Showing posts with label Cookie Exchange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cookie Exchange. Show all posts

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Cookie Exchange 2013

My cookie exchange was a success! We had such a great time!! Smachbox Printable's came to my rescue and truly helped put the day together!

Smashbox Printable's made my cookie exchange come to life!! She provided the invitations and decorations!! She creates the most adorable printables for any type of party you might be interested in! From a cookie exchange to a child's birthday party Smashbox Printable's does it all! From chocolate bar wrappers, to water bottle labels to whole party packs she is at your service! Check out some of the cute items she has:







Introducing Smashbox Printable's:

My real name is Cherry ("Chi" for short). I'm 25 years old and I work with my boyfriend, Joe (26 yrs old) so we've put up Splashbox Printables together. We both enjoy designing but to prevent confusion, only one of us communicates with our customers (that's me) :) Our main focus is events, so you'll notice that most of our merchandise are ready-to-print invites and birthday packages. Our tagline would be "Amazing DIY parties made easy for busy moms." because that's what we do - we help (mostly) moms in the "design area" when they throw parties for their kids. I'm a freelance graphic artist who enjoys applying varying styles in my designs. I place a lot of importance on quality and take some time on these works so that users benefit from them the most. I'll be uploading more soon. Hope you'll enjoy them! :)

Here is the design Smashbox Printable's provided for me!! LOVE them!





Everything was decorated from the mirrors to the table decor!




Each person got  a number to place their cookies in front of for the voting process!





I make a cookbook with all the yummy cookie recipes as a thank you for the ladies!





I had a tabel for the kiddies to decorate their sugar cookies and to make a gingerbread house!!



Everyone brought a yummy app!!

One of my favorites was this recipe from Paula Deen's website:


Brie En Croute


Total Time: 0 hours 38 minutes

Prep:
Cook:
0 hours 10 minutes
0 hours 28 minutes

Yield:

8 servings

Level:

Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, pre-packaged
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 (8-ounce) wheel Brie
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Crackers, for serving

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Defrost puff pastry for approximately 15 to 20 minutes and unfold. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Saute the walnuts in the butter until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes. Add the cinnamon and stir until walnuts are coated well. Place the walnut mixture on top of the Brie and sprinkle the brown sugar over the mixture. Lay the puff pastry out on a flat surface. Place the brie in the center of the pastry. Gather up the edges of the pastry, pressing around the brie and gather at the top. Gently squeeze together the excess dough and tie together with a piece of kitchen twine. Brush the beaten egg over top and side of Brie. Place Brie on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Serve with crackers. To give a special look, cut extra pastry into heart or flower shapes and bake until golden.


They were ALL YUMMY!!!



We had over 15 cookies!









Let the taste testing begin!!!


At the end of the night we each went around with a tray and collected the cookies that we wanted to take home! YUMMM!


Enjoy!

It is as Simple As 1-2-3!





Sunday, December 16, 2012

Cookie Exchange Extravaganza

This past Saturday I had my annual cookie exchange! It was such a blast! Between the Christmas music, good company and cookie baking what can get better then that?


Before I dive into the cookie exchange I want to share some of my secret santa ideas with you! I am a teacher and at my job we do secret santa! Here is one of the cute ideas I did for my SS!






I took a can of soup and opened it up from the bottom. I cleaned it out and filled it with her favorite candies! I hot glued the bottom of the can back on and decorated the outside with a whisk that said "I whisk you a Merry Christmas!" attached to the tab on top of the can I put a note that said "pull me"! Super cute huh?

Here is a great blog called To Entertain! I am one of six of the contributors to the blog! It is a great blog with awesome ideas! Check out 100 simple and inexpensive ways to wish your neighbors, friends or family a Merry Christmas!


I can tell you I am now in full blown Christmas time festivities mode! Jack (my dog) was excited to celebrate as well!






Here are some of the fun decorations I used!

I got all my decoration ideas from Pinterest! Here are a few links where I got my ideas from:

Dimple Prints

Oh Meaghan

The Busy Budgeting Mama


The decorations I used were from Dimple Prints blog they were FREE with great graphics! I just printed them, laminated them and cut what needed to be cut and strong ribbon through the rest! Check it out!






Pretty cool huh? We also had to vote on our favorite cookies through five categories. I was able to not only print out the voting sheets (see above) but also the prize tags!





Everyone had to bring an appetizer, 3 dozen cookies, and an object to decorate sugar cookies with!



Once everyone arrived they received a number and placed their dishes down next to the number!






We had so many appetizers! They were all so good!

I made baked Brie!


Baked Brie:

Phyllo Dough
Brie
Blueberry Preserves

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until it oozes out! Eat with Ritz Crackers or Water Crackers!






I made an awesome Mojito punch!

It called for the following:


Mojito Punch

Cranberry juice with lime

Rum

Cranberries

Mint

Seltzer






It was a HUGE hit!

I made sugar cookie dough for everyone the night before! I wrapped it up in parchment paper so it would be fresh for the next day! I put all the glitter, sprinkles and yummy candies in cupcake trays to make it easier for everyone when making their cookies!

Tip: My friend Kelly told me of this awesome idea... the best way to roll out cookie dough is with a cold bottle of beer! We weren't drinking it but we sure were using it for the cookie dough! It helped keep the cookie dough from sticking since the bottle was so cold!











I made favors for everyone too! Cute cookbooks that I bound with all the ladies cookie recipes in it! I also gave out green oven mitts with a red spatula attached with some pretty red and white ribbon and a "Thank You" card!








Everyone went home with their tummies full and a huge platter of cookies for the holidays!



All in all it was a great party!! I can't wait for next year!


It was as simple as 1-2-3!