Category Archives: craft projects

I Spy Glitter Pumpkins

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Happy Halloween! Since it is Halloween, I am going to break my edible-blog rule. For people who don’t scan pintrest, there are a lot of fun ideas about glitter pumpkins. Last week I decided to take my own spin on the glitter pumpkin. Folks, this is not a Halloween exclusive project, I am going to keep my pumpkin display up until Thanksgiving!

My seasonal kitchen display

 

How to make Glitter pumpkins:

Supplies!

 

What you will need:

Mod podge (and paint brush)

nice iridescent glitter

small pumpkins

Applying the first layer of mod podge

 

Directions:
1) Paint the pumpkin with a layer of mod podge
2) Sprinkle glitter over pumpkin so it is covered entirely in glitter
3) Wait until the first coat dries and paint an additional coat of mod podge on pumpkin, let dry. I painted the second coat to prevent the pumpkins from glittering my hands.

The end result

I Spy Fall Cookie Decorating Tips

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I miss the immaculate falls of Spokane. In college, we would venture to Greenbluff to pick apples and take walks through the vibrant leaves. Sadly, the main downside of living in the San Francisco Bay Area is the lack of seasons.

Gonzaga University in the fall

Gonzaga University in the fall

To combat the missing absence of atmospheric changes, I’ve taken to baking and cooking my way through the seasons.

I decorated my favorite sugar cookies using two techniques; combining icing colors and chocolate melted candies.

Making the icing: 

2 1/4 tbs of meringue powder with 1 bag of powered sugar and 1 cup water. You can add flavoring such as vanilla or peppermint if desired. Use an electric mixer and beat for about 4-5 minutes.

Applying the icing: 

Outline the cookie using an icing bag with the tip used to write (it is just a small circle tip, nothing fancy). Then go back and forth horizontally between the outline to fill in the cookie. If you apply enough icing, it should spread out to fill between the cracks. Icing with meringue powder needs to dry overnight.

Fun ideas for mixing colors: 

I discovered by combing the icing (not blending the colors together but leaving them touching but separate in the container) makes a fun and somewhat realistic leaf cookie!

tri-color cookies

Applying the chocolate 

I really like adding chocolate to sugar cookies because it isn’t very common. I find that a little bit of chocolate goes a long way and adds some fun decorations! Use candy melts and follow the directors on the package. Use an icing bag to pipe designs onto your cookies. In the winter, I like to use white chocolate or even the mint/green color to decorate my cookies.

Supplies:

I’ve slowly collected the following supplies  to decorate my cookies (all supplies can be purchased at Michael’s):

1) Meringue Powder is an egg substitute, you can use 2 1/4 tbs of meringue powder for 2lb bag of powder sugar.

2) Food Coloring, I used the professional cake decorating food coloring listed below. However, the food network recently published a brilliant way to create all the colors through the convention food dye that you can buy at Target.

Professional cake decorating food coloring (not that much more expensive than the store bought ones, and lasts longer!)

3) Cupcake decorating kit using the tip to write on cakes.

4) Milk chocolate candy melts

Candy melts come in various flavors and colors

One last comment…  Because sugar cookies are so labor intensive, I always make a double batch, which allows me to send cookies to two small-to-moderate sized work environments and keep some for home. Have fun with your edible art project!

I Spy a Kitchen Project

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In my old apartment, we ordered a giant adhesive white board off of Amanzon. Although in my opinion it was aesthetically unpleasing (as most practical things so often are), I used this white board all the time. I wrote recipes, created shopping lists, organized weekly menus and listed to-do’s. In moving to a nicer place, I didn’t want to plaster a 12 foot whiteboard to the wall, but I missed having this creative and practical outlet.

My solution was to create a whiteboard that is aesthetically pleasing while maintaining it’s practicality. 

What you will need: 

  • A picture frame with glass
  • Scrap book paper
  • tape
  • dry erase markers
  • cleaning supplies (windex and any material you may need to touch up an old frame)
  • Acrylic Sharpie

How to:

These are photographs from the second white board I made for the house. The process is exactly the same for the smaller kitchen white board.

1) I went to Urban Ore and found two great picture frames for under 20 dollars total. I cleaned them up, and used a gold acrylic marker to retouch one.

