Chenille Christmas Trees!!!
Our friends made beautiful trees!!
We started with Sue's hand cut logs and branches!
Then added Sue's hand dyed Chenille fabric which she had cut and sewn into tree shaped triangles.
The friends stuffed the tree shapes with poly fill and Sue and I sewed them shut leaving a small opening to push in one end of the tree trunk branch.
Once the branch was place in the tree, we cut the other end of the branch to the height that our friends desired and put that end into the trunk base.
Then they chose embellishments for their trees! Sue brought a nice tin of buttons, buckles and bells for the friends to choose from.
I contributed some garland materials and helped our friends use hot glue to glue on their embellishments.
Sue, Marie and Susan A. also helped glue on embellishments.
Look at these gorgeous trees made by our friends! Great job all!!!
More fun trees!!!
Then we made Peppermint Bark!!
First, I put about 4 candy canes in a plastic bag and used a hammer to crush them into small pieces and set that a side. Then, I melted dark chocolate. (Merckens, is the name of the brand of chocolate that I used and I picked that up in PA. But you can buy the Wilton Chocolate at Joanne Fabric and Crafts. The White Chocolate was from Joannes, also. It is made by Wilton and was called Candy Cane Colorburst.) I melted the chocolate at 30 second intervals in the microwave stirring between each interval. When the chocolate seemed like it was getting soft I cooked it for additional 30 second intervals at 50% power until it stirred smoothly.
We spread the dark chocolate on a unbleached parchment paper lined cookie sheet. We let it cool in the refrigerator while we melted the white or peppermint chocolate. Then we poured the white or peppermint chocolate on top of the dark chocolate. Immediately, we sprinkled the peppermint candies on top of that.
The pan was then put in the refrigerator to cool. After about 15 minutes the bark should be solid enough to break into tasty pieces! Yum! Yum!
Then We Ate Lunch!!!!
I made some Sugar Cookie Trees to follow along with our Tree theme. I used a big bag of Sugar Cookie mix that I picked up from Costco! They were delicious!
A tree of Vanilla pudding filled Chocolate cupcakes sprinkled with red candies and white snow flake candies!! The dirt area is gluten free shortbread cookies for our Gluten Free Friend!
On the healthy side I made a tree shape out of steamed broccoli on a parchment lined pan and added uncooked cherry tomatoes as ornaments!! We also had deviled eggs fresh from our chickens, ham, scalloped potatoes and rolls with honey butter!!!!
We are looking forward to our next Debi, Sue & Friends in 2012!!!
Please let us know if you would like to come and help!!! You will be able to make one of our lovely crafts for yourself and have a delicious lunch with us!!!!
