YW Birthdays

I needed to come up with something cheap for my Laurels for their Birthdays.  They said they wanted me to make them cupcakes and then we sing, "Happy Birthday".  But things get too busy and thats alot of cupcakes to make:)  So, I thought and thought and came up with this.  I got a BIG Mason jar, put the cakemix in that and then typed up the recipe for them.  Then of course just made the jar look cute.  I also got them some frosting and wraped paper around that as well.
This is the final product.  I just wraped the two in some cellaphane and tied it up with a bow.  This whole thing probably cost about $2.  Not too shabby!  The girls were pretty excited about them!  Just a thought for all you YW leaders out there, or even good for VT or for a friend.  You could even add cupcake liners, candles, put it in a cute basket with that crimpy stringy paper on the bottom.  Just a thought!!

Personal Progress Folders

I was looking at Sugardoodle the other day and found these little Folders and new I had to make them!  As some of you know I am in YW, a church organization, and I spoke with the other leaders and we decided to make these for the girls for New Beginnings.  At first is was for their b-days, but they got way to excited about them and they kept getting bummed out when they realized they had to wait till their birthday.  So, we decided to give them out a bit early.  The YW seem to loose their books quite frequently, so we thought it might make them keep them in one place!
Let me tell you how fun it was to figure out a pattern for these...so if you want the dimensions, I will get off my lazy duff and measure for you.  But I can tell you that I bought 1/2 yard increments (so 2 different fabrics, 1/2 yard each) and I was able to get 3 out of the amount.  Hope this gives you an idea for any of you in Young Womens!  I love sugardoodle!!

Iron Chef of America!!

For YW (church group) on Wednesday night we had an Iron Chef of America Contest. We had such a good time. The secret ingredient was hamburger meat and pumpkin. They were supposed to just choose either sweet or savory, but half wanted sweet and half wanted savory...go figure. Anyway, it turned out fun and we had lots of yummy food to eat! Here are the results:
Amber, Alica and Cherisha with their sweets.

Amber decided to outside the box and do neither pumpkin or hamburger, so she opted for brownies with sliced bananas and drizzled chocolate for the top. They were DELISH!

Alisha and Cherisha made the Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting...they were sooo good! Thanks for the recipe Emily!

Pumpkin Cookies

1 c. shortning (no substitutes)
2 c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon (I always add a bit more...)
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. canned pumpkin

Cream shortening and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Alternate adding powder and pumpkin until combined.

Grease the cookie sheet and with a small scoop, scoop cookie dough onto baking sheet. Pat the top of dough down a bit with a spatula. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-11 minutes. Cool.

Frosting:
1 c. powdered sugar
3 oz. cream cheese
4 TBS butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Frost cookies when cooled. Enjoy!

This is Carly and Katie...they made the savory. They did a fantastic job on spegatti and meatballs with some cheesy garlic bread! I ate dinner before they all came, but this was so good, I had a second dinner.
Up close and personal...
So, these were a few of my Laurels (young women ages 16-18). They are a great group, always have fun ideas and always keep me on my toes....

Recipe Boxes

I just wanted to share these adorable (if I do say so myself:) recipe boxes I made for the YW who are graduating from High School. I had all the YW leaders make some recipe cards to put in them and voila...cute gift (hopefully the girls will like them!)
The three different styles I did...
Inside the box
What the recipe index looks like. The stamps are from Stamp'n up.