Bunny Cakes

Our Easter

This Easter we had a nice and relaxing late brunch.  We kept our menu simple which added to the relaxing atmosphere.  For our table I reused the daffodils and just displayed some of the bright eggs the boys made.  A few more colorful touches with the salad plates and glasses rounded out our Easter table.  We also celebrated my Mom's birthday with a surprisingly delicious & lite trifle made with angel food cake, lite cool whip and rainbow sprinkles (sorry no pictures)--it was a major hit.  This was the first year little O (my nephew) was an active egg hunt participant which made it a lot more fun as he delighted in finding each egg.  I am looking forward to when all 4 boys will be out there hunting for eggs.  Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend...I always give my Mom plants for her birthday and the beautiful cupcakes were made by our neighbors.

-K

Glittered Eggs

Martha [Stewart] is the queen of many things--glitter included.  She has the best glitter selection out there.  I recommend her glitter collection packs, which give you a wide selection of colors that you can mix and match as you desire.  Also, her new florescent glitter collection offers a bunch of fun, bold colors.  This year I thought it would be fun to glitter some eggs to add some bling to old Easter favorites: daffodils and candy.  Glittering eggs is pretty easy.  To start with you can either paint or dye your eggs (I would paint them if they're fake or dye them if they're real).  Then coat with craft glue and sprinkle on a heavy coat of glitter and shake off the excess.  Plan to glitter about half your egg at a time...this way you can get a nice even coat.  Finally enjoy!  You can embellish your eggs further by adding stickers or ribbon.  If you are going to place your glittered eggs with food be sure to sit them in cupcake liners.

For the treat tower below the boys helped me make jelly bean carrot favors (idea from Martha) and then we layered in mini chocolate bunnies and carrots with our glittered eggs.  I used stickers (from Martha) and ribbon to add a little extra to the display.  The cake stands are also from Martha via her Macy's line.

My second use of the glittered eggs was to add some interest to Spring daffodils.  I first layered some sheet moss down at the base of the daffodils.  Then I nestled in the glittered eggs and some colorful glass flowers.  I attached a glass hummingbird to a skewer so he could hover amongst the blooms.  I also tied gold elastic around a few of the eggs to complement the glitter.

Happy glittering!

-K

White Chocolate Easter Bunny Pops

Last year I found a sweet chocolate bunny mold at Target.  It was cute and cheap, so I bought it.  Actually I really like the Easter merchandise at Target.  They have great stuff year after year and I am always excited to check it out.  But, I digress, back to the chocolate mold...I bought the mold but didn't have a strong inclination to actually use it until the boys asked to make something for Easter.  It seemed like a perfect task for them, all we needed to do was melt chocolate and squeeze it into the molds.  The first bunnies the boys created turned out a bit messy, but by the second one they both got the hang of it.  After the bunnies hardened we wrapped them in cello bags and tied them with ribbon.  They came out super cute, the boys were really proud of their efforts.  I put the extra bunny pops in a milk glass vase with Easter grass and some faux eggs and thought it made a lovely Easter decoration.  Hopefully we can find some time to make them again this year.

-K

Chocolate Easter Bunny Brownie Treats

If you're looking for a fun way to dress up a dessert for Easter then look no further!  Start with a cookie or brownie base (I used mini-bundt cake brownies) then top with some green frosting for grass.  Next, nestle a chocolate bunny in the grass and place two orange tic tacs in the grass next to the bunny.  That's it, you're done!  Throw some Easter grass on a platter and place your treats on top.  Your guests will love it especially the wee ones.

 

      

-K

Some Bunny - Easter Cards

I had been toying with using these bunny cards as Valentine's Day cards as I think it would be really sweet for the boys to write something nice about each of their classmates, but it never happened so I turned them into Easter cards last year.  They are the perfect accompaniment to any Easter treat: flowers (Ranunculus will soon be in season!), Easter candy or a basket full of goodies .  Just download, print, trim and deliver.  I have created two versions of the cards: download the Monsieur Some Bunny Cards or the Mademoiselle Some Bunny Cards.  Each file has 6 little cards.  Enjoy.

-K

St. Patrick's Day Badge

Here is a quick and easy project to make a little St. Patrick's Day badge to sweeten up any outfit or gift.  All you need is some ribbon, double sided tape, some festive cupcake wrappers and a printed copy this clip art from Martha.

To make this St. Patty's Badge, start by flattening out a cupcake wrapper.  You may have to crinkle up the middle to get it to lie flat.  Next, take another cupcake wrapper and fold it in half.  Use scissors (pinking scissors or scalloped scissors preferred) to cut about 1 centimeter off the edge.  Open it up and crinkle up the middle to get it to lie flat.  Do this again for your third cupcake liner, but cut a little more off the edge.  Here is how the three wrappers should look once you are done with the cutting...

Using your double sided tape adhere the wrappers together, largest to smallest.  Top with the clip art from Martha after cutting out the circle images.  Next, take a piece of ribbon and place a small piece of double sided tape in the middle and fold so the ribbon forms a 'V'.  

Finally, using your double sided tape again attach the ribbon to the back of your badge and enjoy!

Thanks to Urban Comfort for the initial inspiration.

