Christmas Ornament Cookies (Royal Icing)

One more Christmas cookie idea using royal icing would be Christmas Ornaments! Now to find these cookie cutters was a bit of an ordeal. I thought I would find them at Hobby Lobby or Michael's but NO LUCK! So to Amazon I went to find the cookie cutters I wanted. I saw a fun swirl design on Sweetopia I took this idea and made a simple version that I could make a ton of cookies for. I made these cookies for the boys classmates and for my dance fitness instructors.

 

 

 

What you need:

Baked Cookies (My favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe)

Green, Red and White Royal Icing (see my favorite recipe below)

Green and Red AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring to tint Royal Icing
Christmas Ornament Cookie Cutters (Box set I used from Amazon)

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about several months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep, so you don't looses your cookie). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry!
 

MOST times I would let the top layer sit and harden before I add the details but this design you need the top coat wet. I then took a piping bags one with red and one with green royal icing. NOW my first one (picture below) I put the lines to close together. I found when I left white between each color it turned out better. I made 2 lines of red and one of green. This shape was smaller so I didn't do 2 of each color for the larger cookie you can. The second ornament I did the ball ornament and put the spacing needed in the picture below. I took a toothpick and did a swirl motion. Let the cookies dry and you have a special looking ornament.

Click HERE to see who I link with.

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.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

Christmas Tree Cookies (Royal Icing)

It's on to cookie time! As you all have guessed by now I love to make people smile and show up with little treats and gifts for them. I like to do this for my kids classmates also. This year I wanted to do really nice cookies, now the Rudolph's from last year were pretty freaking amazing ... but I wanted a classic look this year. I made Ornaments, Ugly Sweaters (which I call festive because I don't think they are ugly) and Christmas Tree's. ONE even backed a little crooked and I called it my Whoville Tree!! Whoever got that one is going to have extra blessing's next year!

What you need:

Baked Cookies (My favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe)

Green & White Royal Icing (see my favorite recipe below)

Green AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring to tint Royal Icing

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about several months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep, so you don't looses your cookie). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry!
 

MOST times I would let the top layer sit and harden before I add the details but this design you need the top coat wet. I then took a piping bag with the un-tinted royal icing (white) and made 3 lines on the trees. the cookie had rows already so I just followed along. for the very top I added a little slow cap. You can also add a star to be fun and some light bulbs if want to add some dots with another color.

Click HERE to see who I link with.

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.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

 

Christmas Card Holder DIY Project

Now for a fun DIY project, I've made a Christmas Holly Wreath Card Holder before that was fun. Well it's no where to be found so off to make a new one. And of course I can't make the same one I made last year so on the Google search I went and found this one. I took a twist and made one.

What you need:

Tomato Plant Cage (Either in Red or Green) - Found at Lowe's $7.99

Christmas Plate - Found at Dollar Tree $1

Christmas Lights White - Found at Dollar Tree $1

Clips (binder clips) - Found at Dollar Tree Festive Clothing Pins $1 each package 4 used

Santa Hat - Found at Dollar Tree $1

Hot Glue Gun

I had my husband cut off the bottom of the plant cage I only needed 3 rings and it had 4 and was too tall. He also cut the top for me so it wasn't so far from the Santa hat to the cards. On the pointy ends, I pulled them together and topped with the Santa hat, this also makes all sharp edges covered up. I strung the lights through the rings, the lights I found at the Dollar tree was only 5 feet which sounded like a lot until I tried to put on. Next time I would buy two or a larger string of lights. The festive clothing pins I found where attached to twine so I took them off the twine and my youngest then attached to the top two rings. I found small clothing pins that had Christmas Tree's and Snow flakes so we alternated between the two on each row. The bottom ring I took my hot glue gun and put a ring of glue and then quickly since the glue was drying quick I attached the plate. I found if I didn't have my husband take that bottom ring off the plate would have been too small. The third ring was just right, I then took the glue gun and used it almost like a seal and went around the ring to make sure all together. And you're done, took me only about 20 min to make at the most and easy to attach the cards that have come in so far.

 

Click HERE to see who I link with.

Minnie Mouse Cookie as a Cupcake Topper (Royal Icing)

I signed up for another birthday cake for a 2 y/o homeless little girl. My favorite Charity brings birthday's to homeless kids living in shelters or temporary homes. If you ever want a worthy charity to donate to please check out Birthday Dreams. 

This time I signed up for Minnie Mouse, I've done Minnie before but as you all know I'm a bit obsessed with royal icing cookies right now. I've been using the cookies as the toppers for my cupcakes I make. It's like the best of all words a cupcake with tons of frosting and a cookie to eat also!! My youngest is obsessed with this technique, yup he's so my child all about the sugar.

What you Need:

Minnie Mouse Cookie Cutter (also used Mickey Mouse cutter)

Bow Mold

Frosted Cupcakes

Royal Icing - Black and Pink (see recipe below)

Pink Modeling Chocolate

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details.

For the Black I made a modeling chocolate in pink to make bows and attached them with royal icing. I used a bow mold to make the bows, very easy to make and pop out. Once hardened I added to the cookies with a little royal icing to hold them on.

For the Pink I used a bag of black royal icing and piped a 2 on for the little girls age. I made M's on the other one's that I had extra to pass out to others.  

Always add a little sticker for my special friend

Click HERE to see who I link with.

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.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

Funny Family Christmas Cards

Each year I try to find new ideas for our Christmas Cards. I love doing fun ones, one year I'll get everyone to dress up like the Christmas Story (I'm still working on them). Here are a few poses we did this year. Hope you can find something fun to do also. Merry Christmas!

What you Need:

A Great photographer

Fun poses to try with your family!

Click HERE to see who I link with.

Christmas Photo Booth Props DYI

We had our annual Christmas Photo Shoot this weekend. I wanted to do something fun, I went to Amazon and they had a photo booth props for $7.99 but wouldn't get here in time, I could have paid the extra for the next day shipping (but free 2 day prime is so much nicer lol) . So I had a Photo Booth Cartridge for my Circuit I used for the Emoji Party. This cartridge is the best it has a TON of different props you can use!  I made a few of the fun Christmas ones for our photo shoot. I'm so excited that my favorite dance class is having a fun party and will use them so I don't have to throw them out.

What you Need:

Photo Booth Cartridge (link above bought on Amazon)

Craft Glue

Card Stock paper (in all the Christmas Colors)

Cricut

Cricut Board

Bamboo Sticks (Craft Isle)

Hot Glue Gun

After the props are cut, you will take the craft glue to make them complete. Once dry take a hot glue gun to attach the bamboo stick to the backside of the prop. Let the hot glue dry and you have the best photo props.

Here are a few from our family Photo Shoot:

 

 

Click HERE to see who I link with.