Chocolate Pretzel Turkey bags

This was a fun project to do with my boys. We made these pretzel turkeys for their teachers (school and church). I was inspired by THESE pretzel turkey cups that my sister made. Since were were giving these away, I thought a bag would be better than a cup!

First step, dip the pretzels in chocolate. I used the Honey Wheat Braided Twists (instead of the pretzel rods), if only because I like the taste of these pretzels better ;)

I used red, orange, and yellow Wilton chocolate melts. I gave each boy a small cup with melted chocolate and showed them how to dip them. They also had a few lectures on ‘not licking the chocolate or their fingers until they were done’ and ‘only eat the broken ones’. Man they had a hard time with those rules!!

When they were done with the pretzels, and while the chocolate was drying, we worked on the bags. I printed out a coloring picture of a turkey head on sticker paper, and cut them out with my Silhouette. I also printed out a simple “I’m thankful for you” sticker that they could write their name on. So they worked on coloring those.

     

Stick the head sticker to one side of the clear cellophane bags and the “I’m thankful for you” (or “Happy Thanksgiving”) sticker on the other side, and fill with different colored “feathers” (the chocolate dipped pretzels), and tie it up.

The best part of this project was watching the boys hand them to their teachers! So stinkin adorable!!

DIY Stars – door décor, t-shirts, & popsicles

With Independence day not too far away, we’ve been trying to do some prep for the holiday. This post is all about the STAR projects we’ve done – Door décor, t-shirts & popsicles.

The star décor was my personal project, inspired by THIS PIN. I first drew some stars on a piece of paper and scanned in my favorite design on my computer. Then I printed 3 different sizes to use as a template for cutting them out of wood. The band saw was a lot of fun to use and was really fast cutting them out.

Then came the sanding and painting. I used Rustoleum double coverage spray paint – primer, apple red, navy, and white.

After a couple coats on both sides, and letting them dry, I sanded the edges for the rustic look. Then finished it off with a coat of gloss clear coat.

The complete finished look came after I drilled a hole through the top of each star and looped some rope through. I tied them (and glued them) together at the top, making sure their lengths varied, and hung it on the door. Pretty simple!

 

Or you could use that rope to tie them together and display on a table or shelf. Just as cute!

I found a different style of DIY star shirts by Erin at A Bird and a Bean. I adapted it since I couldn’t find colored shirts that fit the boys, just white ones. Instead of using bleach like she did, I bought some blue tie dye (I would have bought red too, but I could only find fuchsia). Both the tie dye & shirts I bought at Wal-Mart.

I cut out some stars on vinyl with my silhouette machine. Erin used freezer paper, which is a much cheaper choice, I just didn’t have any and forgot to buy some! After I applied the stars, I set up the painting area. I used some old camping chairs & garbage bags as the backdrop for the project, because, let’s face it, little boys & dye make for quite the mess!! Last, mix up the tie dye (super easy, just add water!). I made them wear “gloves”…plastic baggies…because the spray bottles leaked a little.

[spray bottles from Wal-Mart]

I then let them sit in the sun for about 5 hours, just to be sure. I don’t know if that was necessary, but I did it anyway. I rinsed, washed, dried and they wore them the next day. Personally I think it looks like fireworks & stars!! Perfect for the 4th!

This idea came from the book Wemberly’s Ice-Cream Star by Kevin Henkes.

I bought a BOX of ice-cream, which is apparently harder to come by these days. When I was growing up, I swear they were only sold in the quart boxes, but now it’s mostly the tubs. The box works A LOT better because you can peel down the sides and cut an inch or two sections. Which is what I did (no pictures!) and used a star cookie cutter & a popsicle stick. I refroze them for about an hour (should have been more) then pulled them out and topped with some magic shell. The boys LOVED them.

After a little while, they ended up melting and falling off the stick. So we did what Wemberly did in the book, we got a bowl and ate Ice-cream soup!

[We did the shirts & popsicles for a Star Preschool day.]

Menu Chalkboard

I made this menu chalkboard with a little help from Grant. Overall it’s a really easy project. Grant milled the lumber (of course) and I cut it to size and cut the ‘frilly’ parts on the top and bottom. I was inspired by the Organic Bloom style, but I didn’t want to go straight up Organic Bloom style, so I only cut the top and the bottom corners using a template I got online. Then routered the edges and sanded, A TON!

[family silhouette HERE]

I used chalkboard spray paint and it was pretty darn easy if you ask me. I had to put 3 or 4 coats, just to get it all even and smooth (I sanded in between the layers a little). Grant also put in a keyhole in the back to hang it up (using the router), similar to THIS one.

This is always hanging in my kitchen now. Most weeks I write up a new menu, sometimes it doesn’t change or even get looked at for days and days. These are some more past menus, if you care!

And another great use for this menu chalkboard is for the little ones learning their letters! I’m tempted to use more of that chalkboard spray paint and make a longer board for him to practice his letters on! Something about writing on a chalkboard, I tell ya!

Multi-layered cake – All Boy!

For my little B’s 1st birthday (in January) I made his my own version of a layer smash cake. I’m not into making fancy decorated cakes for a one year old, who doesn’t even care anyway and just smashes the sucker to pieces. But I did have to make him his own cake. I went with a multi-layered boy cupcake cake.

I was inspired by all the rainbow layered cakes out there, but changed it up to “boy” colors, according to my little G man.

You can find lots of tutorials out there, but here is what I did for my “Leaning Tower of Cupcakes”.

 

What you need:

• White cake mix - I usually always go with Betty Crocker for some reason
• food coloring of your choice - I used blue, black and light blue
• the usual mixing and baking equipment – mixing bowl, mixing spoon, rubber spatula, little mixing bowl (or in my case a cup), muffin tin and cupcake liners

 

 

 

After I had the cake batter mixed up, I separated a few scoops worth and mixed in different colors. I made 6 different colors – light blue, dark blue, turquoise, white, black, and grey, then baked them as per the instructions on the box.

I did this with cupcakes for a few reasons. (1) I didn’t want to make a huge cake for my little boy to ‘waste’ aside from fulfilling a tradition. (2) I only have two cake pans and didn’t want to spend all day baking cakes to get all the layers I wanted. (3) This was more of an experiment than anything else, and kept it on a small scale in case it didn’t work out.

Then came the frosting. Like I said before, this cake was named “The Leaning Tower of Cupcakes” and this is why. Six cupcakes high, it was very unstable.

In fact, right after I took the above picture this happened. Thank goodness I made two of each color!

In the end, I’m really glad I didn’t make a bigger cake because little B man didn’t even care. In fact, he kind of hated it! (see how much it’s leaning!!)

He did finally grab it and he is one of those weird kids that doesn’t like getting dirty. He hated having the frosting stick to him. He took a couple bites, but basically didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Grant and I finished it off for him!

The absolute best part about this cupcake cake was the inside. Personally, I think it looks awesome. Had it actually been a full-size cake it would have been pretty impressive.

For the rest of the party crew, little G man helped me make some boy colored swirl cupcakes. This was a little more fun for him to make. With the rest of the cake batter I put in a few drips of the black, blue and light blue food coloring and had him stir is just a little. Them I filled up the muffin tins, which swirled the colors even more. I, of course, didn’t take pictures of the finished products. But you can just imagine they were awesome ;)

If you get anything from this post, let it be that you should try all sorts of different colored layer cakes. They take a bit longer in the prep time (and baking, if you only have two cake pans) but they turn out pretty amazing and fun inside. Just don’t make a tower of cupcakes, unless the party theme is “The Leaning Tower of Pisa”.