Decorative cookie-jar

As mentioned in an other blog-post, most of my gifts this year has been homemade.
I love giving homemade presents, because I love seeing peoples reaction when they open it! Most people in my family appreciate homemade gifts, which makes it all the more fun!

For my sister and my mother-in-law, I made these cookie-jars filled with homemade Oreo Cheesecake Cookies!
The jars are supereasy to make, just find some jars and something you would like to place on top, and use a durable glue (I use epoxy-glue!)
Leave to dry for a day or so, and then spraypaint in your desired color!
I chose lion and elephant as the animals, because going to Africa this summer, those were my two favorite animals! Yes, I'm a sucker for Africa now that I've been there!

I also decorated a box of hot chocolate-mix for a secret-Santa gift at work.
The stone-inspired paper is self-adhesive and bought at Søstrene Grenes, but you can always use scrapbooking paper or wrapping paper, and just use double-sided tape or glue.

Christmas baking!

I am really very fond of baking, so I decided to do some Christmas baking this year!
It's a tradition in Norway to bake 7 types of cookies for Christmas (but I don't think many people do it anymore..) Well.. I don't need 7 types but I at least made 4!

Here you can see my Kakemenn/"Cookiepeople", Burned almonds and Chilli Jam

The Chilli jam was not one of my 4 types, it was a gift for my mother and my brother-in-law!
Here is the Norwegian recipe and the English one!

Recipe for Burned Almonds 
400 g Almonds
1/2 dl water
150 g sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla sugar
1 spoon of butter

Spread the almonds on a baking tray covered in baking paper, and roast them in the oven on 200 degrees (Celcius) for about 8 minutes
Mix water, sugar and vanillasugar in a wide frying-pan or casserole and heat to a boil on full heat. Then reduce the heat to half, add the almonds and stir all the time.
The water will evaporate and the sugar will remain. Keep stirring and don't turn up the heat!
After a few minutes the sugar will start to melt. Add butter when the sugar has melted to your desire.
Spread the almonds onto the baking sheet again, and separate them as best as you can. Cool and then store in a cellophane bag or a jar!

Original norwegian recipe 

I also made Oreo Cheesecake Cookies (unfortunately only norwegian recipe as I can't be bothered to translate it right now) and Sandnøtter

Recipe for Kakemenn/Cookie People

100 g butter
2,5 dl milk
3,5 dl sugar
1 teaspoon baking ammonia (hornsalt)
12 dl flour

Melt the butter and mix in the milk.
Mix all the dry ingredients and add the milk and butter. Mix the dough together fast, put back in your baking bowl and store cold for 2 hours.
Use a rolling pin and roll the dough anout 5mm thick. Add some more flour if needed. Use cookie cutters to make cookies. and bake in the middle of the oven at 180 degrees (celcius) for 8-10 minutes.
The cookies should be the same color as the dough when you take them out of the oven. They might be soft, but as they cool, they will harden. Store in airtight box or bag to prevent drying.


Last but not least is Sandnøtter/sand-cookies! We used to call them grandma-cookies because my grandma used to make them for Christmas when I was a child.

Recipe for Sandnøtter
250 g soft/room-tempered butter
250g sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
500 g potato flour
125g flour

Heat your oven to 200 degrees (celcius) and cover 2 baking trays with baking sheets.
Mix butter and sugar to a fluffy buttercream. Add the egg and mix well.
Mix all the dry ingredients and use a sieve to sprinkle the dry ingredients into the buttermix. Mix to a dough and then make small balls and place on the baking trays. NB! Don't bake more than 20 cookies on one tray! Press a fork down on the cookies for a decorative finish! Bake in the middle of the oven on 200 degrees for 10 minutes

Christmas decorations!

Some may say that I started a bit early, but the thing is, I wanted something to do because I wanted to start making Christmas gifts, but I didn't have the things I needed, nor did I have the money to buy it (yet), so I figured; hey, why not just start making some decorations then! After all, I have all the materials, and they are very inexpensive to make! So if you think it's too early to make these, check back in on the 1st of December! 

How did you do that, you might ask! It's really easy

All you need is
A rolling pin
A pin/stick or straw
Cookie cutters
Stamps
Stamping pads (if you want the print colored)
Hemp, leathercords or whichever fits you best for hanging
Clay (there is a wide variety to choose from, fimo, air-hardening clays, salt dough)
(Fimo effect-clay with glitter gives pretty results aswell, I used those last year!)

I used this clay bought from Clas Ohlson for the fine sum of 65 NKR
What's great about this one is that it's air-hardening so you don't need the work of cooking it in the oven (though, I recommend ovenbaking-clay of you're in a hurry or want to finish up quickly. They are often more expensive..) This one is also fairly durable and when it dries, it gives of a porcelainy feeling. You can also modify it using sandpapers and stuff.Its also durable in usage, and if you don't want to use all of it, just tape the package shut and keep it in a plastic bag. If it becomes dry, just ad some water.

Now, over to the real fun!

Take your choise of clay out, and work with it a bit to make it warmer and easier to work with. 

Use your rolling pin to roll out the clay.. This is basically just like making gingerbread-cookies.
Roll it so it's about halv a cm or a bit more. You don't want them too thin, they will break more easily when thin! You may also add glitter if you feel like it! I made some with glitter and some without. After, place on a flat surface if airdrying, or on a bakingtray if you have bakingclay

While the clay is still wet, use your stamps to create decorative patterns on your figures. If you want to, you can put colors on your stamp, just use your regular stampingpad!
Also remember to poke a hole for your thread!
Also also remember to wash your stamps after as clay may contain oily substances and may stick to the surface!

If you use airdrying clay, remember to turn your artwork a few times during the drying period so they get to dry on all sides. This will also prevent cracking.
Follow bakinginstructions if you use bakingclay!

I don't have a very flattering picture whit them hanging as of now. I need a branch or a Christmas-tree..
I am going to use these for decorating presents this year!

~Happy making!