Festive treat tins

Here is a great idea for holiday treats. It may be a little too late to get these for this Christmas but I thought this is a great idea for house warming or hostess gifts. And the free shipping promotion is still on so if you are interested you should pick up some of these tins!

The list of supplies for this particular project are listed here but you can jazz up this tin with anything. What you need to know really is that there is a strip of cardstock wrapping around the tin (here Night of Navy) with some silver elastic cord around it and a rub-on (p. 178-179 of catalogue) on the tin itself. If you vary the colours and sayings you can have a tin for any occasion.

Because I thought this was such a fantastic idea I decided to share my newest favourite cookie recipe - Chocolate Mint Truffle Cookies!

You need:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
3 oz semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup butter
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp mint extract
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup crushed candy canes

Melt chocolate and butter in pot over low heat. Stir in sugar and extract. Add eggs one at a time, making sure each one is incorporated before adding the next. Add baking powder and flour. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover and chill for 2 hours. Roll dough by heaping teaspoons into balls. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350°F until slightly firm to the touch. Remove from oven and sprinkle with candy cane pieces.

Apparently the recipe makes about 9 dozen but I only ever get 4 dozen and I've made this a lot this season!

Decor Elements

So at the last Colourful Impressions meeting, a meeting for demos, I won a set of the Park Avenue Decor Elements. I was pretty excited about this because I hadn't tried the Decor Elements before but had wanted to. Please ignore the yellow wall we are renting and that is what colour our place came.

For those of you that don't know the Decor Elements are a new product line that SU! is now offering - click here for more information. They are vinyl wall decorations that are removable so if you are like and have a small place they are perfect for adding some holiday flair without taking up valuble floor/shelf space.

The Decor Elements are really easy to put up and do seem pretty forgiving. This set came with extender lines to make the ornaments look like they are hanging from the ceiling if you wanted - and I wanted that look. I had to reposition the bottom half a few times before actually getting the strings lined up and they seem fine although the instructions say not to do that. I even ripped one of the ornaments because I wasn't being careful enough and you can't even tell on the close-up photo.

I think I'm going to be getting some of these every holiday season. I love the look of them and they add some holiday touches to areas that ordinarily don't get decorated.

Retired list AND free shipping

So it had been about a week since I've even had time to think about posting anything. With the holidays in full swing I'm busier than ever but SU! announced a promotion that I just had to tell everyone about.

First of all they announced their retired list and there are some favourites retiring so make sure you take a peek to make sure that set you had your eye on isn't on the list. As an added bonus SU! had announced that until Dec 23 you can order the reitred sets at 10% off. Yah!

As another added bonus if you put in an order over $100 you can also get free shipping, again 10% off. So if you fill up your order with retired sets you get 20% off, that is huge.

If you want to place an order but not to the full $100 amount then let me know and I can combine orders to make sure everyone gets their discount.

This is only until Dec 23rd though so make sure you get your order in before then if you want to take advantage of these savings.

Tasty Treats

Here is my latest little project that I am making. I am pretty much obsessed with these little guys, and they are so easy to make. What they are is little sandwiches with a peppermint patty in between two scallop circles. These ones are mostly done with the Deer Friends hostess set but the snowflake is from Season of Joy. Really anything that fits into the 1-1/4 inch circle punch will work. You can layer it with the 1-3/8 inch circle and then assemble the whole thing.

These would be super cute as little treats for a holiday dinner, you could even print a name in the center instead and have them as place holders.