Kendra's Wood Sled

 

A few years ago I gave my mom and Kendra both a plain wood sleigh.

Fast forward to a few years later

(this was 2019... and I am just now getting around to posting it)

and I finally got one of them painted.  

Kendra picked which colors and how she wanted it to look,

and I took it from there.

I think it turned out super cute and...

looks even cuter on the front porch of their brand new home!

Now I just need to get the other two done!

Happy December Everyone!!! 

Chocolate Covered Christmas Pretzels

Bagged and ready for delivery...

Warming the chocolate...

Note the jar Josh is pulling the pretzels from

Getting their chocolate coating...

Some had sprinkles...

Some had more chocolate...

The production line...

They were stacked everywhere...

In keeping with the Johnson family tradition of chocolate covered pretzels... we bought 2 of the big containers from Sams Club that had cute stars, trees and bell shapes (see top picture) for about $8.00 each plus about 8 pounds of white chocolate and in a matter of about 90 minutes we had over 1,200 of those bad boys completed and ready for delivery!

We are getting better with the "production" each and every time we make them. This time we decided to melt the chocolate (we bought 2 pound blocks instead of the chips) in the microwave first and then put the melted chocolate into the frying pan (it was on low) we found that this makes the chocolate stay warmer and the pretzel don't end up "swimming" in the chocolate because most of it will drip off and back into the pan... and we didn't have to keep re-heating the chocolate on the stove in the double boiler.  After they were dipped we put them on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet and moved over to the "decorating" section of the kitchen.

Our next big ah-ha moment was with the decorating bags. I had previously bought bottles (they looked like smaller ketchup bottles you use at a ballgame). Kendra would put several Wilton Candy Melts into the bottle and would microwave them until melted... stirring them constantly and sometimes they would burn a little because it was taking forever to get them to melt completely. This time I bought the Wilton Decorating Bags (I think there were 10 of them for $4.00)... these worked like a charm.  Kendra put several Candy Melts in the bag... zapped them for the time called for and then would "massage" the bag until all of the Melts were melted completely... then she snipped a very small piece off of the bottom and voila... the perfect decorating tool! (it's better to take just a little snip off ~ you can always snip off more if you want later).

Josh thought it was taking to long to just decorate each individual pretzel and decided they should just sweep across the whole tray with several passes back and forth with each of the colors. With this new idea they were much faster decorating than we were dipping and honestly... they looked just as good as when each one was done on its own!  Some of the pans Josh and Kendra used just the sugar sprinkles and others they did just the Candy Melts and on some they did both... they all looked so festive and tasted so good!

The pretzels would have set up a lot faster had my mom not cranked up the temperature to 86* in my house. Apparently when my mom and dad first arrived (Kendra and I were both running late at work and Josh was in the shower) my mom decided that it was a little "chilly" so she proceeded to crank up the heat to 86*... She claims she didn't hear the furnace kick on... so she just keep pressing the "up" button.  Josh was the one who noticed how hot it was getting and discovered that it was 86*. He first accused me of cranking it up and then my mom started laughing... she knew she was busted! Needless to say it gave us all a great laugh for the evening!

I hope that you and your family have at least one "fun" thing to do in the kitchen that everyone can do together... oh and don't forget to have your favorite Christmas carols playing in the background... you will be making memories for years to come!

Merry Christmas!

 

Awesome Friends...

My sweet friend, Paige, made this "I Love Pancakes" mixing bowl.  The letters and polka dots are made out of red vinyl.  I just love how she wrapped it too! Cute cellophane with red tissue paper and green bow... and inside was a box of pancake mix and syrup! Can I just say... I LOVE IT and I can't wait to make pancakes this weekend! Paige also made my cute Candy Sundae for Valentines last year... Check it out here

 

This gift was made for my mom by her cute friend, Kristie. She took a block of wood...painted it red, cut out a piece of cardstoock and adhered it with Modge Podge.  She printed out the cute saying and inked the edges. Another coat of Modge Podge and added the cute brads for the finishing touch!

Both Paige and Kristie can take anything plain and turn it into something so totally cute!

I'm so glad that we have such crafty friends!

Red and Green Wreath

 Wood frame with Stickles on the bead board...

I bought this board and wreath last year before Christmas at The Wood Connection in Salt Lake and never had the time to finish it.  I finally got it completed. (with just a few days to spare this year...lol) I can't decide if I want to put some vinyl on the corners... I will have to look at it a few days.  I painted the frame black... including the bead board.  I didn't want to take the time to mask off the bead board.. or try to paint it freehand... so I added Stickles instead in the crevices of the bead board to really make the whole board sparkle and POP!

Christmasary...

 The NEW Board...

Up close...

 Cards...

Christmasary...Vicki Style!

As promised... here it is....Christmasary!  (can you hear the drum roll)? Back some 20 + years ago... we used to play Pictionary all the time.  I'm not artistic in any way... but I still enjoyed playing.  I decided it would be fun to come up with a Christmas version (hence the name... Christmasary). I made cards (you can tell the top 3 cards were typed on a typewriter and then copied onto cardstock that's how old they are!)  I did the same 5 colors... as in Pictionary and did the " * " for all plays.  I did make a few changes... here is how I did it.

Yellow - Person - place or animal

Blue - Objects found around the holidays

Orange - Food that we eat around the holidays

Green - Difficult (yes... some of them are really hard!)

Pink - Christmas carol - You think you know them all... but try to draw them

We have always played on the Pictionary board... but this year I wanted to make a board that would be just for Christmasary.  I painted a wood board black... and used my Silhouette to cut all of the stars - snowflakes - gingerbread men - trees and ornaments out of vinyl . I made a "start" and "finish" and also the name of the game... Christmasary! Put a top coat of sealer over the board and vinyl and viola....our new game board!  For markers... we used peanut better cups!

We have found that with the "younger" generation... they don't know who Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Currier & Ives - or what bubble lights are so Josh and I will be making a new set after the holidays... for next year. We need to update a few new ideas... and change a few of them that everyone gets cranky trying to draw...  like Fall Softly Snow. Let me know if you are interested and I will e-mail you the new cards when we are finished making them...

Or you can play... Win - Lose or Draw... I have printed out 150 Christmas "things" on cardstock (above) and it can be done on a dry erase board or just like Christmasary with teams using the board but everyone plays each time.

Traditions are so important... this one is has been in our family for 20+ years... and now that Kendra (Josh's girlfriend) loves playing it... I think it will stay a tradition! I may even have to make a few of these to give away for gifts next year! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Letters...

I almost didn't get these finished in time... shocker I know!  It took Josh giving me such a hard time about not getting them done... I took a day off to finish them! I bought these letters from the Wood Connection... I used the colors to match my Santa (pictures of that handsome guy are still coming) but I wanted something different to tie both the red and the green together... so I thought that the "r" and the "t" could pass as candy canes... so I did a thicker red stripe and a skinner green stripe using vinyl and then alternated the colors.  I used red chalk on the "r" and "t"... green chalk on the "a" I painted in a tanish color to match the cute little gift holder that is used for the "i"... and then black chalk on the red and green letters.

Video From Santa....

This is such a cute idea... you can make one for toddlers... children or adults. It asks you a few simple questions... and it will create a video that can be e-mailed to your special someone... I made one for Josh and it turned out cute... here is the link if you would like to see how it looks before trying it...

Josh's Video from Santa 

the best part... it's FREE!

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home

Christmas Bingo

I thought I might post this fun Bingo game that I made for my son, Josh, back when he was just a young boy... now is is 23... where or where did the time go.  It is still one of our favorite holiday traditions (only a game or two each year instead of every night) but someday Josh will be able to play this holiday tradition with his kids.  

I photocopied each of the pages...there are 10 different cards... 2 of each style and the game pieces on to cardstock.  I used colored pencils and colored each of the bingo cards.  On the outside I did use markers to make the heavy line and make the design stand out and trimmed off the excess cardstock. Then back to Kinkos to get them laminated.  Generally we always used plain M&M's for our called out game pieces... but kisses or buttons will work too!

Christmas Wood Sign

Simple pine board, painted red... sanded the edges... added Quickutz vinyl lettering, ribbon and viola! 

Makes a super cute, quick and inexpensive gift!

Christmas Glass Blocks

A couple of the clear bricks with vinyl attached... 

"Let it snow" was created by hand with the Quickutz snowman the back of the Glass Frosting, added snow flakes to the back to look like it was snowing all the way through

Altered Christmas Ornaments

Quickutz lettering in vinyl,  a few red "blings" for the berries.

The back of the "believe" is painted with Glass Frosting
to give it that foggy look.

Christmas Magnets

Cute Christmas scrapbook paper to back the marble