Challenge: Handmade 2010 xmas

gingerandrubarb

:staradmin:staradmin:staradminTruffles:staradmin:staradmin:staradminmakes enough to do a large family

You will need:
1.1 pack of chocolate (cooking choc,)
2. 1 tub of thick double cream (around 150ml)
3. 25g unsalted butter
4.flavouring or alcohol(1 tsp for uk flavours, 3 drops for LorAnn)
5.Small pack of cooking choc, or green and blacks choc
6.Toppings (optional) coconut,almonds,ginger,cocoa etc,...

To do:
1.Melt the chocolate as normal on a low heat,making sure no water or condensation gets in,
2.Once melted take off the heat and add the whole tub of cream and the butter and stir until melted and mixed evenly.
3.Add flavouring and put the bowl of mix into the fridge for at least hours and up to 24 hours (i leave overnight)
4.Cover a tray with tin foil.
5.Take the bowl of original mix from the fridge and using a spoon, scoop some of the mix, quickly rolling it about to form ball shapes (it's sticky so you want to work quickly) so you should have lots of balls.
6.You can either roll the balls in toppings......
Or
7.melt the small pack of chocolate, drop the balls into the chocolate to cover them and scoop out with a spoon,
8.Place the choc covered ones onto the tin foil and coat with toppings or dip in toppings if you wish to.
9. Place in the fridge to harden.
10. Place into gift boxes or jars ...voila,

*once you give these out they will soften on the inside slightly and melt in the mouth*this is a fool proof recipe :cool:

gingerandrubarb

:starmod::starmod::starmod:Easy Shortbread recipe:starmod::starmod::starmod:

*these are really good to use with cookie cutters or to decorate with icing, like the american sugar cookies*
>>Keeps for around 2 weeks<<Longer in the fridge>>

You need:
1.125g butter
2.175g plain flour
3.50g caster sugar
4. 1 tsp milk (more if needed)
5.Vanilla flavouring (optional)

To do:
1.rub together the sugar,butter and flour (or use a food processor) so it starts to resemble bread crumbs
2.add in the milk and flavouring and knead until it is a soft dough
3.Roll into a sausage shape and cover with cling film and put in the fridge for around 1 hour.
4.Once the hours up, cover the surfaces with icing sugar, Roll out the dough until it's about 1 inch thick and cut using cutters, the open end of a cup (for circles) or cut into triangle (this is what i do) putting fork marks on the ends of the triangles (traditional shape :rotfl:)
5.Sprinkle with sugar (optional)
6.Place onto a greased baking tray for around 15 minutes or until browned
7.Allow to cool *yummmmmmyyy*

linzilp

gingerandrubarb wrote: »

:staradmin:staradmin:staradminTruffles:staradmin:staradmin:staradminmakes enough to do a large family

You will need:
1.1 pack of chocolate (cooking choc,)
2. 1 tub of thick double cream (around 150ml)
3. 25g unsalted butter
4.flavouring or alcohol(1 tsp for uk flavours, 3 drops for LorAnn)
5.Small pack of cooking choc, or green and blacks choc
6.Toppings (optional) coconut,almonds,ginger,cocoa etc,...

To do:
1.Melt the chocolate as normal on a low heat,making sure no water or condensation gets in,
2.Once melted take off the heat and add the whole tub of cream and the butter and stir until melted and mixed evenly.
3.Add flavouring and put the bowl of mix into the fridge for at least hours and up to 24 hours (i leave overnight)
4.Cover a tray with tin foil.
5.Take the bowl of original mix from the fridge and using a spoon, scoop some of the mix, quickly rolling it about to form ball shapes (it's sticky so you want to work quickly) so you should have lots of balls.
6.You can either roll the balls in toppings......
Or
7.melt the small pack of chocolate, drop the balls into the chocolate to cover them and scoop out with a spoon,
8.Place the choc covered ones onto the tin foil and coat with toppings or dip in toppings if you wish to.
9. Place in the fridge to harden.
10. Place into gift boxes or jars ...voila,

*once you give these out they will soften on the inside slightly and melt in the mouth*this is a fool proof recipe :cool:

Great site. How long do these last for? I.e can they be made now and not eaten until after xmas? Where would be the best place to store them?

gingerandrubarb

Linzilp, I would suggest giving them around 4-5 weeks shelf life if stored in the fridge due to the cream,
However you could always make them just now, to taste and try out prior to a xmas batch :T

sarymclary

I found this lovely gift idea on a favourite website of mine, which would be ideal for a partner, mum, dad, etc.

It's a homemade keyring, with a brass disc, stamped with a message of your choice. In this case it's 'I Love You', and a small charm sized glass vial, with a rolled up message inside. The charms are available on ebay, but all seem to be stocked in the USA, but are less than £2 each + postage. There may be a UK stockist I've not managed to find.

