Bunny Cakes

Happy Father's Day - Drunken Mess Style

We had to celebrate Father's Day early, which meant last night.  This was a good thing because the boys and I were busting at the seems in anticipation of our Father's Day celebration so we could present him with the (almost) perfect gift.  Hubby for whatever reason loves The Hangover movie poster.  Since I won't allow it to be hung in our finished basement he has a copy of the poster hanging on the inside of the door that leads to the unfinished area of our basement (and to the beer fridge).  It has fallen down a few times and he has dutifully hung it right back up, most recently with heavy duty poster tape to ensure its proper placement for eternity.  In pondering what I could do for Father's Day the idea hit me to recreate The Hangover movie poster with our kids.  I soon as I thought of it, I knew he would love it.  I picked a Sunday when he was working to be the photo shoot day.  Prior to that I gathered the props (sunglasses, baby carrier, fake blood, etc.) and prepped the kids.  The older ones were good to go, but the baby was a different story...I crossed my fingers.  On the day of the shoot I gave the older boys the carrot (fro yo) and the stick (no video games for a month) to ensure speedy cooperation.  Then I turned to the baby, he was a mess and was already rocking pink eye (and unknown to us, an ear infection).  He refused the baby carrier (darn).  He refused the sunglasses (damn).  We carried on.  I managed to get 4 snaps with the kids posed before baby B went nuts.  Luckily one shot was decent enough.  I originally planned to Photoshop one of the boys in as Bradley Cooper, but it didn't look right (damn, again).  Even with the little disappointments along the way our version of The Hangover poster still turned out not bad.  Hubby loved it (so predictable) and we loved that he loved it.  

-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

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

Nerd Alert

This year I promised to make the boys their Halloween costumes since I was home on maternity leave.  We started brainstorming in early September and were originally going to do something with an election theme until we came across the idea to be nerds--not just the Model UN/Math club types but also the candy.

To make the costumes I purchased appropriate sized cardboard boxes from staples that would fit around the boys.  I then cut foam core boards to match the width of the cardboard boxes.  Then I used markers and acrylic paint to create the nerd candy box design.  Since the proportion of my foam core boards didn't exactly match the nerd candy box I found it best to start with the largest design element (in this case the 'nerds' lettering) and then add everything else with an appropriate scale.  Specifically I used makers to outline all the lettering and the nerds figures and then painted the rest.  The sides and back of the cardboard boxes were painted either pink or purple to match the front.  We used gorilla glue to attach the foam core to the cardboard boxes.  And then finally we used ribbon in a suspender configuration to keep the boxes on the boys.  To make the bow ties I followed A Lemon Squeezy Home's tutorial.  I also made a purple candy nerd costume for Baby B, but don't have any good pictures of it.

 

Halloween Oreo Cream Pie - The Easy Dessert

My previous post was all about the baking projects I have in mind to try for Halloween.  However, sometimes you don't have a lot of time to bake, but still want something sweet, festive and not store-bought.  The solution, Jell-o's Oreo No Bake Dessert.  I would usually turn my nose up at the bright blue box while cruising through the baking aisle at the grocery store, but something recently made me dump it into my cart.  The bright blue box sat in my pantry till one day the boys were 'bored' and wanted a project.  The *Oreo Cream Pie* turned out to be the perfect treat to make with the kids.  There are four steps to build it.  The first step is to melt butter--so easy it the kids can do it with a blindfold on.  Second step is to mix the oreo crumbs with the melted butter and tamp it down to form the bottom layer of the dessert--again, perfect for the kids.  The next step is to mix the pudding mix with milk using a beater--this step gets a little messy and is best for the adult to handle, but it is over in 3.5 minutes.  Finally, spread pudding over the crust and top with crushed ores and refrigerate.  To make it festive we added some additional crushed up Halloween Oreos, Halloween sprinkles and a candy corn pumpkin.  The taste is quite delicious and has quickly become a favorite in our house.

-K

Halloween Boo

One of our favorite Halloween activities is 'Booing' our neighbors.  The boys like it because they get to sneak around at night and leave mysterious surprises for our neighbors and I like it because I get to put together fun Halloween packages.  This year I decided to create my own version of the Boo message to be left with the Halloween treats.  Please feel free to download your copy of the Boo poem and spread the Halloween cheer.  If you are unfamiliar with 'booing', then the poem below summarizes it all.

*The Halloween Boo Poem* (slightly modified)...

The phantom ghost has come to town
To leave some goodies...I see you've found.
If you wish to make this a happier Fall...
Continue this greeting, this phantom call.

