Themed Cookies ... Happy St. Patrick's Day - Shamrock Cookies

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  One last treat made for the Boys Classmates.  This was simple just a little time consuming.  I've made a version of these cookies as Pumpkins and Hearts.  NOW to find a shamrock cookie cutter took me going to EIGHT stores, who knew they would be so hard to find.  THEN of course I couldn't find one big and one small.  So on to Amazon I went to find a set of 3 Shamrock cutters. A little spendy but I was desperate, don't tell my husband .. lol.  He thinks I over do it and shouldn't do all these things for the kids school, I tell him I only have a few more years before they won't take to baked goodies.

I started out with a Sugar cookie found on All Recipes, dubbed The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

After I let the dough chill for an hour I took 1/3 and left it white.  2/3 I took Kelly Green Wilton Icing Color to color the dough the right shade of green.  I rolled out the dough and cut my large shamrock cookies.  I then took a smaller shamrock to cut out the centers, make sure you be careful to make sure the dough is on the sides of each side.  I then rolled out the 2nd color and cut out smaller shamrock shapes.  I inserted a smaller shamrock of the 2nd color into the large shamrock.  I baked them for 7 minutes and then let them cool on a rack.  See below for a step by step picture.  

I had extra green left over so I made some large green shamrocks that I baked also.

I love doing these two tone cookies, they always make me smile.  They look so special and really not too much work but I think look like a million bucks!  I mixed it up with green on the outside and then white on the outside.  

Any St. Patrick Day Plans?

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Luck of the Irish ... You're the Pot of Gold

Well I of course needed to make something for the teacher's I made the Green Teach Gift Early this week.  I was just going to make 2 of them but then I came across This Gold version on Yesterday on Tuesday.  I hit up Michael's for a Shamrock cookie cutter (Let' me say it was my 2nd Michael's and 8th you read that right EIGHT store I went to, to find said cookie cutter).  While I was there I came across a bunch of Gold things and thought I can make a 2nd version of a teacher gift so I did!  NOW Michael's bins are $1.50 to $2 and the pot was on Sale for $4 so it was cost a bit more then the dollar tree version (link above).

What you Need:

Well anything Gold, this is what I found but do what you find!

Gold (yellowish) Emory Boards

Gold Glitter Pencils

Gold Notecards

Gold Small Picture Frame

Gold Glitter Clothes Pins

Gold Candy (Ferrero Rocher)

Not Gold Letter Stamp (Caden wanted to add in a K for Mrs. K)

Gold Ceramic Pot

Place all items into the pot, put large tall items in back and smaller in front.  I then found a FREE Pot o' Gold Printable on Hostess with the Mostess. I printed on cardstock and cut out. I took my handy hot glue gun and attached to the notepad, you could attach to the pot but since this was a nice ceramic pot (instead of a dollar tree one) I didn't.  You could always do a hole punch and add some ribbon and tie on to one of the items.  Easy and thoughtful gift!!

Any St. Patrick Day Plans?

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Luck Of the Irish ... Shamrock Flower Gifts

Now on to the gifts for the class rooms.  I wanted to make something fun for the kids to take to their classmates, but again not spend a fortune doing so!  I found two really cool ideas, yes I'm a nut and have to do a different kind for each kid's classroom.  Yes I admitted I'm a nut! First was a Lollipop Shamrock found on With Glittering Eyes.   The Second one I did was inspired by a Pot of Gold on Craft Journal. 

Lollipop Shamrocks

What you Need:

Lollipops (Blow Pop Bag - Dollar Tree)

Green Card Stock

Hot Glue Gun

Hole Punch

Basket (if you want for transportation)

Foam used for fake flowers (holds lollipop in place)

She used a cut out for her shamrocks.  I did a Google search and found a template on Enchanted Learning that I then printed on to green card stock paper.  I got to cutting out the shamrocks (this is the time consuming part, NEXT time I will use the foam Shamrocks found in a pack of 12 at Dollar Tree - Used for the Second Project).  I used a hole punch to put the lollipop stick through the shamrock.  This made the hole a little larger than I wanted so I added a dab of hot glue to hold the paper to the lollipop.  I found a green basket and cut down some foam to hold up the lollipop shamrocks.