2) Pick out scrapbook paper that will allow you to see the writing with dry erase markets. Pick out enough scrapbook paper to cover the picture frame.

3) Arrange the paper as you would a print inside the frame, use small pieces of scotch tape to secure to paper to each other; do not tape the glass. Also try to have the edges touch instead of overlap as it will cause darker areas within the frame.

4) Secure the back of the frame, flip over and use an acrylic permanent shapie to write your menu, shopping list or whatever you please.

Naturally, my cat “helped” clean the frame, make sure the glass is completely clean before arranging the paper.

Enjoy!

I Spy Red Velvet Cake Balls

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I sit down to write this post slightly sticky from the aftermath of baking. As noted in previous posts, every time I bake I try to learn a new technique or recipe.  However, I also have some favorite recipes that I revisit on a seasonal or even monthly basis.

One of my favorite sweet-treat recipes is the red velvet cupcake. Tonight, I abridged this recipe by creating cake balls. For people who have oohed and awed at the cute lollypop cakes going viral at all Starbucks and various commercial coffee chains, they are very easy to make in your own kitchen. Although, as I discovered tonight, lollypop sticks are not sold at many local grocery stores — hence the cake lollipop ball aspect of tonight’s post.

Cake ball

 Red Velvet Cake Balls
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 6 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 1/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons red food coloring
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 package chocolate chips
  • 1 package white chocolate chips
  • 1 can pre made creeam-cheese frosting

Mix flour, sugar, coco powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

In large bowl, beat oil, eggs, buttermilk, vinegar, and food coloring until blended.

* Today I was out of white vinegar (thank you colorful Easter eggs…), so I used 3/4 tsp of Rice Vinegar. I didn’t notice a difference. The vinegar is mainly used to activate the baking soda. Try to stick with white vinegar, but in an emergency 3/4 tsp of Rice vinegar will do the trick!

Sift dry ingredients to make the cake fluffy. Slowly blend in dry ingredients and pour into a 8×11 pan. Bake in a greased pan at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until done.

Step 2:

After the cake cools, break into small pieces and run portions through a food processor. I have a small processor so I divided the cake into 1/8 batches and blended for about 5-10 seconds max.

Once the cake is in fine crumbles, mix with 3/4 can of cream cheese frosting. Use your hands and embrace the mess. Do not use the whole carton of frosting!  Shape cake dough into 1 inch balls and place on wax paper on a cookie sheet.

Red velvet crumbles

Once the cake is shaped, begin melting the chocolate. I used white chocolate and milk chocolate chips (separately) — because I had them in the pantry. Next time, I plan on purchasing candy making chocolate. To turn my chocolate chips into a candy-like substance, I added canola oil while I melted the chips using my make-shift double boiler. I added between 3Tbs-1/4C oil to reach the desired consistency. White chocolate is very hard to melt, beware. Do not add butter or water only add oil.

The dark, mysterious, vampire esc lighting provided by my microwave. These are the cake balls waiting to be dipped in chocolate.

Using two spoons, dip each cake ball in the chocolate  and place back on the sheet. Add sprinkles if desired. Take a toothpick and trace the outline of the cake ball to leave the chocolate drippings behind. Cool in fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes.

This is a super easy and fun recipe. I look forward to spending more time and making unique designs.

I Spy Easter Festivities

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This year, I am super exciting about Easter. Aside from all of the spring-time crafts and food related delicacies that Easter has in-tail, this year Easter also brings a flurry of personal changes — moves, travel, new job, and more.  I am excited to celebrate the change of season, the rebirth of mother nature and individual successes.

One of my biggest blogging struggles is to post holiday related items ahead of time. While many of my recipes will be done on the day of Easter, I’ve decided to compile a post of ideas I’ve come across online or used in the past for this holiday.

The Preschool Easter

Last year, when I worked as a preschool teacher/director at a small preschool in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we celebrated Dusty-Bunny’s birthday around the Easter holiday. This was so much fun, we made carrot cup cakes with the kids, washcloth bunnies and presented Dusty with a giant carrot for his birthday.  By celebrating the school Rabbit, we were able to celebrate spring together.

Washcloth Bunnies:

Auntie Anne’s Crafts has a great link for washcloth bunnies.

