WHAT? 2 Blogs in one night?!

Yea, well, it was time for an epic fail. :( I found this little gem on Pinterest. It looked SO easy and fast. This late in the holiday game, I love fast....

Let me first say, if you want to try this project, go check out Ellen's blog, Hers are adorable. I think my biggest mistake was the egg shape used on the last wreath (which by the way, is now outstanding in my book) Using a regular circle cardboard on this would have made all the difference in the world. Those eggs are not forgiving during placement so...her way is absolutely the best way.

But here is the documentation of my mess.....first up, the egg shaped cardboard mistake.









Then we have the hot glue sticking the plastic egg "butts" together....

Then, once I had all the first layer of eggs on the cardboard, I used the trick from the previous blog entry about spreading the Tacky glue with a cheap paint brush and then used Ellen's tip for using a pencil to get the grass pushed into the small spaces...

By the time I was adding the second layer of single plastic eggs on here, I didn't even take photos. I could smell the failure, and so I just hurried up, put it together as best as it would go and tied a piece of ribbon. I might have crammed more eggs in the big empty spaces but, I ran out of them so, I am going to run to Big Lots or somewhere in the morning and see if I can find a "Happy Easter" sign of some sort that is small enough to work in this to cover up what a mess it is....it was supposed to be a gift for my son's classroom. I overestimated my ability I think. lol
Here she is, my last mess of the evening. Funny, when I went to go post this photo, it doesn't look nearly as bad as it does in person! HA!

OMG! It's Easter ALREADY?!

OK, so I thought Easter came at the end of April. That's what I get for thinking. So when I realized last night that I need to get my butt in gear for Mason's basket THIS WEEKEND, I spent some time in Pinterest looking for some holiday crafts I may be able to throw together since I was headed to the $1 Store anyway.

I saw this on someone's page...I went back to see it when I sat down to make this, but I couldn't find it again. It was a pin of an Etsy page so I apologize but to be fair, mine is vastly different than the one I originally saw.

So as I grabbed everything in sight at the $1 store, both for his basket, Easter crafts and some ingredients to make his class some treats, I picked up this fairly large egg shaped platter to take them in on.

The wreaths I saw were all circles. As I sat down to try and make mine, I realized I had that huge egg shaped platter that would be a perfect pattern to cut out my cardboard.

So I got them all cut out (I still have another one to make) and sat down with my wire edged ribbon to make my "hanger" and bow. Now once upon a time, I was great with wire edged ribbon but my fingers don't hold as well as they used to so I had to do a little and go do something else, repeat.

After I had that done, I sat with my wreath egg and started taking apart the little Easter ornaments and trying to figure out how to best arrange them. I had toyed with the idea of painting the cardboard first but the one I had seen didn't need it, of course they had regular, old fashioned green plastic grass and I only had the paper kind from the $1 store so....next time I would definitely paint the cardboard first.

Now first I used my hot glue gun and placed a few eggs down. Then I started trying to place this pretty grass around the eggs with my hot glue gun and that was a NIGHTMARE! Finally I got the idea to break out my tacky glue and just use that to coat the background better. Putting a dot here and a dot there was also not a winning solution, so I dug out an old paintbrush and smeared the glue all around the eggs evenly and MUCH easier! 

Once I got this little trick down, the assembly went really quickly and the grass was finally holding down and around all my ornaments quite well. I had these bigger eggs I grabbed and shouldn't have added them since I had the big pink bow but, I wasn't getting rid of that darn bow that cramped my fingers so bad and I wanted to use up my Easter inventory because there is NO WAY I will find any of it next year when I need it so....I am going with tacky for now, but hey, it's a trial run eh?

 Once I looked at it, I decided I could go ahead and add more of the little eggs I still had left, I mean, we are already tacky right? lol
Anyway, this is how it ended up and I don't think it's all that bad for maybe? $7 and less than an hour all told? Hopefully I can get the other one made this evening so I can concentrate on edible Easter goodies tomorrow night....

Painting Glass....

Well, I wanted a pretty glass dish soap dispenser with the pour spout like they use in bars to regulate the flow. Of course, looking at these on stores and online, it was just an expense I couldn't justify right now.HOWEVER, I did see vinegar and oil dispensers at WalMart for $3. They were clear and plain but I got the idea to make my own.

I got home and Googled DIY painted glass and  got to work. I didn't take photos but the first step was to clean the glass really good to get it ready for paint. I used glass cleaner, then went over it really well with rubbing alcohol.

