Christmas Craft: 5 minute Wreath (Ok, 15)

Every year, I see a wreath or Christmas craft idea but it is usually too late. Like last year, I made the ornament wreath, which apparently didn't make the blog but was those fragile circle ornaments hot glued to a hanger. That was fun, but a lot of glue, and very fragile results. So 2 years ago I purchased the ornaments at 90% off, so at least the idea only cost around $3 to make. I trashed it when the season was over.

Then last year I saw this other idea, making a wreath out of cookie cutters. But I already had my other ornamet wreath! Dilemmas. After Christmas I found these again for some ridiculous clearance and boxed them away for this year.

Enter: 5 minute wreath (That really took much longer.)

First of all, take off the price tags right away. Mine were very stuck after a year in the garage. I tried soaking the cutters in water, which just made them rusty. So I settled for carefully arranging them such that the price tags didn't show.

Then I glued.  And it was finished. 

And I decided that I actually DIDN'T want to see those price tags, so I spray painted it red.

*Instant love*

In hindsight, it would have been cool to paint these both red and green before glueing them. The wreath isn't perfect - you can still see the price tags through the paint if you look hard enough - so this wreath is out on the front door where hopefully the lighting will be bad enough no one will notice. The wreath itself is a little thin...not sure how I could have made that better except to jumble the cutters all over, but, then you can't see the shapes.

So what's the verdict...for the $5 that this cost, should I store it a year in the garage, or toss it and hope for new inspiration by December 2012???

My Favorite Post of the Year!! Christmas Cake Pops!!!

I am calling this my favorite post of the year, and I really have to think that its true. I thought the burlap owls may have been close, but one bite of these tasty decorated treasures and a bunch of glue and fabric means nothing to me.

So: Cake Pops. Alternatively titled: How to make something that takes way longer than you planned, but is still way, way, awesome.

If you're gonna make cake pops of any kind, google for info. There are like a billion ideas, most of the professional ones very cute, and lots of amateur pictures out there too.  I think ours turned out somewhere in the middle.

First picture is some prep work while our cake is baking in the oven.

 More messes in the kitchen.

 Once the cake had cooled, we dumped it into the mixer with a generous portion (maybe 1/3 of a can) of frosting.  Don't hate me for using a box cake and canned frosting. I'm telling you it tasted like heaven.

 Add enough frosting to get a consistency you can shape with your hands.

 One box of cake mix made 24 decent sized balls.

 Get really into what you are doing and forget to take pictures until you are almost done. (This step is crucial.)
Side note at this point: Do not be cheap about the melting chocolate you choose to use. We lost 2 cups of chocolate chips, which I have a love/hate relationship when melting, and ultimately ended up making emergency frosting with unsweetened baking squares. It worked out well, but, was stressful. I had white chocolate squares specifically for baking (or you can use candy melts) for the snowmen, and like I said we made a chocolate frosting for the rest. (1 square unsweetened chocolate, melted. Add 1 TBSP milk and 1 cup powdered sugar. Add more of each if its too runny. Thank you again, allrecipes.com)

Get creative with what you can decorate with in your kitchen. We dyed white chocolate and piped these noses. Mini chocolate chips for the eyes, oreo crumbles for the mouth.

 Beth is one of those amazing crafty friends who always turns out beautiful creations. I like having her around because she gives me good ideas about how to improve what I am making. Here she is displaying her ornament, snowman, and one reindeer.

 Here's my favorite reindeer - this frosting was a little thicker, so his head has a bit of texture.

 Here's my motley crew - 3 reindeer and a tree. I love little reindeer personalities. (Are you making fun of me for personalizing cake?)

 Here is Jen's snowman. She wanted to do a double decker one and we weren't sure if it would hold up on a stick, so he just sits (later in a cupcake liner.)  Notice the mess-up behind him. That's code word for "we can eat this one as a taste test. For breakfast. No joke.

 I had quite the refrigerator of creations, between 3 gals and 24 cake balls. The egg cartons weren't really up to snuff for holding the cake pops, so we had to improvise with cardboard, straws, etc...this might have been one of my favorite parts, if not for all the other wonderful parts of this day!

 Another close up of Beth's treats, with a better view of the hat. (Those were mind oreos, we used the cream inside (trimmed down) to attach a rolo (upside down) to make the hat.

 These are Jen's treats getting a rest in the fridge.

 The next day I found some foam and we displayed Beth's again with a little more formality.

 Here is one of the most important bits: These cake pops hold up well during consumption! Here you can see the cake pop stayed on the stick.

 Even more importantly, it was delicious.

So please, I am begging you, come over to my house so I can make these again. Any excuse works. HURRY!

Hotel Room Crafts: Sewing Christmas tags by hand

Time to post the results of my newest hotel crafting attempt! After the First Great Cricut Experiment, I wanted to finish up this idea since I had been carrying around. 

Prior to this business trip, I spent about 30 seconds rummaging for my sewing kit, any cropped paper I could quickly find, and some buttons.  

I decided on some snowmen and a Christmas tree. I just cannot resist snowmen. To make my paper-sewing easier, I used this pin (randomly in my sewing kit) and some stiffened felt (also randomly in there, holding the pin) to punch some holes in the paper.

Here's how my little man turned out. I couldn't resist trying to add a carrot nose with the orange thread. Then I couldn't resist adding brown stick arms.  When I get home, I MIGHT glue a little scarf on these guys, or a felt hat, or black sharpie eyes...we'll see. I think I will be gluing these to stiffened felt to act as a gift tag, decoration, or ornament...not sure yet.

I didn't have a pair of scissors with me (hello, using nail clippers to cut thread!) but I thought the torn paper look would work for this.

I rummaged around in my button bag and found the big brown one for a tree stump, so I decided to add a bit more decor to the tree as well.  I actually ended up liking these so much I don't want to give them away (to people who will just throw them in the trash. People who would use it as an ornament or something are welcome recipients.)

Here's the final tally.  I didn't feel like making my last snowman, but those 3 buttons are blue-ish and will be very cute.  These took me around an hour (?) from start to finish, including an interruption from the maintenance man who was not as concerned with the giant wet spot on my carpet as I was. Oh well.

any other ideas of what I could use these for?  When I have a few more colors of paper, I was thinking I could to some torn-paper holly (with red buttons) but I'd like a fourth idea so I can display them as a panel or something...please help!!!! :)