Reindeer Games...

For Page's From the Heart's Holiday Cheer Event I decided to make some goodies.  The Pumpkin Chocolate Chips Cookies recipe I already shared and I believe that they were a hit, but I also made another goodie that Adam helped me with!

My sis-in-law told me about something she'd seen on Pintrest, a donut reindeer and I was intrigued.  Adam's now at the age where he gets the different Holidays and it really does become more magical when I share an experience with him!  So, I checked out Pintrest and saw what my sis was talking about!

Here's the steps.

First, get into your Christmas jammies.  Then, wash your hands, climb into your big boy chair and put a chocolate donut (we used Entemans) in front of you.  Grab a bag of Peanut M&M's and pick out a red one.  Have your Mom grab a bag of twists pretzels and steal one from the bag while you wait for instruction.  Instruction: Put red peanut M&M in center of chocolate donut.

While your Dad breaks the pretzel in half and your Mom takes a picture, sneak a M&M.

Take one of the broken pretzel pieces and insert into donut at the top, do the same with the other half.  These will be your reindeer antlers.

Move so fast that your Mom cannot get a descent picture with her iPhone.  Sneak another M&M, or 10.  Sneak a donut.  Laugh and run away.

While your child is hiding and eating all of the sweets that they sneaked, open a tube of black gel that you find in the baking area of your grocery or craft store.  Put 2 black dots above the red M&M for the reindeer eyes.  Set aside and adore.

After I saw the reindeer idea and was grabbing the supplies from the store, I saw the powdered sugar donuts and instantly thought "Snowman!"
These are done pretty much the same way.  Place an orange M&M in the center of the powdered sugar donut.  Use your black gel pen to give the snowman 2 coal eyes and a coal smile.  So cute!

Place your new friends side by side so they're able to keep each other company!

 (note: your child may not be able to help you do more than 1 type of donut friend due to the insane amount of sugar that they may sneak during the process!)

Have a great week!
Andrea

Christmas Page Maps

Hello!

Yesterday I spent the day at Page's with fabulous ladies getting in the Holiday spirit!  I must say, I am very cheerful and ready to decorate the house for Christmas today and have only been held back by my reasonable husband... however, I am going to share my absolute most favorite Christmas movie with Adam after nap...

And, since I'm in the Holiday mood, I'm also going to share my November Page Maps samples with you!

I am doing a 2 page layout for Christmas with a sketch that I found in November's Scrapbook Etc.

Everyone will get an entire sheet of WeR's dimensional stickers and we'll be using WeR's paper, along with fun punches and bakers twine (of course!).

We'll also be making a 2 page layout using Fancy Pants paperline that is intended to showcase your fall or Thanksgiving paper.  I'll share that layout later this week!

I will be teaching these layouts at Page's From the Heart next Saturday, call to sign up and I hope to see you there!

Hope you do something cheerful today!
Andrea

Easy Breezey Pumpkin Cookies

Happy Friday!  Last night I was baking goodies for Page's Holiday Cheer Open House... my house was smelling warm and delicious - perfectly fallish!  So, I decided to share the recipe for my super simple pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

First, you need 1 can of PURE pumpkin, 1 box spice cake and chocolate chips.

Mix your pumpkin and cake mix together.  I mix it for a LONG time, it seems to help it become less dense while you're cooking (thanks for the tip, Amanda!).  And, when I say long, I mean l-o-n-g! While it was mixing, I got up, grabbed my computer from the other room, sat down at the dinning room table and read a few emails, checked a blog or two and then got up and checked my dough.  I would say I mixed it for 5-7 minutes.

Once your cookie dough is mixed, stir in your chocolate chips. 

Spoon your cookie dough onto a cookie sheet (if you use a stone, preheat your stone).  Sprinkle brown sugar on top - when I first made these I didn't have any brown sugar so I left it off.  They were good, but the next time I made them, I added the brown sugar and Sweet Honey Iced Tea!  They were awesome!  The brown sugar made them crunchy and delicious!

Put your cookies in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.  The original recipe has you bake them for 8-9 minutes, but my cookie monsters don't like them super moist so I bake mine for longer.  They're still plenty moist, trust me, but they're a little less doughy... If I were you, I'd just play with the time until you find one that you like!

And that's it!  Remove from your cookie sheet and let cool.  Have a glass or milk nearby and take a bite.  Yum.  The spice from the cake mix and the richness of the chocolate chips are so good together!

Enjoy!

And, if you want to try some of these but don't want to bake, come on down to Page's Saturday and you can steal one from the cookie jar!

Have a great end to your week!  And I hope to see you this weekend!
Andrea

Mini-Class and Make-n-Take at Page's!

This weekend is Page's from the Heart's Holiday Cheer Open House!  Yay!  I'll be there Saturday teaching a mini-class and directing a make-n-take.  Take a look!

This is an envelope book that you can use to store your Christmas receipts or you can even display your pictures and keep extra ones organized!  We're using Canvas Corp paper, bakers twine, jingle bells and a little bit of magical snow glitter!

After the book I'll be sticking around to share a cool gift card holder!

I used Basic Grey's Jovial paper, coin envelopes, ribbon and just enough bling!

That's it in a chestnut shell!  I hope to see you all there, it'll be fun with wassailing and cookies and eggnog... all the traditional Holiday trappings!  If you can't make it on Saturday, there will be plenty of fun to be had on Sunday!  Check out Page's blog for more details!

Andrea

I'll be here and here this week...

On Thursday night  I'll be selling some of my home and Holiday decor here...

And on Saturday, I'll be here teaching a receipt book/envelope book and a gift card make n' take...

And on Sunday, I'll be exhausted!  I'll be back later this week (if my antibiotics defeat my germs) to share ACTUAL papercrafting projects!  What?  I know, it's been so long, but I promise, I'll be sharing what I've been making between blowing my nose and laying on the couch!

Thanks for hanging out with me even when I'm boring!
Andrea

Halloween Happenings

Hello!

{Picture laden post!}

Well, we're all supped up on candy and cough syrup around here!  Yay for Halloween!  Boo to germs!  Adam is on the mend, just a cough and a little bit of a runny nose but I'm now enjoying some quality time with the couch, Kleenex and cold medicines of all flavors!  But, before I became so closely reacquainted with the couch, we had some Halloween fun! 

We did some Halloween finger... errr... full body painting.  We made ghosts, Frankensteins, pumpkins... all with a little bit of finger paint (okay, a lot of paint!) and a black sharpie on cardstock!

We also made a spooky village.  I got a kit from Target that came with everything we needed.  We tried to make our village look like the one on the box... but I'm not going to lie... ours looks so much more spooky!  Mostly due to the monster mess that we made while putting our village together but still.

We also carved a pumpkin and my messy boy all of a sudden decided that pumpkin insides were too gross for his delicate nature so the hubs and I did the majority of it.

And on Halloween we pillaged for candy! 

And then counted our loot! 

Hope you had a spook-tacular Halloween!
Haggar & Helen the Viking and the littlest Swat Team Member!!

These Ghosts Can Hang...

around my door, that is! 

I made this wreath, along with 2 similar bat wreaths, using Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Ghosts and Bats.  The Batty Wreath was my favorite, but I sold them at my last craft fair and forgot to take pictures before.  Sigh.

I know it's hard to tell, but I used glitter white felt for the ghosts and wrapped a styrofoam wreath in grey yarn.  That was definitely the most time consuming part.

I cut a strip of black and white hondstooth and used it for my hanger. 

I love Halloween, I really do. 
See you later!
Andi