Peppermint Kisses!

Happy Monday everyone!  Did you all have an enjoyable weekend?  Our weekend was not too bad thank goodness!  On Friday Alexa has some of her friends sleep over and then we took her and a friend to Tyson's Corner Mall to get a homecoming dress!  SCORE!  Second store and she found the perfect dress that is beautiful--bright blue and silver and really cute!  I had 2 pairs of silver high heels (one pair I've never worn) so she didn't need shoes and we found some cute jewelry to go with it.  So a painless journey in the teen girl shopping area, lol!  Sunday we just hung around the house, grilled out and watched the Redkins game on our new TV on the patio beside my favorite fireplace to keep me warm (as I'm typing this with crossed fingers hoping they win, hee hee).  I also managed to almost cut off my pointer finger on my left hand with a large serrated knife--YEOOOOW--still figuring out if I should get stitches or not but it hurts terrible especially typing.  This is why I stay far, far away from knives--they like to attack me, hee hee!  But I can handle pain pretty well so I finished making dinner and am now typing up my blog but it hurts pretty bad, we'll see I guess :)

Do you like to cook?  Okay, well do you at least like to read about others cooking, lol?  Since today's Magnolia-licious Blog Hop is themed "We're Cookin'" I thought I'd tell you about my favorite Cookin' Ladies as well!  Two of my FAVORITE non-craft blogs I keep up with and read regularly are The Southern Plate and Pioneer Woman!  I discovered Pioneer Woman (Ree) early last year and she just CRACKS me up, really makes me laugh out loud I tell ya.  She says ALL those things we try to keep secret or would never tell anyone KWIM--she did a story when she was in DC that involved her Spanx and a port-a-potty that made me fall out of my chair!  I love a funny blog--always a good read and she has fabulous yummy recipes and her photography is OUT OF THIS WORLD fabulous, makes me ALMOST wanna be a cowgirl, lol. If you ever get time make sure and read her love story and how she got to the pioneer at her blog, its called "Black Heels & Tractor Wheels" and it is a great read! And The Southern Plate lady, Christy, is almost as much of a crack up and she types just like she probably talks with all her Southern twang and euphenisms--LOL funny I tell ya!  And her recipes are yummy and easy to make--great for those short on time and supplies (like me always, hee hee)!  If you ever need a laugh, an uplifting story or a yummy recipe these are the ladies to visit!

*****************************************************

Peppermint Kisses!!

Today the Magnolia-licious DT is having a fun Blog Hop for you today and the theme is "We're Cookin'"!  You can find out all the details on the Magnolia-licious Highlites Blog as well as instructions on how to play along to win big!!  I'm the last stop on the hop today so if you are starting with me make sure and start at the beginning with JANIEL HERE!  There are sure to be some fun, yummy and fabulous projects along the hop!  And if you read thru-out my post today you might find something yummy as well, hee hee!

I decided to make a Christmas Peppermint Kisses Gift that could be easily replicated and this would make a fabulous gift for a neighbor, teacher, hostess or friend in your life.  It's a Peppermint Themed Cup of Kisses :)  A large paper teacup that holds goodies for making some yummy peppermint hot chocolate AND a matching recipe book filled with yummy peppermint recipes!

As soon as I saw this new template release from Lauren Meader's My Time Made Easy I knew what I was going to do with it and was so excited to use it, I just love it!  This template is called "Grab a Cup" and it is super easy to make (and only $5) which I love and if you have a Cricut (or other electric cutting machine) you can get the svg file and it can be made even quicker.  I prefer to cut (yes, I like to cut paper not myself--I find it meditative, its quirky I know) and it took me no time at all to do.  And use Scor-Tape to hold it all together--I kid you not that stuff is fabulous and super strong (I have projects from 2 years ago with Scor-tape that are still together perfectly today).  My papers are new from My Mind's Eye called "I Believe" and I love the reds and aquas together and the peppermint striped paper too!  I stuffed the cup with packages of hot chocolate, marshmallows and some peppermint candies that can be crushed into your hot chocolate or in the yummy recipes in the recipe book.  TIP:  I added some shredded papers to the cup in white & red--make your own with leftover tissue paper or cardstock and run it thru your shredder! Cheap & Easy!

I used one of my all-time favorite Tilda's from Magnolia-licious called "Waiting Tilda"--I love how she's dressed and the serene look of her face--too cute for wintertime projects (I've colored her legs as tights before too if she seems chilly, hee hee)!  Make sure to stock up on all the cute holiday/winter Magnolia's now so you can get them in time for all your lovely projects!!  And Diana will have the NEW Christmas stamps up for pre-order this week at Magnolia-licious as well--don't miss out on that!

Here's that cute "Waiting Tilda" again and I perched her on this fabulous Alota Candy Cane(in stock now) that Diana so generously sent all the DT gals!  It's perfect for holiday projects and for putting your Edwins & Tildas on too!  They're colored with Copics and to make the reds a deeper red to match the papers I added W3 & W1 over the reds (you can overlay gray on top of most colors to deepen them).  I kept my blending rough on the candy cane for a fun look and then coated it with diamond glaze so its super shiny (in real life) and the white areas got stickles for some bling right over the diamond glaze once it was dry.  The edges of all my papers got inked with red ink using my fave Inkssentials Blending tool.

My recipe book was fun and easy to make!  I used my SB's Nesties "Labels 1" (the largest size) to cut out bases in the aqua cs and the mats as well.  The front uses another fun stamp from Magnolia-licious (A Little Yummy for Your Tummy Collection) called "Tea Cup" --its out of stock at Diana's store, but I know if you email her she will get some in for ya!  The lil round sentiment tag is from PTI that was cut out with another SB nestie.  I punched holes in each page and added a simple silver craft ring and decorated the ring with some ribbons.

 

On the inside are some fun & easy recipes each with peppermint in them that I found on Allrecipes.com.  I typed them up in Word and resized them to fit on my white cs mats and printed them out on the cs--if you'd like this bunch of recipes to try out or to print for your own recipe book I've created a file for you HERE (they will print out and are sized to fit on the 2nd largest Nestie Labels 1).  Now you can create your own fun recipe book.  I added some fun stamps by PTI (small snowflakes & gingerbread man) around each title of the recipe for fun and inked the edges of my cs.  I think this set makes such a fun gift set for someone special during the holidays and was done pretty inexpensively but looks like a million $$$ :)  I know I will be creating a few of these for friends and teachers!

Now for some yummy treats for one of you!!  How about a $20 gift certificate to Magnolia-licious and a $5 gift certificate to My Time Made Easy so you can create this or something else special for the holiday season if you'd like!!  You just have to leave a comment telling me if you liked my project, lol, AND answer a fun question by Friday "What is your most cherished holiday tradition? (for any fall or winter holiday, any religion of course as well)".

Hope you had fun on the hop today and hope we didn't make you too hungry, lol!  Make sure to stop by Magnolia-licious to get your fab Mag stamps and the Magnolia-licious Hightlites Blog to join in on the fun!

See ya back here on Wednesday!! (gotta rest my finger, it feels like its about to fall off, yikes)