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Impeccable Taste: 5 Best Holiday Party Food and Craft Combos

November 23, 2013 by AllFreeSewing Leave a Comment

Impeccable Taste: 5 Best Holiday Food and Craft Combos

It’s coming on Christmas, which means your December calendar is quickly filling up with holiday party invites. It can be exhausting trying to come up with a fun new idea for every Christmas gathering. At a certain point, we all want to give in to the call of store-bought Christmas cookies in a tin we brought from home so we can pass them off as our own. But it doesn’t have to be that way!  Make the social merry-go-round fun this year with these amazing and easy food and craft combos that are sure to have you at the top of everyone’s guest list. From pies to themed dresses, these are your new Christmas party go-tos.

An Old Favorite

Soupless Green Bean and Mushroom CasserolePlacemat Casserole Carrier

The Christmas casserole is a key staple of any holiday potluck, and each guest has their own family recipe. Try something a little different this year with the Soupless Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole, which is guaranteed to please. This recipe is perfect for parties because you can leave portion sizes up to each partygoer. No need to meticulously cut out pieces—just let everyone scoop as much as they want! Plus, green bean dishes complement almost every other flavor, so your casserole will taste excellent with whatever other dishes guests bring. Cart your dish from your kitchen to the party in this awesome upcycled Placemat Casserole Carrier, which will keep your cooking at the perfect temperature until it’s time to eat!

An Eye on the Waistline

Skinny Eggnog PieCasserole and Pie Carrier

Everyone struggles with weight gain during the holidays. How could they not, with all those delicious desserts at the tips of their fingers? Do your loved ones a favor this Christmas with the Skinny Eggnog Pie. This scrumptious dessert cuts out some of the fat and calories without losing a bit of the taste. Fellow party guests won’t believe that this is a “lite” dessert! Keep your pie looking magazine-cover ready in the Casserole and Pie Carrier, which will protect all your hard work from being jostled or ruined in the car. Choose a Christmas fabric to give this carrier an extra holiday boost!

30 Gingerbread Men (and a Lady)

Cut Out Gingerbread CookiesLittle Miss Gingerbread Dress

This Little Miss Gingerbread Dress is too cute for words, and will be absolutely adorable paired with some delicious gingerbread cookies! The outfit is surprisingly easy to put together, and can be made the weekend before its party debut. Even better, the Cut Out Gingerbread Cookies are dairy, egg, and gluten free! You’ll be everyone’s favorite party guest with this considerate treat.

Looks Great, Tastes Better

20 Minute Festive Christmas Cake FrillDreamy Gingerbread Cheesecake

Be careful with the Dreamy Gingerbread Cheesecake — you might have other party guests forgetting about the spirit of Christmas to fight one another over the last piece of this mouth-watering dessert. This cheesecake is a fun twist on usual gingerbread desserts, and even gives an upgrade to regular cheesecake! A slice of this dessert is the perfect way to finish off a potluck meal. And with the 20 Minute Festive Christmas Cake Frill, your dessert can look as good as it tastes! In less than half an hour, you can whip up some bunting and a little frill to make your dish stand out from the crowd.

Cute Enough to Eat

DIY Applique OnesieClassic Christmas Spritz Cookies

This easy-breezy DIY Applique Onesie is just the ticket for a baby this Christmas. The applique takes no time at all to make, but will have your baby looking so cute and festive while remaining comfortable and warm. Couple that killer outfit with these tree-shaped Classic Christmas Spritz Cookies and you can bet that you’ll have the best dressed plus-one in the room.

What’s your go-to holiday potluck dish?

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Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: Christmas, cookies, crafting with food, free dress patterns, holiday entertaining, kitchen, Mollyhall Seeley, recipes, travel

FaveQuilts Giveaway: Quilting Those Flirty 30s

May 30, 2013 by FaveQuilts Leave a Comment

Quilting is one of the most beautiful traditions out there. If you ask a number of quilters how they get started, they will be able to tell you a special story about how they learned from someone close to them. It’s touching to see how such a life-changing learning experience can translate into how a person quilts. This is part of what makes Cynthia Tomaszewski’s Quilting Those Flirty 30s a book that will touch readers on many different levels. Not only are there a series of delightful patterns inspired by the quilting styles of the 1930s, but also a personal look into the author’s quilting roots that creates a magical nostalgic feel that takes this beyond the average quilting guide.