Shamrock Bouquet Flowers

What you Need

Foam Shamrocks (pack of 12 Dollar Tree)

Gold Candy (Rolo's work but I'm cheap and found gold candy)

Green Straw

Hot Glue Gun

Basket (if you want for transportation)

Foam used for fake flowers (holds lollipop in place)

I must admit the Rolo's would look cuter but I had to buy what was there at the Dollar Tree so I didn't have to run to another store to buy Rolo's.  I put a dab of hot glue to hold the Gold Candy in the middle of the Foam Shamrock.  I added a little hot glue to a straw to add to the back of the foam shamrock to look like a flower.  I did the same as above with the green basket and foam to hold up the Shamrock flowers.

2 pretty easy items to make for the kids.

Any St. Patrick Day Plans?

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

St. Patrick's Day Teacher Gift

St. Patrick's Day is next Monday and I'm being good about making my treats for the boys class early instead of the weekend before and running around like my heads cut off.  So yeah a win for me!!!

I found a really fun an inexpensive way to make a teacher gift on Fun Home Things.  I always like to give a little treat to the teachers since they do so much for the kids.  But as always money is tight so it's nice to bring a smile to their face with out going broke.  The only thing that was missing was a tag to add to the gift, I found the perfect one on A Little Crafting.  I picked up everything at the Dollar Tree, can also find things in the dollar bin at Micheal's or Target.

What you Need:

Green Bucket (I used a Green ceramic pot)

Green Note Cards 

Green Pen / Pencils

Green Scissors

Green Gum

Green Life Savers / or M&M's

Card Stock for Tag

Green Foam Shamrock

Hot Glue Gun

Put all items in the bucket.  I attached a foam shamrock with a little hot glue to the front of my pot.  I attached the cute tag with a piece of ribbon to a pack of gum.  Easy and thoughtful!

Last Year I got some rude comments about St. Patty and St. Paddy about what is respectful and disrespectful so this year we'll just go with St. Patrick's day to keep everyone happy!

Any St. Patrick Day Plans?

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

St. Paddy Day ... Pot of Gold Cookies

On our last item made for our St. Patty's day celebration is the cookies I made for each of the boys room.  I found these really cool Pot of Gold Cookies on What's Cooking Love.  They were super easy to make and I think they turned out so cute!  Her recipe used a store bought cookie mix and I made my chocolate chip cookie dough and followed her recipe.

First we start with the cookies (IF you want to make cookie dough you can use the store bought mix).  I found a recipe for The BEST EVER Chocolate Chip Cookies on Savory Sweet Life.  The recipe was very simple to make.  After I made the dough I picked up from her recipe on Step 3.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER!

Author: Savory Sweet Life

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• 1½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
• ¾ tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1½ tsp. baking powder
• 2¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface.

(NOW since I was making the Pot of Gold's I ONLY made the dough, but I wanted to make sure you had the whole recipe if you want to make cookies).

Pot of Gold Cookies

1 pouch Chocolate Chip Cookie mix
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 egg
3 tablespoons peanut butter chips

10 yellow Reese's Pieces (per cookie)

(Alexis Notes: Either use Cookie Mix or Make your own.)

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Stir the chocolate chip cookie mix, butter, and egg together in a large bowl until soft dough forms. Then add the peanut butter chips and stir to combine.  

3.  Roll the dough into a rounded teaspoonful and place one ball in an ungreased muffin tin pan.  Repeat for the rest of the cookie dough balls.   Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool the cookies for 5 minutes, then gently press 10 yellow Reese's Pieces into the cup of each cookie. Cool for an additional 5 minutes then gently remove from the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack.  

(Alexis Notes: I didn't add peanut butter chips. I also used my silicone mini cupcake pan instead of the muffin tin.)

Enjoy, these are so cute and the boys loved them.  Can't wait to share with their friends.

