Crafty Creations: Bake Pop Flavors

Well, I know this should probably go under "from our kitchen to yours" but I felt a little "crafty" while making up all the fun flavor combos! 

So, I do love my bake pop pans... and it's super easy to make a bunch of them in a really short amount of time!  2 boxes of $1 boxed cake mix at the store makes 72 bake pops ... or 4 pans, wow! I had no idea I made that many last weekend! Needless to say, they lasted through one dinner meeting, one life group, and split the rest between our two offices last monday!

Here's a few pictures of the flavor combinations I came up with :)

mMm ... yep the trick to keep them from rolling around is styrofoam wrapped in wax paper with halves of toothpicks !

I'm getting hungry just looking at them!

Yes, please... I'll take ONE OF EVERY FLAVOR!

What a beautiful mess! I just love coconut and pecans!

Yellow cake, peanut butter, chocolate frosting, pecans and coconut ... heavenly!

Chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting with a chocolate buttercream garnish.

Chocolate cake, peanut butter, and a lil chocolate buttercream heart :)



I did go a little crazy with flavor combinations, but I was having fun! Just prep your bags with icing and have your "sprinkles" ready and go to town!

Some other combos pictured:

Yellow cake, strawberry jam, and peanut butter garnish
Yellow cake with chocolate buttercream (do the same with chocolate cake)
Yellow cake with cream cheese frosting (do the same with chocolate cake)
Yellow cake with strawberry jam and a swirl of cream cheese frosting
Chocolate cake with strawberry jam and a swirl of chocolate frosting
Yellow and Chocolate cake with nutella, coconut and pecans

and so on and so forth ... Hope y'all enjoyed this delicious post!

Crafty Creations - Camping/Woodland Creatures Birthday Cake

Hello :)

Hope y'all are doing well !  Sorry I haven't posted in a while... Here's a little treat for you though! My friend Melissa knew I use to work at a bakery back in high school Blue Moon Bakery, Cary, NC (SOOOO GOOD) and also knew I was pretty crafty and asked me to make a birthday cake for her families camping trip. 

This was made last week kinda in a rush, so I apologized it didn't turn out better :( I was in Dallas 3 out of 5 days and had to work as well so it was a tough timeline, but it turned out well. My apologies for not taking more pictures of the process, as I said before, it was a little tricky trying to get it made in time .

The cake itself was 10" half chocolate cake with chocolate icing and the other half yellow with white buttercream. Basically picture two half cakes smushed together. I was too lazy to make the icing so I bought it from my local piggly wiggly, it tasted pretty good and was OK to work with.

Woodland creatures made out of clay

Cake without the creatures

Melissa and her family had a great time and really enjoyed the cake ! It was fun to do and I really enjoyed making the clay creatures with Melissa :) Thanks for encouraging my creativity, oh FYI - Melissa is an art teacher so it always makes me nervous crafting with her because well, she's a professional :) <3 

Crafty Creations : Part 5

AMAZING ! Simply amazing ! Looking back at these pictures wows me ! 4 1/2 projects and all insanely successful !? AMAZING

Okay this is a really random post but still blog worthy in my opinion.

My sweet sweet friend saw my first "one shoulder" el cheapo dress and really really wanted one to wear to ECU football games.  We saw some on a website and were SHOCKED at the price, oh no, so I got creative :)  Here we are making her purple and gold dress, it's almost finished ... and was made out of a polo shirt and a t-shirt soo hummm less than $10 bucks.

And in case my mom reads this, I made this dress the right way ... i.e. sewing a front and back top (lined with matching fabric) so the dress would hold it's structure for a very very long time.  All of mine have been quick and easy.  Hopefully I'll post a finished picture of the ECU gal dress soon !


And on another note, my husband, yeah don't leave him out ... his name is on the blog too ! This is one of my favorite "Charles ideas" that has allowed us to function very effectively in the kitchen...

We received a free sample of dish washing liquid in the mail a while ago (note the mini dispenser) but we buy the big boy to get the best value.  I have little hands and when they are slippery, lets just say that super huge guy is hard to hold.  Soooo my amazing husband, thought of this... simply use the little one (takes up less space on the counter, easy to handle, and cute) and keep the big daddy under the sink and refill when needed.  Man, am I blessed or what !? Seriously, I knew he was a keeper.

Okay, that's all for me.  Sorry I didn't post these earlier this weekend.  Be blessed !

Crafty Creations: Part 3

Super easy dress for under $6

So I bought a men's 2 XL t-shirt a while ago b/c it was cheap and I wanted a cute black dress. Here's how I did it. 

Big ole t-shirt

Draw cut lines with chalk or pencil

Cut on cut lines (jersey knit doesn't fray, but it does roll/lose it's shape sometime. Once again, this was a cheap weekend kinda dress so I didn't care :)  and, I hate hemming jersey knit, I am terrible at it, so I didn't. AND I cheated/was smart and used the bottom of the shirt as the bottom of the dress, which was already hemmed )

Try on once you've made cut lines.  Pin and sew to "tighten" around chest.

