Fun Adventures In.... Kusudama Paper Flower Ball

I seen this paper flower ball on Pinterest and thought it was just gorgeous. So I pinned it for a later project. Then the holidays roll around and I am in need of a present for my daughters teacher. With minimal supplies and virtually no budget I thought I would try to make it. Looked easy enough. I practiced on a few pieces of scrap paper until I got all the folds down. Once I got the folds down it was a piece of cake.

For your supplies you are going to need some paper squares. I had some paper from who know where. An old project I imagine. It was lavender on one side and pink on the other. The squares can be any size you want them to be. I made mine 1.5 in x 1.5 in. You might also want a ruler, a pencil and some scissors to cut the paper into squares.
You will also need some glue. I started out with plain school glue. It worked, but it took a while to dry. And I physically had to hold a few of the pieces together while it dried. So I gave up and ended up using my hot glue gun. It was a bit messy only because I was working with smaller areas. Use whatever glue you are comfortable with.
And finally your gonna need whatever decorations you want to use. A ribbon to hang it. Jewels to put on the flowers. Be as creative as you want.

To start you need to fold each square into a petal. I have it shown step by step below. Once you get the hang of it, its not difficult.

Your Square to start with. 

Fold the corners up to form a triangle

Take the bottom corner of your triangle and match it with the top

Repeat on the other side to from a diamond.

Take one of the inside folds of you diamond and line it up with the
matching outside edge of the diamond. Crease the fold.

Repeat with the other side. Because mine was small, I found it helpful
to use a toothpick with the folding.

This is the tricky part. Take the inside edge of your newest fold and
bring it out. Flatten the whole side. Repeat with the other side.

Now take the top part of the sides and fold it down. 

Again, repeat with the other side.

Take the very outside edge and fold it over on the middle crease.

Repeat with the other side to form your diamond again.

Put a dab of glue on the outside edges of you diamond and close.

Your petal is now complete. Once the glue is dry the shape holds up.

Once you make your petals, you can glue them into a flower.
It takes five petals for each flower. 

After you make 12 flowers, you can glue them together in a ball. Its a lot easier to make all the petals at once, then assemble the flowers. To make the ball just glue 6 of the flowers together in circle. (5 flowers around one  flower) Make two halves. Add your ribbon if you want it to hang. Then glue the two halves together. Add any  jewels or glitter if you would like and you are done.

I had fun making it. I think they would be really cute with some bright spring colors. Maybe hanging around a window. Now that I know what I am doing, I plan to make a lot more. In all different sizes.

Fun Adventures In.... A Bake Sale- Part two S'mores pops

The bake sale is only a day away. I have a lot to do before then. I am making chocolate covered s'mores pops. 

So off to the store I go with my little helper, to get supplies. She was a little more excited to make them than I was, I think. She wouldn't leave my side the entire time I was making them.

To make the pops you need: 
 Marshmallows
Graham crackers
Chocolate (either candy bars or chocolate chips will work)
Melting chocolate ( I used chocolate candy coating)
Lollipop or Popsicle sticks

Start by breaking the graham crackers in half. I got lucky and the pack I bought were already the right size. Place the graham crackers on a cookie sheet. You will need two crackers per pop. 

Next, Place the marshmallows and chocolate on the graham crackers. This was easy but took me forever, mainly because my little helper kept stealing the chocolate and marshmallows from the end ones while I was putting them on the others. I would look at her and tell her "Stop stealing the chocolate!" She would look back at me with a big ol' grin "Sowwy Mom" and I would laugh. And we would start the cycle again. 

Now put the cookie sheet of graham crackers in the oven for a few minutes. Just long enough to melt the chocolate and puff the marshmallows. It took me about 4 or 5 minutes at 400 degrees. You can use a microwave or toaster oven too.

Very carefully put the chocolate graham on top of the marshmallow. Squish down just a bit. Then push the stick into the marshmallow part. Put them into the freezer to set. It takes at least 5 minutes. I would recommend transferring them carefully to another cookie sheet or plate or wait several minutes to put them in the freezer. Probably not the best idea to put the hot cookie sheet into the freezer. 

Once they have set, dip them into the melting chocolate. You might need to use a spoon to cover part of it. Let the excess chocolate drip off. I found that the candy coating chocolate worked nice. It gave everything a nice smooth texture, whereas the melted chocolate chips were kind of thick and had an uneven texture. 

Before the chocolate hardens, if you want sprinkles, you can dip the top of it onto a plate of sprinkles. When I did it, I would dip it and quickly turn it upright and the sprinkles kind of slid down the pop for a second. Then just lay the pop on a piece of wax paper to harden. You can also put it on the wax paper and add sprinkles on one side. I tried to let them harden standing up. I thought for some reason it would be better that way. So I poked holes into an empty cereal box and stuck them in it. Big mistake.They kept falling over. And my little helper, who was still trying to steal chocolate chips at this point,would knock the over. Chocolate mess everywhere. So I gave up that idea and put them on the wax paper. Once they hardened they came off nice. 

I put them in the freezer again to set. It didn't take long with the candy coating. The ones I made with the melted chocolate chips took a little bit longer to set. And the candy coated ones don't have to be refrigerated like the chocolate chip ones. 

They still all came out tasting delicious. You can really tell the difference between the candy coating and the chocolate chip coating in this picture.Now I just have to wrap them up with a nice ribbon and deliver them to the school. 



