This recipe for gooey butter cookies is courtesy of my friend Debbie who makes these yummies for her annual Christmas party. Debbie is from St. Louis where gooey butter cake is a local staple and this gooey butter cookie recipe is meant to pay homage to that cake, albeit with about 10 fewer steps.

Now I’ve never tasted gooey butter cake but it’s clear that if it tastes anything like these gooey butter cookie I would love it. The gooey butter cookie inside is indeed gooey — soft, moist, addicting, with a flavor unlike any other regular cookie that you’d find on a holiday cookie exchange table.

The secret to this gooey butter cookie recipe is cake mix. Yeah, a box of yellow cake mix. I was kind of floored when I read Debbie’s email and saw cake mix as a main ingredient. But scoff if you will – you would never guess it once you take a bite.

The only downside is that the gooey butter cookie looks a little plain compared with all the va-va-voom holiday cookies out there. But sometimes something plain on the outside hides something truly unique on the inside, yes?

Continue reading “Gooey Butter Cookies Recipe (AKA Cake Mix Cookies)” »

Christmas is about two weeks away – yee-ikes! Time to get wrapping!! This giveaway is for your very own personalized printable gift labels made from vintage owl and reindeer ornaments. One winner will email me their recipient’s names and I will create up to 24 custom labels in a PDF to print and cut out at home either on cardstock or sticker paper.

I made these Christmas tags by taking photos of a couple vintage ornaments I found at a resale store.

Very sassy.

TO ENTER TO WIN: Just write a comment below telling me your favorite Christmas song – you can enter once a day until midnight on December 18th. Bonus entries if you subscribe to the monthly MerrimentDesign.com email (yep, only one email a month!), follow MerrimentDesign.com on twitter, Fan me on Facebook, read me on an RSS reader …or tweet, stumble, or share the giveaway on Facebook. Just leave another comment below for each.

And for you throwbacks out there, you can still get the free download to write on with a white paint pen old school style.

Tea, coffee and hot cocoa: yes, please! Here are some tea, coffee and hot cocoa-related DIY gift ideas and free tutorials from the Ghost of Crafting Past that are perfect for the tea totalers, coffee lovers and hot cocoa hounds on your gift list.

Sew your own fabric tea bags for loose tea {free tutorial}
These handmade teabags are great to package up with a really nice loose tea like the ones from Adagio Teas.

Make personalized wrapped sugar cubes {free template and how to wrap}
Get a little fancy by making personalized wrappers that hold two sugar cubes each – pair it with the sewn fabric tea bags for an extra treat.

Make a campfire coffee insulator wrap {free tutorial}
Nothing like a little coffee or hot cocoa next to a roaring fire.

How to make homemade marshmallows {easy recipe}
So easy to make your own marshmallows for a DIY gift or your hot cocoa. Try the peppermint version – yum.

As you know Klutz is giving away two of its brand new arts and crafts activity books — Stamp Art and Draw the DC Universe — one book each to two MerrimentDesign.com readers. Well, two winners is always better than one so a big holiday congratulations to our two randomly selected commenters…

Sarah T says:
my cousin would love this!

Sarah T wins the Stamp Art book. Congrats to Sarah …and better yet, her cousin, heh. And for the next winner:

craftytammie says:
my son would totally dig the dc book, and any of my 4 would love the stamp book!

Tammie, you have won the Draw the DC Universe book. Let us know how your son likes learning how to draw all the heroes and villains. Sarah T and Tammie, please email me your mailing address or send me a DM on twitter if we follow each other.

Thanks again to Klutz for sponsoring this giveaway …and remember that Klutz is giving all MerrimentDesign.com readers 20% off your entire order of any of their arts & crafts and science books — knitting patterns, friendship bracelets, pom pom animals, and drawing Star Wars characters to name a few. Shop Klutz.com and use coupon code KLUTZ4U (Promo cannot be combined with any other offer. Offer expires 12/31/2011).

I made these tile coasters using ceramic tiles, Mod Podge and my two-year-old’s fingerpainting artwork. Making your own decoupage tile coasters is crazy easy, I love how they turned out, and Elise got to dig her hands into some goo.

These handmade ceramic tile coasters were a DIY birthday gift for my sister Krista who just redecorated her TV room to be more modern and mostly white with turquoise accents. She got help from a super affordable online-only design service called CopyCatChic.com that charges a nominal fee for a custom design board, product links and a scaled floor plan to your room’s dimensions. Here’s Krista’s custom board:

So for Krista’s birthday I got her this West Elm cream throw for her couch and Elise and I made these ceramic tile coasters – they add to the room, yes?

I like that this ceramic tile coaster gift is warm and personal without looking TOO handmade if you know what I mean. The key with using kid’s artwork on stuff like this is to keep it simple, like Elise’s monochromatic fingerpainting shown here. Otherwise these tile coasters would scream “kiddie artwork in my adult room” – not the goal.

I first saw the make your own tile coaster idea at Style Me Pretty and Prudent Baby has a version with really great instructions and photos. A good idea is worth gifting.

WANNA MAKE IT? Free step-by-step tutorial instructions and supply list for making your own handmade ceramic tile coasters from fingerpainting artwork –>

Continue reading “Make modern tile coasters {the fingerpainting edition}” »