Elmo Birthday Party ~ Part 3 ~ The Cake & Brunch! July 17, 2014

 

I usually like to go “all-out” with my kids’ birthday cakes, so “just” doing cupcakes was a stretch for me.  It actually turned out to be perfect since we ended up having a morning party and serving brunch.  Besides, these Elmo cupcakes were just too cute for words.

Materials:

Cupcakes made from box mix

Red Frosting

Oreo Cookies

Reese’s Pieces

Wilton Candy Eyes

Decorating tips

In a circular pattern frost each cupcake with the red frosting making small stars.

Next, pull apart each Oreo Cookie, scrape off the creme (I won’t judge if you eat it) and cut the cookies in half to make Elmo’s mouth.  Just push it gently into the frosting to secure it.

Use an orange Reese’s’ Pieces candy for the nose and two Wilton candy eyes.  Viola!  Be sure to wait until right before the party to put the eyes on or the black color will bleed.

Since we had a morning party we served a breakfast/brunch.  It was so fun to do something a little different.  We served crock pot egg bake, fruit (Elmo-style), muffins, caramel rolls, banana bread, chocolate milk and coffee.  The fruit trays were a hit.  They were made with strawberries/watermelon  (head), Cutie orange (nose), blueberries (mouth), marshmallow with edible marker (eyes).  I found the mini milk bottles at Hobby Lobby.  They came with lock lids, but I just took those off.  Michael’s had true milk bottles, but they weren’t on sale 😉

I think the Birthday Boy enjoyed his Elmo Cupcake!  What do you think?

 

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Turkey Table Favors November 25, 2013

Thanksgiving is just a few days away.  For once in my life, I’m way ahead of the game and have these cute favors ready to share with our families.  I got this super cute idea and very fun project from one of my favorite blogs: Smashed Peas and Carrots.

Materials:

Muslin

Baker’s Twine

Scrapbook Papers

Googly Eyes

Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Sewing the Bags

You can just buy the bags, but the only ones I could find were pretty spendy for a small quantity.  I decided I would take on the challenge of sewing the bags.  1) Cut a piece of 10″ x 3″ muslin  2)  Fold it in half (5″ x 3″)  3) Sew up the sides (leave an open spot to pull the twine through)  4) Fold over the edge about 1/2″ as a casing for the twine (I found it much easier to just sew the twine right in the casing rather than trying to pull it through afterwards  5)  Turn the bag right side out

Decorate your bag with googly eyes, orange paper beaks and red paper waddles.

You can either make a feather template and cut out five feathers for each turkey, or take the easy way out like I did and cut the feather shapes out on the Cricut.  I used a petal shape from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  Next, I glued the feathers together as pictured.  I used hot glue to attach the paper feathers to the back of the muslin turkey bag.

Last, and best of all, fill up your turkey bags with yummy treats.  Our treat of choice was a variety of chocolate!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

stART ~ Piggins July 31, 2013

 

A couple of weeks ago we invited our friends Rylee, Drew, and Nate over for a Movie Night stART project!  It was a lot of fun!  We first read the book, “Piggins” by Jane Yolen.  This was a little more advanced book.  It is a mystery that is fun to try to figure out.  PIggins is the family butler who works to figure out who has stolen Mrs. Reynard’s diamond necklace during a dinner party.  Will you figure out the mystery before the end of the book?

 

 

For our projects we didn’t make diamond necklaces, like in the book, but candy necklaces!  I found this idea on Pintrest which led me to Blondie and Brownies.  These were a big hit with the kids (even the toddler kids)!

Materials:

Choose any treats that have a hole in them to string on the necklace.

Fruit Loops

Pretzels

Gummy Rings

Lifesaver Gummies

Fudge Stripe Cookies

Baker’s Twine

I decided it would work best to put a few of each treat in a ziplock bag for each child.  I tied the bag with the baker’s twine they would use for their necklace.

Lace the twine with the candy.  When you are done tie the ends of twine together to make a necklace.

Proud kiddos showing off their necklaces!  While they enjoyed their candy necklaces they watched a movie together.

Nate and Bennett had their fill of Fruit Loops, too!

stART ~ Sunday Love July 14, 2013

 

Nothing says summer better than ICE CREAM!  We are ice cream lovers at this house — for sure!  Pretty sure we keep Sonic in business with 1/2 price shakes after 8 pm!  So how appropriate for us to read a book involving ice cream and coordinate that with an ice cream project.  We read the book “Sunday Love” by Alison Paul.  This is “mostly” a wordless picture book.  It tells the story of a burglar who breaks out of jail on Valentine’s Day, but is followed by Cupid.  Can you guess what the burglar falls in love with?  We think the title should have been Sundae Love.

 

Our project had to do with ice cream, but wasn’t actually ice cream….

This idea comes from Rose Bakes.

Materials:

Nutter Butter Cookies

White Almond Bark

Sprinkles

Mini M&Ms

Waxed Paper

Directions:

Lay out sheets of waxed paper to place the cookies on after they are dipped.  Melt the almond bark (or candy melts) as directed on the package.  Dip one-half of each cookie in the almond bark.  Place it on the waxed paper.