I know my OH has a set of metal letter stamps in his garage, which I could 'borrow' to make these. Simple idea, and a lasting gift.

Look at the site for step by step instructions here: http://www.instructables.com/id/I-love-you-because-Message-in-a-Bottle-Key-Ring/

I'm also going to bake a Dundee/Christmas cake for my sisters & best friends. I'll do a whole day of baking soon for the cakes & puds. I made shortbread last year, which was great for gifts too.

gingerandrubarb

sarymclary wrote: »

I found this lovely gift idea on a favourite website of mine, which would be ideal for a partner, mum, dad, etc.

It's a homemade keyring, with a brass disc, stamped with a message of your choice. In this case it's 'I Love You', and a small charm sized glass vial, with a rolled up message inside. The charms are available on ebay, but all seem to be stocked in the USA, but are less than £2 each + postage. There may be a UK stockist I've not managed to find.

I know my OH has a set of metal letter stamps in his garage, which I could 'borrow' to make these. Simple idea, and a lasting gift.

Look at the site for step by step instructions here: http://www.instructables.com/id/I-love-you-because-Message-in-a-Bottle-Key-Ring/

I'm also going to bake a Dundee/Christmas cake for my sisters & best friends. I'll do a whole day of baking soon for the cakes & puds. I made shortbread last year, which was great for gifts too.

Hi,
that's a fab idea, funnily enough i just got in the post a handstamped necklace from Etsy similiar to the keyring you mentioned, You can get sterling silver discs on Etsy, and the metal a-z stamps from Ebay for really cheap, I have about 20 glass vial charms , if your needing some PM if you have trouble getting them hunny x:j Are you going to right i love you, on yours do you think?

(My necklace says 'i want to do bad things with you' :rotfl:should have really got it for hubby :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:)

gingerandrubarb

although saying that i took a look at the supply pusher website listed on the instructables and their items are fab and really good http://www.etsy.com/shop/supplypusher Would love to see your made item hunny sounds fab x

sarymclary

I thought I'd make one for my OH saying 'I Love You', and then one each for my 4 sons, relevant to their characters (all chalk & cheese), so along the lines of 'Rock n Roll Slave', 'I Love Bionicles', 'Unlock My Heart', 'Secret Giggler'... something like that. I did think that the Supply Pusher site was heavenly. I also like that they do international postage! I'll let you know if I need the vials, but there seem to be suppliers on ebay too.

I just thought of another idea I suggested to my DS2. He's just started doing a graphic design course, and after seeing some of his designs, said he should get them printed onto tshirts. When I recently ordered some printer ink refills on ebay, I noticed the other items sold by the supplier included tshirt transfer paper. They use ordinary laser printer ink, and you just iron on the designs. Here's a link, with instructions how to use them, there's lots of different suppliers too, but I thought this would be great to do funny logos, and items for teenagers, as you could just create a written logo, or put a photo on the shirt. Just be sure that you have a paper that can do all colour tshirts, as some supply a specific dark or light material paper. The possibilities are endless: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390082979671&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

gingerandrubarb

sarymclary wrote: »

I thought I'd make one for my OH saying 'I Love You', and then one each for my 4 sons, relevant to their characters (all chalk & cheese), so along the lines of 'Rock n Roll Slave', 'I Love Bionicles', 'Unlock My Heart', 'Secret Giggler'... something like that. I did think that the Supply Pusher site was heavenly. I also like that they do international postage! I'll let you know if I need the vials, but there seem to be suppliers on ebay too.

I just thought of another idea I suggested to my DS2. He's just started doing a graphic design course, and after seeing some of his designs, said he should get them printed onto tshirts. When I recently ordered some printer ink refills on ebay, I noticed the other items sold by the supplier included tshirt transfer paper. They use ordinary laser printer ink, and you just iron on the designs. Here's a link, with instructions how to use them, there's lots of different suppliers too, but I thought this would be great to do funny logos, and items for teenagers, as you could just create a written logo, or put a photo on the shirt. Just be sure that you have a paper that can do all colour tshirts, as some supply a specific dark or light material paper. The possibilities are endless: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390082979671&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Great idea :T
I read somewhere that you have to use an art package to reverse the image so it prints right, :(unfortunately my pants computer doesn't have one, but the iron transfers are a great idea, would be fab for canvased and cushions too!
Theirs also a liquid you can get (liquid sculpey & Dylon make them) that you can paint onto images (newspapers, books etc) and it copies the image so you can add it to fabrics or metals,woods etc, would be a good idea if you wanted to add a bionicles image onto the metal prior to stamping ? or a photo etc.. x

Dylon one (also on Ebay)http://www.dylon.co.uk/products/craft/image-maker/
Liquid Sculpey one's (ebay too ) :heart2:

gingerandrubarb

So happy, thats my second lot of swatches from Bemz through yay, going to use them for quilting the free swatch link is http://www.bemz.com/orderSwatch/