cookies

Taking a quick break from the 12 days of ATC's to talk about cookies. Yesterday I went to the annual cookie exchange. It's been going on for 9 years now with slight differences in co-hostesses and attendees. We each bake 4 dozen cookies and bring those along with copies of the recipes to be shared. I've made all sorts of cookies for the exchange, trying to make something different each year. This year I made gingersnaps. They were not the prettiest cookies, but they sure taste yummy. I now have two beautiful trays of cookies to share for the holidays minus quite a few that the guys yummed up last night. I also met a couple of new friends yesterday, and now that I think of it many of the ladies I know I first met at this event.

I'd like to share with you a bit more about the recipe card part. I figured out how to get 4 recipes onto one sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper. I'm sure it's not rocket science, but since it took me a while, thought I'd share my tips in case anyone else needs to make recipe cards this holiday season.

• When you get in the word processing program start a new blank document page.
• Go to file, page set up, then to orientation, and choose landscape. Now your page is running across the long end of the paper.
• Next you choose format, then columns, and then number of columns 2.
• At this point you are ready. Go to the top of the first column and type in your recipe.
• Copy the recipe and paste it below the first recipe. You will have to play with fonts and sizes now to get two recipes to fit in the first column.
• Copy the first column and copy it to the second column. Make sure that your spacing is even between the recipes, so the cutting is easy.
• Print out your page and cut apart the four recipes. to 3 1/2" x 5 1/2". The spacing on my cards is not perfect, but that's why we embellish.
• I then cut a 12" x 12" piece of cardstock into 4" x 6" pieces, which gets you 6 cards out of one piece of cardstock.
• Decorate with stamps or stickers and attach recipe to cardstock base.

I hope you can use those tips the next time you want to share a recipe with some friends. I know some folks like to include a recipe card when they share food with neighbors or at a potluck or at a shower. Maybe you'd just like to make a pretty recipe book of your favorites. I keep my cookie recipe cards in one of those small photo albums with pockets that you can pick up pretty inexpensively.

At Scrapbook News and Review's holiday celebration today, I'm the blog-alog link. I'm so excited to be a part of all the fun. If you stopped by from SNR or if you are one of my regular friends stopping by, please leave me a quick note about your favorite holiday cookie memory. I'd love to hear about it.

I'll leave you with just a few quick links of friends whose blogs never fail to inspire me. I hope they inspire you, too:

• Jan
• Jennifer
• Julie
• Kim