Pumpkin Bars & Christmas Cards

Can you belive that the Holidays are just around the corner!? Next week is Thanksgiving! Where does the time go? I’m looking forward to the craziness and all the red and green and especially the Christmas music and movies. I’m a sucker for all the Hallmark Christmas movies! This week I baked Pumpkin Bars for a potluck at work. (Yes, I still have a day job, but believe me, my heart is here!) My mother used to make these Pumpkin Bars and they are a real crowd pleaser. I want to share the recipe with you but I will also tell you that I’ve made a few alterations to the recipe over the years. I use applesauce instead of oil (sometimes I make it with half the oil and use applesauce for the other half). I also use whole wheat flour for at least half of the flour. My husband and one of my sons do not like nuts in their baked goods so I usually make a batch without nuts for them, and my daughter-in-law is allergic to walnuts so now I have to leave them out all together. I LOVE nuts in my baked goods so for the office potluck I was able to leave them in. Well, that’s probably more information than you all wanted so I’ll just get on to the recipe…

I made this recipe card years ago when I first started digital scrapbooking. I discovered ScrapGirls in 2007 and immediately fell in love with this company. Each month they have a recipe card swap and I created this for one of the first swaps I participated in. The theme that month was “Mom’s Recipies”. If you a a digi scrapper or if you are interested in becoming one, I think you’d love ScrapGirls! Check it out!

I decided that I wanted to add the frosting with a frosting bag and a decorative tip, applying a star of frosting to each sliced piece. Of course I didn’t have such things so off to the store I went to get them. When I arrived I discovered a kit that gave me an applicator with a multitude of tips and it looked like much more fun (and maybe less messy) than bags would be, so I bought it. Obviously this is an area outside of my expertise but I had fun playing. Here is the result:

The folks at work all thought they were yummy and several commented on how pretty they looked (blush). I would definitely frost them this way again. I just might have to make some cupcakes soon and play with my new frosting toys again!

I want to share a couple more Christmas cards that I made. These were also made using Paper Smooches stamps, Recollections patterned paper from Michael’s and Tim Holtz Distress Markers. I kept them VERY simple and almost wish I had added some brads to the sentiment tags but they will be easy to mail because they are flat. I hope you like them!

And that’s all for today. Thanks for checking in and have a great day!