Quilting Those Early 30s

The book’s introduction sets the tone immediately. Instead of introducing quilting techniques or patterns, Tomaszewski talks about her great Aunt Christie and how quilting had been passed down through five generations. I found that this gave everything that came afterwards a more personal feel. The author very much values the tradition of quilting, and shows an extensive knowledge of the 30s style that readers will easily pick up on with her helpful explanations of everything from the most popular elements of designs to the fabric options.

You can be sure that the patterns you’ll be quilting will have an authentic look with the series of projects and templates included. This is also a great book for quilters who like to work on projects other than quilts, as there are plenty of cute kitchen crafts and wearable to work on. There are even delicious homemade cookie recipes included with every pattern to expand on that feeling of nostalgia the book provides for many.

If you’re ready to take a trip back in time through your quilting (and your baking!), then Quilting Those Flirty 30s would make an invaluable part of your quilting book library. The editors at FaveQuilts enjoyed this work so much that we’d like to share that joy with one lucky winner of our latest giveaway! You have until the 4th of June to enter to win a copy of Quilting Those Flirty 30s with 11 quilt patterns complete with templates and bonus cookie recipes.

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Filed Under: Contests & Giveaways Tagged With: book giveaway, cookies, FaveQuilts, giveaway, Kathryn Wright, recipes, vintage

Get in the Christmas Spirit with New Free eBook from FaveCrafts & RecipeLion

November 9, 2012 by FaveCrafts Leave a Comment

It’s only the first official week of November but everywhere you look, it seems that the Christmas season has arrived. Stores are displaying their Christmas merchandise, coffee shops are touting their latest seasonal creations and malls are advertising their Black Friday sales. Too soon? We don’t think so! In fact, we’ve joined up with our friends at RecipeLion to bring you a brand new eBook filled with Christmas cookie recipes, quick and easy gift ideas and homemade Christmas crafts you can give to a loved one. Best of all, How To: 20 Christmas Gifts to Make and Christmas Dessert Recipes is free to download.

Picture your favorite Christmas memory. It could be baking with grandma or gathering around the tree on Christmas morning. What do these two moments have in common? They represent the absolute best aspects of the holiday season – togetherness! When you give a personalized gift, you show how much you care about the recipient. Your little touches and imperfections make the gift unique and memorable. Plus, it’s an indication that you took time to really plan and think about the other person’s interests. Another great way to bring the family together during the holiday season is through baking. When you include loved ones in this activity, you’re creating bonds that last long after the cookies have been taken out of the oven.

Here are some of the homemade gift ideas you’ll find in our latest eBook:

Cable Socks for Men – Start now and create a pair of warm and cozy socks for the man in your life. This knitting pattern is an old-school favorite that’s perfect for the chilly months ahead. Men are hard to buy and craft for, but these socks are versatile and wearable all winter long.

 

Christmas Snow Globe – Need a quick and easy gift for a young person? Buy a snow globe at a craft or discount store and add rub-ons, glitter and more to change the overall look. You can also insert your own homemade image inside the snow globe – it’s a great way to quickly personalize a generic item.

 

Christmas Tree Button Tote – Dip into your stash of buttons for this creative wearable craft. All you need is a free afternoon and a little creative energy for this quick and easy Christmas gift idea. Make matching totes for all of your friends and carry them all season long!

 

This eBook is also filled with delicious Christmas cookie recipes from RecipeLion! Learn how to easily add chocolate to classic gingerbread cookies or make your own peppermint-shaped treats.

Download a copy of How To: 20 Christmas Gifts to Make and Christmas Dessert Recipes today – it’s free!

 

What’s your favorite Christmas tradition?

 

 

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Filed Under: Gifts Tagged With: Christmas Crafts, christmas decorating ideas, Christmas Gift Ideas, cookies, Crochet, Decoupage, DIY gift ideas, free eBook, Gifts, Knitting, recipes

Design and Build a Gingerbread House for Christmas

December 3, 2011 by FaveCrafts 7 Comments

Hello there, folks! I hope you’re having a lovely holiday season so far. This year, I was feeling rather ambitious in my preparations Christmahanukwanzakaa (as my multicultural friends and I call it), and I resolved to attempt the daunting feat of building my very own gingerbread house. A gingerbread house, after all, is an edible craft, a creative snack, a delicious decoration, and an imaginative way to enjoy Christmas candy and cookies all season long! Have you ever made a gingerbread house before? If so, post some pictures or tips in response to this post!

Here is my finished product. (You can also find it on FaveCrafts.com).

