Sweet Pressed Cookie stamps Christmas recipe by Stampin Up and me

Hi dear Stampers. How is your day going? You know, we had such a fun morning here in our kitchen. Our oldest daugther needed some cookies for her buddies at Kindergarten, that help her during the year. Now she wanted to make those cookies herself. Well.. I might shock you with my next quote, but I had never made any cookies in my whole life! I had no desire to make them as well. I know.. it sounds sad.. but that .. was .. me! I am not a big cookie eater so maybe that helped a bit. Yah.. forget about the bonding time I could have with my kiddo's.. Buying cookies can be bonding too, right? (smile)

Anyway.. About 2 weeks ago Stampin Up send me a free cute little white box with the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps in it. I was already thinking, who can I give this too this Christmas. because I was not planning on using them at all..

Then my daugther came in this morning and asked me 'What are these mom?' while holding them in her hand.. 'Well..' I said.. (I was thinking very fast in my head.. I could say.. 'I don't know..' and 'Why did you open that little box?'.. Or I could tell her the truth and tell her that they were cookie stamps... but then I knew what would happen... Her eyes would go wide and her cute little voice would ask me to make cookies with her.. ) So guess what happened.. Yip.. baking cookies it was.

There was actually a recipe for the cookies included in the box.. Stampin Up must have been thinking of me. I looked through it and yes there was no excuse.. we had all the ingredients in our house.. 'Okay, okay let's give it a try!' I said and she ran to the bathroom and said. 'Jippie! I am going to wash my hands mom!' She was so excited..
So I .. I mean, we were going to make some cookies..

We started with 2 cups of salted butter (that's a whole new 500 ml. package.. ouch) softened to room temperature.
We poured the 1 cup of granulated sugar (+ additional sugar for rolling.) + 1 cup of powdered sugar over the soft butter and started mashing the whole thing with a fork..

Then we preheated the oven to 350 Farenheit / 175 Celcius.

Well, forget about the fork and trying to mash the butter and sugar together.. I have a KitchenAid machine :) let's use that one. Way easier :

2 teaspoons of Vanilla

Yip that's the teaspoon

After the butter was all fluffy, we were allowed to add 1/2 a cup of cornstarch to the mixture.

When that was all mixed and lovely, we could add 2 times 1 - 3/4 cups of white flower to the mixture.

To make the dough less sticky, just add a little extra flower! (like 2 teaspoons)

They were so into this. Loved seeing their little smiles!

Of course the girls needed to do some pre-tasting.

We had to make sure that the dough wasn't sticky. Dough that is sticky will cling to the recessed areas of the stamp.

One...

Two...

Three.. Wowsy.. that looks so much fun, doesn't it?

And hoopla.. in the oven for only 15 minutes.

And there you have it....

Our yummy...

and home made cookies!

This is what I learned today!

1. 
   
   I am never to old, to try out something new (smile)


2. 
   
   Cookies are fun to bake and wow, does it ever smell good in our home!


3. 
   
   Cookie recipes without leavening (such as baking powder or baking soda) will result in the sharpest images. Cookie recipes with leavening will rise, causing the image to become less distinct.


4. 
   
   With this recipe we were able to bake about 30 cookies.


5. 
   
   My daughter was so proud of me / us.. Love that!


6. 
   
   and last but not least, they tasted so yummy!

Have a fun day and I hope I encouraged you to do some baking :) I would love to hear how yours turned out!

To order the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps, please visit my online Stampin Up store and look for the item number#125152 - $20.95.

Doughy hugs, Pauline

Holiday Hedgehogs Christmas card by Stampin Up, Freshly Made Sketches #15 and me.

Hi dear Stampers.

welcome back! I know, (smile) this is my second post of the day. We're taking it slow here in this household today. I have to say.. last night was a bit challenging with our youngest daugther having the tummy flue.. (So sad, she had no idea what was happening and why her food came all the way up again :) and landed on her favorite blanky and covered her bed.. yip.. guess what this sleepy mom was doing most of the night :) Anyhoo.. we're taking it real slow today.. we're not going anywhere. And my daugther made it very clear.. sitting on the middle of the coffee table and reading a book is a good way to take it slow :)

• After I hopped over to the Freshly Made Sketches and saw their new Challenge #15 created by Cindy Hall (please check out her take on the sketch.. it is absolutely adorable.) I knew I had to use my 'free hour of the day (while my youngest had her nap)' to create this card. Cindy's layout was so inviting and I just had to play.


