Mmmmm

We are still experiencing blustery winter weather here, brrrrr!! I took a bit of time to decorate some cookies and package up some more gifts. With just a few more days to go until Christmas, time is at a premium. My stamping time is pretty much not happening except to whip up a few quickie tags. Like this one...

I wish you could see this yummy paper, it is all shimmery with glitter on the snowflakes. At $2.25 a sheet, I only splurged on one sheet and I am stretching it really far by using it on tags! I think it is by Reminisce. I didn't want to cover up the paper so I only added some border punched paper to the back and a small oval sentiment.

The tags are going on a small Ball canning jar filled with vanilla sugar. I had a few left over vanilla beans so I added them to some sugar a few weeks ago. I simply split the bean pods down the center and put in 1 bean for every cup of sugar. Shake it every day as the moisture from the beans causes the sugar to clump up. It takes as little as 2 weeks to get a nice, mildly flavored sugar. The sugar can be used in coffee/tea or even baked goods, any where you use sugar but want a hint of vanilla flavor! The mini Ball jars are perfect and I like their more decorative silver lids.

Here is the other thing I did today...

I made the cut-out cookies last week and froze them. I tried a new recipe for icing and used these nifty squeeze bottles I found at Joann's to apply it. It made for a lot less mess but I can't say it was any less time consuming than regular frosting. I was trying to channel my best Martha Stewart, but I have much to learn, lol! After all of this, they had better taste good. Here is a link to the recipe I used. There is a pretty long dry time required to get the icing to harden so be sure to do this when you aren't in need of your counter space for awhile.
I hope you are staying warm where ever you are!

Thanks for stopping by.