Elf Bite Cookies and Snowball Pretzel Rods

The coming year will be one of change for the Chocolate house. College Boy will be graduating which seems unreal. The past four years have flown by like that. It seems like just yesterday I sent off the first care package of treats to him, and hard to believe this was the last batch of college Christmas treats.

I saw a fun cookie idea on Pinterest that I decided to try. Mine don’t look nearly as spectacular as the originals but they turned out OK. You can see the inspiration for them along with the full recipe here: Salt Tree Family Food and Crafting Swirled Sugar Cookies. 

Make the dough, divide in half and color half with gel food coloring. Then layer the doughs, and roll together jelly roll style.

The original cookies used the dot sprinkles but I only had jimmies so improvise!

Basically, you roll your roll in the jimmies, then chill, slice and bake. I am calling mine elf bites!
I also made dipped pretzel rods which resulted in my asking “why haven’t I done this before?” These were super easy! I used a sparkly Wilton candy melt and added little sugar "snowballs".

Dip your pretzel rods in melted chocolate ( I got my pretzels at Safeway), let set, then dip in melted candy melts. Decorate as desired.

I included some candy canes and continued the elf theme by cutting some elf stockings using my Silhouette. Embellished with washi tape and pom poms.

To package everything, I used these candy cane bags I found at Michaels, along with some candy cane striped paper ribbon I had in my stash.

BFF Open House Link Party # 189

Happy Friday Eve all. Happy Hanukkah to those of you who started celebrating this week and ONE WEEK TIL CHRISTMAS! I need another week.  Let's get right to some highlights from last week's party: 

Still need a gift for someone? Check out this arm-knit ( yes I said arm-knit) infinity scarf. I've seen these all over Pinterest and much to my complete and total shock, College Boy texted us a picture of one he made! Visit Andrea at Scrapality for the details. 

Kathleen from Charm Bracelet Diva At Home shared this wonderful Christmas card display, another of her amazing flea market transformations! 

Have a Keurig coffee maker? Save the capsules and make ornaments (or package toppers)  like Bethany did at Pitter and Glink! 

OK this week's chocolate feature? WOW is all I can say: 

Peppermint Hot Cocoa Crepes from Honey Lamb and I. Who wouldn't love a plate of these?! 

Now on to this week's party !

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

MERRY and Bright Wreath

While taking down our Christmas decorations last year, I had to concede that the evergreen ( faux) garland I’d been using to decorate the railings had seen its last Christmas. I needed to come up with something to do this year and came up with this wreath idea that hangs on the railing you see when you enter the front door.

For this project you will need:

• Wreath form ( I used one from Dollar Tree)
• Fabric scraps (I used drop cloth scraps from a never ending painter’s drop cloth)
• Hot glue and glue gun
• Paper ( I used DCWV Sparkling Holiday Stack)
• Glitter cardstock
• Black Cardstock
• MERRY die ( Savvy Stamps) or letters

First, prepare your wreath:

I cut strips from my never ending painter’s dropcloth I bought at Home Depot a few years ago. Using as you would ribbon, wrap your wreath form until covered.

If you end up with an ugly spot well there’s where  you’ll glue your focal!
Here’s the stack I used. DCWV’s Sparking Holiday which I fell totally in love with and picked up at Michaels even before I knew I’d be guest designing for them. LOVE this beyond measure!

About 1/2 the papers are foiled. Pretty!

I chose a couple of papers for the medallion ( rosette, pinwheel, fan thingy) that would be the focal.

Cut into 6x6 sections and scored 1/2 inch folds using my scoring board. I found an image for the angel wings online, printed and cut a template from cardstock, and traced and cut from glittered paper in my stash.

I used four sections of the grey paper for the larger medallion and two of the gold paper for the smaller one. Layer as shown and use hot glue to assemble and adhere to wreath.

For the banner, I cut the shape from black cardstock , and die cut the MERRY letters. To make this really pop, I added these mirrored stars from DDCWV:

They twinkle so much more than this picture shows.

Where this hangs isn’t conducive to a great photo shoot ( and of course I forgot to take pics before I hung it …bad blogger) but I love seeing it twinkle as I go up and down the stairs.

Sharing At:

Altered Mailbox Christmas Card Holder

I had so much fun with this project that I hope you’ll bear with me because it involves all kinds of things that I love. The star of this is the glitter vinyl that I received from Expressions Vinyl in support of this idea!

I decided I wanted a new place to hold Christmas cards this year and what better place than a mail box? If you’re going to alter a mailbox, why not use a real mailbox? I’d seen some old ones in antique stores but they came with antique store prices. I looked online and found I could get a reasonably priced one at Lowes. Even better, when I got to the store, they had one that was missing parts and was half of what I expected to pay ($12) so I got mine for $6!

The Lowes people were very concerned that I didn’t understand it was incomplete. I didn’t even attempt to explain why I didn’t care.

