The Decorated Cookie » party favors

Graduation Time! free printable owl gift bags AND a cookie cutter GIVEAWAY!!

meaghanmountford — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:32:34 +0000

UPDATE! Yay to Michelle, Sue, Pat, Cynthia and Jennifer! (aka. comment numbers 81, 69, 56, 1, and 60 that random.org chose) They won the cookie cutters!! More giveaways ahead, I guarantee. And I’m trying to keep things worldwide as much as I can. Bonus, there’s a winner outside the US in this bunch!

Do you have any graduations coming up? Nowadays, every academic milestone is celebrated as a graduation, so I’m guessing many of you do. Kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, grad school… so many chances to graduate. Wow, under those conditions, I should’ve had seven graduation parties by now (um, overeducated/underemployed situation here).

This graduation season, I teamed up with Carla over at Party Planning Center. She has mad printable skills and she created this adorable owl printable, for FREE! Just print, cut out, glue together, and fill with treats for your favorite grad. I made cookies, of course. To fill the owls, package the cookies in cello bags from the craft store, pop in the containers with or without tissue paper, then if you like, punch a couple holes at the top of the owl and close with a matching ribbon. For the link to Carla’s FREE owl favor printable, CLICK HERE. I love how Carla dresses up the owls with cello, tissue and bow ties in different school colors. (SEE MORE HERE.)

For my cookies, I made some owls and diploma cookies, and to keep it even simpler, I just made some plain circles with icing to match the patterns on the owl. These circle cookie bites are handy dandy to match any school colors. They would be great to pair with some diploma or graduation hat cookies. Wait, you don’t have diploma or graduation hat cookie cutters? Scroll to the end for the giveaway. I’m giving away a set of diploma and graduation hat cutters to FIVE winners.

To make polka dot and stripe cookie bites

you will need:*

cookie dough

royal icing

circle cookie cutter

food coloring

disposable decorating bags

couplers

size “3″ decorating tips

rubber bands

*Find the cookie cutter (probably part of a set), decorating bags, couplers and tips in the craft store. You’ll need one bag, coupler and tip for each color you choose. For food coloring, I prefer Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Orange used here, but you may use any colors for your grad). Find basic cookie decorating instructions HERE.

what to do:

Prepare your cookie dough, chill, roll out, cut out circles and bake according to the recipe. Let cool completely. Prepare icing according to the recipe. Divide and tint your preferred colors. Thin the icing a bit with water, 1/4 teaspoon at a time, so that it’s thinner than a stiff, outline consistency, but a bit thicker than a runnier flooding consistency. Try the ten-second rule: Overturn a spoonful and the drizzles should disappear into the icing in ten seconds. Prepare decorating bags with couplers and tips, fill with the icing and close tightly with rubber bands. To decorate cookies, outline cookies with a color of icing and let set about ten minutes. Fill a cookie with the same color icing by piping back and forth. Immediately pipe dots or stripes on top with another color. Let the cookies dry very well before packaging, at least overnight.

And now, the GIVEAWAY!!

for a chance to win a set of diploma and graduation cap cookie cutters

firecracker favors

meaghanmountford — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:55:00 +0000

I stole my own packaging ideafor this one… Here’s an easy idea to wrap candy for the 4th of July. I used marshmallows, naturally, but you can use any themed candies you like that fit in the bags.

to make firecracker favors…

you will need:*

4th of July cardstock paper

yellow and/or orange cardstock paper

paper trimmer

hole punch

thin yellow and/or orange ribbon

double-sided tape

pencil

scissors

pretzel treat bags

candies

*Find the cardstock, paper trimmer, hole punch, ribbon, tape and treat bags at the craft store. I found all of the above, including the treat bags, meant for pretzel rods, at Michaels.

step one: make cardstock tubes
Use the paper trimmer to cut out rectangles from the 4th of July-themed cardstock about 4 1/2 inches wide by 5 1/2 inches long. Place a piece of double-sided tape along the short end, roll and seal to make a tube.

step two: fill with candy
Stand the tube on its end, insert a pretzel treat bag and fill with your candy. If necessary, use a piece of tape at the bottom to secure the bag inside the tube. Tie a piece of orange or yellow ribbon to close the treat bag. Snip any excess cello from the top of the bag.

step three: attach your flame
Draw a flame on yellow and/or orange cardstock, cut out, punch a hole and attach to the ribbon. If you like, add a name to the tag.

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monsters!!! all over your candy (bags). and a free printable.

meaghanmountford — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:29:00 +0000

Even though I’m oddly horrible at wrapping presents (no, really, just horrible), I’m still a believer in the power of packaging. So I was happy to try out some sample packaging when Michelle of the etsy shop It’s in the Bag contacted me. I love the concept of taking a plain, simple favor bag and dressing it up. Michelle clearly has scrapbooking skills I’m seriously lacking (check out her blog HERE). So with my sample bags, I stuck with something simple to match my simple cutting and gluing skills.

I’m no stranger to monsters on this blog. See here and here, for example. But what really inspired me? These awesome brownies from my co-editor, Amanda, over at my other gig.

mine! no, mine!

And just for you, I made a free printable with all kinds of monster faces so you can make your own.

a little confused

how to make monster favor bags

you will need:
assorted paper or glassine bags

scissors

glue stick

letter-size card stock or photo paper

color printer

this free printable

candy

what to do:
Print out the monster faces. Cut out the shapes. Use the glue stick to stick on the bags. Fill the bag with candy. That’s it.

I always feel like…

somebody’s watching me!

tips:
I used the goblin monsters on the bags with the windows. You know, like they were trying to get the candy? I hope that was obvious. Mix and match the eyes and noses and mouths as you wish. You can also use the cut outs to wrap mini candy bars. I cut a strip of construction paper, glued it around a mini candy bar, and glued the faces on.

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candy corn favors

meaghanmountford — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:56:00 +0000

For a quick, inexpensive party treat, fill DIY favor boxes with candy corn.

you will need:*
printer
letter size photo paper
scissors
glue
Xacto knife
candy corn

*If you don’t have a color printer, no worries. The lines on the sides will just be gray. Make sure your printer can handle photo paper or at least a paper with a good weight to it.

what to do:
Print out this template HERE on letter-size photo paper. Cut out each box. Score the lines inside the favor box lightly and carefully with an Xacto knife so folding will be easier (so you will score the line in the center, the line next to the tab, and the curved lines at the end). Fold box in half and glue the box closed at the tab. When dry, puff open, fold the curved ends in at one side, fill with the candy, and close the other end.

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flower cookie pops with matching envelope…and a confession

meaghanmountford — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:02:00 +0000

Yes. I’ve been cheating on you. I’ve strayed elsewhere.

But I’m proud to be today’s guest blogger at one of my favorite sites: Hostess With the Mostess. Find the how-tos for creating these flower cookie pops on the Hostess blog HERE. I even included a free download for an envelope tag, so you can sweeten your mom’s gift card with a cookie. Pardon the pun.

(I’m assuming you’ve of course heard of the uber-popular HWTM, but if you’ve not, it’s an incredible resource.)

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