It’s surprisingly easy. Somehow, I thought that constructing a house out of cookies and candy would be difficult, but I built the whole thing and decorated it in one evening.

Some people will tell you that you have to buy a kit or cookie cutters, but I found that lightweight cardboard makes an excellent stencil. I had never made a gingerbread house before, so I experimented with some different shapes and styles by cutting shapes out of a clothing box. Instead of a basic six-piece house with a plain pointed roof, I decided to play around with different roof shapes. Once I had a shape I liked, I labeled all of the pieces and taped them together to make sure that they would fit properly, like so:

I had to re-size and cut out some new pieces as I went along, but it’s best to do this in the cardboard phase so you don’t have to go back and bake new pieces. Once I has completed my cardboard house, I took it apart and began looking for dough recipes.

Because I wasn’t planning to eat the house, I opted for a sturdier structural dough without the traditional spices instead of the classic gingerbread cookie recipes used for Christmas cut out cookies. If you want to eat the house, you can use a recipe like these Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies for Christmas, but you will have to be very careful because it won’t be as hard or solid as the structural dough and will crumble more easily.  The ingredients and recipe are listed below. If you want the house to smell like gingerbread, add some allspice, ginger, and cinnamon to taste.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups dark corn syrup
  • 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups Crisco
  • 9 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for flouring surfaces)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • allspice, ginger, and cinnamon (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Combine flour, salt, and spices (optional) in a large bowl.
  2. Combine corn syrup, brown sugar, and Crisco in a medium-sized microwaveable bowl.
  3. Microwave corn syrup mixture, stirring every minute, until sugar had dissolved and Crisco has melted. Be careful not to overheat or burn the mixture.
  4. Pour corn syrup mixture over the flour mixture.
  5. You can stir it together to combine it if you wish, but it’s a really tough dough, and I had a lot of fun squishing it around with my hands until the consistency was smooth. If you’re working with kids, they’ll love this part; just make sure the mixture is cool enough for them to handle without burning themselves.
  6. Combine until the consistency is even and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if it’s too sticky. At the end, you should be able to mold it like playdough, or put a smiley face in it like I did. It’s happy to see you!

  7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  8. Store dough in a gallon-sized plastic bag and set aside.

Next, I laid out some parchment paper and floured the surface and a rolling pin. Though this wasn’t in the original recipe, it will make things SO much easier later on.

Once the dough has cooled to room temperature, roll it out on the parchment paper to about ¼-inch thickness. Make sure the dough is smooth and even because it does not rise much and will retain any flaws after it has baked.

Flour your stencils (this is important—the stencils will stick to the dough and peel off the top layer if you skip this part) and lay them on the dough. I used a pizza cutter to cut out the pieces because it made cutting straight lines much easier, but a knife works if you don’t have one.  Lift the stencils off of the dough and set aside. Set out a few ungreased cookie sheets, preferably without edges.

In order to make the transfer to the cookie sheets easier, I removed the excess dough from around the pieces of my house and then used scissors to cut the parchment around the individual pieces, so that each piece was on its own square of parchment. Be sure to leave about an inch around the edges of each piece so that you can grab the edges and gently slide or lift it onto the cookie sheet.

I didn’t have any incidents of breakage, but I’m usually a bit of a klutz, so I made a few extras of the larger pieces just in case. I still had leftover dough, so I made some dinosaur cut out cookies too!

If you want to reserve some for another house or something else, you can just toss it into a Ziploc bag until you’re ready to use it again. Don’t refrigerate it—it may get too hard to manipulate.

I baked the pieces of my house for about 12 minutes, just until the dough had set and had barely browned at the edges.

While the pieces were cooling, I prepared my royal icing cement. Here’s a great recipe for Royal Icing from RecipeLion.com.

For that, you’ll need…

  • 3 egg whites
  • 2 lbs confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar

Instructions:

  1. Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl.
  2. While beating the mixture in the bowl, gradually add the confectioner’s sugar, beating 1-2 minutes at a time, until the icing forms stiff peaks.
  3. Cover the icing bowl with a damp towel until you are ready to use it.

Next, I prepared a construction surface. I used a sturdy tray so that I could create a “yard” for my house, and I set out I set out my pieces and assembled them, beginning with the walls.

Fill up and icing bag and set it tip down in a tall glass. Placing one wall flat on the surface, pipe a line of icing along each side of the flat piece. Hold the two adjacent walls in place until the icing has hardened enough for the walls to stand on their own.

