Hi, everyone! Yes, I’m still here. I’ve been in the midst of a huge new project for the past few months, and the long hours have meant little time left for posting here. But I want to let you know how grateful I am for all of the linkage and comments about crafts and recipes featured on this site over the past couple of months. It makes my day when someone tries something and lets me know about their results, and I’ve loved what so many of you have done with the ruffle wreath, especially. You gals and guys kick butt! I can’t get over how fast you are at cutting those circles, and thanks to those of you have shared your tips for making the process faster.

I’ve been meaning to post a little roundup of the crafts that I made over the holidays. Hey, it may almost be Valentine’s Day, but at least I know that no one on my gift list is going to have their Christmas surprise foiled by seeing what I made for them.

From top to bottom:

* Snow Babies project by Jenn Docherty, from  Holiday Crafts by Better Homes and Gardens. This special interest mag had a lot of great crafts this past holiday season, and as soon as I saw these snowpeople I knew I had to make them for my mum for Christmas. I turned them into ornaments so she can hang them on her tree. Next year, I definitely have to make some for myself. So cute!

* Peppermint Swirl Pincushion project, from Moda Bake Shop. I made these for all of the seamstresses in my life, and I think that they turned out really well, especially since I’m not a pro with the sewing machine. The result of my first attempt was not good, but after that I got the hang of it.

* I broke out the candle making supplies for the first time in a while and whipped up lots of candles and scent melts. Our apartment smelled fantastic, like a mix of Christmas trees, roasted chestnuts, and pumpkin bread. Yum!

I hope to be back with more recipes and crafts soon, and I’ll let you know when the new project launches!

I try to design a new set of holiday gift tags to use on my gifts every year, and this year I had a lot of fun with a wintry holiday theme. Icy blues, teal, pink, and red have been some of my favorites for the holidays over the past couple of years, and I made use of most of those in this set, which includes ten different tag designs. Print them onto cardstock and punch a hole for twine or thread, or print them onto sticker paper for festive holiday labels. Download the Wintry Holiday Tags (185Kb PDF).

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and use this file. Download the reader for free here. These templates are for personal, non-commercial use only.

Have you ever started a project thinking, “This is going to be so cool! I’m totally going to finish it in a few hours, and I’ll probably end up making half a dozen more because I like it so much,” only to find yourself, weeks later, still working on the same project with not much of an end in sight? Yeah, this was one of those projects. However, I did finish, and I love, love, love the result, so it’s a very happy ending.

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Hi, everyone! I know it’s been a little while, and I have recipes piling up that I want to post here, but time has not been on my side lately. It does seem to be that way during this time of the year, doesn’t it?

If you bake on a regular basis — gluten free or not — then you know how quickly ingredients can fill up your cabinets and pantry. And if you bake gluten and sugar free, then you might find yourself in my situation, with over a dozen different types of flour plus several sweeteners stuffing your shelves.

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This was my first adventure in molded candy land, and though I made a mess with the chocolate because I’m impatient, these sunbutter cups still turned out quite well.

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Mary Sullivan runs an online shop called Karate Kat Graphics as a collaboration with her children and donates half of every dollar earned through the shop to children’s charities — Save the Children is this year’s charity. She has put together a tutorial about how to make a family cookbook and asked me to create a full page (8 1/2″ x 11″) printable recipe template that can be used to create a personal cookbook, and I was happy to oblige!

Update: I’ve added a version of the recipe page that has editable form fields, so you can type in your recipes and send them to family and friends via email! Download this version below.

As we head into the holiday season, many of us are thinking more about food and tradition and are planning on putting together a family cookbook of our own to give as a gift or to use in our own kitchens. You can download the template and use it to help create your own cookbooks.

Download the original recipe page template (188 Kb PDF). Download the recipe page with editable form fields (165 Kb). Use File > Save As when you’re saving the editable version of the recipe page, and rename it (example: Chocolate-Chip-Cookies.pdf) so you don’t overwrite the original template. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and use these files. Download the reader for free here. These templates are for personal, non-commercial use only.