Sugar Cookie Recipes

There are a ton of GREAT blogs out there that will teach you the ins and outs of cookie making and decorating. I couldn't do nearly as good of a job with my blogging and picture taking ability. I found all of this information while on Pinterest. If you are interested in this site - you'll need an invite if you do not already have an account. I would be glad to do so. Just shoot me a message.

Image from Bakers Royale

To start I went to Bakers Royale; this post. This gave me the directions broken down on how to start decorating with the royal frosting. Great blog with tons of great images etc. It is also broken down in very basic terms so really anyone can do this!

Amazing work from Sugarbelle

Then I mosied over to The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle for some amazing inspiration. I also started with her recipes for Sugar Cookies and did the following for my own adaptation; because I double the recipe for enough cookies adjustments have been made to the original recipe:

• 2 c. of REAL unsalted BUTTER, softened
• 3 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 2 egg
• 3 tsp caramel flavoring
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 5-5.5 c. all-purpose flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. salt

Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar.  Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, and add the flavoring. Add that to the butter sugar mixture and mix until the eggs are thoroughly incorporated.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add little by little to the mixture.

Next is her Royal Frosting icing - found here. This post has a lot of info, great pictures and my kids love the frosting...very candy like in flavor after it hardens. 

For information on coloring and preparing the frosting go here. Another great post by Sugarbelle that tells you about consistency of frosting etc. 

Lastly, this video is a great demonstration of how to color your frosting and  fill your bags that produce easy clean up! An awesome concept!

With all the information I provided above I was able to create the cute Halloween cookies that I also posted today!

Sugar Cookies

I love to make Sugar Cookies and decorate them with Royal frosting. The cookies below are one's that I made back in October for the girls class party and their halloween party that we hosted in our garage. These are time consuming, but I love the outcome and I got a lot of compliments. The cookie recipe I use holds up and bakes well, but they do not get hard as rocks. They are a caramel vanilla sugar cookie.

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Happy Valentine's Day

     I made 50 of these cute little Valentine's for Madelyn and Grace's class parties. For years I have wanted to make their Valentine's but time always got away from me. There is a fun paper store not too far from me: Hollos. They sell cardstock for about $1 a lb. GREAT place. The last time I was there I was looking at envelopes etc and saw stacks of precut cardstock. These originally are a little bigger than a card front size of 4.25x5.5. I used my new Martha Stewart score board and scored these in half. 

     Next, I used my Creative Memories cutting system to cut the white and red/pink circles. Followed by stamping the images and coloring them with the Tria Pantone and Prismacolor Markers. 

     Due to time and the fact that most people toss these cards, I wrote 3 of the 4 sayings on the cards as I did not have those sayings in stamp form. These were pretty easy to mass produce - the coloring was the hardest to do.

    Inside I cut two slits for the pencil to be secured and we added a packet of Fun Dip.

Also for the class party both Madelyn and Grace took in these yummy Betty Crocker treats in to celebrate Valentine's day with their friends!Pin It

Recipe found here!

Recipe found here!

Will you be mine?

I have been crafting away for months, but have found little time to blog about it. Now that the twins are nearly 3 they are getting better and better with letting mommy create! I am thankful for that. I have many photos that I hope to  post soon and get back on my to blogging more frequently (I am beginning to feel like a broken record :) )

This masculine card was a combination of 3 recent SCS challenges. Sketch Challenge SC372, Color Combo CC362 and Ways to use it WT361.

I used the following colors - night of navy, bashful blue and crumb cake to make a non-traditional colored valentine. This card looks very masculine because of the color choices!

After cutting my papers, and using Creative Memories cutting system for the circle I stamped my images with Palette Prussian Blue ink.

I used prismacolor pencils on the image as well as using gamsol and a blending stump to give it that graduated water color sorta look. I really like how using pencils that are similar to the paper colors really add to the image and it does not look lost like I thought it may look. I have never used colored pencil and gamsol on colored cardstock - I like the results.

I got a little carried away with running the ink on the edges of bashful blue but I still like it!

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Bare with me on the photo quality - I am reading up on how to get better photos of my work...this one was taken on my iPhone.

The Best of Volleyball and Soccer

Both Madelyn and Grace played fall sports this year so this kept me very busy driving to and fro from all the games. Madelyn played volleyball. She has developed a nice overhand serve this year. She is turning to be a rather sporty girl. 

Grace came out of her shell this year and played soccer - she really liked it...I really do not like soccer, but I do like how tired she is after playing. She has enough energy for 5 children, so this is really the sport for her!

She is #65

The photo below is from the Volleyball dinner. Madelyn and her silly friends. Left to Right - Cami, Jessica, Marisa, Olivia and Madelyn.