Baseball Themed Giftwrap

I wrapped this gift for my sweet friend Adriana (check out her Mexican cooking blog at Adri'sMexican Kitchen.blogspot.com). Her son is a New York Yankee. My son is an Angel and our boys played each other on Saturday.

Although Adriana lives in my neighborhood - I kept forgetting to grab her gift when I was heading out the door. So I brought her gift to the ballpark on Saturday. It was a New York Yankee t-shirt that I picked up on sale at Old Navy. All of the local sporting good stores only sell Angel gear! So when I saw this Yankee shirt I knew she had to have it to wear to the games!

I made a Baseball gift tag. This was not a birthday gift - it was a friendship gift. But I still added some stickers, a homemade baseball headband and baseball keychain.

I hope this wrapping paper inspires you to make your  baseball  themed  gift special.  This would be a great way to wrap a coaches or Father's day gift.

Sixth Grade Bible Study - This Week is on the Life and Travels of St. Paul

We only have two more sixth grade Bible study classes! What a fun year we have had! This week we are going to study the life and travels of St. Paul. So I bought the kids some St. Paul medals - I ordered them on line from a make your own Rosary type website. I think it would be really special to make your own Rosary. But we have a lot of boys in our class and I feel it might be a little too crafty and overwhelming for them! I know the girls in the class would have loved it!

No! The medals did not come like this! I strung them on thin white ribbon and laid them on the dining room table and when I picked them up to put in a basket they were a tangled mess.

So I decided to package them individually. At first I put them in little bags - then I added the striped piece of scrapbook paper.

At first I had them with the ribbon wrinkled on the front. Messy. Right? So I pushed the extra ribbon on the backside of the striped to make the project look a lot neater.

Now I can put my St. Paul medals in a basket. These can be used as a necklace, bookmark or a decorative accent in the kids room on a bulletin board or doorknob. Also they will be easier to pass out in this type of packaging.

I am going to try to make some special cross shaped treats for the class this week! I have already made cross cookies and cross lollipops. So check back if you want to find out the new cross treats that I will be making!

Baseball Bats and Balls

Today I am bringing some baseball bat and ball cookies to pass out to the Angels! My son Christian is an Angel! Go Angels!

I made these bat and ball cookies over a two day period! The first day I made the dough - refrigerated the dough for a few hours and then rolled out the dough to cut the bats and balls. I used the sugar cookie recipe from my numbers cookie post on December 29th, 2011.

The bats break pretty easily - make more than you need.

To make small baseballs I used a device that I use to make apples into candles - it was the perfect size.

Here is a picture of my dough - baseball bat cookies cutter and the little devise I found to cut out the small baseballs. Although right about now I am thinking that a Vanilla Wafer might have been the right size and saved me a lot of grief. I baked the bats for about six minutes and the baseballs about three minutes.

Then I put the bats and balls on wire racks to cool.

The very next day - very early in the morning I frosted the cookies and it was a little difficult because I was dealing with such small items and in the process I broke a few bats!

Here is the frosting recipe I used -

Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons of milk

Combine all of the above ingredients and whisk until everything is combined. If the icing is to runny add a few more tablespoons of powered sugar. If the icing is too thick add another tablespoon or two of milk.

First I used the white icing on the baseballs. Then I tinted the icing brown and used it on the bats. I added little brown jimmies near the baseball bat handle. Then I melted some red chocolate tabs and put it in a pipping bag with a very small snip and made the red lines.

I had to let everything set and dry for about four hours before I packaged them! I knew the bats would break in a standard baggie so I added a piece of heavy green scrapbook paper to the back of the cellophane bag and used a piece of tape to secure the bag.

I used green paper because green is the color of the field and I had a lot of green paper for some reason. Perhaps leftover from St. Patrick's day crafts?  I hope the Angels win today! We have been fraught with injuries!

These cookies would make great party favors for a birthday party, tailgate function or for Father's Day!

Today we went to Tommy Bahama for brunch and while my husband and son went to check out the surfboards at Jack's I went into Sur la Table and bought a mitt cookie cutter for a dollar.  So keep checking back! I will be making some mitt cookies in the next few weeks.

Quiche Made Simple

I make quiche all the time. It is a light and delicious lunch with a small salad or a hearty breakfast with a  side of fresh fruit.

I always use leftover vegetables, cheese and meat. Then just add eggs and bake! But I will show you my super easy method.

I had some extra tomatoes and basil leftover from a pasta sauce recipe. I had left over ham from sandwiches that I made to take to Christian's baseball game. I also had leftover cheese and green onions leftover from taco night. Get the picture? So I chopped and diced all my leftovers and added them to a frozen deep dish pie crust.

Now I make a decision should I add three or four eggs? So I decided that I had a lot of meat, cheese and vegetables and only needed three eggs.

So I whisked three eggs with one cup of heavy cream. If you don't have heavy cream you could use milk or half-and-half. Then sprinkle the mixture with a little salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the veggies, meat and cheese. Three eggs were perfect - four would have been too much. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Let the quiche cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Was I right? So easy and a great way to use up your leftovers. This would also make a great brunch recipe - just serve with fresh fruit and a green salad.

