Christmas Crafts Part 1

Christmas Trees that are Sure to Please!!

Nothing adds to the spirit of the season like a few festive decorations placed around your abode! For starters, here are a few crafty ideas for some cute Christmas trees!

The Poster-Board Trio: All these trees have the same base, a poster-board cone!

 

The Fall Leaf Tree

This is an easy tree to make, and best of all, you can make it for under $1!!

Materials:

• A single sheet of poster board. It doesn’t have to be thick, any gauge will do!
  
• clear tape such as scotch tape or packing tape
  
• A can of spray adhesive.
  
• Hot glue gun with sticks.
  
• Colorful fall leaves, size and color of your choice. (I would go with already dried or close to dry, otherwise they end up drying once they are already glued and may flap up in a way you don’t like.)
  
• Glitter. Again the color of your choice.

Steps:

1. Take one sheet of poster-board (I used white but a color with work as well). Make a cone, I followed these steps. I ended up using the reverse steps because I wanted mine to be taller and skinnier and felt like the reverse instructions were easier to do that with (if you want shorter and fatter trees, feel free to make them that way as well). Also my tree ended up being about 14 inches tall, but fit your cone to whatever size you want your tree to be.
   
2. Plug in the hot glue gun and allow to heat up. Get a bag or bowl full of the leaves you are planning to use. (You’ll need more or less depending on how big your tree is so just round up a bunch so you don't run out!)
   
3. Starting from the bottom of the cone squeeze a strip of hot glue around the poster-board. Then place leaves all facing the same direction along the glue. (Don't make too long of a glue strip because you wont have time to place all the leaves before it cools down). Continue around and up the entire poster-board. Make sure to overlap the leaves as to eliminate any open spaces through which you can see the poster-board.
   
4. Optional Step: Once all the leaves are on, if you want to put glitter on it, spray the tree with spray adhesive and then gently shake glitter over the tree. Set aside and allow to dry.

 

The Winter Wonderland Tree

This is a very quick and simple tree! (It may need a touch-up each new year if you plan on storing it; it loses its flakes fairly easily)

Materials:

• A single sheet of poster board. It doesn’t have to be thick, any gauge will do!
  
• clear tape, scotch or packing tape                                                        
  
• A can of spray adhesive.
  
• craft glue or Elmer’s glue
  
• one paint brush, used for brushing on glue
  
• One package of Twinkle Flakes (confetti will also work but then most likely it will be a different color)

 

Steps:           

1. Refer to step one of the Fall Leaf Tree
   
2. Pour twinkle flakes out into a flat pan with an edge (I used a cookie sheet)
   
3. Using the paint brush, quickly (as to not allow for much drying) apply a layer of glue around the entire poster-board.
   
4. Roll the tree into the twinkle flakes so all the glue is covered as best you can.
   
5. Spray the tree with the spray adhesive and roll in the flakes again to give it another coat
   
6. Optional: You can follow up with another coat of spray adhesive.

   *Dump the leftover flakes back into the bag to use next year or for another purpose later!                                                             

The Beaded Tree

Also very simple, not as fragile as some of the other trees either!

Materials:

• A single sheet of poster board. It doesn’t have to be thick, any gauge will do!
  
• clear tape such as scotch tape or packaging tape
  
• Hot glue gun with sticks
  
• String of beads, can be simple or fancy, I used a three stranded bead string that I found at my local craft store! (depending on how large your tree is and how long the strand of beads are, make sure you buy enough to cover the entire poster-board)

Steps:

1. Refer to step one of the Fall Leaf Tree
   
2. Heat up glue gun and once hot, begin gluing the beads to the poster-board. You can start at the bottom or the top, either works since you wont be overlapping. Glue the beads in a circular motion, like a spring, all the way around the tree.

  *one tip, the white poster board shows through on this one, so you can either use colored poster-board or take a simple acrylic paint and give it a coat before you wrap the beads. (I coated my poster-board with a yellow acrylic paint and sprinkled some gold glitter over it before I wrapped the gold beads around it.)

          
These are the first three of six total trees! Thanks for reading, let me know what did and didn't work for you.
Sydney

Santa Suit Nails

Now that it is finally the Christmas season I can start doing some fun festive nails! These are the first ones I tried. They are my Santa suit nails and are not too difficult. They do take a little time though, so keep your patience if you try them!