Once you've sewed side seams (flip dress inside out and straight stitch down side) Measure waist with 3/4 in elastic (any size will work)

Flip dress inside out.  Pin ribbon, yes plain ole ribbon around the "waist line" of the dress.  Sew a straight stitch at the top and bottom of the ribbon.  Make sure your ribbon as a start and a stop and a narrow 1 cm gap inbetween, I recommend in the back. This will allow you to thread your elastic waist into the "casing".

Attach a safety pin to the elastic and thread through the casing to create your gathered waistline.

Finished product. Sorry I don't look cute, hahaha I fixed my hair and wore some big dangley earrings with it the next day to a baby shower and recieved many compliments :)

There she is :) Go make one !



Crafty Creations: Pt 2

Precious Welcome Baby door "wreath"

I had seen these on Pinterest and really wanted to make one for a friend.  Well, that was easy, all of my friends are pregnant :), so happy for them !  Can't wait to join the club one day :) Anyhoo, see the pictures below and make one for your friend. Or, use the really really cheap idea for a wreath form and make door wreaths for every season/holiday !

Supplies (glue gun, $0.97 pipe insulation from Lowes, duct tape, fabric, scissors, felt, buttons, ribbon)



Cut the el cheapo tube in half and make a circle, secure with duct tape

Hot glue fabric around the form.  You can also cut a strip and wrap it around and around, I wanted mine to have some "ruffles"

Attach a bow to hang the wreath

Create cute little flowers out of felt circles hot glued together with a button in the middle

Hot glue "flowers" to the wreath

Cut a strip of coordinating paper and fold.  Draw triangles (having the largest part on the fold) and cut, to create your little flag pennant.

Write letters on each flag and secure onto embroidery thread with Tacky glue

Attach embroidery threat to wreath

Welcome lil Charlotte Mae (aka Charlie) Can't wait to meet you !

Crafty creations : What a productive weekend pt 1

Well, I had a creative itch and a half day at work on friday so I decided to be super productive :) Enjoy !

Mini Cupcakes from ketchup cups
Box cake mix ($1 all different flavors, soo easy)
zip lock bag
ketchup cups from burger king :)


Okay, for this first attempt, I used this recipe One bowl vanilla cupcakes for two because I only grabbed a handful of cups from BK and wanted to try it to see if this was actually a do-able project. This recipe is OK ... it's a little too dense for my liking but add a lil chocolate frosting, and it will satisfy your sweet tooth!

Line up the lil cups on a baking sheet and spray with non stick spray

Place ziplock bag in a cup to hold it up while you pour in batter.

Snip a small corner of the bag.

Fill cups 3/4 full

Bake at 350 for 15 mins

oh my teeny precious treasure

Turned out soooo well !

I will do this, many many more times with many different flavor combos :) Oh and FYI these are called souffle cups, not nut and candy cups. These are just paper, not wax or plastic.  To get your little treats out, simply let them cool, take your scissors and snip a little tiny edge of the rim, tear and enjoy !

Crafty Creations : Garden sign

Well all y'all know mother's day is coming up soon !  It's very difficult for me to buy anything for my mom or mother-in-law because well, they have everything they need/want ... so I love to give them the gift of me ! i.e. quality time. 

I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and she was talking a lot about her "garden" or the flowers she has planted in the front of their home.  She always likes to put up little seasonal signs so I thought it'd be fun to make one and bring it to her. 

I drew this and was going to add color and make it look so pretty :)

I had a great idea of one that I drew and I was going to use my silhouette to cut it out (see above), but, well, I'm busy and that sign will have to come another time.  I went to my ever so favorite Dollar Tree (yes everything is a dollar or less) and found these supplies to make a quick gift :)

 

Supplies
Decorative plaque ($1 they had about 3 designs)
heavy duty fly swatter ($1)
Staple gun (had at home)



cute sign

Securely staple fly swatter to back of sign

Finished product! A good gift for $2 !

Crafty Creations : Baby Shower Fun

Me and a friend from church threw a baby shower for 3 first time mom's to be.  We had fun :) I made yarn flower corsages for the mom's and Melissa made a really cute punch!  Baby shower brunches are a great idea : Coffee, punch, mini bagels and cream cheese ( butter and assorted jellies too), fresh fruit, cookies and chocolate :) Enjoy... we did !

Corsage for Mom expecting a little girl

Corsage for Mom expecting a baby boy

Corsage for Mom who will be surprised - not finding out until she delivers!

Cute punch !

Delicious sugar cookies we had too much fun making! And yes they were all gobbled up !

Centerpieces and ... yep, chocolate :)