Christmas

Sharing Holiday Joy with Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

3 · Dec 6, 2012 · 29 Comments

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars // My all time favorite Christmas goodies are my Mom's Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars…

Some of my earliest Christmas memories are hanging out in the kitchen with my Mom and sometimes my Dad while they made their famous holiday concoctions. They had a few staples on the list… Fudge, peanut brittle (not my favorite,) your classic Christmas Sugar cookie and then my favorite the chocolate peanut butter bar. I remember dreaming about this little treat all though out the year. Not to mention the anticipation I would feel when Mom would start the task of holiday baking. She always kept the pans of goodies out in our cool garage which acted as our overflow kitchen storage. They were supposedly hidden from sticky little fingers, but no… I always found them. Nibbling little morsels here and there until the sad day when the pan of chocolate peanut butter goodness was gone for another year.

I remember that sense of pride I felt as we would travel out as a family to deliver our plate of goodies to friends and neighbors. I always felt like my Mom's holiday plate was just a little extra special because of the chocolate peanut butter bars. My Mom would always make them in a 9×13 pan and then cut them into bars. This year I made some for my family and friends in these super cute mini paper loaf pans that I found at Walmart and then wrapped them with decorative parchment paper tied with bakers twine. A nice little updated touch to an old family classic.

I just love these little treats full of messages of love from giver to the lucky person receiving the special gift. Whether it's a personalized card or cookies right out of the oven, I love sharing the warmth of the holiday season with my family, friends and, of course, my readers!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 sticks butter (melted)

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

Mix graham crakers crumbs, peanut butter, sugar and butter together well and press into a 8×8 pan. Melt chocolate and spread on top of peanut butter mixture and chill for 30 minutes. Cut into small squares and serve at room temperature.

Last Minute Holiday Gifts with GiftGloss

207 · Dec 4, 2012 · 4 Comments

Do you ever find yourself in a pinch over the Holidays? You need a gift for a friend, neighbor, colleague and you just don’t have time to make some goodies to share! You find yourself heading to the market to find some store bought goodies but feel like a total dope for bring bringing something that’s not homemade. Don’t you worry! All you need to do is keep some GiftGloss on hand with a few other handy packaging supplies and you are GOLDEN!

design elements // rhonna designs

I ran to the store yesterday and checked out the bakery section to find some goodies that I could repackage and give as fun gifts for friends & neighbors when you are in a pinch. Here are some suggestions that I have…

No. 1 Select a Theme

Even when you are in a hurry, take a few minutes to come up with a cohesive theme. This will kick your quick goodie up a notch and turn it into a stunning gift. It took just a few minutes to go through the bakery and candy section at the store to find a few items that would go with my red, white & chocolate theme.

No. 2 Packaging

Nothing screams LAME more than store bought goodies brought in their store containers. To save myself from that mistake I keep a few items on hand to save me when in a pinch…

GiftGloss – Not sure what GiftGloss is click here to see their video. I keep both the 6 & 12 inch rolls on hand
Decorative plates or containers – The skies the limit here, as long as they fit in the 6 or 12 inch GiftGloss tube.
Fancy parchment paper – I found my red dot parchment paper at Cost Plus World Market
Ribbon, twine, yarn or some type of decorative tie – I found my fun personalized ribbon on Pick Your Plum not too long ago. It says “Merry Christmas from the Thoming Family” LOVE it!!

No. 3 Placement

You’ve taken the time to get the goodies, stock the fun packaging… Now you need to make sure you create a beautiful goodie package or plate by making sure you place thing well.

Don’t over crowd the plate.
Use the color to your advantage with color groups.
Think of your patterns and textures and place accordingly.
For large plates have one item be the show stopper then add to it with a good supportive selection of items. For example, in my large plate I have the beautiful cookies as my show stopper and then the supportive cast accentuates the beautiful cookies.

Now, if you keep all of those things well stocked, you can have some amazingly SIMPLE yet STUNNING holiday gifts in a snap.

The FoofQueens are making that extra easy right now with a special deal for EVERYONE!!

Head on over and visit the FoofQueens to stock-up on GiftGloss so you won’t be caught empty handed.

Here are some more easy ideas from the FoofQueens…

What are some of your ideas? What would you foof-up with your new GiftGloss?

Discloser Statement

Christmas Cinnamon Garland

7 · Nov 27, 2012 · 20 Comments

A few years ago my husband and I had the opportunity to take our girls {the little guy wasn’t around then} to Germany and France for the month of December. We couldn’t have planned the timing any better. Christmas in Europe is something everyone should experience. Wishing that everyone could have the experience without the hefty fees involved, I thought I would create something that will help bring some of the German Christmas spirit into your home.