• The Hand Stamped Sentiments ladies also had a Theme Challenge #97 - An old fashioned Christmas, that I wanted to work with. I don't own a whole lot of Vintage / old Fashion stamps.. but this cute little critter sure worked for this challenge. It reminds me of the good old Christmas days in Holland when I was a child. We didn't get a whole lot of snow in our winters there, but when we did, building a snowman (sneeuw pop) was the fun thing to do!


• And what do you know.. I just peeked at the Friday Mashup #36 Challenge site and their Challenge is to use a 'snowmen' in our creations. Well.. how fun is that? I loved seeing all the cards that were on their site created with those many adorable snowmen.

So what can I say.. An old fashion snowmen card in the perfect layout, it is :)

there are lots of retired Stampin Up products used in this card. The Holiday hedgehogs from Stampin Up, which were released in 2001, will never grow old on me, that's for sure. It was so fun to color these 2 cuties. My 2 Stampin Up star punches were just what I needed to ad that extra dimension to my card.

Well.. My hour is up. Life is going to start soon again here in this household. Thansk everyone for all your kind comments on my previous posts. I always love to hear from you and I will for sure take a peek at your blog if you leave me a message. It's the inspiration we all love while hopping through blog land, right!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Home sweet home (white) Decor Elements by Stampin Up and me.

Our kids sure make our home a 'Home Sweet Home!

This is what's left after I applied the vinyl art to our door!

And here you have it! Now how fun is this.... I love it!

Dear Stampers.

From January 24th 2012 until March 31st 2012. Stampin Up will hold their Sale-A-Bration. This means that with every $60 purchase you can pick one free exclusice Stampin Up item that they created for these 2 months of this huge SALE.

As demonstrators we already have access to these goodies. (I know.. love this little perk) So here is a sneak peak that I hope you will enjoy! It is from their beautiful Decor Elements line.

This 'Home sweet Home' Decor Elements set will only be available for 2 months. So what a great bonus gift to enjoy for many years to come!

Our stylish Décor Elements self-adhesive vinyl art provides a unique decorating experience for walls, mirrors, windows, and other smooth surfaces. Décor Elements is an extension of our Definitely Decorative home décor line, which gives you another way to express your creativity--just on a larger canvas than a card or scrapbook page! Décor Elements makes your home a beautiful representation of your style. And it's inexpensive compared to painting, framing art, or buying new furniture!Décor Elements is a natural extension of the products you already love. You'll love how Décor Elements images and techniques coordinate with our existing products such as two-step and three-step vinyl art (like our Ginormous Flowers or Wonderful Flowers Décor Elements sets) similar to Two-Step Stampin'. Whether you want to spice up the walls of your home or create other exciting projects for display, Décor Elements is an easy way to stylishly and inexpensively express your creativity.

Click here to see the huge amount of Decor Elements that Stampin Up is offering all year through.

Well.. I got to run here. Time is sure passing by quick. I hope your home will be full of love, joy and peace today as you go through your daily routine!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Sweets for the sweet + a yummy Minty chocolate marshmallows recipe.

Keep stirring those chocolate chips while you melt them. Don't let the water boil or you will bake your chocolate chips and it will turn hard!

Doesn't this look festive and yummy!

Hi dear Stampers.

• Are you in for a yummy treat. This afternoon I created these delicious and easy to make Minty Chocolate Marshmallow snacks. I took a lot of photo's so you can see how simple it actually is. All you need to do is drizzle your marshmallows with melted chocolate and press in crushed candy cane peppermint candies and chill until firm.

Were bringing these goodies tonight to a Christmas party. I love these pre-Christmas days, where everyone comes together to connect and share their homemade snacks.

I also created this yummy Christmas card for the hosts. It will look so fun together, doesn't it? I used a couple of the images of the Sweets for the sweets stampin Up stamp set. Again, it wasn't a difficult card to create. I used 5 of my Stampin Up punches, which made it not hard at all to put it all together in a clean and simple looking way!

Well, I have some lost Candy cane chips to vacuum in my kitchen.. Only in the end I realised it was way easier to place a Ziploc bag over top of the candy canes. It made the crushing so much easier.. no candy cane crisps flying around my ears that way!

Inky hugs, Pauline