Too Busy...

Candy Party Fun...Coming Soon!

I'm busy gathering/editing all the pictures and writing the tutorials, while I'm ignoring chores, of course!  I can't wait to share!

Chocolate or White?

Why, BOTH, of course!

Since we have nearby family AND I would never dream of subjecting them to the chaos of one of our kid parties, we host a separate family-style party for birthdays.  My husband's birthday and my daughter's birthday are just three weeks apart, so this year I combined them.

It's generally a nice, quiet, laid-back gathering with a home cooked meal and a homemade cake.  The kiddo LOVES to pipe icing, so I bake and she adorns.

Since it was a shared party, there was a little debate about the flavor of the cake, but no need to decide!  Combine! (Are you sensing a theme here?)

I love heart-shaped stuff but I'm usually too busy during the Valentine's Day hoorah to do much with it AND I got these great Wilton heart-shaped baking pans on clearance after V-Day, sooo...HEART-SHAPED, IT IS!

The four layers made for an impressive looking cake.  Impressive, but extremely difficult to serve!  I ended up cutting the cake right down the center, and then cutting 3/4 inch slices perpendicular from the center slice.  This also required a large spatula to catch each piece as it fell.  Even at 3/4 inch, the slices were, um...generous, but tasty!

Fun-Size Candy Bags - Valentine's Day

When I first made these for our skate team, I couldn't stop thinking how fun they'd be for all the other holidays.  This is our Valentine's Day version of the fun-size candy bags.

If you're a last-minute-mama like me, you'll love these!  You probably already have everything you need on hand and they come together lickity-split!

 What you'll need:

• Stamp (or cookie cutter)
• Ink (or paint)
• Markers (or colored pencils)
• Freezer Paper
• Iron
• Small Candies
• Scissors

Here's how I did it:

1. STAMP:  Stamp out your design on the paper side of the freezer paper. (The slick and shiny side has a plastic coating that will be melted to form the "seam" around the edge.)  Leave lots of room around each image so you can do a rough cut around them.  Since I almost never have stamp pads lying around, but ALWAYS have acrylic paint, I used that.  Choose whatever you like. You can even hand-draw a design if you're so inclined.  Whatever floats your boat.
2. COLOR:  Give the kiddo some markers or colored pencils to draw designs inside the shape.  Marker colors will show through because the paper is not very thick, but the candy will be protected by the plastic lining.  (You can skip this step altogether if you have a more decorative stamp and/or don't want to get the kids involved.)
3. CUT:  Rough cut your designs and match them up with a similar sized cut of blank freezer paper.  Line them up with paper-sides out.  It doesn't have to match perfectly all the way around, just make sure you have one edge that you can line up AND the blank piece is large enough to cover the entire image. Don't cut around the entire image just yet.  Trust me on this.
4. IRON:  With your iron set on high (no-steam), use the tip of the iron to meld the two pieces together along the one edge you have lined up. I chose a straight side just to make it easy.  Once the two pieces are joined together, it's much easier to cut out.  Cut around the entire design, leaving about a quarter of an inch along the outside edges. Continue ironing along all but one of the edges, leaving an opening for the candy.  Be careful to keep your iron along the edges so the center of your bag will remain open.
5. FILL & CLOSE:  Fill with your choice of candies, making sure not to overfill. Iron the opening closed.
   

Tips & Tricks

• Add a handwritten note.  I found this is easiest after the bag is constructed and cut out but BEFORE filling.  I stacked up the ready-to-fill bags and let the kiddo write "from M..." on the backside.
• Keep the fill opening small.  It's tricky to fill bags with a small opening, but a large opening will make it very difficult to iron the bag closed once the candy is inside.  The bulk from the candy will cause bulges making it very hard to line up your edges.  Go with the smallest opening possible - mine was along one of the straight sides and was large enough for me to poke it open with my index finger.  I dumped the candy into a large bowl and held the bags over the bowl while filling.  That way, whatever didn't make it into the bag didn't end up on the floor.
• Examine the edges as you're filling the bags.  It will be easy to spot weak "seams".  Just run the iron along them again to seal them up, but be careful not to melt your candy inside.
• Stamp more than you need.  Unless you're confident that every image you stamp will be perfect and you'll not hit any snags in the construction process, I recommend stamping out a few extra of your design.
  

Want to try some of your own?  I hope so!  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Note:  These were initially inspired by Peppermint Plum's Sewn Candy Pouch when I was under the gun to come up with some small gifts for our skater friends.  After I posted this, I also found these fun stapled versions from Dana Made It  through Pinterest.

Call Me Crazy

Okay, so it's February...mid-February.  We just moved, just got through all the holiday hubbub amidst cardboard towers of stuff I need to unpack and the Christmas tree still stands in the living room.  The ornaments are off and tucked away in the attic, so I count that as a win, but there are still a couple of gifts tucked underneath that I never managed to get in the mail.  It would be a little weird to send them now, right?  ("Happy Valentine's Day!  Here are some CHRISTMAS gifts for you!")

I'm exhausted and WAY behind on the things I should be doing.  Like putting away the tree. Or dishes. Or unpacking. Or showering. (Oh wait, am I over-sharing now?)

Luckily, there are plenty of distractions on tap to keep me busy.

