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Quick Cake Pop Tutorial

March 15th, 2012

So when I shared Kristen’s guest post on how to make Cake Pops I got all excited and couldn’t wait to make some for Valentine’s Day.

Well, I like to put the PRO in procrastinator and so I waited until the verrrry last minute to make them. And when I went to review the tutorial to get an idea of how long it would take me to complete some pops for my friends and family, I knew I wouldn’t have enough time.

Time to put my thinking cap on. How could I cut the turnaround time for these pops in half? And then it hit me!

I present to you, the Quick Cake Pop Tutorial!

Ingredients:

Donut holes – without powder, preferably
2 bags of chocolate melts
Lollipop sticks
Cookie Sheet
Wax paper
Deep bowl (or tall, wide glass)
Sprinkles
Clear treat bags (you can find these with the lollipop sticks)
Yarn
Scissors

I also bought some oreo cookies to make some chocolate covered cookies. I use the left over chocolate to dip the oreos halfway :) Yum!

Directions:

In a small dish, melt a handful of chocolates in the microwave (30 second intervals, stirring in between). Take your lollipop sticks and dip them in the chocolate, then insert into the donut holes. Set them aside on a cookie tray covered with wax paper. Put your assembled donut holes and sticks in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. This is a crucial step! Freezing the pops will help adhere the sticks to the donut holes and make it MUCH easier to dip into the chocolate.

While your pops are in the freezer, take about half of a bag of chocolate and melt it in a deep bowl (or tall wide glass) via the microwave, same way you did before. Remove your pops from the freezer and like Kristen’s directions: dip, swirl, tap!

And instead of placing them in styrofoam to dry, I just plopped them down on the wax paper-covered cookie sheet!

After about every 5 pops, make sure you add sprinkles. Otherwise, the chocolate might dry and the sprinkles won’t stick.

Once the chocolate is completed hardened, place the pop in a treat bag and fasten with yarn – voila!

I was able to make about 50 pops in less than an hour! The pops with the white yarn were white donut holes. The pops with the red yarn were devil food cake donut holes … they were DELISH!

If you have green food coloring leftover from making Leprechaun Pie – it would be perfect to color white chocolate and make cake pops as a last minute dessert for St. Patrick’s Day! Enjoy!

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cake pop tutorial, cake pops, quick cake pops

Leprechaun Pies!

March 8th, 2012

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, so I thought I would bring back and oldie – but a goodie! – Leprechaun Pies! Today, I’ll be showing you how to repurpose empty baby food jars and make delicious Leprechaun Personal Pies!!

First thing you need to do is gather approximately 10 baby jars. Be sure to take off the label and run them through the dishwasher.

Next, you will need the following ingredients:

12 oz of White Chocolate Chips (or one bag)
1/2 cup Whipping Cream
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened (or one package)
1 tsp. Green Food Coloring
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 cup Powdered Sugar
2 Cups Whipping Cream, Whipped Until Stiff
2 Graham Cracker Crusts (I was lazy and didn’t make my own!)
1 package Andes Mints (or check your bulk candy section in your grocer!)

Cooking Instructions (a little different from last time):

In a large, microwave-safe bowl, combine the white chocolate and 1/2 cup of the whipping cream. Microwave on high power, 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each time, until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.
With an electric mixer, beat the rest of the ingredients into the chocolate mixture until everything is evenly blended – adding just enough green food coloring to give it a nice green hue.
Pour the whipped chocolate/graham mixture into the jars until they are just about full and place one Andes mint into the center of the mix.
Secure the lids back on the jars and allow to chill in the refrigerator for about 4 hours or overnight.
To give these personal pies a little pizazz (I love alliteration), I created these toppers for the lids - and you can download them here for free! And they fit a 2″ paper punch perfectly!

And to give these little pies a bit more flare, I zig-zag stitched the tops to scraps of white fabric.

And then secured them to the tops of the jars with white yarn.

Cute, simple, and recycled! Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

If you download the toppers and make your own personal pies, please email me or leave a link of the pictures!

