Rainbow Swirl Cookies!

Hiya guys! Happy Saturday morning! Truly the best part of any weekend I think :o) During the week I had a bit of fun and created RAINBOW cookies!! They sort of make me think of Hypno-Toad from Futurama... Hypno-Cookies? ;o)

INGREDIENTS

• 150g unsalted butter, at room temperature (nice and soft!)
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1½ cups plain flour

OTHER STUFF YOU'LL NEED FOR THIS BIT 

• 1 x mixing bowl
• An electric beater
• A flour sifter
• A wooden spoon
• 4 x brekky bowls (or four small bowls)
• Cling wrap
• Extra flour for kneading/rolling etc
• Four colours of food colouring (I'm using yellow, green, blue and red).
• A large cutting board or flat (CLEAN!) bench surface

It will also help if you have a kitchen sink full of warm water ready to rinse your hands in as you go....

MAKING YOUR BISCUIT DOUGH
In a mixing bowl  place your softened butter and sugar and using an electric beater, beat butter and sugar together until it looks light and fluffy! Add in your egg and vanilla and beat it all together so everything is all mixed in. Sift your flour into the big bowl with the butter. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the flour until it's mostly combined (just so the flour and butter mixture is stuck together)

COLOURING YOUR DOUGH!

Take 4 brekky bowls, and divide your mixture evenly between each bowl. Pour a little flour onto your flat surface then tip the mix from one bowl onto your bench and knead it until it forms a soft dough.

Poke your finger into the dough to make a small hole and add in 5-7 drops of your first colour. This is the fun part.... put a little flour on your hands and squish your dough between your hands (like playdough!!) until all the colouring is mixed into the cookie dough!

Next take some cling wrap and tightly wrap up your ball of dough.

Repeat this process for the other 3 other bowls of cookie dough mixing in a new colour to each batch.
Place all your wrapped up balls of dough into the freezer for 10-15 minutes until it firms up enough to roll out. You could put it in the fridge but I find it takes a little long that way... the freezer is much quicker! Just be sure to set a timer so you don't forget about them! You don't wanna do that, trust me hehe!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED FOR THE NEXT STEP

• Baking paper or Greaseproof paper
• A rolling pin
• Extra flour for kneading/rolling etc

Preheat oven to 160 degrees (Celsius guys!!)

For the next bit, before taking the dough of the fridge, make sure you have your rolling pin handy, a bit of extra flour for rolling and a large sheet of baking paper.

Take your dough balls from the freezer. Unwrap one and sqeeze it a little between your hands to re-soften it just a little bit. Roll out one colour on your floured surface about 1/4cm thick.

Repeat with the other three colours. As you roll each piece out, lay it on top of the last cookie dough sheet on the baking paper til you have a flat stack of coloured doughs. Using the rolling pin, roll over the layers a few times to get them firmly pressed together. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to let it firm up a bit.

ROLLING UP AND BAKING YOUR COOKIES!
Take out the sheet of dough from the fridge and using a sharp knife trim up the layers into a rectangle.

Starting at one end, begin to tightly roll up the layers til you end up with a big coloured rolled up sausage of cookie dough! Roll up the cookie sausage in cling wrap tightly and pop in the fridge for 5 minutes. Unwrap the dough and using a sharp knife, cut off slices about 1/2cm thick and place slices onto the baking tray.

Bake cookies for 20 minutes. The cookies won't brown and they will be very soft when you take the out at the end of baking time, that's perfectly fine! They will harden up as they cool :o) Leave them on the baking tray a little while before using a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely! And guess what? We're done!!

20 Nifty Things to Make With Scrapbook Paper - Paper Fairy Dolls

Welcome to Project Number Two in my '20 Nifty Things to Make With Scrapbook Paper' challenge, these gorgeous Paper Fairy Dolls! My hubby actually gave me the idea last night when I asked him if there was anything he thought I could do for this project so big thanks to my hubby for this one :) I tossed the idea around for an hour or two debating whether or not it would be too hard for me to put together but I decided to give it my best shot and it has turned out so well! It has been a very time consuming process, (drawing each step, going through the Photoshop stages, writing up the how-to etc) but I think it has been worth it!

