Happy Face Oreo Crunch Pops

I saw these cake pops on Bakerella's site and had to try them. The oreo chocolate crunch ball recipe (Thank you to Nichole's mom Theresa) tasted head over heels better than the cake filled pops though. Plus they were a bit more forgiving when it came time to dip. The cake balls were falling off the sticks like crazy. I used mint oreo cookies instead of the called for regular oreos. They tasted like Thin Mints! 

‎1 pkg mint oreo cookies

1 can cream cheese frosting (original recipe calls for 8oz pkg of cream cheese which tastes even better but you can’t safely keep them at room temp.)
1 pkg yellow melting candy chocolate
Crush oreos and mix with frosting. Form into balls. Dip lollipop stick into melted chocolate and insert into each oreo ball. Refrigerate for a few min to firm up. Dip each ball in yellow melted chocolate and let harden at room temp. Shove the sticks in a block of Styrofoam to keep upright. After dried either pipe faces on with melted dark chocolate or draw on with edible ink. If you refrigerate or freeze these, they will dew when they come back to room temp. Yum!My favorite creative technique today is spacing the eyes way farther than you would expect, and a small mouth placed close underneath. Very Japanese-ish :)

Grilled Pesto, Tomato, Ham and Cheese Sandwich

Best quick lunch thrown together from things I already had in my kitchen. On your bread spread a thin layer of pesto sauce, ham, sliced tomato, and cheese. Spread butter on the outsides of bread and sprinkle on a small amount of garlic salt, dill, and dried minced onion. Grill both sides til golden. Yum!

Kid Craft Backpack Keychains

      Jimmy (almost 9) decided that he wanted 100 keychains jingling on his backpack this school year. He’s starting with 3. :) I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a large pack of key chain rings for about $4. Hobby Lobby’s 40% off coupon would be great to use on this purchase, because I don’t ever really see the kids crafting supplies on sale.
       Since we recently used this technique to make dog toys, we started with Scoubidou keychains, also called scoobies, boondoggle, gimps or lanyards. Pinky now has a square stitch keychain; Jimmy now has a circle stitch keychain. We added letter beads to put their nicknames onto the keychains.
       We are now hooked on using perler beads to make keychains. The kids build their design on boards then get to carefully iron their creation. Don’t forget to cover your creation with parchment paper before ironing it or else goodbye iron. Remove one bead from inside the design to have a hole ready for your keychain. Let the design cool completely before putting the keychain on to keep it as strong as possible. I also printed off a bunch of patterns. Pinky was meticulous in following the ones that she liked, while Jimmy preferred to get ideas from the patterns and change it. Here, here, and here are some more pattern links.

Mario Painting

Here is the painting I'm doing to go in the basement (AKA Hubby's man cave) at my house. I do not own the rights to it because it is based off Grand Star by Lawrence Yang. I used acrylic paint on canvas. The best part was flicking white paint onto the canvas to make a starry sky; my dog just couldn't stay away and now has white freckles all over her back. I am painting 3 other paintings to go with this one. I plan to make Princess Peach, Goomba, and Lakitu themed paintings.

Use a large sponge brush to paint background. Dry. Thin out the background color paint with a little water. Use brush to make some drops of thin paint on the canvas and blow it hard through a straw to make the long splatter marks.

Between these next 2 pics I screwed up. I should have first spattered the entire canvas with white paint. Dry. Paint the rock-like astroid. Instead I painted the rock, then splattered white paint, then touched up the rock.

Use thinned white paint and blow through straw to make long splatter marks. Repeat with thinned brown paint. Add little brown skyscrapers to your rock.

Use thinned yellow paint to make splatters where you want the star to go. Paint the star. 

Add detail to the star. Paint Mario. Voila!

Update: I finished the other paintings. Latiku painting here. Princess Peach and Venus Fire Trap paintings here.

Scrap Fabric Dog Toys

Introducing my afternoon nanny family: Pinky(age 7) and Jimmy(age almost 9). Fake names of course. Jimmy and Pinky recently got a puppy, so for our craft we made dog toys out of some the scrap fabric laying around.

Use 3 strips of fabric, tie a knot, and braid.

OR Use 2 or more strips of fabric and keep tieing knots

OR Do you remember using flat plastic string in a weaving pattern to make key chains? Use 2 or 4 strips of very long fabric and weave to make a beautiful durable dog toy.

This last one reminds me of Mary Engelbreit

 

I got a pack of bells from Hobby Lobby, and we tied a bell on one end of a couple of the dog toys. The bell toys should be given under supervision in case your puppy gets the urge to take apart and eat the bell. The bells in the Christmas craft section were cheaper than those in the regular craft section. SAVINGS ALERT: just after Christmas stock up on "Christmas" bells for really cheap to use throughout the year. great for sewing into dog toys and baby toys.

Vinyl Wall Lettering Using Cricut

I’ve officially been living in my first house for one year… I’m only just starting to get stuff up on the walls. Poop. Oh well, at least I’ve had a chance to get the Cricut out.

Materials:
Scrap paper

Vinyl sheets

Cricut machine

Masking tape

Level

Directions:

Using your level and masking tape, make a line across the wall where you will want your phrase. This will ensure that your phrase isn’t forever lopsided. Place one extra piece of tape exactly where you want your phrase to be centered. Using scrap paper, cut out the words or pictures that you want on the wall. Use masking tape to fix your design on the wall. Remove and re-stick your design if it’s not centered on your line. Step back and see if you like what you have. If you want to adjust size or change the entire thing, re-cut from scrap paper using the Cricut. Once you have a design you love, I’d recommend writing down you sizes and leaving it up for a couple of days. After the “let’s not be drastic” waiting period, if you still love the design, use the Cricut to cut the same design out of vinyl this time. Take one paper piece off, wipe that part of the wall clean with a damp rag, dry the wall very well, and place one vinyl piece in place of the paper one. Continue until your entire phrase is on the wall. Whenever you have outgrown your unique design, a hairdryer will take it right off. Voila!

My favorite creative technique today is using lowercase letters as uppercase letters. Simply choose a bigger size font for the letters you want "capitalized". i love crafting with my cricut!