tried the shortbread ones, but the sugar ones taste a lot like shortbread. They were delicious. Have I mentioned that already?

Sugar Cookie Experiment--Part 4: Mix in a Bag

Since this was the dry ingredients in a bag and all I had to do was add butter and eggs, I decided to add a few extra ingredients: mainly some orange food coloring and orange extract. It at least made it look more like a jack-o-lantern and tasted a yummy orange flavor. These stamped very well and baked up pretty good. You can see the results in the photos. The very first photo is the baked cookies; the second one is the stamped, not yet baked cookies. Oh, one more thing I did was roll them out and then use a biscuit cutter to make all the circles even. It worked very well!

Sugar Cookie Experiment--Part 3: Slice ' Bake

Slice 'n Bake didn't work at all! When I tried to stamp them, they just made a mess. Once they were baked, you couldn't tell anything had ever been stamped...probably because the stamping was never successful in the first place. Slice 'n Bake plus cookie stamps equals complete disaster!