Valentine's Subway Art {Free Printable}

I decided to try my hand at making some Valentine Subway Art since I just went crazy downloading a bunch of cute fonts over at 1001 Free Fonts. I must have downloaded about 20 new fonts! I love free things (especially if I can use it)  and I'm sure you do too. So if you can get some use out of some Valentine Subway Art feel free to right click the picture or just click the link below and download it for yourself.

Download Valentine's Subway Art

*For personal use only 

and please give credit where it is due.

You want to know something crazy? As soon as I finish posting this I think I will go and download a few more fonts!

Chocolate Covered Oreos (tutorial)

So this month I tried my hand at making these chocolate dipped Oreos. At first I had a hard time with it and than I realized it was just because I was over-complicating it (I blame it on being a perfectionist). Once I realized that, this project became very simple!

To make chocolate covered Oreos all you need is:

• Oreos
• Chocolate melts
• shortening
• fork
• wax paper/foil

Directions:

1) Melt your chocolate melts and about 2 tbs of shortening per bag (directions on bag)

2) put your Oreo into the melted chocolate, use your fork to make sure the entire cookie is covered (I usually need to scoop some extra chocolate to cover the top and sides)

3) Using your fork lift the cookie out of the chocolate and tap the fork gently on the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. As you do this the chocolate will also naturally smooth itself out.

4) Place your covered cookie on some wax paper or foil to dry.

*if you wish to add sprinkles, add them before the chocolate dries

*if you want to drizzle a different color chocolate on your cookie to fancy it up wait until the chocolate dries before drizzling.

  

Simple right?! So you are probably wondering how I seemed to over complicate such a simple process. Well as you see in the photo above, the white chocolate on the top two cookies isn't very smooth, here's why. During my first attempt at making these cookies here are all the things I did wrong: dipping the cookies with my fingers, using a toothpick instead of a fork, shaking the dipped cookies instead of tapping, not tapping gently, dipping half of the cookie at a time, and using a knife to spread on the chocolate.

To make a long story short, none of those methods worked and I made a mess.

If you want to make these cute reindeer chocolate covered Oreos just add two Keebler Fudge Dipped Pretzels for antlers, a red M&M for a nose, and two dots of brown chocolate for eyes.

*Eyeball variations: roll tootsie rolls into balls or mini chocolate chips 

It's a Boy Baby Shower

 I recently helped throw a baby shower and had a lot of fun making the gifts and centerpieces. It took me a while to come up with the actual decorations. Baby things are always so cute and I've made a traditional diaper cake and a diaper bassinet in the past but I really wanted to do something a little more special this time. Determining gifts was simple. I crocheted the stuffed bunny, a beanie, and sewed a few burpcloths. A new mother can never have enough diapers so I bought an economy pack of size 1 diapers. Then I figured I could buy a bunch of other baby items and figure out how to use them all in the centerpieces and decor. That's one of my favorite things about baby shower centerpieces, you never have to worry about being stuck taking any of it home because it all goes home with the mommy!

The theme was "It's a boy!" because after 5 girls they were finally having a boy. With the theme in mind I was drawing a creative blank. So I searched the internet for some inspiration. I saw these cute little animal themed shower diaper centerpieces over at Pintrest:

Safari Diaper Cake centerpieces

Aren't they adorable. Luckily I had some "It's a Boy" ribbon. So I came up with these. I just rolled 4 diapers up and secured the roll with a rubber band. Then I wrapped with the ribbon and topped with a "It's a Boy" flower and some curled ribbon. The flower was made with some blue card stock and the center of the flowers are just cute cupcake toppers.

Next I made a few motorcycles out of two receiving blankets, more diapers, mittens, a bib, a bottle, and some more ribbon. They were cute after that, but I still thought that it needed something. So I found a license plate template and inserted the families name and "BAYBE" to give it just a little extra touch of personalization.

Now I had planned on just making another bassinet diaper cake, but then I thought to myself, "Bassinets and motorcycles do not go together ." (Yes I know the flowers don't really go with them either) So I was determined to somehow make a race car. Here's what we ended up with. The "grill" is a beanie, the frame of the car is made out of some diapers and wipes, more diapers for the wheels, and a burpcloth and receiving blanket to cover it all up. I wouldn't be able to do this again because I have no idea how I wrapped it to end up making it look like that. At the shower the little girls thought it was a stroller until they saw the back...

I added a little "Baby on Board" sign and another license plate. (If all else fails, add a sign that says what it's supposed to be, right?)

