Baking Tasty Ornamental Treats... 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Bloghop

Welcome to my blog and to the Ninth Day of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Bloghop!

 

My name is Susan and I am thrilled that my dear creative friend Janet invited me to be a part of this special baking bloghop. I love to bake, art, craft, sew and make ALL THE THINGS (like my handmade Scoutie Elf claiming today's bake).

I'm sharing one of my favorite family Christmas Cookie recipes – Sugar Balls. Colored in glistening sugars - these bite sized treats look like ornaments! I don't know how long this recipe has been passed down in my family, I just have a cherished handwritten recipe on an index card from my grandmother (along with about a dozen others). These hand-written cards are cherished and bring back so many childhood memories each year when the holidays roll around.

These cookies are colorful, quick and easy to make and don't require eggs or dairy. Grab some extra tiny hands to help and lets get baking!

SUGAR BALLS

Cream thoroughly —
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sifted, confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Stir in 1 tablespoon water

Add in 2 cups sifted flour & mix well

Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts (pecans or your choice)

Shape dough into 1" balls & roll some in red sugar, some in green

Bake 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet at 300° for 20 minutes or until firm to touch.

Cool thoroughly before removing from pan

Yield - 4 dozen

This is a super easy recipe and requires little prep work. Gather ingredients and follow along...

Feel free to use your choice of nuts. For the red & green versions, I used chopped pecans. For the second batch (lime green and purple), I tried pistachios. I had to toast these first as they were raw & unsalted.

Creme confectioners sugar with butter, then combine vanilla and water.

Next add sifted flour.

Combine flour into creamed sugar mixture thoroughly.

Completed dough before adding nuts. Feel free to try with whatever nuts you prefer. I used pecans here and also tried pistachios because I happened to have some for use in crusting fish. After you make the basic dough, feel free to select your favorite nuts and colored sugar.

Mix nuts into dough. I'm added chopped toasted pistachios here.

Combine thoroughly to ensure even nut distribution. This dough can be made ahead of time and chilled.

Since I don't have any extra hands to help, I find it helpful to divide dough and roll into long 1" rolls then slice about 1" segments that easily roll into balls. The 1 inch size makes the perfect one bite cookie.

Roll some in green sugar.

Roll some in red sugar.

I also tried some rolled in this lovely vintage sugar I scored at my local "Fresh Market". I was surprised that the thicker grain of sugar held up in baking and didn't melt all over the pan.

Bake at 300º for 20 minutes or firm to touch. They keep shape very nicely. Be sure to let them cool completely before removing from pan or the cookies might crumble when you pick them up. When cooled, the sugar makes a nice crispy shell for the nutty goodness inside.

For the pistachio batch, I tried some other fun colored sugar I have in the pantry – lime green and purple.

 

Batch number two in the oven!



After baking. the purple sugar didn't change color or brown when baked – these are so pretty!



I gently sliced one in half just so you can see the inside. These lovelies are meant to be enjoyed in one bite.



The bottom of cookie (at top) has a bit of the colors melted together.



When cooled the cookies are ready to enjoy! I have placed each cookie in a decorative mini muffin liner ready to serve on a platter or pack into gift tins. These certainly are a treat any time of year.

 

Shhhhhh! The pistachio batch is staying with me! I'm looking forward to trying other combinations – leave me a comment with your suggestions!

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To visit all the stops on the hop visit Janet at https://tryit-likeit.com/12-days-of-cookies



Here's the list of all the recipes in this bloghop:
December 1 – Birds of a Feather: Ice Cream Sandwich Recipe
December 2 – Tales of Belle: Danish Pebernødder Cookies
December 3 – Jenron Designs: Movie Night Toffee Pretzel & Popcorn Cookies
December 4 – Sum of their Stores: Chocolate Orange Porridge Oat Cookies
December 5 – Esme Salon: Easy and Fun French Macarons Recipe!
December 6 – Our Hopeful Home: Belgian Butter Waffle Caramel Sandwich Cookies
December 7 – Purple Hues and Me: Christmas Light Bulb Cookies
December 8 – Rose Bakes: M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies
December 9 – sbartist : painting in the dark: {you are here} Sugar Balls
December 10 – Get Inspired by Faith: No-Bake Candycane Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
December 11 – Jupiter Hadley: Chewy Lemon Cookies
December 12 – Save Money Fever: Piped Butter Cookies

Thanks for stopping by – I hope you enjoy this recipe. Merry Christmas and Happy Baking :) Sb

And all of a sudden… it’s December

Hello creative friends! Blogging is like riding a bike, right?! Don't know where the time has gone and I can't believe its December! It's been a whirlwind of a year... and a doozie of a hurr-i-cane season. The past week was eventful, jam packed and I got ALL the things accomplished (work included). 

 

I have lots of exciting things coming up to share! November concluded with my delivery of 14 pieces to an exhibition which is on display December 1 through January 3 at the Plunge Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale.

 

 

 

If you look close you can see some of my 16" x 20" framed photos lined up along the bar. A fun-fact... I cut ALL my own mats! I got myself a tool to do it back in the day when I had a studio. Cutting mats is a labor of love – yet so rewarding to have everything fit to size with a pretty beveled edge. PUH-lease don't get me started on the warped mat board I got from M-store that made this process so much more challenging to cut. I soldiered on and muscled the curved board into the frames. Everything looks beautiful!! I am especially excited to debut a NEW SERIES of photographic works using Cyanotype process. No sneak peeks yet, but I promise I will share soon.