First, post this Ghost where it can be seen,
And leave it there until Halloween.
This will scare other Phantoms who may visit.
Be sure to participate, you don't want to miss it!

Next, leave treats at two doors where the Phantom hasn’t hit.
You have only two days to act, so be quick!
Deliver at dark when there isn't much light...
Ring the doorbell and run--stay out of sight!!

And last, but not least, come join in the season.
Don't worry, be happy, you need no good reason.
This is all in good fun and we are just trying to say...
Happy Halloween & Have a Great Ghosty Day!

 

 Happy Booing!

-K

First Day of School Treats - Fifth Grade

The boys started 5th grade last week (yes, pre-Labor Day).  I can't believe their grade school years are coming to an end.  As a tradition that will sadly end this year (next year they will be in middle school), the boys handed out baked goodies to all their prior teachers and their new teacher.  In my nesting moments before the baby's arrival I made sure to print and cut out the treat holders so I would have them ready for the first day of school.  The design for the treat holders features their school mascot, a cardinal, NOT getting stabbed by a bunch of pencils.  Inside the treat holders we tucked a heart-shaped brownie.

If you want to make your own treats you can download the file here.  To make: 1) Print out the design; 2) Cut around the border; 3) Use a corner punch to round the corners (optional); 4) Fold on the gray lines; 5) Punch a hole in the top; 6) Tie with a ribbon.

-K

Custom Soccer Bag Tags

This spring the boys are playing soccer again and Hubby is their coach.  He wasn't planning on coaching, but had to step in at the last minute due to a coaching shortage.  The team decided to name themselves the Speedy Turtles.  As soon as they had a team name I was off creating their logo (I couldn't help myself).  I found the perfect turtle image and then added the soccer balls.  Of course once I created the logo I really didn't have a use for it until the end-of-season treats.  Then after seeing the badges my work made for all the kids on Take Your Kids to Work Day I got the idea to make luggage tags for the players to tie to their soccer bags.  After creating the design for the tags it was time to call in the professionals.  I turned to my copy center at work, which also takes on personal jobs and does amazing work.  They mounted the tag images on heavy card stock and then laminated them and punched the holes.  For those of you who don't have a copy center at work, I am sure this is something (at least the lamination part) that Kinko's can handle for you.  The cost of the tags came out to $0.50 each, I couldn't believe how cheap it was.  Both the kids and parents loved the tags!

I usually get a lot of questions on what software I use to create my images.  To create the above tags I used Google image search to find tow images: the turtle with the rocket and the soccer ball.  The turtle image didn't need any clean up, but for the soccer ball image I had to remove the white background.  To do this I used Photoshop's magic wand to select the white background and then delete it, so I was left with just the soccer ball on a transparent background.  If you don't have Photoshop, but do have some other photo editing software then chances are you can remove the white background.  To put the images together with the lettering I use Adobe Illustrator, but if you don't have that then you can also do this easily with Microsoft Powerpoint or Word.  If I don't need to do anything special I usually turn to Powerpoint because it is easy and fast to use.  The latest version is surprisingly powerful, so don't be shy to give it a try!

Jelly Bean Carrots - An Easy Easter Craft for Kids

The boys wanted to do an Easter craft while they were home for Spring Break.  I was going to have them make more Egg Animals, but I couldn't find my stash of wooden eggs.  Then Martha came to the rescue with her easy-to-make jelly bean carrots--see link here for the how-to directions.  We ended up buying 1.3 lbs of orange jelly beans and 0.5 lbs of green jelly beans which made eight carrots.  The boys enjoyed the craft and now we have fun Easter decorations.

-K

P.S.  You can use piping bags as your 'cone-shaped' cello bags.

This Year's Valentine's Day Cards

Now that the boys are getting older (4th grade), they have a lot more opinions on what their Valentine's Day cards should be like.  When trying to come up with this year's theme we first decided on what to include with the cards.  After some searching we went with the classic novelty gift, a whoopee cushion.  From there we came up with a skunk theme and added our own version of Roses Are Red to our cards.  A flower lollipop completed them and added the obligatory sweet element.  

The cards were assembled by folding the whoopee cushions in half (use a craft glue dot to keep them folded), then we added a card on top, which read: Roses are Red, Flamingos are Pink, I Hope Your Valentine's Day Doesn't Stink.  Finally we placed the cut-out skunk on top and tied it up with the lollipop.  We later ended up having to drop the lollipop from our cards due to changes in the county v-day policy prohibiting candy, but they still turned out cute!

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

-K