Photo Candle for Mother's Day

I've been away, and have just realized that Sunday is Mother's Day!  Luckily I found this super easy project on the web last night via bhg - personalized photo candles - and whipped it out in no time...the perfect solution for a Last Minute Mother's Day gift.

You don't need much for this project and I had everything on hand, so it didn't cost anything.  Gotta love heartfelt gifts that are thrifty, too.  :)

  All you need is:
Candle (I had a vanilla one, which smells heavenly)
White Tissue Paper
Printer
Glue/Hot Gun

Directions:
1. Find a photo you want to use.  I converted mine to sepia tone, and dragged it onto a Word Document to print.
2. Tape a single layer of tissue paper onto a piece of printer paper.  See below.  Make sure the tissue paper stretches tightly across the paper so you don't run into printing issues.  I just taped a large piece onto the paper, and then made sure that the photo was lined up on the page on my computer so that it printed onto the patch of tissue paper.
3. Print
4. Cut out carefully
5. Because I wanted to play around with the positioning of the photo on the candle, I used a glue stick to glue the photo onto the candle.  BHG recommends using a heat gun.  I will probably do this later as I am now happy with my placement of the photo.  I am going to use a hairdryer.  The heat is supposed to melt the wax enough to adhere the photo to the candle.  Pretty Cool.

And here is the end result:  

Below, I added some raffia

 linking here

x0x

Mel

Marshmallow Bunnies

A quick, fun Marshmallow Bunny treat...

and all you need is marshmallows, scissors, food pen!

(inspiration from Family Fun)

1. Marshmallow

2.  Cut with scissors just less than half way through marshmallow.

(horizontal cut as shown)

3. Make another cut to form ears.

(vertical cut as shown)

4. Gently push the body part of the marshmallow towards the ears to cover the gap made by the cut.

5. Add tail by cutting a new marshmallow into little squares and rolling into a ball shape.

(Attach to marshmallow bunny by the sticky part of the tail, or with a small amount of icing.)

(scuz terrible photography...kinda cracks me up...the more I looked at these photos, 
the more I started laughing hysterically (a trait I have inherited from my mother)
at the fact that I am actually posting these awful photographs...
but I have 4 kids and little time, and the kids have already eaten these treats! so NoCanDo on the re-photographing option...
but note to self...horizon lines!!!...and Take Photography Lessons ASAP!!! ;)

xox 

Mel

Bunny Crackers

A fun snack for kids using cheese sliced and cut out with a cookie cutter; 

ritz crackers and some lettuce and carrots.  

Mayo eyes and lettuce-piece smiles!

xox

Mel

Easter Bunny Placecards and Banner

On the weekend I made some Easter Bunny Placecards...

I just used some heavy card-stock scrap paper and cotton balls
(and some yarn for bunny necklaces.)

Glue a cotton ball close to the base of the bunny so that it can support the weight of the cardstock.

Mine cooperated, but they do fall over pretty easily so I made a little support
(pic on left) 

It is just a strip of card stock taped on along the base for the bunny to lean on.  

If you add the support, just place the cotton ball around it, to hide it.

Here's what they look like from the back...

View from back and front
(I made little yarn necklaces and cut out a flower from cardstock scrap.)

I will probably personalize them later, by adding names across the bottom

They were so cute, I made more to hang as an Easter banner in the window.

update:  linking here

xox

Mel

Cake-Mix Cookies

Here's a super quick and easy treat to make this weekend with the kids...cookies made from cake mix.  These did not last long in our house ;)

{recipe from parents.com.}

ps.  I know I am a not the world's greatest photographer, but I just could not stop photographing these things ;)

Happy Weekend!

xox

Mel

Rejoice with your Family

Loved this quote I came across today over at Jenny Springer Photography:

xox

Mel

Chick Nuggets

To make little Chick Nuggets you will need:

* Chicken nuggets

* Carrot

* Cheese

* Fruit Leather

* Pasta

* And probably more patience than me ;)

 

Peel carrot and cut a little bit off the top.  

Cut a v-shaped groove into one end. 

Cut a hole into nugget to hold carrot in place. (I used the end of an apple peeler)

Using kitchen scissors, cut a small slice of cheese into a heart shape with a "stem"

Cut a round hole into the top of the nugget and insert stem of cheese.

Using kitchen scissors, cut out eye shapes from fruit leather.

 

 

Or you can use corn instead of cheese...

xox

Mel

Free Printable Quote

I came across this quote today on tumblr and really loved it so I whipped up my own version to put on my desk...

 
Here it is in my dining room 

* * * you can print your own by double clicking on the quote and saving it to your desktop.  Then drag the file into Word.  I made the quote to fit inside a 4 x 6 frame but you can resize by clicking on the image in Word and dragging the handles.  Hit Print and you're done!
  

x0x 
Mel

No Bake Marshmallow Lamb Cookies

While flipping through a magazine a while back, I saw some really cute lamb cookies made with meringue.  I am quite aware of my shortcomings in the kitchen, and so I know that meringue is something that I should never even think about baking...so I felt a little sad that the cute little cookies were not in my future until last weekend, when I was looking through the pantry and spotted some graham crackers and mini marshmallows.
Hello, lamb cookies....
No bake "anything" is the perfect match for me!

All the ingredients were already in my kitchen:

*Graham Crackers
*Mini Marshmallows
*1 T Confectioners Sugar (and a drop of milk to make icing)
*Blueberry Craisins (although raisins should work fine)
*Black edible pen

To get the shape below, cut the graham cracker gently in a sawing motion with a serrated knife

The icing acts like glue so that the marshmallows stick to the graham cracker

Fill the graham cracker with the marshmallows...in terms of number or order...whatever works is my style, I just made sure the marshmallows slightly overlapped the edge.

Microwave for approximately 10 seconds on high...the marshmallows should be just slightly puffed up and look like this...

Gently push the marshmallows together and flatten slightly...

Becareful because they could be very hot.

Add your blueberry craisin and draw in an eye and maybe a smile :)

The kids absolutely loved these and thought that the blueberry craisin was a perfect complement to the overall taste.  However, after eating about three of them, one of my children remarked:  "Mom, these are SO GOOD...what are they?  Little Fishies?

So much for my little spring lambs...but I guess at least they tasted good ;)


update:  linking here

Painting with Bob The Builder

My little guy loves Bob the Builder and is always playing with his "Bob and the team" toys.  He either spends hours playing with all the vehicles (especially in the dirt outside) or he dons his Bob toolbelt and destroys fixes the house for me... such a helpful little chap ;)

So I thought he would really enjoy painting with Dizzy, Muck, Scoop and Rolly

The great thing about this project is that it uses supplies on hand:

*Paper (I have a jumbo roll which I am always using for kid related fun)
*Paint
*Apron
*Paper Plates
*Bob the Builder's Team

(I just used paint colors I had on hand, but if I had had yellow and green paint, I would have co-ordinated the paint with the vehicles.)

He really had a lot of fun with this, but I think the funnest part was cleaning up...

(which is always a good thing for us mothers)

Surprisingly, this project did not make a lot of mess...maybe due to the large roll of paper...we will definitely do this again.


update:  linking here