For this project you will need:

• Mailbox  to alter
• Acrylic craft paint (I used black , cream and glitter red)
• Vinyl (As mentioned Expressions Vinly provided me with the vinyl used in this project.)
• Embellishments

To start, paint the mailbox black. It helps that the flag was one of the thing missing parts so I didn’t need to remove it:

Once dry, dry brush and/or crackle with cream paint. To crackle, paint a coat of white glue ( I just used generic office store glue) and when almost dry, paint over with cream. Let dry.

While your paint is drying, cut your vinyl.

I found this “Believe” design in the Silhouette online store and cut it using my Cameo from red glitter vinyl.

I used the black and silver glitter vinyl to cut out the initials SC ( Santa Clause) and North Pole for the other side of the mailbox.

To finish off my mailbox, I added a large glitter bow ( Dollar Tree) and had fun embellishing the flag for the mailbox with coordinating scrapbook paper from DCWV’s Candy Cane Lane stack :

This section from a page of tags in the stack was a perfect match. I added some sequins and snowflakes to complete. I used a couple more tags from the stack on the top of the mailbox. To cover the holes where you'd normally attach the mailbox to a post, I used self adhesive rhinestones and superglued the flag onto the box.

The completed mailbox now sits next to my altered coffee can Snowman Hat!

Sharing At:

BFF Open House Link Party #188

Hi all, welcome to another party here at The Answer Is Chocolate. The countdown to Hanukkah and Christmas continues . Hope those of you dealing with Northeast storms are holding up. We here in the PNW are bracing for a doozy of a windstorm tonight so hoping the power stays on! 

Here are some features from last week's party! 

I love paper. I love roses. I love paper roses...you get the picture. So does Kelly at The Moon and Me who made these gorgeous rolled paper rose trees. So pretty. 

These vintagely delicious Altered Readers Digest Books from Artsy VaVa would go perfectly with Kelly's trees. 

The always genius Mich in LA has a fantastic idea using vintage brooches. You'll have to visit her blog for the secret ingredient she used for the background of these fun ornaments. 

This week's chocolate feature looks good enough to eat but is not edible...Chocolate candles! How cute are these? Cost is even better. Head over to The Pin Junkie to find out more. 

Now on to this week's party! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Altered Vintage Grater Christmas Decor

While walking through an antique store looking for a pair of ice skates ( no joy) I stumbled upon this old grater. Along with the ice skates I was actually looking for a box grater ( also no joy).  I had no idea what I was going to do with it (it’s not like I knew what I was going to do with the box grater either) but I knew I’d regret not getting it.

The focal for this is actually the “25” charm which is what I’ll show you how to make.

For this you will need:

• Dimensional Mod Podge ( I used silver glitter)
• Mod Podge Matte
• Jewelry bezels (Michaels)
• Scap of scrapbook paper
• Punch (my 1” punch fit the bezels perfectly)

This is one of those easiest projects ever that people will think is a lot harder than it is. Let them. Also, you can use one of the pendants for actual jewelry!

Here’s how difficult this is:

• Punch circles from paper
• Adhere circle to bezel w/ Mod Podge Matte
• Flood bezel with Dimensional Mod Podge, let dry

For the grater itself? Easy peasy. Wrap the grater with a scrap of dropcloth or fabric scrap. Make a pinwheel from more paper scraps. Add a star and the “25” charm. I added another charm I made from microscope slides. Finish with a strip of washi tape and a button.  Mine sits in my kitchen because it’s a grater and even though I alter them with all kinds of non-kitchen stuff….duh!

Sharing At:

BFF Open House Link Party #187

Happy Friday Eve and end of the first week of December. Time's flying by and hope everyone's getting their decorating / baking / shopping / wrapping done for Hanukkah and Christmas. 

Here are some features from last week's party and can't wait to see what everyone's been up to this week! 

OK so Mariah from Giggles Galore  linked up the very cool deer mugs she included in her very cool hot chocolate basket, BUT I had to include the whole c basket for full effect because it's a totally awesome gift idea. She used her Cricut Explore ( Aren't you seeing lucky bloggers everywhere sharing awesome things they've made with this new machine? Can the Cricut people feel my mental telepathy sending out pick me to try one out vibes? Oops I digress)

Michelle from Fitting In Life doesn't think she's creative but I have to disagree. In this season of thinking of other people she put together a gift to cheer up a friend . Hers uses an adult beverage but if the harder stuff isn't your thing, you could easily do sparkling cider, soda, etc. Both thoughtful and creative. Sorry to break it to you Michelle, you are creative and you are going to have to get a glue gun now. It's in the bylaws. 

Jenna from 24 Cottonwood Lane is back with a super easy DIY wreath. Supplies from the Dollar store. I love how the pattern repeats and is so crisp and clean!

This week's chocolate feature is from Mama of 3 Munchkins : Hot Fudge Sundae Cake Pops. Yum!

OK on to this week's party!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up