7th Day of Christmas - Snowflake Cupcakes

Well this isn't so much of a recipe, but more of a me showing off what I can do ;) It was one of the girls birthdays at work and she was going to be coming out to the potluck, but unfortunately was one of the ones who wasn't able to make it out. I decided to make cupcakes and decorate them and we would sing Happy Birthday to her. Then I remembered, well this is supposed to be a Christmas Party and I just bought some new silicon bake-ware, so why not have some fun with it!

So out comes the bake-ware and the chocolate cake mix and of course the icing. Now I wasn't too sure about the silicone bakeware, as I've never used it before. So I did ask a few people if they had any suggestions for me before I started using it. "Just make sure it's really greased well." "Don't use it twice in a row without washing in between, because even if you re-grease it...IT WILL STICK!!!" ...well I didn't take that second advice, like the idiot I am and sure enough the second batch got stuck. FFFFFFF!!! But it worked to my advantage, because I was cutting the tops off the cupcakes so they were flat bottomed (and I am freezing the tops to make cake pops another day) and they broke off just perfectly!

I let them cool over night and decorated the next day...Here's how they turned out :)

The 8th Day of Christmas - Christmas Fruity Punch

Every party needs punch! It's not a party without a great punch to drink.

I wasn't really sure how many people were going to be coming to the potluck I was having, so I wasn't really sure how much punch I should have been making. Out of 15 girls invited - 4 ended up showing because of the weather, plus my family and I (4). I was so glad I didn't have more show, because at the end of the night I only had enough punch left over to fill one glass! So it was clearly a huge hit! 

I have never made punch before, but I've always had punch at other people's parties. Some can be great, others...well not so great. This recipe that I found, I was REALLY unsure of it. It did look a lot better than the other ones I found though. 

I sliced up 1 whole Orange and 1 whole Lemon to put in the punch bowl. I also took some of the lemon slices and quartered them to put them in ice cubes. 

I wasn't able to grab a picture of it, but it looked good and tasted great! My little sister's first comment was "This tastes like the fruit salad Mom makes for Christmas!! This is GREAT!!"...I didn't think it tasted like fruit salad, but it did taste great!

Here's what you need to make the Punch:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 cups Pineapple Juice

3 cups Orange Juice

3 cups Grapefruit Juice

2 liters GingerAle

1/2 cup Lemon Juice

1/2 cup Lime Juice

1 Lemon

1 Orange

Chill the Juices before mixing all together all ingredients. Stir so the sugar dissolves into the punch. Add in ice cubes to keep cool! This made an entire punch bowl for me. Don't worry if it gets bubbly at first, it does disappear.

On the 9th Day of Christmas - Homemade Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

I have to start this one off by saying, I took my Mom out for her Christmas present last night. I bought her tickets to see Johnny Reid, so it was a pretty awesome evening out. I was able to go and meet the opening band, Pear, and get a picture and autograph from them, which is totally cool! I've never been able to do that before, so it was a first for me! And for a person (myself) who's never really listened to Johnny Reid before, well lets just say he's gained a new listener! He was so energetic and awesome...he just never stopped moving, which made it that much more interesting to watch! But anyways...Here is the 9th Day.

Mmmmm, Now who doesn't like Cheese Sticks?! Melted cheese covered in bread crumbs and herbs...I'm making my mouth water just thinking about it. I love cheese, and cheese sticks are definitely one of my favourites around the holidays!

I found this recipe the other day...on Pinterest (I refused to get it for the longest time and I finally caved. So now every time I say it I roll my eyes!). Well I needed something small to add to the dinner menu and decided to add it to my list because lets be honest I'm too cheap to spend $10 for a dinky little package of like 15 Mozza-sticks at the grocery store. So why not spend about the same amount and make about 80, depending on their size.

So all I did was buy a block of the Part Skim Pizza Mozzarella. I cut the block in half, not knowing how much I was really going to get out of it and I began slicing the block into thick slices. I then took the thick slices and cut them in half the long way, then again the short way making rectangular pieces. After that I dipped them into table cream, I actually let them sit for a minute in the cream before moving them into the Italian Herb Bread Crumbs.

Totally covering them in the bread crumbs. I made Homemade Bread crumbs as well (really simple), but store bought works just the same, but don't forget the spices if you just bought plain bread crumbs!

I took them off the fork and placed them on a plate/tray.

I covered them in saran wrap and froze them until I needed them, so the cheese was hard (it's better to melt when hard, they'll keep their shape more!) and pulled them out 5 minutes before I needed them. They only needed 4 minutes in the oven at 450.

I wasn't able to get a picture of them after they were cooked as they were gone fast!

