Baking Monday – Monkey Cookies!

Clark spotted this recipe in one of his animal magazines and wanted to make some monkey cookies. They turned out super cute!



Clark is my baking buddy. He's the one most likely to ask to make something and offer to help when I'm in the kitchen. He helped mix the dough and shaped four of the monkeys by himself before declaring he "needed a break."



So I got to finish the rest of them. It was kind of fun sculpting cookies instead of using a cutter for a change. The recipe is pretty good ... it uses a lot of butter, so these ended up with more of a firm shortbread texture than a soft sugar cookie. I used Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Frosting to decorate. Mini peanut butter cups filled in for M&M noses.



Clark also had zero interest in decorating the cookies, but much interest in eating them.



He wanted a photo of one of his cookies and requested: "Don't post it on Facebook, but you can put it on Hotcakes." Done! (Also? That was day two of turtle pajamas. We take our summer vacationing very seriously around here.)



Monkey cookies! Yay!

Printable Wednesday – Emergency Bookmarks!

More bookmarks today! As said before, we can never have too many. One to three children always have books in the car when we're out and around. 75% of the time, we get to our destination and hear "I need a bookmark!" from someone. Occasionally I will throw a bunch of extras in the car, but then forget to refill them. This was an idea I had kicking around for awhile ... bookmarks in a tear-off pad for emergencies!



These were made with the same method as the upcycled notepads. I printed and trimmed three pages of bookmarks on cardstock, for 15 bookmarks total. (Another upcycle ... due to a printing mix-up, I ended up with about 300 extra sheets of blue paper at home recently. Yay for using things up!) The bookmarks were lined up and sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard. The original instructions called for paint sticks, but all ours disappeared during OM season. Clip the stack together with binder clips.



I spread Mod Podge on one long and one short side of the stack. Don't even bother with a brush, I just used a finger to dab then spread a thick layer of glue along the edge. Move the binder clips to make sure they are holding the stack in place securely.

Let dry for about an hour and yay! Bookmarks to go!

I had fun making these up using artwork from other projects and not getting too precious about fonts. Here's the printable to make your own! Personal use only, please.

Download emergency bookmark printable here.

Printable Wednesday – Three Bookmarks

We can never have enough bookmarks in our house, so when I'm thinking of things to doodle, bookmarks are the perfect item. It's a small canvas that can be put to practical use!

There's a color version below and a black & white to CIY. Try color pencil, felt tips, sharpies, or watercolor. After coloring, they can be trimmed and mounted on coordinating card stock. If a bookmark turns out really cool or is going to be a gift, I'll take it to be laminated. But most often I'll do a homemade packing tape coating, which works just as well. See below for links to download. Bookmarks are for personal use only, please!

Download color bookmarks here.

Download black & white bookmarks here.