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Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! Hope your day with friends and family is filled with lots of love and laughter (and good food)! Also...

Nicole from Tikkido and Tradewind Tiaras is back with a perfect recipe for holiday entertaining -- homemade rustic crackers. What's great about them, is that you can flavor them any way you'd like, then serve them with our favorite cheeses, dips, or spreads. Don't they look delicious?

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• Egg wash (one egg beaten with 2 T water)
• Toppings of your choice

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.  Mix to combine the dry ingredients.  Add the olive oil and the water, and mix until a ball of dough has been formed.  No need to knead--just mix until the ingredients are incorporated.

Divide the dough in half.  Roll out the dough directly on two un-greased cookie sheets.  I love using the little silicone rolling pin I actually bought for my daughter.  It matches my big one, and we like to cook together.  But that little rolling pin is absolutely perfect for rolling out the cracker dough on the baking sheets.  The small size helps me get the dough nice and thin, while avoiding the bent lips on the ends of the pan.  Don't have a rolling pin?  No problem!  Just use your fingers to stretch and push the dough into shape.  The more rustic look you get using your fingers only adds to the charm of the homemade crackers.

Tip:  Rolling dough directly on a baking sheet can be tricky; the pan tends to slide around the counter.  To solve this problem, put a silpat under your baking pan.  If you don't have a silpat, just use a barely-damp dish towel.  It works wonders!

Once the dough is rolled thin, brush the egg wash over the surface of the crackers, and sprinkle with the toppings of your choice.  I love using kosher salt and fresh rosemary, or Parmesan cheese.  But poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic salt -- really, just about any herbs or spices -- are wonderful.  Experiment with your favorite flavors.

Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the crackers are golden and crispy.  Let cool and devour!

Thank you, Nicole, we will definitely be making these at our house!

My friend, Jen Rasmussen, is what I like to call a "baker extraordinaire." I asked her if she'd share how she does some of her incredible work, and she so kindly put together this tutorial on how she makes her gorgeous snowflake sugar cookies.

Wouldn't these make a great holiday gift! In fact, I know after Jen took these photos, she wrapped hers up and gave them as a hostess gift. Lucky hostess!

MATERIALS:

• 3 inch snowflake cookie cutter (see shape below)
• Royal icing
• White Pearl Dust (Wilton)
• Squeeze bottle
• Pastry bag with #2 tip
• Small bag clip
• Toothpicks

DIRECTIONS:

Using your snowflake cookie cutter, make your snowflake sugar cookies. Here's a great sugar cookie recipe, if you need one.

Dilute ⅔ of the royal icing (here's Alton Brown's royal icing recipe, if you need one) to corn syrup consistency and put in squeeze bottle.  The other ⅓ should be thicker for piping easily.  It should fall off a spoon slowly. Add pearl dust to both for a little shimmer. Fill the pastry bag with #2 tip and secure with bag clip.  Have toothpicks handy.

Outline cookie using icing in the pastry bag.

Using the squeeze bottle, fill in the outlined area with icing.  This is called flooding. Use the tip of the squeeze bottle to spread the icing all the way to the borders. After flooding, break any air bubbles with toothpick.  Let the icing set for an hour or two.

 With piping icing, draw three straight lines from point to point on the snowflake, crossing in the center.

 Next, add snowflake embellishments as desired.

Finish with dots around the center. The cookies need to set for several hours before they can be stacked.

These definitely are gorgeous. Thanks, Jen, for sharing how you work your magic! I might try these next week with Lainey.

I was asked by Bird of Bird's Party to put together a red and white Candy Cane Christmas Pinterest board as part of her incredible 12 Days of Christmas Party Ideas Giveaway, where one person will win a $1,200 Christmas Stocking full of awesome prizes!!

Thank you, Bird, for asking me to be a part of your inspiration party. It's been so much fun!

If you like the party inspiration images I've put together, then  PIN them with hashtag #PinParty to get 3 extra entries in the Giveaway! Enter the official giveaway below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is seriously one of the easiest DIYs I've ever done, and I can't get over how amazing they turned out!

SUPPLIES:

• Cardboard or Styrofoam cone
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Glue gun

DIRECTIONS:

Put a dot of hot glue on the base of the cone.

Attach the yarn.

For the first wrap of yarn only I usually add a few more dots of hot glue to the base of the cone to secure the yarn.

Continue to wrap cone with yarn.

For the candy cane tree, I did six rings of yarn per color. For the green and red one I eyeballed about two inches per layer.

Cut yarn. Secure it with another drop of hot glue. Add another dot of hot glue next to where you ended the last color.  Attach the new color and keep going.

I found the cardboard cones to be a little easier to use than the Styrofoam cones because the yarn can stick to the Styrofoam when you're working with it.

I used these yarn trees to style my Cookies and Cocoa dessert table. I thought they added a lot of warmth and color. Don't ya think?

I had so much fun making these yesterday! They were actually quite simple. Here's how I did it...

