Franken-Mallows

I wanted to try something different than just the same ol pretzels that I had been doing for Lea's class. I thought about a couple different treats that would utilize what I had on hand as well.
I had marshmallows, lollipop sticks, and candy melts. For grins, I thought about putting the marshmallows on the sticks and dipping them. I made a couple and my kids loved them so that was it. Since it was Halloween, I tried to figure out how to make them holiday-appropriate. They were the perfect shape for Frankenstein heads!

Stuck the marshmallow on the stick. Dipped in melted green candy melts and stuck them in a box to dry. As they dried, I melted chocolate melts for the hair\top of the heads. I dipped just a bit of the top in the chocolate and stuck them back in the box to dry. I had some cake decorating gel pens that I drew the faces and neck screws on with.

I initially wanted to stick them in individual bags and tie off with Halloween ribbon so the kids could just take them home. But the decorating gel doesn't really dry and the bags would have ruined the look. I kept them in the box, covered with foil and just handed them out. They were a BIG hit :)

Birth Announcements

I know I just posted, but I wanted to get this on here before I forgot!
I don't like to have to rely on some ginormous company to relay important information to family, like a birth announcement. So for my first 2 kids, I made my own. LOVED Lea's, I'll have to find it and post it. Topher's was along the same lines as Lea's but more hastily thrown together, and I think it showed. With unknown -gender Number 3 due at the end of March, I figured I should get started on them now so all I have to do is fill out the important info, add a picture, and off they go!

Lea was 3 months old before her birth announcements went out.
But..uhh..that's neither here nor there... *cough*

I thought of using paper to create a pocket to add in the stats and a picture because some people will want to keep the picture but not the rest of the info. I found some cute printed paper that I feel is gender neutral but at the same time, not nursery\baby-ish. And a nice solid to go with it.

Also in my mess of stamps, I had not one baby themed stamp! So I got to buy some! This was also my first venture into the acrylic cling stamps. LOVE THEM! And such a space saver! No more blind stamping or bulky wooden blocks..yay! And in some cases, an entire sheet of stamps costs less than one wooden block stamp! The sheet that I got has 20 individual stamps on it. (http://www.joann.com/fiskar-clear-stamps-special-delivery/zprd_02315471a/)
The clear blocks you put the stamp on are a little pricier (always depends on the brand too), but those tend to be one-time purchases. I got a 2 pack that has a small block and a medium one.

Anyway....this is what I came up with. The end product measurement is 6in x 6in. The stat card (which is clearly my sample piece, can you tell I need new ink?) is 3.75in by 5in, and I will most likely color in the buggy with colored pencils. The pocket is also big enough to hold a 3.5in by 5in picture.

I LOVE how it turned out. And it can be easily changed to pink, blue, characters or whatever your theme is!

Pretzels!

Growing up, I always only ever had chocolate covered pretzels when I would join my mom at craft shows. As a kids those were super boring, so I rarely had pretzels :)

When I tried, and failed, at candy making, I still had molds and melts leftover that were too good (and expensive) to throw away. We had some pretzel rods and thought why not? Plus it was in time for one of Lea's class parties, so who better to be guinea pigs than a room full of kindergartners? The first party I got to do them for was Christmas\Holiday, but I didn't get a picture. The first party I got a picture for was Valentine's. The kids loved them, the teachers loved them and I got a request for them for the next party :)

The next time I made them I did some for St. Patrick's Day. No party, just a treat.

I definitely need to work on my drizzling skills..LOL. I like using fun sprinkles to make them cute to look at as well as taste yummy. Thinking of maybe playing with different types of 'crunches'; cookies n cream, caramel, chocolate, etc, to try 'gourmet' type flavors.

For their Easter\Spring party, I was short on cash so wasn't able to get cute sprinkles or sugars. Instead I bought the color burst melts which are white (vanilla) melts with colored sugars (I think sugars) mixed in. That way, there was color involved at less cost (and work) for me.

Cell phone picture, so the colors may not appear nicely.


When Chris transferred to a different plant at his job, he wanted to bring in a treat for his then current co-workers. I had two bags of melts and a tub of pretzel rods, perfect. Even better, the melts were green and yellow. Living in a Chicago suburb, we catch a lot of flack for being Packer fans. Luckily Chris' co-workers liked to playfully tease him about it, so I made Packer pretzels for his last day. :)

Drizzling has gotten better, but I need to figure out how I can do several at a time, in a small space, without them getting stuck together!