So here's what you need for the Italian Herb Bread crumbs:

4-6 slices of dried out bread (your choice of kind) - I put mine in the oven to dry out
Italian Seasoning Mix - add to your liking
1 tsp Garlic Powder

Grind the Bread so it's crumbled. What we do here is put the bread in pieces into a Coffee Grinder so it's crumbed well. You can also use a bag and rolling pin (I've done this way before, but it can really suck when you accidentally get a hole in the bag). Mix in the spices and the Garlic Powder, and shake until mixed well. Let it sit for a couple of days and it will be set to use!

Here's what you need for the Homemade Mozza-Sticks:

1 block of Part Skim Mozzarella Pizza Cheese (or use Mozzarella Cheese Strings in cubes)
1 cup of Table Cream
2 cups of Italian Herb Bread Crumbs - you might not use all

* Just remember to freeze them before you cook them! - They will melt better!*

10 Days of Christmas - Chocolate Dipped Candy Cane Pretzels!

Alright, so this being my first post in over a year, I'm going to make this a little different than what I've done before. I won't be posting just my handmade cards anymore, I'll  be posting all my Arts n Crafts and all my baking! So hopefully there will be some awesome things!

So I just hosted a potluck Christmas Party last night and I made a ton of new recipes (well new to me at least), so I'd like to show what I made, not just today, but everyday right up until Christmas...hence the 10 days of Christmas title! (I was a little late on the 12 Days!)

The first thing I made were Chocolate Dipped Candy cane Pretzels. Now when I see recipes like that I'm usually a little unsure because I'm not a huge person on mixing sweet and salty together, but they looked fantastic. So I figured what the hell, I'll give something new a shot.

It's so simple actually!

Just melt light chocolate wafers dip half of the pretzel in

then right into the crushed candy canes

and the set them on a lined tray.

Then after your done all that you want to do, get the white chocolate wafers melted, grab a spoon and drizzle the white chocolate over the side you didn't dip in.

Pretty simple. Just let them dry over night, or shove them in the fridge for a few hours and PARFECTO! They are all set, just make sure they get put into a container right away after they are dried because you don't want stale pretzels (EW!).

So here's what you need:

1 Bag of Pretzel twists (or more depending on how much you want to make) - DON'T USE THE BROKEN ONES!!

1 small microwavable bowl full of Light Melting Chocolate Wafers (I used a tuperware container, look at the image for size)

1/2 of a small microwavable bowl full of White Chocolate Melting Wafers

1 cup of crushed Candy Canes (you won't use all of it)


They turned out great for me, and everyone loved them. They all said it was a perfect mix of sweet and salty, and I felt the same, it was just nice and not over done!

I hope you enjoy this as much as we all did!!

Wedding Card for my Best Friend's Wedding on Saturday

Alright, so I've been thinking of cute little things for this card for literally months, but had to pull it all together today since it was the only day that I had almost all day off. So I got up early, found something really close to what I wanted and just went with it. Here are some of the pictures I took, and then the final car at the end :) I am really proud of the cards that I have been making recently, especially since they are going to someone so wonderful <3

New Cards are finally here!

I do apologize for the delay in everything! I have been so busy! My best friend's wedding is in just under a month, so a lot has been going on, but I have succeeded in making a few new cards. I made one for her bridal shower on Sunday and everyone seemed to love it! So I will show that one first and then I will post some more that I've randomly done when I've had some spare time.

I also made a couple cute ones, one for mothers day and the other of a friends birthday, so I will post those as well.

I have registered for a show in July, so I will keep you all updated on that too! Right now all I know about that is it will be in Alsia Craig on July 21st, from 11-4.

Here is the card I made for the Bridal Shower

Mother's Day card

Friend's Birthday Card

165. Baby Girl - Congrats

166. Baby Boy - Congrats

167. Frog - Blank

168. Footprints - Quote

Off to work on some more :) Enjoy!

xoxo
Kris

Hello!

Hi Everyone,

As you've notice I haven't been posting any new cards. I have been extremely busy with working everyday and dealing with a lot of stressful things going on in my life with a friend dying just before christmas, and another friend being in the hospital right now dying of cancer, and many other things building up.

I will hopefully be starting making some more cards soon and getting them posted, although I haven't been selling to many, it seems like there are a lot of people looking at them, which is a great start. I am also going to be making some different cards, such as Wedding Invitations, baby cards, and I recently had someone give me the idea of baptisms. So I will be experimenting and needing some feedback, so please if you see them and have any, and I mean ANY suggestions, please please please leave a comment and let me know!

I am looking into more craft shows, or community sales, anything for that matter, for this year, and I am hoping that they will go a lot better than what this last year brought. If you know of any upcoming festivals in the London, ON area please message me on here and let me know!

I just wanted to write a short note to let everyone know that I haven't given up on the cards, I've just been dealing with a lot lately and there just hasn't been time.

I hope to start selling more cards, and bring you some new cards to see!

xoxo Kris