Christmas Notebook » snowflakes

almond bark snowflakes

~~Rhonda — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:43:41 +0000

The snowflake cake turned out beautifully. I initially tried white chocolate for the snowflakes, but it had a yellow tint to it, so I decided to use almond bark instead. Much whiter. I liked the way it looked.

I googled < snowflake clip art > and copied the ones I liked into Print Shop, where I pasted several copies, sizing them into small, medium and large. I printed several sheets and used them as patterns.

I melted the almond bark in the microwave at 50% power until almost melted, then stirred it until completely melted. I placed it in a piping bag using a very small writing tip, reheating the bag for a few seconds occasionally if the almond bark hardened.

I put a piece of waxed paper over the patterns and piped onto the waxed paper. If you try this at home, you may want to tape the pattern and the waxed paper down while you pipe to keep the papers from shifting as you work.

While they were still wet I sprinkled some of the snowflakes with edible glitter and some with sanding sugar.

When the snowflakes had hardened, I peeled them off the waxed paper and stored them on cookie sheets until needed.

Not hard to do. Just a bit time consuming. After frosting the cake, I pressed the snowflakes into the frosting. They break easily, so I made plenty of extra. For the top of the cake, I leaned a few against each other and then leaned others next to them to make a pile of snowflakes. Very pretty!

~~Rhonda

front door snow

~~Rhonda — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:17:59 +0000

We’ve been very busy here! Getting a lot done, though it always seems there is more to do. Got a long list of “to dos” to go! Today Genny made several runs to Wal-Mart, she decorated the mailbox, we decorated the guest room tree, and this evening, Genny and I made snowflakes for the front door.

Genny taped them in the windows.

Pretty!

Looking through the snowflakes into the front room.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a picture of the guest room tree. I put white LED lights on it and lots of silver ornaments. Oh, and I spray painted the tree silver!

~~Rhonda

decorating the kitchen

~~Rhonda — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:46:22 +0000

My sister Genny and DD did a lot of the decorating in the kitchen this past weekend while I worked on other things. Brooke had helped me on Friday and we put up new garlands as the old ones were shedding terribly. I made each one long enough to fit each window so they will be easier to store and put back up next year than the two long ones we were using before. So Genny and DD were able to hang ornaments after DH put lights on the garland.

DD thinks this is fun because she gets to climb on the kitchen counter to hang snowflakes and icicles.

I spend a lot of time in our kitchen so I have opportunity to enjoy the snowflake collection more than other ornament collections I have. This year, we put blue and white LED lights on the garlands. The new LED white lights are really white, not gold or yellow or ivory colored. Makes a big difference in the way the room looks. Love my snowflake curtains, too. Thanks, Laurie!

~~Rhonda

kitchen snowflakes

~~Rhonda — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:21:02 +0000

The kitchen is decorated with snowflakes and icicles. This collection continues to grow. Each year new ones are added and older plastic snowflakes are removed.

We have four south facing windows and two east facing windows, all topped with a garland that is lit with blue and white lights. The snowflake ornaments hang from the garland.

Our friend Gary made this beautiful ornament for me, along with quite a few others. It is made from the glass from a lamp made for me by a friend in 1972. The lamp had come apart and Gary used the glass to make these.

I love the look these ornaments give the kitchen.

Several years ago, I was in a Christmas store and saw ornaments hung from the ceiling with mirrored garlands. I took that idea and used mirrored garlands to hang snowflakes from the 12′ ceiling in our kitchen.

~~Rhonda