Some other twists on these that would be very tasty,
           Try using peppermint patties, peanut butter cups, or some        other flavored chocolate inside.
           Try using butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips inside.
           Try using white chocolate or dark chocolate for the coating
           Try adding a oil based extract to the coating, whatever flavor you like (water based extract will likely cause the coating to clump.
            Wait until the coating sets and use decorating icing to draw designs or write messages on it.


You can really make these unique for every occasion. They are so simple to make. Enjoy. 


Now I am off to go make some popcorn balls and no-bake cookies. Yummm. 

Fun Adventures In.... Baby Leg Warmers

The temperatures are dropping. FAST. It is definitely winter time in southern Arizona. It was a whole 48 degrees this afternoon and expected to drop below freezing tonight. We have hard freeze warning tonight. Temperatures of 28 degrees or colder are forecast to occur" as quoted from Yahoo weather


My baby girl has some of the cutest little onesies that I would love for her to wear, but with the colder weather its harder to get to show off all the adorable things she has. She only has a few pants and some of the onesies would look better without the pants. I wanted to get her some "Baby Legs" but I am too crafty and cheep to do that. :) So with a little research and a few moments of time I made my own.


All it takes is a pair of ladies (or men's if your making a pair for little boys) knee high socks, a needle and some thread. I found tons of socks at the dollar store. I picked up maybe 10 pairs.


So to make these:

 Take your socks and give them a nice tug. Try to stretch them out a bit. 

 Cut across the sock just above the heel line. I'm going to save the bottom part, put a small hem in them and give them to my daughter as no-show socks. She can go through socks like crazy.

 Now turn the sock inside out. Either measure the length to baby's leg and cut, leaving just a bit for a seam allowance. I choose to just fold the sock up until it was at the right length. I choose to do this so that as she gets taller, which she is doing way too quick, I can let the seam out and make them longer. Get more use out of them.

 Now a just put a simple straight stitch across near where you cut. It helps to match the thread to the color that will be showing on the other side. I didn't have the right shade of grey for this pair but it still works.

 Return the sock to the right side out. Give another nice tug and you are done. So simple. 

 She just looks too cute in them. And  now I can show off her cute clothes. 

So many more to make. I actually want to try this with a pair of the fuzzy ones that are out right now for Christmas.






I have many more project coming up in the next couple weeks because of the upcoming holiday. A few more things for babies and some nice yummy treats as well.

Fun Adventures In.... A Bake Sale- Part one

I am going to be involved in a bake sale next week as a fundraiser for my daughters school. I LOVE baking so I am a little excited. I have a few ideas on stuff to make so I thought I would try some out and share my experience with you. 
Tonight I am going to make Peanut Butter Pretzels. OK, so I don't technically have to bake these but they just looked to yummy to pass up.  My inspiration from http://twotinykitchens.com/2011/02/23/peanut-butter-pretzel-bites/  

 I will copy the recipe as it is written on that site but add my own remarks in as I go. 

Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter * A tip I learned for measuring peanut butter- Spray your measuring cup and spatula lightly with a cooking spray, then the peanut butter doesn't stick to either one and you get a better measurement
2 tablespoons softened butter (I noticed afterwards that i only used 1 tbsp of butter, it still turned out OK so I'm  guessing that I just made a slightly lower calorie version)
1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more)
3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more)
Pretzels
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or a whisk, or in a stand mixer. I chose my stand mixer because I absolutely love using it whenever I can

                                

Add the sugars and mix to combine.  At this point if the filling will roll easily into balls without sticking to your hands you’re ready to go.  If not, add a little more of each sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll (I used about 3/4 cup of each sugar). <--- Me too

Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling. I ended up with mini pretzels so a teaspoon was a bit too  much. I used a 1/2 teaspoon ad it looked a lot better.

Roll each portion into a small ball, then sandwich them between two whole pretzels. Whole pretzels just look better. But if you want to be fair to all the little pretzels in the bag, the partial ones work just as well and taste just as good. (I tried one just to  verify)  

When all the balls are rolled and successfully sandwiched, stick the whole tray in the freezer for about half an hour. I discovered that after a while the "dough" was getting a little sticky so I put the bowl in the freezer for a few moments and it helped. I also found it easier to roll all the balls first, then sandwich them. 

Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted. It took me about 3 of the 30 second intervals. You want to do it in smaller intervals to prevent scorching.

 Remove the pretzel sandwiches from the freezer and quickly dip each half-way into the melted chocolate. Do it quickly because the chocolate starts to harden. If that happens just return it to the microwave for about 10 seconds or so. 

 Return to the tray and repeat with remaining sandwiches.  When all are dipped, return the tray to the freezer to set up completely.  Store the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.

My results:

It made quite a few, I gave up after 3 dozen, and I still had maybe half the dough left in the bowl. I was only making these for practice so that I know how long it is going to take when I make them next week for the bake sale. I still need to come up with a cute way to package them. Hmm....

All in all I would have to say this is a good recipe. Probably a good one to keep around for when I have some little helpers who wanna play in the kitchen. Its a little time consuming but the end results are well worth it. Its easy enough to do and such a forgiving recipe. Its perfectly fine to have the ingredients  be off in measurements. 

Stay tuned and I will share with you the other fun things I plan on making for the bake sale. I will also let you know how the bake sale turned out. 

Don't forget to go to the first entry and vote for a project!!