Norwegian cookie men...

....Kakemenn

A few weeks ago we had my mum and dad over from Norway, and my mum taught me and little Miss Moo how to make Norwegian Christmas cookies: "kakemenn".

In Norway, you know Christmas is coming when the bakeries start selling "kakemenn", and they are a Children's favourite, simple and sweet in flavour, and shaped like little men and women.

They are also very easy to make, and Norwegians make big batches of these, not just for munching on whilst doing some Christmas crafting, but also to be decorated and hung up on the Christmas tree...

They also make a lovely gift, to a friend or neighbour....

Today I am sharing my mum's kakemenn recipe as well as how to turn them into a beautiful and tasty gift....with some simple DIY gift-tags!

KAKEMENN RECIPE:

100 g Unsalted butter

4 medium Egg-whites

2 dl sugar

8 - 8 1/2 dl flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Melt, then cool down the butter.

Whisk the egg-whites and sugar together, then add the cooled-down butter.

Stir well.

Add the baking powder to the flour, then gradually mix it into the liquid, until a dough is formed.

Towards the end the dough needs to be kneaded on a floured surface until even...

Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge to harden for at least 1 hour, or until you are ready to  start baking...

My mum and little Miss Moo ready to start rolling out the dough.

Little Miss Moo loves baking cakes, and these are easy and fun to do with the kids!!

Split the dough into manageable chunks, and roll out 1 at the time to approximately 3-4 mm thick.

 Kids may need some help here, to ensure the dough is rolled out evenly...

Time to get your cookie-cutters out!

Kakemenn is traditionally, as mentioned above, shaped like men and women, and I am lucky to have inherited my mormor's (grans) old cookie-cutters...but just use whatever shapes you've got!

If you haven't got any cookie cutters, just use a knife and cut the rolled out dough into squares...

   

 Little Miss Moo got creative and used a variety of shapes....

....whatever makes it fun!! 

 

 

Place your cut out cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper and cook in a preheated oven, 100-125 degrees centigrade for20-25 minutes...

   

 

The cookies will rise slightly, but should not really change colour...

Leave to cool...

  

 A little taste...

 

 

MAKE IT A GIFT

I bought some Kilner jars from the local super-market, and stuffed them full of homemade cookies...

Before jazzing them up with some paper doilies, snowflake window stickers (I found these in the pound-shop) and some ribbons with some DIY gift-tags:

DIY GIFT-TAGS

I glued some of my vintage decoupage images onto some card board...(an old cereal box will do), then cut them out and used a hole-punch to make a hole so I could thread through the ribbon...

Pretty.....and pretty easy!!

 

 A perfect little hostess-gift!

 

...or as a little Seasons greetings to your children's favourite teacher...

 

Or maybe you have a friend or neighbour that deserves a little pre Christmas treat!!  

Christmas is coming around fast, and its easy to get stressed around this time of year....Sooo much to do!!

The advice I give myself is always: Try to enjoy yourself!!

(I may have to repeat as a mantra in the coming weeks)

If you are all done with your Christmas gift shopping: Congratulations!! (I've not even started)

If not, and you are still looking for that perfect gift, pop back next week, as I will be sharing my ETSY gift guides and showing you a few DIY gift ideas, so stay tuned!

xxx

June

Christmas cards....

...DIY 

This week I am busy getting ready for Little Miss Moo's school Christmas fayre this coming Saturday...It is the first time I have ever set up a craft stall to try and sell my makes, and I am a little bit nervous...I am trying to stay calm by eating Christmas cookies and listening to some Otis Redding(for me it is still a bit early for Christmas tunes...) whilst crafting away in the kitchen... 

Today I have been making some Christmas cards...

...Nothing too complicated.

My approach has been much the same as with my scrap wrapping advent calendar:

I have used what I've got :I have been collecting glossy decoupage images for years (You can find similar in TIGER), so some of those and some vintage music sheets and some Christmassy tissue paper and some heart-shaped paper doilies.

I bought some plain cards, ready to decorate and some Happy Christmas stickers from Hobbycraft.... 

 First I played around with my supplies to see what would work together...

I made a plan for each card, and organised my supplies accordingly...

...I decided to use the green bird-print tissue paper(came with some candles I bought in TIGER) and the vintage music sheets as my "background" on the cards, and cut them to fit...

I decided to use a spray glue for this project, as it has the most even application...

I laid down  some brown parcel paper to protect my surface, opened the window for ventilation, before spraying the back of my "back-grounds", one at the time, and gluing them onto my cards.

TIP: When using spray glue, the surface under your bits(you want to spray) will become very sticky, so in between I dusted the surface with talcum powder to prevent my images from getting sticky on the front when placed face down...

With all my backgrounds stuck onto my cards, above , I decided which decoupage image to put on each card before spraying with glue and sticking down...

Working as organised as possible...

...I explored the combinations...

Before committing to the finished look of each card...

And sticking down the finished look...

  

Then I placed and stuck down the "Happy Christmas" stickers...

And my "collection" of Christmas cards were ready... 

  

Some I used the Paper doilies for a background on..

Some got the vintage music sheets...

 And some got both the bird-print tissue and a paper doily...

 

 I love the look of these cards...the vintage glossy decoupage images gives them such an old fashioned and nostalgic look...

I hope they sell at The school fayre on Saturday, but if not, at least I've got Christmas cards to send out to all my friends and family this year!!

Now I'm off to make some gift-tags, by gluing some decoupage images onto some cardboard, cutting out and treading with ribbons...

I will be back in a few days with a post about a tasty home-made Christmas gift idea!!

For next week I am working on some gift guides...including some DIY gift ideas!!

xxx

June

Scrap wrapping Advent calendar....