Alright first you start off with the base red coat. I would say do 2 coats to make sure its not see through. Next you do the white stripes down the center and at the bottom. Personally I thought that it would look better with a thin white line at the bottom but after I did them I decided that it would probably look better if it was a little thicker. I also think the line would have looked better if it was straight across my nail instead of following the shape of my nail. But hey that's all up to you! Which ever way you would like best is what you should do! Next after the white is the black stripe across. Don't do it too thin because it is supposed to be a belt. And lastly is the belt buckle. All you do for that is paint a square around the intersection of the white and black stripes. I used silver for my belt buckle because that is what I had but gold would look great as well!! Don't forget a clear top coat to protect them from chipping too quickly!!

Just a reminder I used thin brushed nail polishes for all the stripes and detailed work. I use Art Deco by LA Colors nail polishes. You can get them at Dollar Trees generally! So they aren't too expensive. If they don't have the colors you want I know Sally Hansen makes some too and I'm pretty sure you can get those at Walmart or Target. I hope they work out for you if you try them, and I'd love to hear how it goes!!

(P.S. Sorry the picture is so horrible, but my camera wasn't working so I had to take the picture with my phone and it doesn't have the best camera!)

Hot Cocoa Cookies

My ward is having its Christmas party tonight and there is going to be a dessert contest, so of course I have to participate! All week I was trying to figure out what I was going to make and couldn't decide on anything. I kind of wanted to make a cheesecake, but then I decided I really didn't have the time to do that. And baking a cheesecake makes me nervous because I can never tell when it's actually done. So I searched around and found this delicious looking cookie recipe on Pip & Debby called Hot Cocoa Cookies. It always makes me anxious to try out new recipes when I have to take them somewhere, but I  figured that it couldn't go that wrong being mostly chocolate. :) 

Sorry the pictures are so blurry, but I wanted you all to see how good these babies look! And yes, that is my dorky husband Abel! :) 

I'll be sure to let you all know if I win the contest!

Makes approximately 5 dozen

**On the second batch, instead of putting chocolate under the marshmallow, I put 2 milk duds and it was also delicious for those who like caramel!

Ingredients:
1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter
7 bars (3.5 oz. each) semisweet chocolate –
     12 oz. chopped, 7.5 oz. cut into 1-inch
     squares and the rest for garnish
1 ½ cups flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
30 marshmallows

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and chopped chocolate, stirring frequently, over
medium heat. Let cool for 15 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla at low speed until smooth, 2
minutes. Mix in the cooled chocolate mixture just until blended. Add the flour mixture in 2
batches, mixing on low speed until just combined. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a
tablespoon, scoop the dough and roll between your palms to form 1-inch balls. Arrange
about 16 balls 2 inches apart on each cookie sheet, flattening slightly. Bake until the tops of
the cookies crack, about 12 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, snip 8 marshmallows in half crosswise and stick 1 square of chocolate onto
each of the cut sides.
6. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven; gently press a marshmallow half, chocolate side
down, into each cookie. Bake until the marshmallows are just softened, about 4 minutes.
Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 5 minutes; grate the remaining chocolate over the hot
cookies. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to the racks; let cool. Repeat the process with
the remaining dough.

Great Cooking Tips!

Hey everyone,

I ran across this awesome article from Cooking Light and wanted to share it with all of you. I laughed a little bit at the captions and pictures and found myself shaking my head at all the mistakes the article called me out on. So enjoy! It's worth reading. I picked up a few good tricks and I'm sure you will too!

The Most Common Cooking Mistakes

Shattered Makeup

Something that I really hate is when I drop an eye shadow or a pressed powder and it shatters. There's nothing more frustrating then trying to still use a shattered makeup or having to throw it away. Since one of my favorite eye shadows is broken I decided to search online and see if there was a way to fix it and there is! And it is super easy to do. 

You only need one thing. Rubbing alcohol. The higher the alcohol level the faster it dries too. 

There is a couple ways you can go about doing this. You can either crush up all of the shadow pieces into a fine powder and then put a few drops of rubbing alcohol into it to form a paste and then let it dry. I just decided it crush up the few broken pieces and put a few drops of rubbing alcohol and then just smoothed it around with my finger. The finished product doesn't look that pretty, but hey, it works! 

Funny note, my rubbing alcohol smells minty, so my eyeshadow now smells a little minty. But from everything I've read, the alcohol just dries up, all smells go away, and it doesn't hurt your skin at all!

Hopefully this helps you all out!

