Valentine's Day Candy Sundaes / Ice Cream Soda

This is the first year I don't have an elementary school age child celebrating Valentine's Day at their school. I admit I'm kind of sad knowing that part of my children's growing up is over. I will miss participating in the school celebration (Valentine's Day was always my favorite kid party) and buying those boxes of Valentine's Day cards that the children share with their classmates.
In addition to the school parties, we've always done a family Valentine's Day celebration of some sort. This year we'll be celebrating with some Valentine's Day Candy Sundaes. I made Candy Sundae's using green Cocoa Cola glasses,  from the dollar store, for the bottom of the sundae, a variety of candy for the 'ice cream', curling ribbon for the whipped cream and tootsie pops for the cherry. I guess these really look more like an Ice Cream Soda since I used Coke glasses to hold the candy. 
Also, I used free printable Valentine's Day cards from Anders Ruff. There are several tutorials around showing you how to build these adorable treats. I found this tutorial at Between Naps on the Porch to be the best way to make these. Have a try at making these. They were very well received by my kids and hubby (yes, he got one too).

Later tonight, for dessert we will have real ice cream sundae's with all the fixings (ice cream, strawberries, bananas, Nutella, fudge, nuts, whipped cream and of course cherries)!

X0X0x0
Happy Valentine's Day!

Paper Covered Clothespin Tutorial

Paper Covered Clothespin Tutorial

This tutorial shows you how to make paper covered clothespins to be used to clip Anders Ruff Advent Calendar Treat Cones to an Advent tree, garland, calender, etc.

Note: This tutorial could be used to make any paper covered clothespin clip with scrapbook paper, decorative card stock, printable paper, or any type decorative heavy weight paper.




I like to work in assembly line .. Here is my workspace laid out to make the first set of Advent Cones and paper covered clothespin clips.










You will need:
Wooden clothespins
Decorative paper (I prefer heavy weight or cardstock)
Craft/Scrapbook tape-runner adhesive
1/8 or 1/4 inch ribbon

For each clothespin, cut out a 3 inch by 1 inch piece of cardstock or heavy weight decorative paper. I found that each Anders Ruff water bottle printable image worked perfect to make four strips for four clothespins.


Next, you will attach the 3 inch x 1 inch strip of decorative card stock paper to the clothespin using an all-purpose scrapbook/craft tape-runner adhesive. On the back side of the paper strip, place a strip of adhesive down the middle(longways).

Note: You could glue or decoupage to do the paper to clothespin(s). I was short on time and found this to be quick and the craft tape-runner adhered quite while.


Place your clothespin on top of the adhesive that you just placed down the back side of decorative paper strip.




At this point press firmly so that the paper adheres well to the clothespin...


I know, the paper strip is wider than the clothespin. You are going to take care of that now but doing some trimming ...


Turn the clothespin upside down so that the decorative paper side is facing down. Now with an X-acto knife, razor blade, mini rotary cutter, or any utility knife, trim the paper close to the edge of the clothespin.


See...A nice smooth cut and the paper fits perfectly

Don't worry that it doesn't cover the top of the clothespin .. you will be covering this up later. If you wish to not decorate the top of the clothespin you will want to cut the strip longer (such as 4 inches) in the previous step.

Next, cut one of the circles from the Classic Holiday collection printabales (you can use the circles on the water bottle printables or any of the cards in this collection).




Next, place a strip of adhesive down the middle on the backside of the cut out circle.


Place the circle on the center top of the clothespin...make sure to press firmly so that the circle cut out sticks well to the clothespin.


Next, cut a 12 inch piece of ribbon (i used 1/8 inch grosgrain ribbon) and tie it around the top side of the clothespin.


Make a bow


Trim the ribbon ...


Get your Advent treat cone and clip on your finished paper covered clothespin to the cone ...








Your done! It's that easy!!

Here are some finished paper covered clothespin clips with their Advent Cones ....






I used Anders Ruff Advent Treat Cones and embellished clothespins to make an Advent Tree.

Pink-O-Ween Halloween

 
Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love to decorate this time of year with all the great fall colors, orange, yellow, black, red, brown...and pink! Yes pink!!! This year we took the plunge and went for a pink and black halloween party theme. Thanks to Anders Ruff, my daughter and I were completely inspired to have a Pink-O-Ween party to celebrate Halloween along with celebrating her 11th birthday. I purchased a personalized Pink-0-Ween party invitation and printable Pink-O-Ween Halloween design collection from Anders Ruff Custom Designs on Etsy. During the month of October they will donate $2 The Susan G. Komen Foundation in honor of October's Breast Cancer Awareness month. I can't say enough nice things about the invitation and printable design collection ... and so friendly to work with.

