Merry Macaroons!

Hello everyone! Welcome to all my new followers :) Can't believe I hit the 200 mark, whoop, whoop! Thanks everyone for your support!

Well with Christmas at our door step, I probably will not have any time for posts until the new year. So today I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Hope you all are enjoying  this time of year :) 

So for my last post of the year I wanted to share some macaroons that I just finished making to take to my parents house for Christmas Eve. This was my first attempt at making them and I was surprised on how well they turned out for me (other than colour.) I really wanted to make red macaroons and fill them with green icing (Chrsitmas colours)... but since they turned out pink I just used a white filling. Not worried cause I'm sure they will taste just as yummy!

Here are a few pics of how they looked along the way...

 Don't they look yummy?!? They are! I know, cause I had to try... I think I will have to go one a diet after the holidays are over, lol! If you are interested in the recipe I used, click here. Ann walks you through every step of the way and even has trouble shooting tips and a video to help you. You will also love her accent!

Thanks again everyone for following me on my wild crafting journey through life. See you all soon... until next year!

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Cake Pop Christmas Tree and Treats for School

Christmas is just around the corner and I think I'm finally ready! Everything I wanted to get done is done.... thank goodness! Now all I have to do is wait for Santa! 

Later this week my hubby is having a Christmas potluck at work. He asked me if I could make a desert. Initially I had planned on making cupcakes, but since I had already planned on making cake pops for the kids at school I thought I would just make a few more. Well 92 to be exact!

Since edible arrangements are so popular, I thought I'd take that idea and make my own and make a Christmas tree using all the cake pops. 

To make the tree I used a Styrofoam cone. First I covered it in a green tissue paper and then wrapped with tinsel. Then just randomly stuck the cake pops all around the tree. Isn't it pretty??? and don't they just look sooooo yummy! Well they are.... I just had to try one, OK maybe two, LOL!!!

Remember those personalized clay ornaments I made a few weeks ago? Here they are again. I used them as tags on the cake pops, to give each student in my children's class. I think they are going to love this treat!

See, here is the second cake pop I ate... totally for photo purposes, hehe! Makes my mouth drool just looking at it! For tips on how I make my cake pops, click here. FYI, one cake box recipe made 92 cake pops using the Babycakes Cake Pop maker.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays!

Hope your mouth didn't water too much! ;)

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Credit Card Wallets

Can you believe Christmas is only one week away? Are you ready???? I sure don't feel like I am... 

If you are looking for a great little stocking stuffer you should definitely try making one of my credit card wallets. I absolutely LOVE mine! It's a great place for all my extra loyalty cards that I don't need in my everyday wallet. It has also been my most popular posts since I started this whole blogging journey!

So easy to make and so useful too! Click here for directions on how to make your own! You won't regret it, and your overstuffed wallet will thank you :)

Who knew Duct tape could look so cool! I have a thing for the zebra pattern, can you tell? I'm not kidding... in our last house I painted our bathroom's ceiling in a zebra pattern, lol!

And here is the wallet I made for myself back in June... Still looks and works great! I always get so many compliments when I pull it out of my purse and ladies see it... Every lady needs one especially if you love to shop and have way too many cards! 

If you haven't made one yet, you should... a Christmas gift to yourself or for a friend. I promise you'll all love it!

Happy crafting :)

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UPDATE

February 10, 2017

Check out VERSION 3 of the DIY Credit/Loyalty Card Duct Tape Wallet

or watch me make it on You Tube!

King Cake - Bolo Rei

Christmas would not be the same for me if there wasn't a "Bolo Rei" in the house, which literally translated it means King Cake. My mom makes them every year and gives them to our friends and family. So this past weekend she asked if I could help. Well my life kind of got in the way and by the time I made it over to her place she was pretty much done! She is so amazing, I really do look up to her... in a few hours she had whipped up 8 cakes all on her own! I'm so happy that her energy rubbed off on me a little, LOL!

For those of you that don't know I was born in Portugal, and moved to Canada with my parents when I was two. So for many years of my sheltered life, all that I knew was very heavily influenced by my parents culture and their upbringing.  And so, the King Cake at Christmas was always a must! I have to be honest though, the cake was never appealing to me mostly because of all the dried crystallized fruits. So, after many years of hearing everyone praise my mom and her cakes, a few years ago I tried it.... Maybe it's an age thing! I actually didn't mind it too much, initially I was picking out all the fruit and just leaving the nuts. Now I eat it all... great I must getting old... my taste buds are changing, oh no!

Taken from Wikipedia Bolo rei  is a traditional Portuguese cake that is usually eaten around Christmas, from December 25 until the Dia de Reis (literally Day of Kings, a reference to the three kings) on January 6. The cake itself is round with a large hole in the centre, resembling a crown covered with crystallized and dried fruit. The bolo rei is baked from a soft, white dough, with raisins, various nuts, and crystallized fruit. Also included is the characteristic "fava", and tradition dictates that whoever finds the fava has to pay for the bolo rei next year. Initially, a small prize was also included within the cake, but now that can be hazardous!

