Chocolate Christmas Houses

Every family has their own unique holiday traditions. Decorating chocolate Christmas houses would be one of my family's that we do on Thanksgiving. We have the typical Thanksgiving meal followed by a white elephant Christmas gift game then we decorate Christmas houses, and to end the night we go see a movie. My favorite tradition since I was a young child has been decorating the chocolate Christmas houses. Many people do ginger bread house so doing chocolate ones are unique and so much fun as well as full of sugar. I am going to share how we created the house step by step because these are not store bought houses.



Idems needed:

• chocolate (we get wilton's meltable chocolate from Michael's Craft store)
• house mold (can be found at GyGi's)
• bowls
• a pan
• spoons
• a microwave/stove top
• a freeze
• Powered Sugar
• Water
• Margine Powder
• Lots and lots of candy
• cardboard platter
• mixer

Steps:

1.  Melt the chocolate and put into the house molds
2. Freeze for about an hour
3.  Take out of freeze and mold, then clean up the edges
4. Melt some additional chocolate and mold into house shape
5. Use powder sugar, margarine powder, and water to make frosting
6. Put frosting onto cardboard.
7. Place house on frosted cardboard and decorate, using frosting as glue    

There you have it, a wonderful chocolate Christmas houses that you can use for decoration and to eat.
 

Homemade Variation of Rice Krispes Treats

Rice Krispy Treats are a popular treat across the country, you can make at home or purchase at the store. Everyone loves them from children to adults. I decided to try out some different variations of the popular treat; Rice Chex Treats are a fun varition then adding additional ingredients makes the classic treat more fun and surprising

Items needed:

• 6 cups Rice Chexs
• 7 cups Marshmellows
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups cashews
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• pot
• wooden spoon
• glass pan
• stove top

Instructions:

1. Melt Marshmellow in pan and stir until fully melted
2. Mix in Vanilla
3. Mix in rice chex and cashews 
4. pour into glass pan
5. sprinkle chocolate chips over treats
6. let sit 30 minutes
7. Enjoy!

Decorated Wine glasses

Hello Cyber World,

Do this week i have been looking for some cute matching wine glasses but everyone I have found has been $40 to $50 a set. I found a set that I loved on etsy but figured it couldn't be to hard to replicate, which it wasn't. I found a diy version of it on Pinterest and couldn't resist trying it out. 

Items needed: 

-2 colors of paint

-2 wine glasses ( if you just want to do one that's fine as well)

So before I start explaining how to do this I'm going to note, don't push too hard on the paint bottle or it will explode and will cause you to change colors. 

1. Start out with the letter with the paint and then paint out. Makes things much easier. Use one paint color

2. With other paint color make curls, lines, dots, etc.

3. Switch back to other color and do a different design. 

There you have it, matching wine glasses. I think they turned out pretty well and can't wait to use them. They could be used for personal use or given as a gift. They could be made with any color and many different  designs and even letter fonts to fit everyone's own personality. 

Etched Glass

While browsing through Pinterest the other day I had found some cool looking etched glass cups, vases, etc. I thought they were awesome and would be very convenient for my boyfriend since he has mastered forgetting which glass is his. I also have been wanting make a centerpiece for my table but the etched glass vases were $50. I don't have $50 laying around, I'm a college student!

The items your going to need are

-glass (cups, vase, etc.)

-paint brushes

-marker

-tape

-scissor/razor blade

-etching pain (I used Martha Stewarts)

-water

-paper towel

Steps: 

1. Must paper out and write name or other desired words.

2. Cut out the words with scissors/razor

3.Tape to glass. For the vases I taped the design I wanted without the paper.

4. Using paint brush, paint on etching paint.

5. Remove the tape and paper.

6. Using paper towel and water wipe off the extra paint where you don't want it.

7. Let dry for atleast a half hour 

After dried your glass has been etched! 

I personally think they look way cool! This vase will defiently add to any flower arrangement or centerpiece. I'm really excited to use these. My boyfriend will not be able to miss place which glass is his now because it has his name etched onto it.

Ghosts in a bowl

So Halloween is coming up here in a few weeks, so I thought it would be fun to do something related to the Holiday! This is a kid friend craft that I have loved since I was a kid. My dad and I did it a few times. Plus it's also a great treat for those cute trick or treats that will be coming around here in a few weeks. 

These are the items that will be needed; 

-A bowl

-scissors

-tape

-black marker

-suckers in the shape as tootsie pops or blow pops

-tissue paper

What to do:

1. Your going to fold the tissue paper into  half

2. Cut the paper in half (as shown below)

3.Fold the tissue paper around the sucker.

4. Wrap tape right between the c sucker and its stick. 

5. Then draw a face on the top of the sucker

6. Place the ghosts in a bowl however you please 

There you have ghosts in a bowl! 

With this project the pin I had found said to use tissue, while I used tissue paper. I found that when drawing faces on the ghost the tissue paper didn't rip as easily like the tissue did. Also the pin said to use string, when ever do you see a ghost with a string or necklace around their neck? I certainly never have.

Name Badge Reel Cover

I recently started a new job where I have to wear a name badge that has a string attached so I can use my badge to unlock doors, clock in and out, and have access to many other things. I was talking to one of the girls I work with and she mentioned that she was so sick of the boring black symbols, which I totally agree with her on. So I looked up how to make some covers to put some life and color into them. Most of them I found were ones I could purchase so this may be the first diy pin of its kind on pinterest.

  Items needed for this project are:

• Hot Glue
• Scissors
• Buttons
• Fabric
• Retractable Base 

1.Warm up your hot glue gun

2. you cut your fabric into smaller pieces

3. Hot glue the fabric to the front of the button

4. fold small pieces of the fabric to the back of your button in small sections.

5. hot glue the button to the retractable base

And there you have a much more exciting name badge base.

Owl cupcakes

Owls seem to be a popular trend right now. I've seen them everywhere lately. Which I find very understandable, they are beautiful animals. They also represent wisdom and helpfulness, which is something that we could use more of all the time. When I found that owl cupcakes on Pinterest, I just had to try them. They were so cute! owl cupcakes

The items that are needed are the following: 

-chocolate cake mix

-whatever is called for with the cake mix (eggs, water, oil, etc.) 

-chocolate frosting

-cupcake liners

-cupcake pans

-Reese's pieces 

-measuring cups

-spoon

-bowl

-Oreos

1. Preheat oven at the temperature the box says. 

2. Put cake mix and others items called for on the box in a bowl.

3. Mix items together. 

4. Put mix into cupcake pan with liners 

5. Bake then put the cupcakes in freezer for 20 to 30 minutes.

6. Pull the cupcakes out of the freezer and frost them 

7. Take Oreos and split in half and placing the side with frosting onto the cupcake.

8. Then add two brown Reese's as eyes and an orange for the beak.

There you have it, Owl Cupcakes. A few things that I did differently was I didn't use frosting to stick the Reese's onto the Oreo's, I simply just stuck them on and it worked perfect. I also didn't put the Oreo's into the microwave but i think it would have smart to.  I also skipped using toothpicks for ears but it could have made them look cuter. I also learned that you get about 14 sets of eyes from each pack of Oreos, which isn't something any other pin posted.
I hope you enjoy this post!
-AM