Santa's Candy Cane Reindeer

Ok, so I know that it has been forever ago since I have posted anything. I am trying to get the hang of this blogging thing while running a home based business & taking care of my family. Oh, did I mention that I just had a baby too. Then my husband goes and gets a new dog since ours passed away from cancer. Much to my surprise it isn't in fact a dog but a miniature horse.....He is a Great Dane. I hate to admit that I have actually grown to love him. He is the sweetest thing ever. In spite of the  fact that he is a large puppy he thinks he is still a lap dog. 

On top of all of this I am also making the majority of my Christmas gifts....Those posts will come later, I PROMISE!!

Anywho, I am bringing you one of my most favorite crafts. I was surfing the good ole' internet the last few weeks for inspiration for something to make for my boys Christmas parties at school. I found these awesome creations from Jackie at www.jackietopa.com

 Her elves are super cute. 

Now seriously, I was thinking of making these except that I don't have any of the stampin' up punches required and I couldn't justify paying over $120 for the punches. So I kept looking....and looking....and looking. 

What did I end up with? 

Ugh, nothing still and on the eve of the party day!! 

I am sure you can imagine how stressed I was, right? 

I was determined I was going to do something and that is when my brain went into over drive. Somehow I seem to work best under stress. Go figure!

Well, here is what I came up with:

 Candy Cane Reindeer

Don't you just LOVE them?  I thought they turned out so cute. 

Here is what you will need to make them: 

Brown cardstock

Hot Glue

Slick Paint in Pink, Black and Red

1/8" Ribbon

Clear tape

Candy Canes: You will need 2 candy canes for every reindeer.

Here is how I did it:

I copied the owl body from the stampin' up punch and then cleaned it up a bit, erased the feet and made it the size I needed. 

You can get the reindeer head below by simply clicking the picture and then saving the image. Be sure to print the actual size when printing the image. 

Then I made a template on card stock and traced it onto my colored card stock. Cutting the heads out was really easy. I thought for sure it would take me F.O.R.E.V.E.R to cut 42 of them out but it only took about 15 minutes.  

 

A few of the heads.

Once I had the heads cut out, I started taping 2 candy canes together. I faced them out a little bit because I didn't want them to lay flat but I didn't want them to face completely forward either. 

(You can use bakers twine here and make a loop to hang it on the tree. You would simply knot the two ends of the bakers twine together and then slip it up in between the bottom of the candy canes. Then you would proceed to the next step.)

Once that was finished I put a little hot glue down the center of the back of the reindeer head and stuck it to the candy canes.

(I forgot to take a picture of this step.....ooops!)

Red, Black & Pink Slick Paint. 

(I was going to use white for the whites of the eyes but they looked better solid black)

 

It is time to give them all faces once you have the heads attached to the candy canes.  

I chose to two different color noses. Some of the girl reindeer had pink noses and some had red. All of the boy reindeer had red noses. 

Once I finished their faces I let them dry overnight. I got up the next morning and began making little bows for all the girl reindeer. You can choose any ribbon you want for the bows. I chose to use a red polka dot and pink polka dot. If you cannot make the small bows you can find them on etsy or in my etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/bowsgalorenmore

Aren't they cute?

 

 I really enjoyed making these and although I was so looking forward to making the elves I am so glad I came up with these and decided to make them.

I hope that
you enjoy making these as much as I did. I have a feeling that these will be something that we make every year to hang on the tree.

See you soon,

Ambrosia Frozen Dessert

Since Summer is almost here I am craving anything fruity......It couldn't possibly be because I am 32 weeks pregnant, could it? I always love to have some type of frozen treat to enjoy when we have been in the pool all day, working in the yard or just because I want something refreshing to snack on. So, I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes with all of you. It is light, creamy & fruity with a little zip to it. I call it "Frozen Ambrosia" because it reminds me a lot of ambrosia but without coconut. I haven't tried it with coconut but plan to in the near future. It is made with 4 simple ingredients that the majority of us have in our pantry & refrigerator at any given time.

 

(Sorry about terrible the photos......I am still learning to use this fancy camera that we have & I haven't had the time to build a photo box!)

Ingredients:

1 ~ 16 oz container of Cool Whip ~ Thawed

 ( I usually use sugar free but only had regular today!)