For those of you that are interested in the recipe, click here. My mom said this link shows you pretty much how she made hers, even includes a video.... Only thing it is in Portuguese, so you might have to use your translate options on your computer. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you've enjoyed learning a little more about our holiday traditions!

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Homemade Personalized Clay Ornaments

A few weeks ago I saw the cutest ornaments on Pinterest! What caught my attention was the recipe. It wasn't a salt dough  recipe like all the others I had seen. So I pinned it! I thought they would make great little gifts for the kids at school. Click here for the recipe and instructions!

Update: The link above no longer works sorry folks! I did find a similar recipe here so I will copy it out and include a link to it as well for the rest of the instructions! 

Recipe:

1 cup corn starch 

2 cups baking soda 

1.25 cups cold water

Here is a few photos and tips on how I made mine...

I found that the dough was very pliable, so when I first started cutting out my shapes they were getting stretched and started losing their shape when I transferred them to the baking sheet. So I decided to roll them out directly on to the Silpat, which also keeps them from sticking during the baking process. I then just removed the excess dough. This way the shapes were perfect, they didn't even crack! 

To make the whole, I just used the end of a straw!

To personalize each one of them I used a black ink pad and these great little alphabet stamps I found a Micheal's in their Dollar bins!

Aren't they so cute?... The cookie cutters I used were very small which makes them the perfect size for gift tags too! I had so much fun making these with my daughter, she wants to make more... maybe coloured ones next time!

Thanks for stopping by!

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DIY Recycled Snowman Lanterns

Good morning!

Today I wanted to share with you a really quick and fun project I made with my daughter this weekend! So fun and all done with supplies I had around the house...

Here's what you will need:

Glass jars

white glue or modge podge

paint or foam brush

coarse and fine salt

tooth pick (for nose)

felt or fabric

hot glue gun 

buttons

So here they are... aren't they adorable!?!

Here is a picture collage of how we did it...

The Nescafe jars were the perfect shape for these snowmen, but any shape would work.

Throw in a battery operated tea light and voila, it was that simple! Make one, make two or make a whole family! Just have fun :)

Happy crafting!

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Santa's Flying Ferris Wheel!

 I've been so crazy busy lately, I almost forgot about the SVG Cuts Christmas Facebook Challenge! I'm always up for the challenge and the prizes are amazing! So here is my entry... Santa's Flying Ferris Wheel! 

I absolutely love how it turned out and it makes such a great tabletop decoration. It approximately stands 16 inches high!

Look at Rudolf with his nose so bright! Isn't he adorable ;)

 Click here so see where I got my inspiration! Thanks Brigit!

Here are some more close up shots! To make the sled sturdy, I cut out 10 layers for each side, and glued them back to back.

Snowflake centre... The Star button comes from Paper Play Studio! Those little flair buttons are so cute!

The Ferris wheel baskets are the perfect fit for tea lights! On the front of the basket I took the image of the snowflake and cut it out of the centre  Shhhhh, don't tell anyone... I then used parchment paper instead of velum, only because it was so late at night and I had no velum left. Hey it did the trick didn't it?! Only thing is I had to use hot glue with it.... cause nothing sticks to parchment paper as I found out, lol! 

And isn't Santa so CUTE? Just want to squeeze his cheeks :)

Here is the Flying Ferris Wheel at night. It looks awesome!!! The kids love it too, especially all lit up!

The paper stack I used comes from Recollections Naughty or Nice Paper stack Collection.

And here are the SVG Cuts kits I used:

Santa's Visit SVG Kit

Summer Street Carnival SVG Kit

Christmas Cuddly Friends SVG Collection

3D Wintergreens SVG Kit

Clara's Christmas Eve SVG Kit

Thanks SVG Cuts for such great files to work with!

Wish me luck.... again!

Happy Crafting :)

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Angry Bird Cake

Today is mom's best friends birthday. Aida, who also happens to be my God Mother and is truly a very special lady! She helped raise us and I love her very much. I wish her a very special 60th Birthday today!

A few weeks ago her daughter told me she was secretly addicted to the Angry Bird Game... So she asked if I would make her an Angry Bird Themed Cake. Ooops, I guess she has now been outed, hope she's not ANGRY! Hehehehe, Oink, snort!

So here it is... I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!!!

Here are more pictures of the cake from different angles :)

For those of you that are curious how I made it, here are a few pictures I took of the cake along the way. I'll just briefly explain them.

• First thing I started with was modelling chocolate. Click here for the recipe. Once the chocolate was ready I rolled out some different sized balls. At this point I also made my wood logs. (Leave all your pieces to air dry overnight)
• Once the chocolate had hardened, I covered the balls with different colours of fondant. (I didn't by all these different colours, I just started with a white fondant and mixed it with icing colours until I achieved the colour I wanted)   
• Then all that is left are the details on the birds. (I referred to a picture I had printed to that I could look at) 
• Bake, ice and cover your cake with a crumb coat.
• Cover the cake with the fondant and have fun assembling!

That's pretty much it! These kinds of cakes can be time consuming. This one took me about 6 hours to make, but it's so worth the end result! Hope she is going to like it!

Hope you like my take on the Angry Birds Cake!

Have a great weekend :)

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