Quickly, before the almond bark hardens, sprinkle with candy sprinkles and place a mini M&M at the top (like a cherry).

That’s all there is to it!  Let them sit to let the almond bark harden.

Enjoy that different kind of ice cream!

We decided to deliver cookies to our next door neighbors as a special treat for our special neighbors.  Will took this picture of our neighbor, Shirley!  We also packed up a special bag of cookies for the Grandmas and Grandpas!  It is fun to share with others (I hope that’s what my boys are learning!).

HAPPY SUMMER DAYS!!!

Ironman Birthday Party ~ Part 2 ~ Treat Sacks June 13, 2013

Along with candy, stickers and temporary Avengers tattoos, I had two handmade items in the Ironman treat sacks that I’m going to show you in Part 2 of the Ironman Birthday Party posts.  I decided it would be fun to put all the goodies into a clear cone-shaped bag.  I was even able to find coordinating colored M&Ms and Sixlets.  I just tied the top of the bag together with maroon and gold ribbon.

First up, Superhero Suckers!  I found this idea on Pintrest, but there was no further link to anything other than the picture.

I hand-drew the cape pattern on an index card and then traced the shape on the maroon-colored felt.  I cut the triangle shape out of the gold-colored felt.

I also punched a small hole in the top-center of each cape using a hole punch.  Glue the gold triangles on the capes.

You can see I printed the message “Thanks for Coming!” on white cardstock and used a circle punch to cut them out. Next, using the hole punch I added a hole at the top and bottom of each circle (to insert the sucker)

To assemble just insert the sucker stick through the cape and then through each hole in the circle message piece.  Very quick and easy project.

Next up, the Ironman Mask!  I also found this on Pintrest which led me to Jessica at Cutesy Crafts.  She gives great tips here and has patterns for a whole variety of superhero masks.  I made all Ironman for Will’s party.  I would suggest going here to get more detailed instructions for making the masks.  I’m just going to briefly show you how I made them (plus I forgot to take pictures during the process).

I copied the Ironman pattern (found here) on cardstock and cut out the pieces to use as a pattern.  Next, I traced the patterns onto the felt using a fade-away pen.  One pattern is traced on gold felt and the other on maroon felt.   I cut two of each maroon piece per mask.

First, I sewed the gold piece on top of one of the maroon pieces using gold thread.  Remember to also sew around the eye holes.  Next, I laid this piece on top of the second maroon piece.  In between the two pieces secure the 3/4″ elastic piece (14-inches long).  Sew around the whole mask using maroon thread.  Also, remember to sew around the eye holes during this step.   That’s all there is to it!  It was a really fun project and they were a big hit at the party.

The Birthday Boy Ironman!

The Whole Crazy Ironman Gang!

Valentine’s Kiss Bottles March 12, 2013

Here is another Pintrest project come to life!  When I saw these I knew I HAD to make them for Will’s preschool teachers. There was no link on Pintrest to a tutorial, just a picture.  So not sure where the original idea came from.

First, I found Starbucks Frappuccino drinks on sale.  Well, I took one for the team and drank the Mocha Frappuccino.  It was tough, but someone had to do it all for the sake of crafting.  😉 The labels actually peel off very easily and leave very little sticky stuff behind.  Easy to wash up!

Materials:

Red Felt

White Felt

Various Valentine ribbons

Hot Glue Gun

Here are the pieces I cut out.

To cut out the white felt circle, I drew around the bottle’s lid and cut it out.  I also used the bottle to measure out the length of the ribbons and red heart.

I glued the large heart with the small white heart onto the bottle.  Last, I filled the bottle with Valentine’s Hershey Hugs and Kisses.

I printed the poem within a heart shape on red cardstock.

I thought the poem was so cute:

“Teachers can’t live on apples alone,

They need hugs and kisses, too.

Happy Valentine’s Day!”

So, I do have two bottles left and just found a super cute Easter project so… stay tuned for that!  I think I finally got caught up on my Valentine’s projects to post on here.  Sorry to get so behind!  Life has been busy!

Oreo Truffles December 2, 2012

I’ve always loved these Oreo truffles when people brought them to share.  Who knew they were so fast and easy to make?  I found the recipe on Pintrest from Chef in Training.  They were a big hit at our Women’s Christmas party at church yesterday.

Just 3 ingredients!

1 pkg of Double Stuff Oreos

4 oz. Cream Cheese

1/2 pkg white almond bark

Directions

Place the whole package of Double Stuff Oreos in your food processor and chop them into fine crumbs.

Take a few of the crumbs out and put them aside to garnish your truffles after you dip them.

Using your hands, mix the cookie crumbs with the softened cream cheese.

Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls and place them on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper.

Place them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to harden before dipping them in the almond bark.

While the truffles are cooling melt your almond bark according to the instructions on the package.

Immediately after removing the truffles from the freezer dip them in the almond bark using a fork.  Tapping your fork against the side of the bowl works really well to remove the excess almond bark and leaves a smooth coating.  After placing it on the cookie sheet sprinkle the top with cookie crumbs.

Enjoy!

This recipe made about 2 dozen truffles for me.