 

1 ~ 10 oz jar Maraschino Cherries without stems. 

My Walmart only had ones with the stems so I just removed them.

(You can use some other type of fruit but it will need to be a fruit that will produce 1/2 cup juice if crushed)

 

1 ~ 3 oz box of Fruit Fusion Jello

1 ~ 20 oz can of Crushed Pineapple in 100% juice

 

First, you want to put your crushed pineapple and Jello in a large mixing bowl. 

 

 Mix well......The Jello will not completely dissolve & that's okay. 

 

 Then you add the cherry juice.......Cut the cherries in half and add them and the Cool Whip to the Pineapple Jello mixture. Stir until ingredients are combined thoroughly. 

 Pour Mixture into a casserole dish or container(s) that can be put into the freezer. Smooth top and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze 6-8 hours or until frozen completely. 

Remove from freezer and slice into 2" squared pieces & serve frozen. You can slice into smaller or larger pieces but I think that a 2" squared piece is just enough to satisfy my sweet tooth and is plenty refreshing. It will start to soften quickly so do not let it sit out of the freezer for long, otherwise you will need to refreeze it. 

I hope that you enjoy this yummy refreshing dessert as much as my family and I do. This is really a dessert that we enjoy all year long, but especially in the Spring & Summer months. 

Be sure to check back soon. I am planning on making a Fresh Peach Dessert similar to this and will definitely be sharing the recipe!

Some wonderful, stressful and awesome cakes......

So today, I thought I would share some photos of cakes that I have made in the past few years. You didn't know I was one of those "Do it all" moms too? Oh, yeah, that is me. If I see something that I like it usually gets filed into one of several sections in my brain......Would look good as a cookie, as home decor, great kids project and woulld look great as a cake. I have played many hours with my children and do the same thing with their toys.....awesome toys get categorized. So, when my boys ask for certain themed birthday parties or a friend requests a cake it is easy for me to fill their request. So without further ado here are a few of my past creations.

 A Star Wars R2-D2 cake for my oldest on his 6th birthday. 

 A Baby Girl Shower cake for a family member.

 McQueen for my Great Nephews 4th Birthday.

 A Jack-O-Lantern for my youngest who requested that his party be a Halloween Costume Party!

 Another girl Shower cake for a friend. 

1st Birthday cake for my youngest. 

So there are a few of the 100's of cakes I have made. I am enjoying the 3-D cakes. They are super fun but very challenging. Which, if you are like me then a challenge is good. I am always up for a good challenge.  All of my cakes are usually made with different flavor layers and mousse fillings as well as homemade french butter cream icing and homemade marshmallow fondant, which I sometimes flavor. I hope you enjoyed this post and that you are inspired to turn everyday things into wonderful creations of all sorts.

"Dream", "Inspire" & "Create" Melted Crayon Canvas Project

Today we are doing a super fun project for the kids....The best part is that it is something we parents will enjoy as well. I know I sure did! Hopefully you have seen these before. If not that is okay, I hope you like this tutorial.

These beautiful melted crayon works of art are literally all over the Internet. They are being sold on Etsy and some for ridiculous amounts of $$.  They really are not hard to make and are really fun. They do take some time to make them......Well, at least my first one did. After the first one I came up with a few tricks. I have put together an easy step by step tutorial with photos so that you can make one of your very own:

 (I forgot to take a photo of the hair dryer and the embossing gun!)

 The supplies you will need: you will need an art canvas, any size is fine, a hot glue gun & glue sticks, a hair dryer or heat gun/embossing gun, lots of crayons, newspaper, old wrapping paper or cardboard boxes, slick paint or acrylic paint, and masking tape. These last two supplies are only needed if you choose to add words to the canvas.

For each 11″x14″ canvas, I used crayons from 2 boxes of 64 crayons, 2 boxes of 48 and some extras from a box of 24. The only thing that I would do differently next time is that I would cut the bottom 1" of the crayon off and use that portion of the crayon. A whole crayon was way too much crayon for an 11"x14" canvas with wording. It ended up leaving a lot of crayon in the wrapper. So I ended up going back after my boys and I were finished melting the crayons and trimmed the crayons down once they had cooled. I don't know about you but I hate waste and I just couldn't in my right mind hang them knowing that each canvas had crayons that were well over 3/4 still useable.

