Don't you just love this time of year? I love sweaters and the crisp fall air in the evenings and to crunch leaves underfoot (just ask my Nursery class) and afghans with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate and soup for dinner and chopping down my peony's and replacing the foliage with tombstones, skeletons and candles. So glad that we live in an area with seasons...
My inspiration for Matt's Halloween package came from others this year. I am grateful that others are so willing to share their talents and inspiration. Whatever did we do prior to Pinterest? I love coming up with my own ideas and the excitement I feel inside when I get a sudden burst of inspiration however...when experiencing a time crunch GOOGLE IT!!
Here's what we did and the links to where we found it...
Ghost Cookies:
1 pkg. Nutter Butter Cookies
2 pkg. White Chocolate Chips
(for best results use Nestle)
1 pkg. mini chocolate chips or frosting eyes
(can be found at your local
cake decorating store)
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Using a mug, melt white chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments stirring in between until fully melted and smooth. Add a tsp. or so of shortening and stir until smooth. This goes a long way to smoothing out your chocolate and helps it to flow smoothly. Dip cookie about 3/4 of the way down making sure to cover the back as well as the front. Let excess drip off then place on cookie sheet. Add mini chocolate chips or frosting eyes. Allow to fully set. Place in a sandwich size Ziploc bag. Apply bag topper and staple.
(NOTE: Go to the end of this post for the link to the bag toppers.)
Krispie 'Monster' Treats:
1 pkg. Rice Krispie Treats, unwrapped
1 pkg. chocolate chips
1 pkg. mini Oreo cookies
Lg. frosting eyes or brown M&M's
(can be found at your local
cake decorating store)
Cake Mate Writing Icing
(found at the grocery store by the other frostings. Comes in a set of four small tubes -
red, yellow, blue and green)
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Divide the mini Oreo's in half keeping the half with the frosting still on. Set aside. In a shallow bowl, melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments stirring in between until fully melted and smooth. Add a tsp. or so of shortening and stir until smooth. This will help smooth out your chocolate and help it to flow smoothly. Dip the Rice Krispie treat halfway in the chocolate. Let excess drip off then place on cookie sheet. Top your cookie with the Oreo cookie giving it one or two eyes as desired. Using the red Writing Icing, apply generously to the back of the icing eye then press firmly onto the Oreo cookie. This will allow some of the red to 'squish' out making it look like it has blood-shot eyes. Give your Monster a wiggly smile. You can decorate with Skittles while the chocolate is still soft which looked incredibly cute on the magazine cover (don't know which one it was...sorry) that I saw while standing in the checkout line but just looked messy when I did it. Maybe they used larger Rice Krispie treats? Allow to fully set. Place in a sandwich size Ziploc bag. Apply bag topper and staple.
(NOTE: Go to the end of this post for the link to the bag toppers.)
Nutter Butter Bat Cookies:
1 pkg. Nutter Butter Cookies
1 pkg. chocolate chips
brown M&M's (for the head)
confetti sprinkles
(for the eyes)
or small icing eyes
(can be found at your local
cake decorating store)
toothpicks
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments stirring in between until fully melted and smooth. Add a tsp. or so of shortening and stir until smooth. This will help smooth out your chocolate and help it to flow smoothly. Dip the cookie about half way into the melted chocolate. Let the excess drip off then place on cookie sheet. Using a toothpick, drag some of the chocolate down giving your bat it's 'winged' appearance. My cute little Maren, did that for me. Place a brown M&M in the center for your bats head. Place icing eyes or use confetti (see Brenda's post...I actually like the eyes using confetti a lot better than the icing eyes for this project). Adhere eyes to M&M with a little of the melted chocolate. Use a toothpick and the melted chocolate to create ears and a dot for the center of the eye. Allow to fully set. Place in a sandwich size Ziploc bag. Apply bag topper and staple.
(photo is from Whipperberry at whipperberry.com and links to their site)
'Boolicious Halloween Treat Bag Toppers'
These bag toppers were a gift from heaven. Not kidding. I came home late from work one night and knew that I had to spend the next few hours whipping up something in Photoshop (which I am slowly learning) to go on the treats that we had made the night before. Checked my email and...insert the sound of angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus...there they were in all their glory. Beautiful! I could have cried but instead I did a little happy dance. The kids don't like it when I do that but I was alone so it was ok. Thanks, Heather! You're an angel!
(photo is from Somewhat Simple and links to their site)
'Something Wicked This Way Comes' printable:
From the same Blog Hop as the bag toppers comes this little gem from Sarah at Somewhat Simple. I love it! I printed it out onto white cardstock and trimmed it down a bit and used it for my package topper. Love the washi tape...but yeah, I didn't have any of that. Don't forget to write a message to your missionary on the back. The pièce de résistance.
