Christmas Cookies

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

Ingredients

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tbsp softened butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more)

3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more)

Pretzels

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or whisk, or in a stand mixer. Add the sugars and mix to combine. At this point if the filling will roll easily into balls without sticking to your hands you’re ready to go. If not, add a little more of each sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll (I used about 3/4 cup of each sugar).Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling. Roll each portion into a small ball, then sandwich them between two whole pretzels. When all the balls are rolled and successfully sandwiched, stick the whole tray in the freezer for about half an hour.Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted. Remove the pretzel sandwiches from the freezer and quickly dip each half-way into the melted chocolate. Return to the tray and repeat with remaining sandwiches. When all are dipped, return the tray to the freezer to set up completely. Store the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

For the recipe check out here:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/mint-chocolate-chip-cookies/22bebeda-ea36-441a-9909-ae78409d6da6

Swirled Chocolate Mint Layer Bars

2 cups finely ground creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups chopped nuts

1 cup flaked coconut

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chocolate mint chips

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in 13x9 pan in oven; remove from oven. Sprinkle cookie crumbs over butter, press. Sprinkl with nuts and coconut. Pour sweetened condensed milk over top. Sprinkle chips, press down slightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely.

Birthday Girl

Wings

A great thing about acrylic stamps is you can shape them. I used a border stamp from Wings which is straight but placed my block on top of the shape I wanted to stamp on. Then I formed my stamp to fit that shape, then ink and stamp.

Here is where I saved paper. My feelings are if you can not see it then you can use it for somewhere else.

Backside of the layout. This layout is from Close To My Heart's Magic found on page 28 and the paper, stickies and stamped images are from the Wings Collection. I would like to thank Myra Grodzuik for the idea of paper and stamp choices. The ribbon is new to CTMH it comes pleated but I ripped out the stitching and scrunched it, holding it in place with staples. I like to save paper wherever I can so these pictures show how I was able to save some paper.

National Scrapbooking Month Promotion

Check out what CTMH has for you for National Scrapbooking May 1 to May 31, 2011. During May, when you place a minimum order of $50 US / $55 CAN for any Close To My Heart products*, you can grab an exclusive You & Me scrapbooking kit for just $15 / $16.50—that’s more than half off the retail value of the kit! You can also purchase the kit outright for $34.95 / $38.95 with or without a minimum purchase.

Crafting Life's Pieces Blog Candy

Check out Crafting Life's Pieces for some great blog candy. Chelsea will pick a winner on April 5th.

Cranberry Orange Muffins Anyone??

If you are looking for a really good recipe for cranberry orange muffins then try this one here.

I did make one change I substituted the 1/4 cup of oil with applesauce, a great way to make them even healthier.

Blog Candy over at Created by Katie

Check out this blog candy over at Created by Katie offer is only good until Friday, March 18th at Noon MST time.