craftgrrl | Cookie Craft (dual posted in craftgrrl and gentry)

I'm sending a care package to a few friends of mine and wanted to include some cookies (this gets crafty, I swear). I looked through my old old copy of BH&G's Cookies for Kids (no longer in print -- the BEST recipes!) and found something I'd never made before: cookie checkers! You make chocolate and vanilla ones and then eat them as you play. Well.

I decided to provide my friends with a checkerboard and wanted it to be somewhat reusable. I drew up a simple black and white checkerboard in Paint and put a nice pink border around it -- very retro looking. I printed it up in four pieces (blocks of 16 squares each) because it needed to be big enough to accommodate my cookies, which're about two inches in diameter. Once printed, I cut it out (papercutter for straight lines) and then laminated each section. Laminating not only makes it more permanent but keeps the butter from the cookies from staining the board. Then I just taped the pieces together -- the taped seams allow it to be folded for easy storage.

I just finished baking the cookies and they're cute as a button. I used a round cookie cutter with scallopped edges cause I didn't have a plain round one that was tiny. If you do have a plain round one, you can put fork marks around the edges to make them look like real checkers.

Good Lord, I hope these ship well. I'm going to pack them really carefully, with tissue and air pockets and stuff and hope for the best.