Come have a look at our Pink-O-Ween Halloween 11th Birthday Party that we created with Anders Ruff great printable design collection, some internet searching, some imagination, cooking, sewing and a bit of creativity...
Personalized party invitation made by Anders Ruff. I printed the invitation on white card stock and assembled the party invitations by attaching the printed invitation onto pink & black card stock. I found some really cool black card stock that felt like leather...the girls loved their invitations!


The party food was in our dining room. I decorated my dining room hutch with the printable Pink-O-Ween Halloween design collection. And I made a paper spider web using Jennifer's hanging spider tutorial over at Muse Lodge ... so easy, so cute!

 RIP Graveyard Dirt Cake Cups
..always a good treat

 Ingredients:
• 1 (20 oz) package chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 (3.9 oz) packs instant chocolate pudding mix
• 3 cups milk
• 1 (12 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 package of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies
• 1 bottle of Black Cookie Icing
• 16 Candy Pumpkins
• Pink colored sugar sprinkles
• 16 (9 oz) clear Plastic Cups


Directions:
1. Put the chocolate sandwich cookies in a food processor and process until they become fine crumbs. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the butter or margarine, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla flavoring. Beat on low speed to mix then beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the chocolate pudding mix and milk to the bowl. Beat on low speed to combine.
3.Fold the whipped topping into the pudding mixture with a rubber spatula.
4. In each clear plastic cup, assemble in layers as follows: first layer, 1/3 cookie crumbs; second layer, 1/2 pudding mixture; third layer, 1/3 cookie crumbs; fifth layer, 1/3 cookie crumbs.
5. Decorate each Pepperidge Farm Milano cookie with black frosting by piping the letters RIP (or whatever you choose) at the top of each cookie.
6. Insert decorated Milano cookie into each plastic cup and place a candy pumpkin next to and in front of inserted cookie.
7. Garnish top of each graveyard with pink sprinkles (optional).

For a little splash of pink I used Pepperidge Farm's Strawberry Chocolate Milano cookies and garnished with neon pink sugar sprinkles

Pink lemonade with spiders and lemonade spider ice cubes.
A creepy punch bowl filled with pink lemonade, spiders & lemonade spider ice cubes all labled with a Tickled Pink Punch tag had the girls thinking something real special.

Small bottles of water labeled "Pink-0-Ween Potion" got some giggles
and good conversation going among the 11 year old girls...
Who would have guessed?! 


Creepy Cookies
I made little mice cookies (actually they were more like a truffle) and scattered them around the cookie serving platters amongst little pink-o-ween boxes that were filled with strawberry and chocolate wafer cookies. I have to say the little mice were quite tasty!
Grape Jello molded into a Brain
...ewwwwww! 
Finger Sandwiches
PB&J on homemade Pink Bread..yep...pink bread
Easy to do by just adding a few drops of neon pink food coloring (or even some beet juice) to your favorite homemade white bread recipe. If you don't want to make your own bread, purchase bread dough and kneed some food coloring into your dough before rising and baking.

 Sweet Treats
Pink and white marshmallows decorated with black frosting.
Pink rice krispie treat pops (added neon pink food coloring while making the rice krispie treats)

Boo Pops
Tooties pop lolipops wrapped in pink and black fabric and tied with some ribbon...the girls gobbled these up in no time. For the props I wrapped foam blocks in foil and the covered them in pink and black tulle. Great little props for treats, pops and lollies.

My mom found this adorable "Queen of Halloween" wooden hat decoration which made a great table decoration. I think we'll be using this for many years.

My all time passion is sewing and creating with fabric so I had to sew something but wanted something quick and cute. So for each of our guests, I made these white, pink and black Candy Corn Shaped Goodie Bags using crushed velvet and added some ribbon for the pull ties. I filled each bag with pink nail polish, pink nerds, pink & black bubble tape gum, and playdough. My daughter made thank you name tags for each goodie bag from the printable Pink-O-Ween design collection.

Pink-O-Ween Apron

I couldn't resist... Punkie Pie's loves aprons
so I made a pink & black apron ... great for any Pink-O-Ween hostess!
Aprons can be purchased on Etsy at Punkie Pie's Boutique

Pink Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treat Decorating
This was a 4 hour party so it was a must to keep these girls busy..one activity we did was I made pink pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats and had the girls decorate them with frosting and sprinkles.

 

After eating all this sugar it was time to run it off by playing a Cotton Ball Relay...
2 teams, 2 bags of cotton balls, 2 bowls...the object of the game is to get all the cotton balls from your pile (or bag), that are at one end of the room, into a bowl at the opposite end of the room...no hands allowed!

So much fun watching them scoop, push, scoot and even hop.

I think the girls all had a good time.
I know my daughter loved it and really enjoyed herself - it's what it's all about...
...lots of smiles and giggles!!

Happy Pink-O-Ween

I'm so glad I found Anders Ruff and their Pink-O-Ween Halloween Design Collection. Head over to their shop and see all the wonderful collections they offer.
I can't wait to for Christmas......