Than I got my little paint stations set up with my colors. I had read several "how to's" and one said she uses crafting enamel but another said the acrylic works so I went with the acrylic since I had plenty of it on hand.

Now, I am creative, but I am no artist so I decided to just go with multi colored polka dots. Q-tips gave me a nice tool and I could loosen the cotton on the ends easy enough to vary the size of the dots.

I started with yellow...and since I was pretty much winging it, just placed a few here and there to get started. I think I would add more when I do it again, but I didn't want to over run it with a single color since I had several in mind to add.

Then I just went at it, color by color until I had used all that I had pulled out to use. You can see, I could have done MUCH more but didn't want to fool with having to take off a bunch, I was too eager too see how it turned out.

OK, so I have added all I am going to for now and it is time to set the paint. The people who posted how to were making painted wine glasses so I didn't bother trying to treat it with any kind of clear coat seal so I will update after I have used it a while to see if the paint chips or fades without it. I figure if glasses you use and drink don't require one, then this soap dispenser shouldn't either.

I put this bottle in a cold oven, set my timer for 30 minutes and turned it on to 350. Leave the glass in the over until it is cooled and voila! You have painted glass, ready to use. They did say if you choose not to cure it in the oven, the paint will fully set in 21 days. (No way was I waiting! lol)

Here it is with a white cutting board behind it to try and show the colors, I had clear dish soap already but I think a colored one would look fabulous too!

And this is my finished product, filled and ready on the sink shelf :)

Just a quickie...

So, I am still getting moved in the new house so crafting has been at a stand still. However, Ikeep everything out to taunt me and last night I decided I HAD to make something before I went to bed.

I have been saving bottle caps. Once upon a time it was going to be for making a dangling curtain kind of thing, but I have never gotten that far so I decided to break open my new lil glue gun and make some magnets since my favorite brewery out West isn't accessible to me here in Ohio.

SUPER easy, I jsut heated up my glue gun, laid out my bottle caps and some magnets and in minutes I had handfuls of these cute little reminders of my favorite beer...inside the cap, Deschutes Brewery prints their motto "bravely done" so I made a couple backwards to show this as well..

I did put a good bit of glue in the cap. I was hoping to raise it up a little bit so that I wouldn't have to worry about the caps scratching or the magnets not holding well enough...

And there you have it, a 10 minute craft fix for me and some super cute new magnets for my fridge :)

Valentine Love for his class tomorrow

OK, I have made these the boring way for years. Can you imagine, plain brown cookies with a Hershey kiss in them?!

With his birthday party this weekend all the other stuff going on, I just bought a roll of already made peanut butter cookie dough and added red food coloring then stuck it in the fridge until I had time to make them.

I saw this on Pinterest and they had added pink sparkles for "bling" so, I got myself some pink sprinkles too! Plus I HATE sprinkles so I thought I would eat less, I was wrong, they're tasty!

I put mini liners in my mini muffin pan, preheated the oven and unwrapped enough kisses for the pan. I rolled little balls out of the dough and then rolled the top in sprinkles I had in a little dish. ( I think it's a soy sauce dish) Then placed them sparkle side up in the liners.

Bake for the amount of time the recipe or package calls for, and once you stick the hugs in, you will want to wait a bit before you try to take them out, that chocolate can get a lil runny. I have several pans for this reason, this has always been a staple in my holiday cooking, I like to add the chocolate as soon as I pull them from the oven so the chocolate can melt around the base of the cookie. Yummmmmmmmm....But you can wait a bit if you prefer a better formed kiss <3

My cake ball experiment...

So I tried out cake pops last night and the directions from Miss Bakerella were deceptively simple. I was smart enough to read the comments from people who had tried them and gave it a go. Now, my finished product looked like a 6 yr old made them, but I did it. More importantly, I learned a few things along the way and while I decorated the young master's birthday cake today, I did a little experiment of my own.

I had accidentally cut open a box of lemon cake last night in a flurry of cake baking, and decided that I should run another test round before making some for shorty's class party on Tuesday.

First of all. I have never been a fan of icing. (unless I have PMS in which case homemade chocolate cake w chocolate frosting is ALL I want) Anyway, I baked up a 13x6 sheet cake of lemon cake. I skipped the extra vegetable oil I usually add to cakes for moisture as these things are wet enough without it. Once the cake cooled, I used a fork and scraped lightly at all the cake inside the outer baked edge...it probably would work fine, but I was going for even texture and this oven blows.

