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One of my favorite family holiday traditions has always been
making Christmas cookies. It is a tradition that has been passed
down through our family, and I am continuing it on today with my
daughter. This year my daughter decided she wanted to try to
make them herself, and they turned out great! I was the official
documenter, taking pictures and recording the decorative results
for our family scrapbook.
To make the scrapbook layout more personal, I decided to use our
favorite Christmas cookie recipe as part of the layout. I also
used cookie cutters to make my own die-cuts to embellish the
page. I was very happy with the results!
Directions:
Take several photos of your family making Christmas cookies. If
you didn't make any this year, you may have some old photos
laying around from Christmases past. I chose to use only three
photos in this layout because the recipe took up a lot of room on
the page. I took a picture of the unfrosted cookies as they came
out of the oven, a picture of my daughter frosting the cookies,
and then a picture of the finished cookies.
For the background paper, I chose a holiday-themed piece of 12x12
paper. It is green with holly berries. To mat the pictures and
the caption, I used green card stock.
For the caption, I typed "Making Cookies, Christmas 2004"
vertically on a page in a large font that I liked and printed it
off the computer. I matted this narrow piece with green
card stock and glued it to the left-hand side of the background
page.
For the pictures and the recipe, I used a full 8 1/2 x 11 sheet
of green card stock for the matting. I printed out the recipe
and placed it at the bottom of the card stock (with a picture of
the finished cookies at the right-hand bottom corner of the
recipe), and I arranged the other photos at the top of the card
stock with two die-cuts I created from our cookie cutters. The
cookie cutter shapes were a bell and star cut from yellow card
stock. I glued all these pieces to the green card stock and then
glued the card stock to the background page. That's it! See the
following link for a photo of the completed page:
http://www.crafty-moms.com/articles/121904a.shtml
Here is the Christmas cookie recipe:
Christmas Sugar Cookies
- 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- 1 c. butter, softened
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- 1 egg
- 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cream of tartar
Mix powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and egg. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough into halves. Roll each half 1/2-inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Bake on lightly greased cookie sheet until the edges are brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Makes 5 dozen cookies. Frost when cookies are completely cooled.
Frosting
- 3 c. powdered sugar
- 1/3 c. butter, softened
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 tbsp. milk
Mix powdered sugar and butter. Stir in vanilla and milk. Beat until smooth and easy to spread. Divide into bowls and add food coloring until desired colors.
About The Author: Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com
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