Distraction #1:  Valentine's Day.  I can never just grab a 24-pack of candy cards for the kiddo to hand out.  Noooo, I've gotta' make it a "project".  (See the Fun-Size Candy Bags  made from freezer paper.)  They're tons of fun to make and give and they take up just enough time to keep me from say, cleaning the toilets.

Distraction #2:  Kiddo's Birthday Extravaganza.  My only child's birthday bash right on the heels of V-Day, and since she's a lonely-only AND I adore her, I can never just do a simple cake and ice cream party.  It's gotta' be an over-decorated, candy-themed extravaganza.  (I DO have access to Pinterest, after all.)

Despite my pleading, we will NOT be rescheduling the big shin dig until the summer.  (Unreasonable, I know.)  Sleep-overs are her favorite, but now that the girls are older and have electronics, they can hang in there until 4AM or 5AM. and I wasn't really up for an all-nighter.  I thought I was being clever by suggesting to her that if she had a "regular" party - not a sleep over - she could invite more friends.  Great idea, right?  Turns out the guest list has grown completely out of hand.  That's not exactly what I had in mind, but a deal's a deal and the race is on.

I have NO IDEA how I'm going to pull it all off!

Soooo, I did what I always do.

Wild Card Distraction #3:  I created an entirely new project to distract me from the task(s) at hand:  My very first blog.  Brilliant, I know. 

I can't wait to share my insanity with you, and I hope you'll share your insanity with me.  If we can identify enough of us, we'll be the "normal" ones!

Custom Fun-Size Candy Bags

This year, my darling daughter made it to Regionals in her chosen sport: Figure Skating.  How exciting!  Happily, that meant we were a part of the "Good Luck" party for all the skaters who go to this event.  We're fairly new to skating and communication among Skate Moms is a little tricky because of the diverse training schedule. I considered myself very fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to overhear that there is a tradition among the skaters to bring a little good luck gift for each of the other skaters.  Fortunate, and a little freaked out since it was two days before the big shin dig AND we had an exceptionally large competitive team this year of 26 skaters!  It was much too late to find a deal online and I didn't happen to have a chunk of change lying around. (at just $5 per skater, it would have been $130!!)

After a frantic call to my therapist (aka:  BFF always willing to lend an ear to my rants), I remembered seeing this pin on Pinterest.  Annie, over at Peppermint Plum, had sewn brown paper together in fun shapes with candy inside.  Brilliant! I (sorta') enjoy sewing, but didn't really feel like dragging out my machine. Hmmm...what to do?  And BLAM!  Like a creative lightning flash sparked by Annie's initial brilliance, I had it!

I had a skate stamp hanging around from a past project, I had freezer paper, and I had an iron (that is only used for craft projects, btw).  I swung by the store, grabbed a few large bags of M&Ms, and I was in business.  I had no idea if this would work, but I was desperate.  It took a little trial and error, but I made 38 candy-filled skates for less than $8! Score one for the Last-Minute-Mama!

Here's how I did it:

1. Stamp out your design on the paper side of the freezer paper. (The slick and shiny side has a plastic coating that will be melted to form the "seam" around the edge.)  Leave lots of room around each image so you can do a rough cut around them.  Since I almost never have stamp pads lying around, but ALWAYS have acrylic paint, I used that.  Choose whatever you like. You can even hand-draw a design if you're so inclined.  Whatever floats your boat.
2. Rough cut your designs and match them up with a similar sized cut of blank freezer paper.  Line them up with paper-sides out.  It doesn't have to match perfectly all the way around, just make sure you have one edge that you can line up AND the blank piece is large enough to cover the entire image. Don't cut around the entire image just yet.  Trust me on this.
3. With your iron set on high (no-steam), use the tip of the iron to meld the two pieces together along the one edge you have lined up. I chose the edge along the skate blade just to make it easy.  Once the two pieces are joined together, it's much easier to cut out.  Cut around the entire design, leaving about a quarter of an inch along the outside edges. Continue ironing along all but one of the edges, leaving an opening for the candy.  Be careful to keep your iron along the edges so the center of your bag will remain open.
4. At this point, you can add a handwritten note or add more color to your design.  Colored pencils are probably your best bet here.  Marker colors will show through because the paper is not very thick, but the candy will be protected by the plastic lining.
5. Fill with your choice of candies, making sure not to overfill. Iron the opening closed.
   

Tips & Tricks

• Add a handwritten note.  I found this is easiest after the bag is constructed and cut out but BEFORE filling.  I stacked up the ready-to-fill bags and let the kiddo write "Good Luck!, from M..." on the backside.
• Keep the fill opening small.  It's tricky to fill bags with a small opening, but a large opening will make it very difficult to iron the bag closed once the candy is inside.  The bulk from the candy will cause bulges making it very hard to line up your edges.  Go with the smallest opening possible - mine was at the top of the skate and was large enough for me to poke it open with my index finger.  I dumped the candy into a large bowl and held the bags over the bowl while filling.  That way, whatever didn't make it into the bag didn't end up on the floor.
• Examine the edges as you're filling the bags.  It will be easy to spot weak "seams".  Just run the iron along them again to seal them up, but be careful not to melt your candy inside.
• Stamp more than you need.  Unless you're confident that every image you stamp will be perfect and you'll not hit any snags in the construction process, I recommend stamping out a few extra of your design.
  

I had so much fun making these, I already have plans for more!  I'll post them as I create them.  Want to try some of your own?  I hope so!  I can't wait to see what you come up with!