Ornament Christmas Cards

I haven't made my Christmas cards in years. A good 5 years ago I worked with my friend in Indiana and we made a few prototypes  of some Christmas cards and I decided to make them my cards this year.

I have a embossing machine that I bought from Stampin up many years ago and I used it to emboss snowflakes onto the background and the punched out ornament for the front of the card. I had some sage card stock that I used and I also had some gold paper that was already embossed with poka-dots and I embossed the snowflakes onto that paper for the background, but left the gold ornament just the dots.

The items needed for this project were:
Plain cards and envelopes
Card stock in Sage, gold, cream or white, and red.
An ornament paper punch
A paper cutter
Gold cord
Thin red ribbon
Sticky dots
Double sided tape or glue
Greeting rubber stamp
Red ink pad

First I stamped the greeting onto the inside of the cards and let them dry while I cut out the card pieces.

I used 5 by 6 1/2 cards, so the large piece for the background of the card (sage and gold) are cut into 5 by 3 3/4 rectangles. I then ran the cut sage and gold pieces through the embosser.
I cut the sage paper into strips that were wide enough for the ornament punch and ran them through the embosser before I punched them.

I cut the red paper into 3 by 2 1/2 rectangles and the cream into 2 1/8 by 2 1/2 rectangles.

I cut the gold cord into pieces about 2 1/2 inches long.

For the red ribbon I tied the ribbon into a bow the right size for the ornament and then untied the bow and used the cut piece to measure the ribbon for the rest of the bows. You can cut your cord and ribbon ahead of time, or cut them one at a time while you are putting your card together.

I assembled the card with the doubles sided tape. You put the embossed sage or gold onto the middle of the card. Next, tape the cream piece onto the red piece. Then the red/cream piece onto the sage or gold embossed piece.

I turned the ornament over to the back and put sticky dot on the upper back of the ornament piece and then folded the cord in half and push them onto the dot on the ornament.

Now tape the ornament onto the middle of the cream top piece.

Take a sticky dot and put it onto the top of the front of the top of the ornament and add the tied ribbon bow to the sticky dot. Finished and ready to spread some Holiday Cheer!

Carrot Souffle

One of our traditional foods during Thanksgiving is a carrot souffle. If I remember correctly, my Husband's Cousin's wife brought this to a family Thanksgiving many years ago and we loved it. I have been making it at Thanksgiving ever sense.

You start with a bag of baby carrots. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds of carrots, I just use the whole 2 pounds. Boil them in a pan of water until they are soft. Drain and mash them.

Add the eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla and margarine and stir them until blended. Pour into a tall casserole dish.

For the topping I pour cornflakes into a gallon plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. I then put walnuts into a plastic bag and use a meat mallet to crush them. Mix the topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top of the carrot mixture.

Carrot Souffle
1 1/2 or 2 lbs of soft boiled carrots
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick melted margarine

Topping
1/2 cup crushed cornflakes
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp melted margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil carrots until soft, drain and mash. Add eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla and margarine to the mashed carrots and mix together. Pour into a tall casserole dish.

Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top of the carrot mixture. You can sprinkle a touch of cinnamon on top if you like. (I do not use the cinnamon).

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Serve warm.

Eat it up, YUM!