Halloween Mug Rug Sets (Updated to add cookie recipe)

A friend asked me to make some "door prizes" for a party Saturday night. Of course, that was jut a good reason to go buy some more fabric, heh heh heh... I decided to make mug rug sets...a mug rug and little matching napkin. Then I found some cheap black, ceramic mugs at a discount store, so I bought six. I added a cello bag of assorted cocoa, coffee, and tea packets stuffed into the mug, and made some Sinfully Soft Molasses Cookies (see recipe below), which I decorated with a zig-zag of Wilton Vanilla Candy Melts. Here's a complete set, with a cute tag I made:

"Spook-A-Licious Halloween Mug Rug. Mug Rug: Bigger than a Coaster, smaller than a Placement. Just the right size for a Cuppa and a Cookie"

And here are the six individual rugs/napkins, which are all different:

All together now! They were a hit at the party, I'm told - other issues prevented me from going to the party, but I ran the goodies over there in the afternoon. I'd been so busy making these, I hadn't had time to come up with a costume anyways ;-)

 

Sinfully Soft Molasses Cookies
1/2 cup butter (not margarine)
1/2 cup shortening (I use Butter-Flavor Crisco)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Additional sugar

Cream butter, shorteneing, and sugar til light and fluffy. Add molasses and eggs. Stir or sift together flour, salt, soda, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet. The secret to good cookies is to NOT OVERMIX after the dry ingredients have been added. Roll dough into 1 1/2" balls. Roll balls in sugar. Place on ungreased baking sheet 2 1/2" apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes - do not over bake if you want them to remain soft! Store in a tightly-closing container to maintain softness. Flavor enhances over time and they freeze wonderfully. I decorated mine with Wilton Vanilla Candy Melts (melt in microwave and pipe onto cookies in a zig-zag pattern).