Baseball Cookies

I made these cookies for Christian's team.  He is an Angel! They are so easy to make!

I always package them individually. They are easier to handout in little individual bags.

Make your favorite sugar recipe (or use one of mine) and roll out the dough out and cut out circles. I use a round cookie cutter but if you don't have a round cookie cutter use a glass or cup and cut around the glass with a sharp knife.

Once the cookies have cooled you can frost them. I just used some white cookie frosting by Wilton that hardens in about an hour. I just picked up a couple tubes of the frosting at my local Ralph's but I have also noticed that they carry it at Michael's and Party City.

After the white frosting is nice and hard - you can add the red stitching.

I melted some red chocolate chips from Michael's and put the melted red chocolate in a zipper top bag - squeezing and the melted red chocolate down to the end of the bag and snip a very small hole. Then start making your red stitching.

Once everything is dry you can package them in little bags and tie with red ribbon. Note: these don't need to be perfect - the boys eat these in 3 seconds flat!

Of course I had to put these in one of my baseball baskets!

I also found some baseball bracelet kits that I put in the little blue baseball tin - I am going to bring the bracelet kits for the little sisters of the boys on the team! I also wrapped an oatmeal container in baseball wrapping paper and I am going to use that for a project next week!

Let's go Angels!

Baseball Party Favors - Baseball Rocks!

I made these little Baseball Rocks! Treat bags for the team when it is my turn to bring snack next week.

Each bag includes a bag of Pop Rocks with a Baseball Rocks handmade tag.

And includes a package of baseball cards!

I also included a Hershey bar that I wrapped in baseball themed wrapping paper and I used the party blowers to decorate the bags.

I used grosgrain ribbon to tie the treat bag. I made the baseball rocks tag with a circle cutter on an index card and used markers to make the lines.

I think the boys will really like this treat - Pop Rocks, Baseball Cards and a Hershey Bar! My son really loves playing baseball! And so does the rest of our family!

You could do this treat for amy sport! I bought the Pop Rocks and blowers at Party City, the Hershey bars were on sale at Walgreens and the baseball cards were purchased at Target. Of course the cellophane bags and ribbon were purchased at Michael's. When I was at Target I noticed that they had trading cards for every sport even Hockey and Wrestling. Be creative and make some fun treat bags for your kids sports teams!

Peanuts Stickers for My Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

I bought these stickers yesterday at Michael's - I am going to use them for my Charlie Brown themed Thanksgiving. I have quite the little pile of Peanuts items. These stickers are made from heavy cardstock. So they would look cute on an invitation, place card or on a napkin ring. I haven't quite decided yet!

I love the expression on Sally's face!

I still need to find some Snoopy stickers!

Treats for 6th Grade Bible Study Class

We only have three more Bible Study classes. The kids really enjoy the treats that I make! I try to make a treat that corresponds what we are learning each week. But this week I started making a baseball treat bag and I was adding Pop Rocks to the baseball bag. Then I had a great idea - bring Pop Rocks to Bible study!

I made a little tag that says "6th Grade Bible Study Rocks!"

I made this project while watching "The Replacements." It is one of my favorite movies.

I also taped a horn blower on the side of my Pop Rocks! It just added that little extra bit of fun!

More Handbag Gift Tags

I mailed my last bunch of handbag gift cards to a sorority sister who was doing a good deed. So I made some more while my husband and son were at the Long Beach Grand Prix. I always use extra scraps of paper.

I have some orange wrapping paper and I think these would look fantastic on orange wrapping paper with black and white ribbon.

I also have some solid yellow wrapping paper to use with these tags! If it was a large package these would look cute taped all over the package.

I don't have any lavender wrapping paper! Shocked? I know! But I think these would look cute on white or silver wrapping paper. Yes, I have both colors! They would also look cute glued onto a greeting card. Be creative and send me pictures of your handbag gift tags made from extra pieces of scrapbook paper.

I used little adhesive rhinestones to decorate the purses and little pieces of pearl ribbon for the handle.

Getting Ready For Easter Brunch

I am getting ready to host Easter Sunday brunch at my house tomorrow. I am a firm believer in advance planning.

Here is my menu:

APPETIZERS:

Chicken salad in phyllo cups garnished with a small sprig of rosemary

Shrimp cocktail with lemon wedge garnish

BEVERAGES:

Spring sangria

Mimosas

Cucumber and orange water

Orange soda


MAIN DISHES:

Individual Quiches

Green salad

Fruit skewers or fruit salad

Yogurt parfaits (made homemade granola yesterday)

Desserts:

Orange cake balls (done)

Rice crispy treats decorated with carrot candy (done)

Peeps on lollipop sticks (done)

Milanos dipped in orange chocolate with white sprinkles (done)

Oreos dipped in white chocolate with an orange flower (done) - oops no individual picture!


Mini key lime tarts

And I started setting and decorating one table - I will do the second and third tables in a little bit.

I have lots of bunnies, chicks and decorative egg trees.

And every place setting has a little basket with treats.

I will try to take some photos tomorrow - but when I am under a time crunch - the photos are often forgotten!

Okay - if you do not see a photo - it was because I got too busy! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!