Until next time!

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baby jar pies, leprechaun pie, leprechaun pies, St. Patrick's Day

Fierce Feather Earrings – A Tutorial

September 20th, 2011

Happy Tuesday, my friends! Today I am going to show you how to make a FIERCE pair of feather earrings, like these!

Supplies:

4 feathers – 2 medium length, 2 short length
4 seed beads
2 large silver beads
2 hook ear-wires
2 eye pins
2 cord tip terminators (mine were a medium size)
flat nose pliers
wire wrapping or round nose pliers (not shown)
side cutting pliers (not shown)

Step 1: Place your small feather face down on your work area and then the larger feather on top, also face down. Line up their stem edges and place in the terminator.

Step 2: Using your flat nose pliers, firmly close the terminator around the stems of the feather. Be sure to secure it tightly. Repeat with second set of feathers and terminator.

Step 3: Slide one seed bead onto an eye pin, followed by your silver bead, and another seed bead.

Step 4: Now we want to create a loop on the other side of the eye pin. To do so, bend the eye pin wire at top seed beat to a 90 degree angle.

Step 5: Trim the tail of the eye pin to about 1/4″ long with your side cutting pliers. Then, using your wire wrapping (or round nose) pliers create a second loop on the end of the eye pin.

Step 6: Take the open end of the eye pin that you just created, slip it onto the end loop of your ear-wires, and shut the loop with your wire wrapping pliers. Then use your wire wrapping pliers to slightly open the other loop of the eye pin, slip on the feathers, shut the loop, and your done!

These feathers come in all sorts of FIERCE colors, I’m totally digging these magenta ones.

Or how about these colors?

Like them? Lucky for you they’re available in my Etsy shop for just $5! Get em while they’re hot – or should I say FIERCE!

See you all soon!

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earring tutorial, feather earrings, fierce earrings, fierce feather earrings, Tutorial

The Irene Wreath – A Tutorial

September 1st, 2011

Last weekend, I came home to find that hurricane Irene had taken my wreath. Bummer.

I’m sort of a wreath freak, and I didn’t last 3 days before it drove me insane and I made a new one. I really like this one because it has a summer feel to it with a vintage vibe.

I’ve made a handful of wreaths before, like this one for Steeler’s season (so glad football is back!).

Or this one for Halloween – I can’t wait to bust this one out!

My Irene Wreath was really simple to make, and cost less than $5! Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make your own. And check out these clearance aisle fabrics I picked up at Joann’s yesterday – SO excited to make some new tops!

Moving along, you’ll need a 14″ straw wreath, a 3″ wide x 144″ long strip of fabric (I sewed together 4 strips of 32″ long fabric), 2 sheets of 3 coordinating felt colors (6 total), and sewing pins that match your felt (or will blend well).

First, you want to anchor the end of fabric to your wreath. I angled mine slightly and secured it with 3 pins.

Wrap your fabric around your wreath until it is totally covered. Secure with pins.

Next, using some paper, cut out 2 different sized leaf templates, and 3 flower templates. I completely freehanded these. Use these to cut out your felt flowers and leaves.

I used the brown for the leaves, and the cream and tan for the flowers.

Next, we’re going to make the flowers. First, fold your flower petal in half.

Fold in half again, and you get this:

The top will look like this:

Now, pin to your wreath.

Repeat these steps to assemble your flower.

Again, I just assembled these randomly, rearranging until I was satisfied. Add some leaves and you’re done!

Isn’t she purty :)

Tonight I’m gonna start playing around with the new fabrics I picked up yesterday. I’m so excited to have some new duds for the holiday weekend! See you all next week!

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felt, Tutorial, wreath, wreath tutorial

Jewelry Dish Tutorial

June 22nd, 2011

For Mother’s Day this year, I made my Mom a cute little jewelry dish for her dresser. And when I was perusing through my digital camera I found pics for the tutorial and realized that I never got the chance to share it with you! This craft is really simple, and would be great to do with younger kids too. And you can make any size bowl or dish you like, so skies the limit!

Supplies: