Sunday, December 21, 2008

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.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's some very special paper, but you're using it for a special purpose, so it's worth it! The vanilla sugar is certainly an unusual and wonderful little gift. I've never heard of it before. Very cool! Merry Christmas!

diane zechman said...

Oh, yum! The cookies look delish! And your vanilla sugar will be a very special treat...I'm sure the recipients will enjoy it!
Have a blessed Christmas, my friend!

Gail S. said...

Your cookies turned out wonderful! Do they taste as good as they look? I copied off the icing recipe but if you could share the cookie recipe, that would be awesome! Happy Holidays.

Juanita said...

Great tags. The cookies look super yummy.