Today I wanted to share with you how I made this simple, yet beautiful advent calendar for little Miss Moo...

Looking around the shops for advent calendars, it struck me how they are all commercially branded, ie. Barbie or Gruffalo etc. I really wanted LMM to have something different, and more exciting....something more than a chocolaty treat for each day, but rather a little toy, or a book or some crayons....a little surprise that she could actually DO something with...

Looking online there are lots of fabulous DIY advent calendar ideas, but I didn't want to be constricted with the size of the daily surprises...So in the end I opted to create this scrap-wrapping present-a-day Advent calendar....

Scrap-wrapping is one of my favourite ways to wrap presents, as you simply use what you have!

I decided to keep it simple(ish) with brown parcel paper and some vintage music sheets...

 

Having wrapped up all of Little Miss Moo's advent treats, I was ready to decorate...

Being a crafty person, I have a rather large supply of crafty and beautiful papers and glossy decoupage images....but you can just use what you have...(You can find similar decoupage images in TIGER)

 

 I think brown parcel paper can look very chic, when jazzed up a bit...

I used scraps of lace, bakers twine and ribbons...

 

 ...as well as paper doilies and glossy vintage decoupage images to decorate with...

 

 

 Then I simply stamped the numbers from 1 to 25 on plain white tags, with a little lacy hart for décor...

 

With the 25 advent surprises all wrapped up and decorated, I attached the number tags...

 

...then used some brown paper twine to string them all up on a tree-branch that I'd dusted with white spray paint...

And voila!

Little Miss Moo's unique advent calendar was done...

 

 

 

I can't wait to see Little Miss Moo's face when she comes home from school and sees her Advent calendar... 

 

 

...I just hope there will be no cheating in the form of pinching and sneaking a little look.

I am starting to get really excited about Christmas, and cant wait to show you more of my little DIY's and projects over the next month or so...

xxx

June

Plaster dipped pinecones...

 TUTORIAL 

   

Making Christmas decorations is an absolute must for me during advent...I remember making  decorations with my mum by candlelight, a cup of hot chocolate and lots of Christmas cookies...

Now, we never made these, but none the less, it is that feeling...when you are covered in glitter and its cold outside!!

This project will take you outdoors in the cold, then bring you back inside for a cosy winters night glitter session...

Pinecones....I love them! Like natures own little ornaments, and essential for the Christmas tree!

A few weeks ago I went out in our local woods and filled my bag with pinecones, not really knowing what my plan for them was... 

I love how they look naturally, but I also wanted to ad a little Christmas sparkle to them....and I have always wanted to try dipping them in plaster (I've seen a few people trying this, but not with great results)...so I decided to have a go....

I soaked my pinecones in water, and scrubbed them clean, then put them in my oven on 100 c for about 45 min to dry out....I didn't want to overdo it, as I wanted the pinecones to stay closed for dipping in plaster...

Pinecones will close up when wet, and open when dry...

 Next, I drilled a little hole in the end of my pinecones, and glued in some jewellery eye pins....so that I could easily string them up....both for the next step and for later.

 

 MIXING UP PLASTER

Like I said above, I read a few tutorials on dipping pinecones in plaster, none of which were very successful...but I think I know where they went wrong: the pinecones have to be dry, but not opened, and then there is the plaster mix: I have been working with plaster for years in the film industry, and I am very comfortable with it as a material.

 

I decided to use casting plaster for my pinecones, as it dries quickly...

When mixing up the plaster, add the plaster to lukewarm water, until it peeks out over the surface, then leave for a few minutes until this plaster has soaked up moisture from the water, then using your hands, mix thoroughly together...this should give you the consistency you are after: not too runny, but just thick enough to form a thin film on your hand when you take it out of the mix...

 

Working fast, I dipped my pinecones in the plaster mix, and hung up to dry...I dipped each pinecone twice, letting the first layer stiffen (but not cure) before re-dipping...Taking care not to use the plaster mix when it had thickened too much, but mixing up more as I went...

Once the plaster has set, leave to cure over night in a dry warm spot on a towel...don't cover them up, as you want the moisture in the plaster to totally evaporate (or you could get mould in the plaster)...

...MORE EXPERIMENTING:

 

I also tried dipping the pinecones in gloss paint (1st from the left in the picture ), but found that the gloss took more than 2 days to fully dry, and I didn't like the look as much as the plaster-dipped pinecones (2nd from the left). Some of the pinecones I lightly dusted with some white spray-paint(3rd from the left), and I loved how these looked when they opened fully out as they dried...and some I've just kept natural (4th from the left)

DECORATING...

 

For the plaster-dipped pinecones, I simply brushed on some PVA craft glue...don't overload the brush with glue and start at the top of the pinecone and brush downwards...then sprinkled with glitter!

(I love that I get to use lots of glitter at Christmas....he he!)

And I love the way they turned out...

 The pinecones that I just dusted with white spray paint I gave the same treatment, only this time I used Epson salts to add a subtle "frost"-effect:

...and the same for some of my plain ones. Some I've kept natural or just spray-painted white...

 

I love the way they all look together

Thread some ribbon through the eye-pin, or use jewellery wire (The plaster ones will need wire, as the eye-pins were almost hidden in the plaster) so you can hang up your pinecones:

 

 .....Little miss moo loved decorating her little frosted Christmas tree with them...

 

And I think they look lovely....

Note: try not to place these near heating etc. as that will cause the pinecones to open more, and the plaster to crack..

 

I am planning on using these in my next post, all about bringing cosy light into the winter night....so tune in over the weekend to see how...

Thanks for popping by, please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below..

xxx

June