And for the anonymous (because you don't want anyone to call you out with a real name). I'm not an idiot for saying Patty not Paddy, I know it an age old argument, I did some research and switched my post to Paddy ONLY because it tells me the Irish call it that way and I want to be respectful.  Call me an idiot all you want, but I address people with my name so they can talk with me if they would like to disagree with me!! 

St. Paddy Day ... Pot of Gold

Onto day two of my St. Patty day projects!  Well this was the one I started with but let's just say plan A didn't go right, so I had to skip to plan B.  I pinned a while back this idea for St. Patty Day Boxes on Inside BruCrew Life.  Her's were really cute but I didn't have the time to order the boxes plus I'm all about doing projects on a limited budget.  I know most parents probably throw away the things I make their kids bring home so why waste the money right?  I hit the dollar store with her picture as my inspiration and went to town.

I at first thought I would paint some popcorn buckets from the dollar store green BUT let's just say the paint didn't STAY on the buckets.  Plan B was to take construction paper, cut it into the shape then hot glue onto the bucket and tada it worked.  I must say I was pretty darn impressed with my pot of gold's all made from the dollar store!

What you Need:

Popcorn Buckets (small) - 2 for $1

Construction Paper - $1 a pack

Pastel Pipe Cleaners - $1 a pack

Foam Clovers - $1 a pack

Hot Glue Sticks - $1 a pack of 15

Caramels - $2.40lb bulk section Winco

Gold Coins - $4.40 bulk section Winco

NOW you can use Rolo's they are really nice gold wrappers but I found they were $4.40 a 1/2 lb.  SO I opted for the caramels that we are calling gold nuggets and then 4 Gold Coin Chocolates per bucket (hey they suckers are expensive).

I took the popcorn bucket made a template on the green paper and then cut them out and hot glued them to the bucket.  I then added a foam green clover and printed a St. Patty's day printable I found yes you know how I LOVE people who make free printables.  I took my circle cutter and cut them out and hot glued in the center of the clover.  I took the pastel pipe cleaners and hot glued on like a rainbow handle to the bucket (Caden let me know these are not the colors of a real rainbow ... lol, let him know we'll pretend).  I added some paper to the bottom so the buckets weren't full of candy (didn't want parents to hate me).  I added the caramels and then the gold coins on top.  Tada done!  I think they turned out pretty cute.

Hope you have a wonderful day, it has been a busy one for me at work and sadly we're having some problems with Cole and school so I've been beating my head against a wall.  More to come on that .. ugh.

So what do you think of the Pot of Gold?

St. Paddy Day ... Over the Rainbow

St. Patrick's day is fast approaching, this Sunday!  Monday is Passover, we don't celebrate but the school we go to does so I talked to the teacher and she thought it would be best to celebrate this Thursday (no school on Friday).  So on to make the treats.  I started to make little buckets for Caden's class but let's just say I had an epic fail so I moved on to project for Cole's class room.

I found these super cute St. Patrick's Day I'm over the Rainbow for you gift on Simple as that's blog.  It really was a simple one to put together.

What you Need:

Card Stock

Blow Pop

Scissors

Hole Punch

Now using white card stock would be the best but I didn't have any on hand so I used blue like a cloud.  I printed out the free printable she made, you how much I love people who make printables free. REALLY they are rockstars in my book!

She had one cloud I copied and pasted in a word document to put 3 clouds to print per page.  I then cut the cloud out.  I took my hole punch made two hole for the blow pop to be inserted in.  I put the blow pop in and tada we are done!

Have a great day!  I hope you enjoy St. Patrick's day!  More fun things to come!

St. Patty's Day Idea's (Round Robin Idea)

As you all know I love to make gifts for friends and family. I love to send a surprise to my bosses and St. Patty's day was my newest Holiday to explore the homemade gifts :). I also make a few of these for my secret sister at church.

You know my love of gifts in a jar! I found this one on my favorite website Organized Christmas they have the best ideas and give you printable gift tags!

And to support my Irish Friend this is the perfect gift to send them Irish Soda Bread in a Jar. I found the recipe on Better Budgeting.

I wanted a fun drink that had green and found this Minty Hot Cocoa Mix it was for two jars but I made it into one large canning jar.

I'm linking up with my BFF Amy for Round Robin.