Now one hint I had read said she put the cake and the icing in a large zip lock bag to combine them. Sounded brilliant but, turned out it just made a bigger mess and wasted both a bag and precious cake. I used about 2/3 of a can of regular white icing with the cake minus the outside edge and the texture seemed right. I rolled them right way into little balls to chill as we had only a couple of hours to get to the party and I still needed a shower.

Here are my little cake balls waiting to be refrigerated for a while. I showered then mixed up some cookie icing. I used about 2 cups of powered sugar and 2 tbs of milk. I know the almond bark helped hold the cake balls together and on a stick but this icing dries hard and it's not quite as overwhelming as the candy coating IMO. Anyway, I got the first coat of icing on the balls hoping to have time to coat them again before heading to Mason's party and getting some feedback from those in attendance.

This glaze is really quite thin when you first make it so it was super easy to roll the balls around in and I had no problem with the cake coming off in it. Since I didn't have time for them to dry before I left, I had to serve them with just one (still damp)coat but maybe next time I will make this icing in advance so that it goes on thicker and only needs one coat.

This is how I served them, more to find out about the taste since I know most people like more frosting than me and they were a huge hit! I will definitely to these again, decorated etc. with the thicker glaze.

Anyway, I am super excited to find a less rich, still plenty sweet combo that works...and not just for me!

So, if all goes according to plan, check back tomorrow for the pink Valentine peanut butter hugs cookies I am making......the dough is already tinted and waiting for me in the fridge :)

OK, it seems appropriate that my first post with photos be of my darling son's birthday cake. Yes, he is 12 and yes, it is a Caterpillar but A) he is developmentally disabled and B) my kid brother requested that mom make him this cake for his 18th Bday so.......

Here is the finished product for today....















There are a million variations for this cake but I have a to do list a mile long and this is what I ended up with this time, not bad considering I am still working with most of my stuff in boxes eh? lol
First I made the cake mix, just a white, super moist cake mix and added some color so this bug will have green guts when you cut into him. I used Wilton leaf green icing color but you could use regular food coloring if that is all you have. WARNING! If you have never used the icing color before, it is very concentrated and you need to use a toothpick or some such tiny thing to add this stuff...it's potent. I took a photo during the icing tint to show how little you need. But here's the green batter.........

Now, once you have your cake batter tinted whatever color your heart desires, simply put MOST of it in your bundt pan. You need to save a little for a muffin. I used regular muffin size in the past but decided the head would be better as a monster muffin size. If you only have regular muffin pans, it works fine too. Also I decided when I constructed this cake, that I would make a regular muffin as well next time to round off his little behind, but it isn't necessary...

Once your cake and muffin(s) are cooled get your platter or whatever you are going to serve it on ready. I found this great microwave tray at Goodwill for $2, but in the past I always just cut a piece of cardboard and covered it with foil.

Now, cut your bundt in half and place on your platter in an "S" shape.Then add a bit of icing to the bottom of your muffin (I cut a bit off the bottom and the top of the base to make it sit better and used a toothpick to hold it in place (just in case). For my icing, I just used a can of plain white icing and tinted it blue with Wilton's royal blue iciing color. I added a little at a time to get the right shade, I didn't want it to be too dark and over power all the candy decorations.



First mix needed more blue



Now I coated the cake with my blue icing....usually I am waaaaay more anal about spreading it on, I like to keep it kind of thick and try to maintain the curves from the bundt form but today I was in a hurry and just slathered it on...

Now to cut one large marshmellow in half, the sticky inside is perfect for holding the M&M for the eyes. I stick a toothpick through the back down into the muffin part to hold it in place, probably not necessary but I wanted to be sure...then I cut some licorice into different sizes, then made little cuts on the end to look like "feelers" and stuck those down in where I had attached the muffin to the body. I didn't love how empty it looked, or really how my licorice appeared so I added some red Dots candy along there and was happy enough to keep going...

I also took a red Dot and rolled a can of soup over it until it became this adorable little tongue. In the past I have used gum drops and cut out adorable little lips but...I like this too. Next I cut more Dots candy in half and placed here and there (gummy side down) Then I added some Sixlets I found at the $1 store and filled in with the rest of the M&Ms and Dots until he could hold no more. The icing had dried a bit while I worked and the round candy caused some gaps in the icing. I just used a toothpick to add a little of the left over icing around the candy,
I think I decided that next time I am going to crumble some Oreos (to look like dirt) and top off with the gummy worms around him but for today, I only had the worms...

There you have it, a cake mix, some candy and a little time and you have a special fun cake for your little one! I don't think he turned out half bad for being made on the fly with only a few things to decorate him...