Step 1: The first thing I did was paint the words I had chosen on all 3 of my canvas' (this is optional). Then you pick out the colors that you want to use. This was easiest for me after I sorted them by color and then sorted them by name. This made arranging them on the canvas much easier. You then lay them out on the canvas in the pattern that you choose. We did ours in a sort of rainbow pattern. You do this until you run out of space on the canvas.

Step 2: Using your glue gun, put a line of glue across the crayons (if you want a certain part showing, like the label, make sure to put the glue on the opposite side of the crayon). Quickly place the crayon onto canvas starting at one end and continue in the order that you have them arranged, as shown below, with tips facing down or sideways. This depends on how you have them arranged. You need to work quickly because the crayon cools the glue very quickly.

 This is how the canvas looked after 10 minutes.

(notice the splatter on the paper behind the canvas) 

Step 3: Line your work area with the covering of your choice. I used an old roll of wrapping paper. I pulled a 10' foot piece and then folded it in half and taped it to my wall. The reason for this is because if you use the high setting on your blow dryer it will eventually splatter off the canvas and you really don't want melted crayon on the walls and floor. (I learned this the hard way from the first canvas I did).  I gave myself about 3' feet on each side of my canvas that was covered work area. If you have chosen to add wording to your canvas you will need to tape it off. Be sure the ends of tape are securely rubbed to the canvas. You will end up with some run under the tape but I simply used my embossing gun to melt some of the wax onto those spots. Now they look like all of it was done purposefully. You then place the canvas against the wall & start blow drying. I started out on high & warm settings on my hair dryer. You have to experiment a little to see how your hair dryer works with melting the wax.

 This is about the time I got my embossing gun out. It melted the crayons much easier & then I could go back and make them run how I wanted with the blow dryer.

(The five year old was much better with the hair dryer than I was!)

When I did mine I concentrated on one area at a time & worked my way across the canvas. It took me about 5-10 minutes on each area.  Aim the heat towards the bottom 1" of the crayons (where the tips are or end, if you chose to cut the crayons and use short ones like I did with the other 2 canvas' we did). Once the wax starts melting, move the dryer around as needed to prevent splattering and to get the wax to go in the pattern you wish. 

 I have seen some of these where the wax runs straight down the canvas. We chose to make ours a little different. So we not only chose a different crayon layout on each canvas but, we also used the hair dryer to melt the crayon colors in different directions and into each other. We ended up making new colors in the process.

Somehow I ended up with a lowercase "I" instead of a capital "I". I am going to fix this tonight. I think it may have had to do with the fact that my husband was on the phone and both my boys were getting very anxious to do theirs so they kept getting into everything and I wasn't paying attention to what I was painting!!

(This is my youngest boys crayon art. He decided he did not want the crayons to remain in his canvas. So we just pulled them off. Then he melted the crayon in the other direction so that it covered the entire canvas.)  

What a smart cookie!

 It took me about an hour to make it across the first canvas. I wanted to make sure I got all the colors to melt sufficiently. Oddly enough as it is, some colors melt much faster than others ~ Red melts very quickly as do the Blues. Yellows were particularly slow in melting. I think I could have made a cup of coffee or two before they started to melt.

Step 4 (optional): After I got all of the colors to melt, I decided to go back over certain colors that I wanted to go a little further down the canvas. I also made sure that the colors wrapped around the edges of the canvas. I knew that it wouldn't matter to my boys that the edges of the canvas were white but just the thought drove me nuts. Can we say OCD??!!

 Voila! You now have a really fun piece of handmade art to hang on your wall. You can try this with different color patterns instead of a rainbow. There are so many different ways to arrange your crayons that the possibilities are endless. 

The reason I chose to do "Inspire, Dream, Create" on the canvas' is because I tell my boys, "To look for inspiration in everything", "Don't be afraid to Dream big", and "To Create with all your heart because your creations show just how Special God made you".

I hope that you enjoy this tutorial and that it helps you and your little ones to create not only wonderful memories but wonderful art pieces for you to enjoy as well.