To be honest, washcloth bunnies are really above the skill level of most preschoolers. Simply because this project was SO perfect for the occasion, we bent the rules. I really don't recommend this as a true preschool project since many children have not developed the necessary skills to do the project on their own. However, this is a great adult-guided activity and sure to be a huge hit!

You will need:

a wash cloth
rubberband
a 6 inch ribbon
pom-pom 
googly eyes
cotton ball (tail) 
we let the kids use markers and color on the bunny too.

Washcloth Bunny Instructions

Bunny and Carrot Sugar Cookies

Obviously I have a soft spot for rabbits after spending a year with the most gracious bunny, Dusty. When I saw these bunny and carrot cookie cutters at Target, I immediately went home to bake up a storm.

Baking supplies!

I used my usual awesome and dependable sugar cookie recipe.

The frosting needs to dry overnight

In the morning, the frosting will have hardened and makes that perfect bakery purchased sugar cookie that I never thought I could create.

Because I like to try something new every time I bake, I did decide to dye my own sprinkles. I saw some beautiful egg cookies at a Peet’s Coffee in Oakland while apartment hunting last weekend that inspired this idea.

Dye-your-own sprinkles

To dye your own sprinkles:

 1 drop of food dye
 2-3 tbs of sugar

Place a drop of food dye in a small Tupperware container. Add crystals or bag sugar. Seal and shake until dye covers the sugar. This is so much cheaper than purchasing different colors of sprinkles and you can adjust the color intensity simply by adding more dye.

Easter Eggs: 

My easter eggs from 2011

I love dying eggs. I realize that many people outgrow this tradition. I’ve seen some great ideas via pinterest on creative ways to dye eggs.

Here is my favorite: Rubberband easter eggs via the incredible blog “Do it and How”. I am so excited to try this tomorrow when my friends and I dye 48 easter eggs.

I Spy an Art Project

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For the most part, I try to keep my blog related to food themes. However, since my blog is mainly an expression of creativity, I will bend the rules and allow an occasional art project.

Today's art project, canvas flowers

One of my many ways of nursing my inner introvert is through projects.  I enjoy to serenity and the silence of working with my hands and creating a piece.

Sometimes I also use art projects as a way to procrastinate. For example, a week before moving across the country, I decided to paint my table and reupholster the chairs to match with red fabric.

Am I an artist? Not really, no. Can I draw? Only if you want something that resembles a rabid miss-shaped dog or a stick figure.  What can I do? Think differently and creatively. This combination usually results in a variety of disastrous art projects that consume all corners of the house. For example, the crayon art  projects spiraling around Pinterest a few weeks back.  My rendition didn’t turn out very well and terminated in taking a butter knife to my apartment window to scape off splattered melted green crayon.

Yesterday, I learned that crayons splatter when melted with a hair dryer. I really should have seen this one coming

In a quest of redemption, I set out to put my extra five canvasses to good use.  As an infrequent pinner, I noticed some flower canvas art that looked cool and simple. I decided to use photographs instead of scrapbook paper/fabric.  I’m so happy I used photographs because each petal has a story. Also, by using photographs, the canvas has become uniquely mine.

The first step was to scroll through my thousands of photographs and pick out photos of like colors.  I chose about 7-10 photos for each canvas (I used square 12×12 inch canvases). One hour later I battled the lines at Costco and picked up my photos along with an Easter ham.

Next, I painted the canvases with acrylic paint. One of my previous art projects included creating a canvas out of my dining room table (see photo above), so I had plenty of acrylics on hand. You can purchase acrylic paint for 99 cents at Michael’s.  Paint one coat, let it dry fully, then paint a second coat.

While the second coat dried, I began to cut out the petals.  I used 4×6 photographs. For large petals, I cut the photo in half to create a 2×3 rectangle. For smaller petals, I cut the photo in 4 pieces.

Cut in a curve from corner A to C.

Then in a curve from corner C to A.

After the petals are cut, take glue (I used scrapbook glue sticks, but I’ve heard hot glue works well) and glue the petals in the desired design. Since I made 5 different canvases, I mixed up the designs by creating 2 flowers and placing the center off to the side. This creates an eclectic feel.

 

I’m going to modge-podge these later, but for now they are great! ETA 2-3 hours with distractions.

Hanging canvases