Haley

Chicken Parmesan Strips

Since my husband is a pasta-man, I am frequently finding new ways to do classic pasta dishes. This rendition of the traditional Chicken Parmesan is fairly easy and kid friendly! I know my kids scarfed it down, the only thing I heard during dinner was the constant request of "more kicken please". (Yes, that is how chicken is pronounced by my munchkins). I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

boneless skinless chicken breast

flour

crackers (ritz, saltines, any other fav.)

egg

parmesan cheese (for coating and garnish)

salt and pepper

olive oil, enough to coat pan

spaghetti or angel hair noodles (cooked according to package)

your favorite marinara sauce

As you can see there arent quantities, as I go step by step I'll let you know about how much of each I did, but adjust amounts according to your need. I fed a family of four, two adults and two children.

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees then cut up the chicken breasts into thin strips and salt and pepper them. In one shallow dish, whisk the egg (you may need more than one depending on how much chicken you are coating; I always do one at a time because it's easy to wisk up another when needed). In a second shallow dish mix flour, smooshed (great word, I know) crackers, and Parmesan cheese. I used about 2 T flour, 6 crackers (mine were a mulitgrain cracker about the texture of ritz but larger, so you may need more if you are using a smaller cracker), and cheese to taste. I like to make sure that I can easily see the cheese, it cant be hiding in the other ingredients.

Heat olive oil in a pan large enough that all the chicken will fit in one layer (or you can do two batches). Dip the chicken in the egg and then in the flour mixture. Make sure it is completely coated and then place in the pan. (Make sure the oil is hot, be patient, and don't put it in a warm pan or the crust wont develop as well!)

This next step can be a little tricky, once the chicken has browned well, flip it over and brown the other side. You only want to flip it once, so dont flip too early; you want a nice brown crust, if it looks tan still, it is too early. Don't worry about the chicken being cooked through, you will throw it in the oven later.

Once you have the other side browned place the chicken in an oven-safe pan (if you have a frying pan that can go in the oven as well, you are lucky! and can skip the transfer step). Then put the chicken in the oven until cooked through. If you have really thin slices of chicken you may need as little as 10 minutes in the oven, if they are thicker maybe more like 20-30. I know that when I do a whole breast coated then I will usually keep it in the oven ~30 mins, but with these strips I only needed 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime cook the noodles and warm up the sauce you will be using. Once the chicken is cooked place the chicken on top of the cooked noodles.

Then take your marinara (I make a homemade sauce which I end up canning from garden tomatoes so I always have it on hand. The recipe is here, minus the meatballs.) and spoon over the chicken and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

And there you go, a little dressed up spaghetti for any occasion! I hope you have fun with this, I sure did. And like I said it was a hit on our dinner table!

Sydney

Lentil Bacon Potato Soup

Ok, so I realize that the picture is not the most appetizing but I felt like I should still add it either way.
So the other day I tried a lentil soup at my sister-in-laws, and although it was good, I had this idea in my head of what I wanted it to taste like, so I went home the next day, looked up many recipes of lentil soup and came up with this concoction, (which if I say so myself turned out great!). Even Abel liked it (Haley's hubby) and what I hear is unless its meat and rice he is hard to please...haha.
Anyway, this is a very simple crock-pot recipe for you busy moms (or other busy people) and its hearty and warm for the cold weather.

Ingredients:
5 slices of bacon, diced
1/2 an onion, diced
4-5 carrots, chopped
1 lb. of dry lentils, rinsed and picked over
3-4 medium potatoes, washed or peeled and cubed
8 c of water
5 bouillon cubes (enough for 5 c of water)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Turn on your crock-pot to high heat and put in the bacon, onion, and carrot. (I cut them up as I went so they had a little time to start cooking while I was cutting up everything else) Add the lentils and 5 cups of water. Let them cook for 1 1/2-2 hours. Come back and add the last 3 cups of water, the bouillon and the potatoes. Cook for another 2-3 hours. This not exact so keep an eye on it. As soon as the lentils and potatoes are soft it is finished. You may need to add more water depending on the consistency you want (I really liked mine thick). Also taste it and if you need to add more bouillon, salt or pepper, go for it (even a bay leaf at the beginning would be a great idea!)
We ate this with a slice of crusty bread...yum!

Side notes: Keep in mind that this recipe is variable. If you want more onion or carrots or any other vegetables give it a try. Lentils have a great creamy texture so they really work well with many other ingredients. Let me know if you try something different, I'd love to hear of the variations you come up with!

Thanks for reading,
Sydney