Thanks (House Guest)

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I made this card for some friends of mine who let me stay at their home for a few days while I was at a conference out of state. I originally wanted to have a card with me, to leave at the house when I left, but this one ended up having to go in the mail.

The house and sentiment were cut with the Cricut. The house was really complicated with a lot of pieces. I made the house at 3 inches, but the pieces were still very small. I think it turned out pretty well.

Grab the Keys

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I made this card for my cousin who recently got her driver's license. I don't get to see her very often since we're states away and I wanted her to know that I was thinking of her.

I cut out the car & key with my Circut. I had to hand cut the windshield and front bumper on the car. I also cut the key out twice, to get the brown keyring. I hand wrote the sentiment in the bottom right hand corner.

The inside reads, "Congratulations!"

A simple card, but I think it's cute and gets the message across.

Have a Drink

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I also made Martini shaped cookies for the Jewelry party. I like a little variety (at least in shapes, if not in flavors) in my cookies, and I know some people don't like candy on their cookies.

These were a little more challenging, because I couldn't really get the sugar sprinkles to spread the way I wanted them to. I wanted a more concentrated grouping towards the bottom of the "glass" with a lighter sprinkle at the top- simulating a fizzy martini. Sprinkles are like my nemisis. I love them (they're delicious and look fantastic), but I always have a hard time getting them to cooperate.

I was going to use the dragees here too, but again opted not to. I do think that next time I will put some food coloring in the royal icing (here used to pipe the outline of the martini glass) to have the color match the sprinkles.

Enough martinis to last me for days...

Give yourself a Hand

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I co-hosted a Jewelry party this weekend at my place. I wanted to come up with some fun and creative snacks. I love a good cheese and cracker plate as much as anyone, but since I love to bake I wanted to make something fun.

I saw these adorable hand cookies in a book (I'll find the source later), and thought they would be just perfect. The cookie cutter I got (from cookiecutter.com) was smaller than the size in the book, so I had to improvies a bit with the candies. I used Spice Drops (cut in half) for the rings and Hershey Mini Kissables for the bracelets. The candies were secured on the cookie using Royal Icing.

I want to get some dragees to use as accents, but unfortunately that did not happen in time. I don't think anyone noticed but me, as usual.

Here's a shot of all the cookies lined up on the counter, after being decorated.