MARSHMALLOW SNOWMAN CUPCAKE TOPPERS

Supplies:

• White cupcakes with white frosting
• Regular marshmallows
• Jumbo marshmallows
• Oreos
• Dark Chocolate Truffles (we used Mint Creams from Trader Joe's)
• Wilton Decorating Gel in black
• Betty Crocker Cookie Icing in white (black optional)
• Shredded coconut
• Pretzel sticks
• Confetti dots
• Fruit roll
• Starburst candy (orange)

Directions:

To make the snowman face, take one regular sized marshmallow and draw a face on it using the black Wilton Decorating Gel. Try to pick marshmallows that are flat on the top and bottom so your snowman will stand straight.

To make the hat, pull an Oreo apart (use the side without the frosting). Squirt a dollop of Betty Crocker Cookie Icing on the top of one cookie and affix your chocolate candy. If you only have white icing, just use a touch less so it doesn't squish out the side. For the candy I used Dark Chocolate Mint Creams from Trader Joe's, but you can use chocolate truffles, or even Rolos. I like dark chocolate candies to match the color of the Oreos.

To make the carrot nose, take one orange Starburst and cut tiny angled slivers. You can easily get 20 noses from a single orange Starburst.

To attach the nose, cut a small slit in the front of the marshmallow and push the nose into the marshmallow.

To make the body, first trim about 1/4 of the jumbo marshmallow off the bottom. This can help even out the marshmallow if it got a little squished in the bag.

Put a dab of the white Betty Crocker Cookie Icing on the back of three confetti dots then attach them to the front of the body. And finally, to add the arms, stick pretzel sticks into the sides of the jumbo marshmallow.

To make the scarf, cut slices of fruit roll that are at least 6 inches long and 1/4 inch wide.

To create the fringe, use a sharp knife and make 3-4 cuts at each ends, each about 1/2 inch long.

Now it's time for assembly.

Start with your white frosted cupcake.

Add the body.

Now add your snow. First I attached shredded coconut. You can optionally sprinkled on some white sanding sugar to give it a little sparkle.

Put a little swirl of the white Betty Crocker Cookie Icing on the bottom of the head, and set it on the body.

Now add the scarf - just wrap it around the base of the head.

And finally, to attach the hat put a swirl of the the Betty Crocker Cookie Icing on the bottom of the cookie, and set it on the head.

One thing you can run into putting this together, is that if your marshmallows aren't flat, the head and hat can slide off before the cookie icing firms up. It's best to pick marshmallows that aren't too lopsided. And when you cut off the bottom of the jumbo marshmallow, use it as an opportunity level it out.

And voila! Aren't they cute?

Almost too cute to eat... but not quite. :)

 

Here's a fun set of FREE holiday printables from Hey Yo Yo! This collection is full of festive tags and labels, perfect for wrapping up treats, a banner to spell out anything, and there's even a recipe!!

The collection includes: straw flags, round party tags, gingerbread boy cutouts, star tags, 2x4 hang tags, 2x4 sweets labels, bottle labels, "A" to "Z"  banner, a recipe for ginger sticks (how awesome!).

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILES FOR PRINTING HERE

• Part 1
• Part 2 

If you're looking for all things vintage-y, party, and fun, definitely check out Hey Yo Yo. They sell some of the cutest and coolest party supplies!

Also, for further holiday inspirations, check out these fantastic Christmas Parties on our site and all our collections of free Christmas printables.

Looking for printable Christmas gift tags?  Click on any of these links, download the file, print, cut out, fill in, and tape to your gifts! Simple!

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Designed by Three Little Monkeys Studio

DOWNLOAD HERE! 

Designed by from Lisa Marie Invitations & Designs

(These have editable text fields where you can type in your "to" and "from")

DOWNLOAD HERE!  (and scroll to page 3)

Designed by Printabelle 

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Designed by The Paper Dolls Shoppe

DOWNLOAD HERE! (and scroll to page 16)

Designed by Love Party Printables 

For further inspirations, check out these fantastic Christmas Parties on our site and all our collections of free Christmas printables.

When it comes to Christmas parties, we've got you covered! We have so many free Christmas printable collections filled with everything you'll need to add that special touch to your holiday party! Take a look!

 If you use our printables, please add your parties to our site. I'd love to see what you did with them!

If you are throwing any sort of baking or treat decorating party this holiday season, take a look at these fun printables Michelle from Printabelle designed for us.

How great would these be for your gingerbread house decorating party. I especially love all the little baking themed party circles!

The collection includes: party circles (small and large), invitations, a "Happy Holidays" banner (small and large), gift tags, an 8x10 welcome sign, water bottle wrappers, food labels, a coloring sheet, thank you cards, treat toppers, and mini chocolate bar wrappers.

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILES FOR PRINTING HERE

• Holiday baking party printables
• "Happy Holidays" banner

And here are the individual files...

Thanks, Michelle, for such a special holiday collection! And remember, if you’d like any of the printables personalized, Michelle will do it for $3 per file! To learn more about Michelle and see all the printable collections, head to Printabelle and the Printabelle Facebook page.

Also, for further inspirations, check out these fantastic Christmas Parties on our site and all our collections of free Christmas printables.