Kids Card Class

We had fun outside crafting this morning. We played with punches and made 4 fun cards!

Cyndee's Wedding Shower

As I begin to pack for my trip I decided to show another past shower.  Today it's Cyndee's showers turn to be in the spotlight ;)  the lunch was simple, but looked so nice.  My favorite would have to be the skewers with the double chocolate hearts!  For favors we gave out a heart shaped cookie cutter with a little message attached with their wedding date and a cookie recipee! 

Amanda Shower

Another flash back shower :)  Oh how I will miss seeing my Sierra family every day!  Here is my matchy matchy bridal shower for my friend Amanda!!! 

Gift Wrap

Cake using the Cricut (pre Cricut Cake)

Candy Bar Favors

Tables using the favors and fruit as decorations

Erika's Baby Shower

After Nicole's shower I wanted to flash back to some fun showers from the past!  These fruit skewer food centerpieces were from my cousin Erika's baby shower.  She did not know if she was having a boy or a girl so we decorated for both using pink and blue.  The potted plant in the front was the table centerpiece.  They had a baby on the front and then baby things mixed into the centerpiece (using the cricut)!

Nicole's Shower

Here are two pictures from Nicole's shower!  The first one has the little purse and the second shows the cake bites I made on the stand.  Though they turned out well I think the stand needed something like a bow or some color ;)

Nicole's Purse

This is the first version of my Zebra Purse!  I loved it but, the only problem is that the paper was a little thin.  When I filled the purses they were not as stiff as the second one I made.  With this one I glued the black on the front of the purse and the jewel before I assembled the purse.  This way it was solid and dry before it sits up as a purse.  Again the thin material made it hard for the purses to stay closed because the top was sturdy and wanted to pop out.     

For fun I made the "love" tag.  I figured it was fitting for a wedding favor :)

Stampin' Up!
Punches: Tag
Stamps Tiny Tags

10 cards for $10 Class

10 cards for $10 Class

Date Change to June 27th  6:30-8:30pm 

Panera Bread, Stockton

Cake Bite Try Two

I would love to say this was my first try but I would be lying!  I have only tried one other time, but it was a flop!!!  The cake part was great, but the dipping part was lets just say less than perfect!  So I thought I would put my steps on my blog to help others and more than anything remind myself later of how I made them!  Last time my chocolate was too thick, so called a few friends and went online.  My favorite website was crickpop.com!  She had a whole troubleshooting info pages of her trials of cake pop making!  So here we go!!! 

I started with a box cake mix and a can of frosting.  I needed Red Velvet and this was the only box they had.  YOU DO NOT NEED THE FILLING if you buy a box like this.  Follow the directions on the box of how to make your cake and bake it to the directions for your pan size.  Once the cake is done and a bit cool scrape it into a large mixing bowl and mix in 1 can of frosting.  I learned that if your cake is too hot the ball mix is too sticky ;(

 Next form your cake bite balls.  I wanted them all to be about the same size so they looked nice on the stand and to get an accurate count of how many it would make in the future.  To help with this I used my small Pampered Chef scoop (if I were making cake pops I would use the Med Scoop).  I scooped them out and then put them on a piece of plastic wrap on cookie sheets or in a stack able container in the frig to cool for 5 hours.  (many of my friends freeze them but I read a lot of people online talking about the cake pops cracking from the expansion as they warm?!?) Not to mentioned it did not work for me last time so I was all about trying something new :)

 I took one layer out of the frig at a time.  First I rerolled each  layer to make them smooth.  They are a little rough when they first come out of the frig.

 Ahhhh, my saving products, or so I think.  Everything was the same as my first try until I got to this step.  Last time I put my chocolate in a double broiler on the stove.  I don't know if it got too hot, or the bowl was too big, or if I added too much chocolate, or I did not add enough oil or a mix of things, but last time did not work.  Friends said they used a small bowl and the microwave, so I thought I would leave old school heating and join the microwave era. 

 I put a half of a bag of the chocolates and a little bit of virgin olive oil into the bowl and put it in the microwave for a minute, stopping every 20 seconds to stir.  This great ceramic bowl did wonders.  After about a minute of stirring it was ready.  I dropped each bite in one at a time, swirling it in the cup to coat it.  Then I used the candy dipper to lift it out and tip it onto the plastic wrap lined container .  (Before I had a thicker dipping tong and it was hard to get off the dipper without making a mess.  My friend used a tooth pick but that did not give me enough support, I kept dropping them last time).

The shower is black white and red.  I did not want to use black frosting as drizzle so I used sprinkles.  I covered about 8 bites and then sprinkled.  If they are drying faster or you are taking a bit longer sprinkle 4 at a time.  Once they harden the sprinkles will not stick ;) 

 All done and sorry for the bad picture.  I let them sit for about 10 minutes and then cut one in half so you can see all the colors together and up close.  All together 1 cake mix, 1 can of frosting and 2 bags of Wilton's chocolate melts made a whopping 65 cake bites!!! 

 Storage note:  They can be made and stored for 3 days prior to the event.  Make sure they are at room temperature and in a sealed container.  I like this Snapware container because it has 3 levels and inside each level you can flip over the cupcake racks and it makes 2 short layers ;)  All three layers snap together under 1 lid!

Extra Chocolate Note:  I learned that a way to save your unused chocolate is to pour it into a bowl or pan (depending on how much left) lined with plastic wrap.  Then when it is hard pull out the chocolate and finish wrapping it in the plastic wrap.  To keep it extra sealed place it in a plastic bag or container.  Then just brake it up and reheat when you need it again ;)

Good Luck on your own cake pops or cake balls ;) 

Kids Game Class

Kids Game Day

Friday June 22- 9-11am

@Michael Faklis Park (By Trinity Park)
Cost per Child-$10.00 or place a $25 Stamp Order per child
Each child will get to create 3 games (Memory, Tick-Tac-Toe, and Go Fish) to take home!

Happy Father's Day Day!!!

I am so Blessed to say I have the best dad in the world!  Many say I am a lot like my dad and looking at this picture I can see why.  I have to say neither of us was nervous, we just spent our time walking along the path talking about who was there and how pretty it was.  Happy Father's Day Dad!  I just wished everyone was as blessed as my brother and I growing up with a dad like ours!

I loved this card.  My dad loves being on the water.  Growing up any nautical thing made me think of my dad and his service in the Navy.  His joy in life beyond taking pictures is being on the Delta on his sail boat.  So when I remembered I had this paper it was PERFECT!  I just cut the paper to center around the anchor.  Then I stamped the saying onto white paper and punched it out using the XL Decorative punch.  Due to the colors I needed something to blend it in so I sponged the edges and lightly sponged the center.  To make it stand out I used a dimensional on each end.  So Simple, Yet So Dad!!!

Stampin' Up!
Stamps: Delightful Dozen
Punch: XL Decorative Punch
Paper: Retired Nautical Expedition