And I of course had to bake some semi-homemade Devil's food cupcakes. I made the toppers out of chocolate covered Oreo cookie bark (a rice crispy made with Oreo's instead of rice cereal)  and some creamy White Chocolate Frosting. I still haven't been able to find a cupcake tower or tree that will hold 2 dozen cupcakes so I decided to make my own. It was really simple, I just covered some boxes with scrapbook paper and a $0.37 poster board. I added some extra touches with the paper clothing clothes line. I won't be able to use it again but it went perfectly with all of the other decor in the room!

I'm hoping to be able to do this again for a girl next time!

Pacman Ghost Bunting

I love decorating for the holidays and Halloween is no exception. However, I'm not into all the spooky scary stuff (I watch Scooby Doo movies, Monster House, and Igor to get into the Halloween spirit). I like cute monsters that would be your friend instead of keeping me afraid of the dark. So I decided to take some inspiration for my ghostly friends from an old school arcade favorites; Pacman ghosts! When my parents first met it was while working at McDonalds and during their breaks they would play Pacman against each other! Therefore these little guys hold a special little place in my heart. Plus since felt is so inexpensive and the ribbon I used was just some left over material from a previous project, this cute little bunting cost me only about $2 to make! On to the tutorial.

Supplies:

• Some black and white felt
• ghost template (below)
• glue
• needle
• black and white thread
• permanent marker
• white color pencil
• Ribbon

Here is the template that I used for my ghosts, click on the image and print it out or just put your paper to the computer and trace. Each ghost require two of each image.

Cut out your template and trace your pieces out on the felt. Since my bunting has 7 ghosts (4 white and 3 black). I traced 8 white ghosts, 6 black ghosts, 14 big white ovals, and 14 small black ovals.

Cut out your felt pieces. Now you're ready to put your little ghosts together.

Hand sew the little black ovals onto the white ovals for eyes. Glue your eyes onto 4 white ghosts and 3 black ghosts. Put them on the side to dry.

Now with the left over ghosts, place and sew them onto your bunting ribbon like so...

Your glue should be about dry now. To make sure the eyes stay on I like to do a quick stitch over the pupils of the eyes.

Now just use your sewing machine to sew the eyed ghost onto the ghosts that have already been sewn to the bunting ribbon. And there you have it! Some Pacman Ghost Bunting!

You could also use the same template to make cute little ghostly door hangers!

 

Cupcake box

These cupcake boxes are so cute and simple to make. I found the template at this website. It makes getting a cupcake as a gift even more special!

72 Hour Starter Kit Gift

With it being wedding season, I wanted to think of a cute bridal shower gift. We usually give money at the receptions, and a lot of brides don't always include small, low priced gifts on their registry. So I came up with these 72 Hour Starter kits. My sister in law is getting married soon. The only things on her registry were furniture and I figured almost everyone else would be getting her lingerie. I would have loved to have one of these when we first got married because it's one of those things that can slip our minds but is still so important to have. I bought a bunch of travel sized toiletries, a sewing kit, some bandages, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and got a 72 hour checklist (shrunk it down and laminated it) and placed them all in a decorated cookie tin. Voila a 72 Hour Starter Kit!
 

Coffee Filter Flowers

Believe it or not these flowers are not real. They are actually made out of cone shaped coffee filters! I found the template here. They are a bit time consuming but they are so beautiful and lifelike that I almost wish I could get married again just so I can fill the reception hall with beautiful flowers like these! Supplies needed for these flowers were:

-coffee filters

-floral tape

-template

-scissors

-floral wire

-a bowl of water

-food coloring

-a chopstick or pencil

After tracing the templates onto the filters, cut them out. Next, roll and tape the petals onto the wire as tightly as possible; starting from petals 1 working your way up to petals 7 & 8. I don't use the leaves. When you are done adding all the petals it should look something like this.

Next I dip the flowers in some water that has been colored with food coloring. Then I hang them upside down from their stems and let them dry overnight. Be careful not to let the flowers touch each other while they are drying or the color will not dry evenly. The effect from allowing them to dry upside down will be that the tips of the petals will be slightly darker just like on real flowers.

Once your flower has dried pull the petals out and away from the center like so:

Then comes the fun part! Shape and adjust your petals to make them look more lifelike. I like to take a Japanese style chopstick and roll the tips of the petals in different directions. Remember the petals on real flowers never look exactly alike so make the petals curl in different areas. And there you have your finished product!

Since I will not be getting married again, I may just have to throw an garden themed party! These flowers also make a great gift, and are much more affordable than the real thing. I was able to make 20 flowers for under $10. Plus these will never die!