-K

Engagement Gift Idea

Last night Hubby and I went to an Engagement Party for one of his co-workers, but coming up with a gift was a real challenge.  When you are going to an Engagement party and the couple being honored has not yet registered, what do you give them?  If you know they have a favorite something, then I think that would be nice to give them, but if you don't know that...then what?  In this case something personalized with their names (or initials) and/or their wedding date seemed like a good way to go.  So, I went with it, but because I was late coming up with the idea I had to make something myself, which I was happy to do...I just wish I had thought of doing it sooner!  I decided I was going to make a print and then put it in a nice frame (so if they didn't like the print, then at least they would have a nice frame).  I wanted to use lyrics from a love song, but I had some sort of mental block (panic mode!) and only two songs popped into my mind...Wild Thing by the Troggs and So Happy Together by the Turtles.  Luckily I found a sweet line from Turtles song (Skies will be blue for all my life...now that we're together) and went with it.  Once I was done with the design I had it professionally printed in an 8x10 format.  The professional printing made a big difference in the print quality (highly recommended if you do this).  I was happy with the final product and I felt good about giving them a personalized gift just for the two of them.

-K

Our Cheeky Valentines

Coming up with a fun Valentine's Day Card for my fifth graders was not easy.  It was made extra challenging because their school did not allow anything edible with the cards.  Candy makes any card cool, so without it we were stuck a square one.  We were stuck there for a long time (even with Pinterest)!  Finally I became inspired by Erin Jang's accordion fold Valentine's Day card.  We added our own twist by including lines from Carly Rae Jepsen's ubiqutous hit, Call Me Maybe.  Then I came up with the brilliant idea of including $1 scratch off lottery tickets with the cards.  We were already using the 'Pennies and dimes' line and copper envelopes, so now we had a money theme going (sort of).  I loved it, what kid wouldn't love getting a chance to win $1000 dollars!?!  Soon after (luckily before I bought 60 scratch off lottery tickets) my brilliant idea got scratched, something about it being illegal to give minors lottery tickets...blah, blah, blah.  We still moved forward with our *Call Me Maybe Valentine's Day* cards and I made little clay hearts to tie around our copper envelopes, but the cards were still lacking the favor element.  The weekend before Valentine's Day I delayed having the boys and I assemble the cards because they were still incomplete.  It wasn't till the Tuesday before v-day when we came up with the idea to include Frosty key tags from Wendy's.  If you are unfamiliar with these babies, they will score you a FREE Jr. Frosty with ANY purchase every single time you go to Wendy’s, for the rest of the year.  But wait there's more...Wendy's donates the proceeds to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Finally our cards were complete!

In case you can't read the wording on the cards, here's what they said: 'I threw a wish in the well.  Since you asked me, I'll tell.  Pennies and Dimes.  Happy Valentine's (initially they said, 'Will You Be My Valentine's', but the boys thought it was not gender neutral enough).  P.S.  Your dungarees are ripped and your epidermis is showing.  Call Me Maybe.'  We definitely took some poetic license with the original lyrics.  Their classmates thought the cards were awesome, though most kids had no idea what dungarees were (kids these days).

-K

Valentine's Day Card Preview

Tomorrow night the boys and I have a ton of Valentine's Day cards to put together.  Here is a preview of one of the elements for their cards: small clay hearts, which will be tied around the envelopes.

-K

Plant a Tree and Get Cool Cards

You know when you find something you really like and want to tell everyone about it and you can't believe everyone else isn't already using it (like why isn't everyone watching Game of Thrones)!?!  For me that something is Paper Culture.  I love them: their products, their values (eco-friendly and cool) and their service.  For the last 3 years my sister and I have both ordered our Christmas cards through them.  And for the first time, I also ordered Valentine's Day Photo cards from them.  I usually don't send out Valentine's Day cards to the family because I am so busy with C & J's Valentine's Day cards for their classmates.  However, this year I took a picture of Baby B that begged for a card.  Even though I am biased towards Paper Culture I kept an open mind and went Minted, Tiny Prints, Shutteryfly and Paper Culture to create the perfect card with my photo.  I started out at Minted because they have great designs, but the final product was way too expensive (all the little add ons really added up: $13.75 for rounded corners, $13.75 to have the back of the card printed and $5 to get premium recycled paper, which totaled $79.50 for 15 cards!!!!) and I just couldn't get over the size of their cards (5x7 is just too big).  Next I went to Tiny Prints, I had a 'spend $40 for $20' deal to use with them so I was all set to order, but I couldn't find any cards I loved plus I knew the quality would be slightly less than Paper Culture so I moved on.  My trip to Shutterfly was brief, I figured if I could get a super good deal then I would sacrifice on the quality and design of the card, but that didn't happen.  So my open-minded journey ended at Paper Culture (PC).  I have to say I did not find a Valentine's Day card design at PC that suited my portrait-oriented picture and was ready to go with a Christmas design which I could convert to V-day until I remembered their free designer services (you get two free designer edits per card--you can even get the edits before you commit to ordering).  I asked if they could convert a landscape design for my portrait picture, which they did (love them) and the rest is history.  OK, here is where I go off on why I like PC so much...(1) rounded corners on every card are standard; (2) cards are the perfect size...4x6; (3) premium 130lb 100% post consumer recycled paper is standard; (4) card back designs are free; (5) two free designer edits for your card allows you to achieve the perfect card; (6) THEY PLANT A TREE WITH EVERY ORDER (plus, they use wind power to create their paper--who does that?!).  Anyways, that's why I like them so much and I will certainly remind you around Christmas time.  I want you to know that I have no affiliation with them or get any compensation from them, I just really like them.  Next time you want the perfect card, check them out.

Here is my Valentine' Day card printed from Paper Culture...

And here is their original card design (before any of the designer edits were applied)...

Thanks for listening.

K