At this point, you can stand the pieces up, or you can top them with the final piece, attaching it to the edges of the two adjacent walls to make a complete square wall. I wish that I had done the latter, because I attempted to stand the walls up too soon. They fell apart, and I had to slather more icing on and wait for it to dry. This is fine, but excess icing makes the house look messier.

Once the house is standing, position it on the tray and add the roof pieces, holding each one in place until it can stand on its own. If your pieces start falling apart, stiffen the frosting by mixing in a little more confectioners’ sugar.

While the icing on the house dries, gather candy for decorating. You can use anything you want, but I looked around for recommendations and made up some of my own. Below is a list of all of the items I used and their purposes.

  • Stick gum for roof tiles and the front door (I used two colors to give it a more complex and festive look.)
  • Hershey’s chocolate bars and graham crackers for the front porch
  • Starburst for the chimney (I assembled the chimney before I attached it, sticking the pieces together with frosting and letting them dry before I attached it.)
  • Pull-and-peel Twizzlers for window frames
  • Regular Twizzlers to line the rooftop and create columns and part of the porch banister
  • Cheez-Itz for window panes (If you don’t want to incorporate cheese crackers into your sweet treat, you can melt hard candies and make “glass.”)
  • Small licorice squares for a row of bricks around the back of the house
  • Thick pretzel sticks for a woodpile and thin ones for the porch banister
  • Skittles or M&Ms for Christmas lights and a doorknob
  • Sparkly white sugar for snow on the rooftop
  • Shredded coconut for snow on the front yard
  • Gum drops to line the walkways
  • Green fruit slice jellies for a bush or tree
  • Sugar Babies for cobble stones

You can also make a mini marshmallow snowball pile or a marshmallow snowman, a sled of graham crackers and a licorice strand, or pine trees and people out of cookies. I had a blast getting creative with all of my decorations, so relax and have fun with it! Happy Holidays!

Check out the 23 Gingerbread House Designs and Recipes eBook for more gingerbread-related craft projects, gingerbread house templates, and tasty candy and cookie recipes for Christmas. Here are some more great gingerbread craft projects from FaveCrafts.com!

  • Gingerbread Birdhouse
  • Gingerbread Candy Cups
  • Gingerbread Gift Card Holder
  • Spice Up Your Christmas Tree

Questions? Comments? Tips? Post your ideas in the comments below!

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Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: Candy Craft, Christmas, Christmas Crafts, christmas decorations, cookies, edible crafts, gingerbread, gingerbread crafts, gingerbread houses, recipes

Link Love: Fun with Food

May 19, 2011 by FaveCrafts 6 Comments

I love edible crafts! Maybe it’s because it combines my 2 favorite things–food and crafting! If you missed our recent edible crafts themed newsletter, hopefully these foodie projects will satiate your appetite (and while you’re at it, subscribe to the free FaveCrafts email newsletter so you won’t miss another issue!).

  1. Cookie Palm Trees from Random Thoughts of a SuperMom
  2. Graduation Party Sandwiches from Sweetology
  3. Owl Pancake Dippers from Jenni Price Pancake Art
  4. Fruity Rainbow Wraps from Babble
  5. Peeps Sushi from Serious Eats
  6. Cake Push Ups from My Cake School
  7. Turtle Icebox Cookies from Diamonds for Dessert
  8. Edible Teacups from Disney
  9. Checkerboard Cake from Amanda’s Cookin

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Filed Under: Link Love Tagged With: Candy Wrapper, cookies, edible crafts, food, Foodie Crafting

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Full Project Tutorials

Project of the Day and Giveaway: Chic Shamrock Hair Clip

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Are you Irish? Today you are! Not only is it great to be Irish (actually or just for today), it’s great to be a crafter during National Craft Month. We’ve been celebrating all month long by bringing you a new project and giveaway everyday. I hope you’ve been enjoying our […]

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Free eBooks

American Quilting Traditions: 11 Free Quilt Designs, Quilt Blocks, and More Americana

In Case You Missed It: “American Quilting Traditions: 11 Free Quilt Designs, Quilt Blocks, and More Americana” eBook

Quilting is not only a tradition existing amongst a number of generations within a family, but also within a country. The editors at FaveQuilts have … [Read More...]

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Saturday Special: Kids’ Mother’s Day Craft Mania

Mother's Day is tomorrow, which means that if you haven't made something to show your mom how much you appreciate her, you're running a bit behind. … [Read More...]

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