At first I was only going to make the tutorial and printable for one doll but what fun is one fairy? So of course there had to be two! I can see so many uses for these little darlings! The first of course being to use up some of your scrapbook paper stash in a cute and unique way but you could do so much with them! Glue some fridge magnets on the back for some pretty fridge decorating, your child could dress up the fairies and make them into a poster for their room, stick them to cards, or just have fun playing with them! I have designed them so, when printed onto white card, your child can colour their hair, eyes, skin shoes etc however they like! I would have liked for the dresses to be mix and matchable but it was a bit beyond me at this stage; I really hope you enjoy this one!!! The first part is for mum or dad to do (the cutting out and tracing part depending on the age of your little one) but the colouring in and dressing up is completely up to the kids! (or the adults if you really want to!)

'Annie-May and Lucy Fairy Paper Dolls'
*For Personal/Home Use Only*

Things You Will Need:

-A4 print outs of the pages below (they are scaled so you can print them on A4 or A3, they will still match up either way). For printing: Print the two fairy dolls directly onto the cardboard (instead of tracing) so all the detail is kept, for the dresses, wings and wands just print the templates and cut them out. Those we will be tracing onto the back of your chosing papers later. Click on each of the pages to enlarge them, right click to save to your computer and print!
-Scissors
-Glue stick
-Scrapbook Paper...how many sheets and what colours etc is up to you! Use a plain colour scrapbook page (white would be best) for the doll itself then played around with colours and patterns for the dresses, wings and accessories.

Optional:

-Coloured pencils/crayons/textas for colouring your dolls
-Glitter or other embellishments for some extra bling!

How-To:

Just follow the istructions given! I hope it is easy to follow, but if you have any questions, don't hesistate to ask me! :)

*Quick Note: You glue the wings TO THE BACK of the doll after you've coloured them in and dressed them :)

 

Enjoy!! And stay tuned for the third scrapbook paper craft project! Xx

20 Nifty Things to Make with Scrapbook Paper - Hanging Butterfly

Welcome to the very first in my '20 Nifty Things to Make with Scrapbook Paper' project! How to make a pretty Hanging Butterfly with printable shape pages. I have a problem where I tend to collect scrapbook paper stacks with no intention to actually use them to scrapbook; I buy them merely because they are so pretty and I must have them! So I've come up with this project to challange myself to create 20 tutorials made from scrapbook paper! With photos explaining each step, they're easy to follow! I will try to cover all ages, from projects for children, to useful projects for us bigger kids, gift ideas, storage ideas etc! The best part is every one of these DIY projects will be 100% free!

I only have a few I swear!

This one is very easy to make and perfect for your little ones to make themselves (with a little help from you of course!) All you have to do is print out the pattern, cut them out and follow the simple instructions given below to make you're own butterfly. They'd be gorgeous hanging in your childs room, on their door handle, as a decoration or as a handmade gift idea your kids can make and give to their teacher, grandparents, sisters or friends! I apologise for the terrible photos! My camera has decided to temporarily not function and I have to use my phone..you can still see the steps though :)

The finished product!!

So let's get started!

You'll need:

• Your printed shape sheets (there are 2 to print, you will find them below, just click on the image to make it larger, and click 'save as' to copy to your computer for printing)
• Scissors
• A Glue Stick
• 4 x sheets of different coloured/patterned scrapbook papers
• A length of ribbon (about 8-10 inches long)
• A stapler

Optional:
Glitter, embellishments etc.

Step 1: Cut out your shapes as per the instructions on the printable sheets

Step 2: Trace these shapes onto the back of your scrapbook paper. Choose one colour for the larger butterfly shape, another colour for the smaller butterfly shape, and use either of the two remaining for the rest..It's up to you what colour combinations you'd like to use! Cut them out.

Step 3: Paste the smaller butterfly shape onto the centre of the larger butterfly.

Step 4: Paste your two large teardrop shapes onto the top wings of your butterfly

Step 5: Paste the two ovals in the centre of each teardrop

Step 6: Paste the two heart shapes to the bottom half of the wings like so...

Step 7: Paste the remaining two shapes onto the hearts

Step 8: Loop your length of ribbon so the ends meet and staple together

Step 9: Staple the loop to the top of your butterfly

Step 10: Decorate!!

Let me know how yours turn out! I'd love to see photos :) You can email them to sewsweethandmade@gmail.com

Enjoy! Xx

p.s This tutorial is made to be printed on A4 paper, you may need to adjust your printer setting slightly :)