TIP: Personal Cards

Trying to make a creative gift, I decided to make personalized notecards wrapped with a ribbon.  I went to buy different colored papers as accent paper and then different colored notecards.  I love reading, so I thought about the books I was reading to see if there were any suitable quotes for my cards.  In addition to the notecards and the paper, I bought two different stamps to cut the paper evenly (the small stamp is 1" and the larger stamp is about 3.5"):





I used the 1" stamp to cut out different patterns of paper to decorate the notecards:





I printed up the quotes and cut them with the larger stamp on thicker white paper:






On the inside, I usually just had a simple saying to go with the quote to address the particular occasion.  For example, I made the following: 


Any Purpose Cards: 


Front: "Life is the most spectacular show on Earth."  (From Water for Elephants)
Inside: "Enjoy the Show" 


Friendship: 


Front:  "I roll onto my side and stare out of the venetian blind at the blue sky beyond.  After a few minutes, I'm lulled into a sort of peace.  The sky, the sky-same as it always was."  (From Water for Elephants)
Inside:  Some Things, Like Friends, Never Change


Welcome Home: 


Front: "Wasn't that the definition of home?  Not where you are from, but where you are wanted?"  (From Cutting for Stone)
Inside:  Welcome Home 


Sisters: 


Front: "Sisters are for life.  She is the only person in the world who shares my memories of our childhood, our parents, our struggles, our sorrows, and, yes, even our moments of happiness and triumph.  My sister is the one who person who truly knows me, as I know her." (From Shanghai Girls) 
Inside:  Love You, Sister


Thank You:


Front:  "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of tough, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."  (From G.K. Chesterton) 
Inside:  Much Gratitude & Many Thanks


Blank Cards:  


Front: "To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live.  To feel the joy of life.  To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day.  To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am.  That is something to aspire to."  (From Art of Racing in the Rain) 
Inside: Blank


If you don't have any books or other quotes you would want to use, there is always http://www.quotegarden.com/ as well, which has great variety.

TIP & TREAT: Christmas Cookie Boxes

My sister, niece and I made Christmas cookie boxes for family members and they turned out great: 

We picked up regular brown boxes from Michael's and different styles and colors of ribbons to "wrap" them.  All you need to do is to alternate whether the ribbons go under or above each other: 








In the boxes, we included recipe cards that we printed on laser envelope labels & then placed them on card stock with some stickers (in the case of the sugar cookies):














We wrapped the Peppermint Bark in bags with customized stickers featuring our dogs -- the stickers were just made in Power Point and printed on full-page labels and cut out:








The recipes:


CHOCOLATE FUDGE 


4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 cups mini marshmallows 
1 cup sugar 
1/2 cup heavy cream 
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips


Directions: 
- Butter 8 inch pan and line with parchment paper.  Leave an overhang and butter the paper. 
- In a saucepan, combine the butter, marshmallows, sugar, cream and salt.  Cook over medium heat until marshmallows are melted (8-10 minutes)



- Off heat, stir in vanilla and chocolate until melted 
- Pour fudge in the pan, smooth top & cool 30 minutes 

- Refrigerate until set (approximately 1 hour).  For the Christmas spirit, we added powdered sugar on top, like snow!  We cut it into small squares, wrapped them and placed them in Christmas cupcake papers: 





White Chocolate Peppermint Bark: 


2 lbs white chocolate (chopped in 1/2 pieces) 
12 large candy canes 
1/2 tsp peppermint oil


Directions:


- Line 11x17 baking sheet
- In a double boiler (or use 2 pots on top of each other, the bottom one with boiling water), melt chocolate and stir constantly so it does not harden
- Cut or pound peppermint into 1/4 pieces (I recommend using a bag) 




- Stir candy and peppermint oil into chocolate
- Pour into baking sheet & chill until firm.





Sugar Cookies: 


1 1/2 cups butter, softened 
2 cups white sugar 
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups flour 
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt 


Directions:


- Cream butter & sugar until smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients. 



- Cover and chill dough for at least one hour 
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Roll out dough (I recommend using powdered sugar instead of flour to not dry out the dough and keep the flavor) & cut into your favorite shapes
- Bake 6-8 minutes 





Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: 


Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour 
1 tsp baking soda 
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt 


Wet Ingredients: 
1 cup unsalted softened butter 
1 cup sugar 
1 cup packed dark brown sugar 
2 large eggs 
2 tsp vanilla 


3 cups oatmeal (not instant) 
1 1/2 cups raisins


Directions: 
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees 
- Whisk together dry ingredients, set aside 
- Combine white ingredients (hand mixer on low) 

- Stir in dry ingredients until you can't see the flour (but don't mix too much or else they won't be as soft) 
- Add in oatmeal and raising and mix together 
- Bake for 11-13 minutes until golden





Thanks Sylvia and Livie -- already looking forward to next year :)