Belles 'n Whistles Christmas and Cookies Blog Hop and Friday Sketchers 76

Happy Friday and oh my goodness what excitement there is for you today!! I hope that you have had a nice week and are ready for the FUN and EXCITING Belles 'n Whistles Christmas and Cookies Blog Hop where you will get complete pictures of the newly released Elisabeth Bell stamps. They are the cutest things and are available starting tomorrow from Summer at the Belles 'n Whistles Shop and they will be shipping next week!!!

So if you have arrived here from the gorgeous creations of Kathrin, you are well on your way to see even more lovelies!!! If you are arriving here first, please take a moment and go to our Belles 'n Whistles Blog where you can start the hop, get your directions, and be eligible for some magnificent prizes!

For my card, I have used the magnificent sketch given to us on Friday Sketchers by the fantastically talented Aud from Norway who is hosting this week. We hope that you will join with us in using Aud's sketch this week--we would love to see your interpretation of the fun sketch!! Please remember to not only link us to your blog, but also make certain that you link back to Friday Sketchers in your posting!!



The absolutely darling stamp that I have selected is "GINGERBREAD LOVE" and these little munchkins are just precious!!! I just had to make another tea chest showcasing these lovely children. For the project I used last year's FaLaLa papers by Making Memories and all coloring is Copics.


But, hey!!!! I mentioned cookies!!!! So this card and tea chest is certainly reminiscent of one of my very favorite holiday motifs!!! That being Gingerbread Boys!! I just love them and have collected gingerbread people cookie cutters for years! So it was only natural that I would make gingerbread cookies. I used the recipe given to me by Suzan for The Perfect Man cookies and made my cookies...before decorating them I went to a downtown kitchen shop to get some decorations and the lady there told me about a 95 year old woman out in the country that had made gingerbread boys for years for a particular museum and holiday events using the family's age-old recipe and a cutter that her father made for her as a small child from metal he found on the farm. I was so curious that I contacted the nice woman and told her what I was doing and also told her that I would come visit her one day. Lo and behold I had a call on Thursday asking me to come by and pick up my gingerbread boys...so the cookies you see are not my Perfect Man cookies but rather some really traditional, downhome gingerbread boys...aren't they the cutest things???? I just love them!!!!



For those of you who are interested, you will find the Perfect Man cookie recipe below which is on the inside of the tag from the card front. Just click on the picture and you will be able to see the recipe clearly.



Without further ado, I would like to thank you sincerely for visiting with me today and hope that you will return again and again. The next stop on your merry way will be with the lovely and marvelously talented Iris who has not only an exquisitely lovely card for you to see but also some out of this world delicacies to share with you...Hold on!!! I think I will just go with you!!! While you are particpating in the Hop, please remember to leave comments wherever you roam so that you will be eligible for a MAGNIFICENT prize--a complete set of the newly released stamps!!!!! AND there will be two winners!!! And hey!!! Whistle while you go!!!!