Sweet Pressed

Confession time!  It's been a while since I used my Sweet Pressed Cookies stamps.  In fact, I have a set that has never seen dough...gasp!  Well, that all changed last night!  Two of my boys (the oldest and youngest) have birthdays this month and both want to bring a sweet treat for their classmates in celebration of their birthdays.  Cue, the cookie stamps and a new recipe I came across on Pinterest!

Birthday one is tomorrow, so cookies went to school this morning.

Taylor was so excited to take his orange birthday cookies to school!  And, Sawyer is equally excited for when I make more for him to take in a couple weeks.  He has already requested I make lemon and lime ones for his class!

In the past, I've only used my cookie stamps with certain recipes (sugar cookies, shortbread, gingerbread) because they work best with a cookie that is smooth (no chocolate chips!) and doesn't puff up too much while baking.  This time around I tried a Jell-O cookie recipe with them and it worked awesome!  I came across the recipe on Pinterest and you can find it here.  She has two recipes for these cookies on her site...I kind of did a combination of the two for mine!

A couple tips for Jell-O cookies.....

• use a scoop to make the balls uniform size (I usually use the smallest Pampered Chef scoop for cookies)
• the dough is soft, but shouldn't be sticky
• after rolling the balls in sugar, place on cookie sheet and squish with the cookie stamp
• dust your cookie stamp in flour BEFORE squishing each ball (trust me on this one!); just make sure you tap the excess flour off before squishing
• let them cool on the pan for a while before transferring them to a cooling rack
• these cookies shouldn't be brown on the bottom

I used the present stamp out of the newest set of cookie stamps, the Special Events set.  You can find them, along with the other cookie stamp sets in my online store!

Let me know how yours turn out if you try them.  Happy baking and have an inspired day!

Pretty Pink Cookies

It's no secret that I love the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps and I'm thrilled that they are in the Occasions Mini with a SPRING SET!!!!!!

Sherri and I got together a while back and made HUGE amounts of these cookies.  Like 3 double batches...I know...crazy!  We made them for bag stuffers for a craft sale we were at.  We needed 100 for the bag stuffers and then we wanted some to enjoy.  We chose to make 3 colors...purple, blue and pink.  Here are some of the pink ones I packaged up.

We blinged up our cookies by putting an edible silver ball in the centers of the snowflakes.  I don't know what those silver balls are called, but you can find them in the baking section at your grocery store...or in the cake decorating section at your local big box craft store.

I put three cookies in one of our medium cello bags and made a fun topper with some Soft Suede cardstock and the Top Note die.  It's stamped, sponged and all cute to finish off a fun package of yummy cookies.

Order your holiday set of cookie stamps today and check out the new Occasions Mini to see the fun spring set!

Have an inspired day!

Poppies

What a crazy week I've had...lots of family time with Kevin coming home after 2 weeks of being in Ottawa, sick kids, last minute Halloween prep and lots more so my blog got pushed to the bottom of my priority list!  But things have calmed a bit and I'm back.

It's November which means it's time to get a poppy and remember the sacrifices made for the life we enjoy today.  Now, I know that the poppies are sold to raise money for veterans and I'm all for that, but those silly poppies always fall off my coat and get lost.  So, this year I made my own poppy.  Actually I made it last spring for a demo I did and have been saving it in a safe place until now!

For some reason I can't get a good picture, but I will describe as best I can for you!  I used Poppy Parade cardstock and cut it with the Fun Flowers die.  I cut two flowers (the one with the points on the petals), cut the points off the flowers, scrunched them and then peeled just the petals apart (so the flower is still attached together in the middle).  I layered the two flowers together off-setting the petals.  Then I kind of scrunched the petals a bit.  The middle of the poppy is a black button from the Neutrals package.  I put a little knot of black ribbon in the middle and made some leaves with Old Olive Satin Ribbon.  The whole flower is attached to a pin back and it looks awesome on my black Stampin' Up! jacket!!!  This poppy isn't going anywhere...until I want it to!

Here's a look at Halloween at hour house this year...

Cookies for Preschool!  Sawyer and I made sugar cookies...black bats and orange pumpkins.  Sawyer had fun stamping the jack-o-lantern faces before I cut them with a pumpkin shape cutter.

Our pumpkins!  Kevin is super proud of his Oilers pumpkin!!!

My kids dressed up as Phineas, Ferb and Agent P!!!!

Have an inspired day!

Pumpkins!

Did you know that Stampin' Up! has come out with a line of cookie stamps? I'm super excited about this product and can see a LOT of stamped cookies in my future! The set of cookie stamps comes with a wooden handle and three interchangeable silicon stamps. The stamps are a jack-o-lantern face, a snowflake and a heart...perfect for this time of year! And, let me tell you, they are SO FUN to use!

Aren't those the cutest little cookies!  I used my new cookie stamps and one of my favorite sugar cookie recipes.  Usually my sugar cookies aren't orange, but this time I added some orange food coloring to the dough so they would look more like pumpkins.  What do you think?

I decided to package them in a cute little package so you could see a fun way to give them as a gift.  I put my cookies in one of our large cello bags and made a cute little topper.

I started with a Lucky Limeade base and then layered on a Concord Crush piece which I embossed with the Spider Web embossing folder.  To make it kind of pop even more, I gently rubbed my Whisper White sponge over it.  My pumpkin is stamped on Naturals White cardstock with Black StazOn ink.  Then the fun started!  I went over the lines with my Pumpkin Pie marker and then used my favorite new product to color it in.  I used the new Dazzling Details (found in the Holiday Mini) and added a few drops of Pumpkin Pie ink to it before applying it with a dry Aqua Painter.  In real life, it sparkles and is fantastic!

And, because I know I'm gonna get requests, here is the recipe I used.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

1 pkg (8oz)  Cream Cheese

1 cup Butter or Margarine (softened)

2/3 cup Sugar

1/4 tsp Vanilla

2 cups Flour

Beat the Cream Cheese, Butter, Sugar and Vanilla until smooth.  Add the flour and mix until well blended.  Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch in thickness and cut out shapes*.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.  Cool and enjoy!

**These cookies don't expand when baked so you can put lots on your cookie sheet and have them pretty close together.  They are really good with Buttercream frosting!

*I found that it was easiest with the cookie stamps to roll the dough into a log shape, chill and slice it before stamping.  I got 36 cookies when I sliced it...but some of my slices were a little on the thick side!!!

And, today I'm going to leave you with a fun pumpkin picture of my family from this weekend and our visit to the corn maze.

The looks on the boy's faces make me laugh...but at least they were all looking at the camera!! Have an inspired day!