 

 

 

Plunge is a low-key, laid-back seaside retreat for chic bohemians and beach lovers alike. It has a modern, open industrial style lobby that is ALL about the LOCAL artists. Every month has a new exhibition and works are for sale - at any time! The exhibitions rotate every 3-4 weeks throughout the year. I was part of a group exhibition last November with the Weston Art Guild, where I had two photos displayed. I try to get over to see each one and treat myself to lunch or dinner at their beach bar. 

 

 

 

If you are LOCAL to me in SoFL – all are invited to the free open house reception on Wednesday, December 18th. Two artists (Tammy and Maria) are friends from the Gold Coast Watercolor Society (yes I am painting again), and I look forward to meeting and seeing the work of the other two artists.

Looking forward to the event! And if you are following me on IG { @sassyeyedsusan } I will post some pix there and if connectivity allows, I'll try to go live.

 

Oh... I almost forgot. It is now COOKIE SEASON! I am part of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Bloghop. Pop over to Try-It, Like It for the details. My recipe is on Day 9!

Happy December! :) Sb

 

Small things Bright and Beautiful... StencilGirl® Zine Challenge

Hello friends! It's a new season and though it's been awhile... I'm still creating! This has been a year of putting family and home first, and getting back to painting. I have lots to catch up on in the coming days and weeks.

Today I am excited to share the "StencilGirl® Zine Challenge"... a new collaboration project in which Tina Walker posed the challenge to create a one-sheet ZINE using StencilGirl® Stencils. These collab projects are fun and really stretch my creative muscles!!

For this challenge I used things that end up in my purse and pockets... the tags with quotes from my daily cup of tea. My ZINE is fashioned from a recycled ledger paper folded to ATC size (2 1/2" x 3 1/2"), which is the perfect size and scale to properly showcase these tags. My ZINE of "Wise Words from the Tea Leaves" is made using my stash of StencilGirl® ATC stencils.

This is the inspiration we were provided for this Zine Challenge. With a simple sheet of letter size paper folded following the illustration, a mini book is created. Size it up or down, this format can be arted up in a zillion ways!

I think this will be really interesting out of a large sheet of painted up watercolor paper, but for this challenge I am working small so I can use some of my stash of StencilGirl® ATC stencils that I've never used. I love to make "Artist Trading Cards" (ATCs) for trading with artsy friends. This small art is sized at 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and making a book using this sizing proved to be quite fun!

I let the muse rule here and she always goes for the "one touch rule"... using things that I have picked up on search for other things. My base is a sheet of ledger paper on the table leftover from an altered composition book project. An interesting choice – OK why not?!

The paper is slightly larger than letter size. I want my end result to yield  ATC size pages so I do a few measurements and tear edges down to size. I want to stencil black on this greenish paper, though it is a bit thin. I'm concerned about bleed-through on this old paper. The way the paper folds to create the zine I won't be utilizing the back of sheet when folded down. I applied a light coat of black gesso to the back with an old hotel key card. Sorry no photo, I spilled my black gesso and had a mopup painting emergency. I'm happy to report that no paint went to waste! LOL!

With paper dry and reinforced, I followed the zine folding steps and went over folds with a bone folder to make them nice and sharp. Since my outer edges were torn, I also tore the center where the diagram says to cut. Fold down a quick and easy book!

Follow along as I share how I built up the layers on this spread in my Zine...

Overall I stenciled with Vicky Boutin Gold stencil paste using StencilGirl® L763 -- ATC Mixup NASSER

Wow!!! I love the shine and contrast on the ledger paper. 

Next I pounce blue acrylic through this wonky squares pattern on StencilGirl® stencil L543 -- ATC MIxup 1

Now we're getting somewhere! 

Loving this but I'm about to go crazy...

Grabbing what is on the table, I used a cheap office store brand glue stick through the star pattern on StencilGirl® L657 -- ATC Mixup DUBE

I am using a fun and messy technique – a glue stick resist. First, I apply glue stick through stencil, let dry. Then I apply a layer of black acrylic over the top. While wet, gently wipe paint away in a circular fashion to remove the glue stick with the excess paint to reveal the lovely layers below. 

This glue stick didn't mask everything like I had expected but the effect is pretty exciting! I go back with some pens and markers to complete and add some more stars. Next time I will get out my "art project" assigned glue stick, not the cheap gooey one for sealing envelopes.

I attach the tag, finish the final details with scribbles and pens. This page is the perfect backdrop for this tea tag wisdom.

"BRIGHT and BEAUTIFUL"

Completed spread.

Detail of tea bag tag quote...
"The universe is withing you. Bright and beautiful."

An inspiration worthy of being a mantra.

I love the size and scale of my Zine and it fits nice in the pocket of my purse. I am enjoying making additional volumes of this to use more of my tea bag tag quotes. I have a whole baggie of them that need a home.

StencilGirl® Stencils Used :

L763 -- ATC Mixup NASSER

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-ATC-Mixup-Mary-c-Nasser-p/l763.htm

L657 -- ATC Mixup DUBE

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-ATC-Mixup-Dube-Carolyn-Dube-p/l657.htm

L543 -- ATC MIxup 1

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-ATC-Mixup-1-Mary-Beth-Shaw-p/l543.htm

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I hope you enjoyed this project. How would you create your own ZINE? CLICK HERE to jump over to see the other zines made for the "StencilGirl® Zine Challenge".

Thanks for dropping by! :) Sb