Easy-to-Make Snowmen Marshmallows

Like everyone else, I'm super busy this week. But I wanted to take a moment to share something I made this afternoon that will go in the gift tins. These snowmen marshmallows are simply store-bought marshmallows with piped on chocolate "carrot" noses and dark chocolate "coal" eye and nose pieces.

I tinted some melted white chocolate (with a bit of solid shortening mixed in) with gel (not liquid) food coloring, then piped through an icing tip to make the "carrots." After all of the marshmallows had their noses, I added the eyes and mouth by dipping a toothpick into melted dark chocolate (with a bit of shortening added). Easy-peasy. 

As with all handcrafted items, some turned out better than others. The best will go into a bag to give in a tin with some homemade cocoa mix.

By the way, I got the idea from Williams-Sonoma, who sells these for $14.95 for a bag of 12. Going online, I found a few people who had made these at home. Just thought these were super cute and a great and easy addition to gifts of homemade cocoa or for adding to a special occasion cocoa bar.

My No-Cost Gift Presentation for Homemade Earrings

I've written and photo'd my earrings that I made this fall to give for holiday gifts. I'm now finished with all of the pairs of earrings that I've wanted to make for this season. The task, now, is to package them as nicely as I can without incurring extra cost.

This is what I've come up with. Small rectangles of card stock that were spray painted along the edges (posted here) that I then used decorative edge scissors along one long edge, after which I poked small holes with a straight pin for hanging/fixing the ear wires. I'm satisfied with how this looks for gift presentation.

I made 10 pairs of earrings for gifting this year. Some are variations of the same design, while other designs were made for just one pair. Here are the last few that I finished, with the snowmen in the upper left as the only pair that I don't think I shared with you.

I hope that any handmade gifts that you've been working on are now about wrapped up, and you can take a little time to relax and enjoy the season.