Christmas biscuits, festively boxed up

I adore Christmas biscuits! They're quick to bake and decorate, fill the house with an excitingly Christmassy smell and make lovely gifts when they're attractively packaged.

I like to cut my dough with a star shaped cookie cutter and, when the biscuits are baked and cooled, decorate them with zig zags of white icing and soft gold or silver balls and just a dusting of icing sugar.

The wonderful kraft boxes on p.161 of the annual catalogue are perfect for presenting these little biscuits, but don't forget to line them with greaseproof paper first.  They're great for all sorts of other goodies too and at £2.75 for a pack of four, they don't break the bank either!

For Christmas, I like to tie mine up with the stitched grosgrain ribbon in real red - oh, this ribbon is divine and comes in loads of the Stampin' Up colours!

I used a fun tag from Tags til Christmas for this box. I stamped it in Real Red ink, cut the centre out with the new 1" square punch and mounted it onto a scalloped square punched out of Early Espresso Core'dinations card stock. I love how you get the sanded edges look when you punch this gorgeous textured card stock.

Of course I had to design a card to go with my box of Christmas biscuits and Merry Minis was the perfect stamp set for it! I used Real Red to stamp some stars and ornaments, punched them out with the coordinating punch and attached them with dimensionals to a string drawn with an Early Espresso marker (using an oval pie dish as a guide!)

The marker came in handy for doodling bows at the tops of the decorations too! Doesn't this make a sweet banner?!

I chose to use the wonderfully swirly Merry Christmas from Sassy Salutations, stamped again in Real Red ink.

And here they are together, all ready to go!

Here's the recipe I use for my biscuits (adapted from various other recipes I've tried over the years!)
5oz plain flour
5oz SR flour
4 tsp cinnamon
2oz dark muscovado sugar
2oz granulated sugar
4oz butter
1 large free range egg, beaten
A little milk if needed
Method
Cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy and add the beaten egg. Sieve in the dry ingredients and mix into a dough with a little milk if needed. Roll out to 1/2cm thickness, cut out star shapes and bake on floured baking trays in an oven pre-heated to 150 degrees C for 10-15 minutes until browned.

Here's what you'll need to box the biscuits up
Stamps: Tags til Christmas
Ink: Real Red
Card stock: Whisper White, Core'dinations in Early Espresso
Other: Kraft boxes, Real Red stitched grosgrain ribbon, Scallop Square punch, 1" square punch, white bakers twine.

Here's what you'll need for the coordinating card
Stamps: Merry Minis, Sassy Salutations
Ink: Real Red classic ink plus an Early Espresso marker
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real Red
Other: Merry Minis punch pack, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593.

This has turned into a very long post hasn't it... but still, I'm sure some of you could do with a bit of a nap! Our lovely cat Tuppence is napping away as I type and she's taken to making noises as she dreams - just like a dog! You can tell that she's being Warrior Tuppence, Defender of the Territories from the noises she's making (although in real life she's a complete wimp!)

I shall be back tomorrow with a really fun project. Hope to see you then.

A Notably Ornate Christmas

With an fat, new catalogue coming out on Monday, I've been packing away all my retiring sets ready to make room for lots of exciting new ones. Is there anything more fun than playing with new stamp sets?! By the way, if you live in the UK and you'd like to put your feet up with one of the new catalogues, I can post one to your door for £4.95 - you won't be disappointed I promise you! Just email me to order one.

Of course, while putting the retiring stamps away, I couldn't resist having a go with some of them, including Notably Ornate. Now, this isn't a set you would immediately associate with Christmas but I had a sudden idea... come and see:

I started by swiping Whisper White craft ink over a Baja Breeze card base, masking off the centre and inking the exposed edges with Baja Breeze ink. To add dimension to the paler part, I scored the join with my Simply Scored board and added a little shading with a watercolour pencil.

The swallow in the Notably Ornate set makes a brilliant dove: I stamped him onto Whisper White card stock, cut him out without including the fork in his tail and added dove-like markings on the other side with the watercolour pencil. I thought this sprig from Tags 'til Christmas made a reasonable olive branch.

All that was needed was a suitable sentiment and I chose this one from my Jolly Jingles wheel. Now wouldn't this be an excellent card to send to a feuding relative!

If you'd like to make some of these little doves, Sunday is the last day to order the Notably Ornate set - and everything else on the Retirement lists! Check them out here and email your order through to me before 8pm on Sunday at the latest.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Notably Ornate (retiring), Tags 'til Christmas, Jolly Jingles wheel
Ink: Baja Breeze, Real Red, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Other: Old Olive marker, Watercolour Pencils, Simply Scored, paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

I don't know why I made a Christmas card for today as the bizarre wintery weather we've been having has been interrupted by a day of glorious warm sunshine! It was just the weather for me to venture into the garden with a pair of secateurs and do battle with the triffids - and you'll be glad to know we can sleep safely in our beds tonight!

Have a lovely weekend won't you, and I'll be back very soon.
Hugs,

PS The lovely Sandra has reminded me that a Christmas card is all that's required for Rudolph Day! This will be my second entry - go me!

Three Minute Thursday - Tags til Christmas card

Good morning! It's Thursday and time for another in my weekly series of fast cards. Last week I received my lovely Tags til Christmas set which I bought for making tags for this year's Christmas presents and, while I was making tags, I thought how useful some of the images are for quick cards too. Today's fast card is the result of that thought! Come and have a look:

I used one of my favourite papers from the gorgeous Holly Berry Bouquet speciality range and attached it to a Chocolate Chip card base. I love the vintage feel of this paper and added to that feel by adding the Real Red satin ribbon to the top of the card and tying it into a large festive bow. All that was needed then was this tag from the Tags til Christmas set.

I liked the way the pine branch on the tag coordinated with the paper and by leaving off the 'to and from' and adding the merry Christmas sentiment from Season of Joy it makes a good focal point to the card. It would've taken a while to cut round the shape but happily there's a punch which does the job for me in a fraction of a second!

Look at all these lovely images in the Tags til Christmas set - and most of them coordinate with a punch to make your life really easy!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Tags til Christmas, Season of Joy

Ink: Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Chocolate Chip markers

Card stock: Chocolate Chip

Other: Holly Berry Bouquet speciality papers, Real Red satin ribbon, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

Thank you for dropping in today and for all your lovely comments and emails. I so enjoy reading them and returning your visits. I've really appreciated all your get well wishes too - although I'm still suffering with this wretched cold! It seems that several of my electrical appliances have sensed weakness and given up - we're now without a printer (disaster!) and a dishwasher (oh the novelty of handwashing the dishes!) and I've just had to replace the kettle!

I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas inspiration and I'll hope to see you then.

Hugs,