In the German Christmas markets they sell the most amazing gingerbread cookie creations and I’ve always found the designs so inspiring. I thought it would be fun to create a gingerbread cookie inspired garland to dress the home up for Christmas…

The fun thing about this garland is that it’s made out of the classic cinnamon and apple sauce mixture that just makes your home smell like heaven. Here is what you will need to make this garland for your home…

Supplies for the Cinnamon Garland

4 oz. cinnamon
3/4 cup apple sauce
drinking straw
Wilton snowflake cookie pan
chalk pencil (found in the art supply section)
baker’s twine
yarn

Instructions

In a bowl, mix the cinnamon and apple sauce into a dough like consistency. If it’s too thin add more cinnamon or vice versa.

Knead the dough together into a ball then pinch off small gumball size pieces and press them into the snowflake cookie pan.

Using a drinking straw, place holes into the cinnamon ornaments. One at the top if you want to use them to decorate the tree or gift box. Two holes if you would like to string them on a garland.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 2 hours or until completely dry. Keep and eye on them so they don’t burn.

Once they are completely dry, take the white chalk pencil and color in the raised snowflake designs. This idea was a happy accident when I was trying to figure out the best way to have the cookies look like they have been dusted with powdered sugar. The chalk works PERFECT!!

Next, all you need to do is string it onto the baker’s twine and yarn to make the garland. I used a red and white baker’s twine along with a solid red yarn for my garland, but you can use whatever you like.

Now you can use it to dress up your home for the holidays and not only will it look fantastic, it will make your home smell amazing!

Sharpie Art Gift Set // Mug A Love Hot Chocolate

4 · Nov 13, 2012 · 26 Comments

I was a guest over at Infarrently Creative a little bit ago and I thought I would share what I created for Beckie and her friends over there. A Sharpie Art Gift Set. Check out how to make this fun and inexpensive gift for your family and friends this holiday season…

Hello all my IC friends! I’m Heather from WhipperBerry and I’m over the moon excited to be here with Beckie to share my Sharpie Art Gift Mugs today. I just adore Beckie and all her amazing talents. She’s one lady I would LOVE to spend a day with, just to hopefully glean from some of her knowledge, talents & energy!! One talented lady I must say…

I love this pennywise presents series she’s running this month and I have a fun one to share…

arrow design element from Rhonna Designs

Who doesn’t love a good hot chocolate mug during the chilly months and especially if it’s a mug full of LOVE?! That’s how I came up with my “A Mug A Love” gift idea to share. Here is what you will need…

Supplies

light colored ceramic mug
a Sharpie
plastic sandwich bag
hot chocolate mix, favorite coffee blend, tea or Choffy
Kraft paper gift tag
white chalk pencil

Optional Supplies

vinyl
vinyl cutting tool (I used the Silhouette Portrait)
burlap gift bag
bag embellishments (ribbon, bakers twine, whatever you would like to use to dress up your bag)

Directions

You can go big or minimalist with this project for sure. It all depends on your style and your budget. Also, the sky is the limit as far as the design is concerned. I’ve seen some lovely hand written designs that people have created with their sharpies on ceramic mugs, plates and bowls. I, however am not gifted in the hand writing area. I have decent handwriting, but I’m too much of a perfectionist and I would blow through 150 mugs, (I’m sure,) trying to get it just right!! I decided to create a vinyl stencil so I didn’t have to go through that headache. If you are artistically inclined, you can just skip this step and free-hand your design.

I created a design using my Silhouette Designer Edition software and cut the vinyl on my Silhouette Portrait.

This way I had a custom stencil for my Sharpie art. I placed the stencil on the mug and then carefully colored in the design…

I say carefully because, even with the vinyl the Sharpie ink can bleed through and mess up your crisp lines. What I learned is to press on the marker lightly and trace the edges first. By doing that your design will come out perfect!

Once your design is complete, place it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to set the ink. This way your design will become permanent and whom ever you are gifting it to can wash it, run it through the dishwasher, you name it and the Sharpie ink will not smudge!! How fun is that?

I did two different versions… A Mug A Love and Mug A Love, basically because I couldn’t decide which one I liked better. Yep… commitment issues.

Like I said before, it’s up to you and your budget as to how you dress-up your bag that goes inside the mug. You can take the minimalist approach and put your mix in a basic bag with a gift tag which would look lovely, or you could dress it up however you like. I chose to put my hot chocolate mix into a small burlap bag and dress it up with a small crocheted red doily paired with a simply Kraft paper tag. I wrote Merry Christmas on the tag with a white chalk pencil that you can find in any art supply store. It’s has a finer tip than your basic stick of chalk so it looks a little better.

Now all you have to do is fill it with your desired hot beverage mix and voila, you have a personal, yet inexpensive, not very time consuming gift to give to your friends and family.

Come on over an join me at WhipperBerry… I have all kinds of simple crafts and fun goodies to share for this holiday season and any time of year really. Plus, I love to make new friends!! Thanks Beckie for having me over today, I had a ball!!

Here are some more gift ideas from WhipperBerry…