From 2012:

So Sunday evening, after a marathon session of watching Series 2 of Doctor Who with the Boy (who between that and Harry Potter is becoming quite the Anglophile), we had the sudden realization that Tuesday was Valentines Day… oops!  I guess we need a bunch of cards for the classmates!

Yesterday after school we sat down to come up with Vday cards, and the Boy (first grade) has been obsessed with the idea of Valentine’s Monsters.  Well, he’s a boy, so monsters just come with the territory.  He had a blast designing his own cards, and with a little help from mom & Photoshop, here are the results!

How to make your own easy and personal homemade monster cards:

1. Have the kid design his own monster on a full sheet of paper.  We used pencil for the lines and colored with light colored markers. Have the monster hold his hand out, so that you can add your own real-life lollipop. (The Boy insisted on 3 different designs)
2. Write a pithy saying.   The boy decided on “Have a Yummy Valentine’s Day” for one, and “I’m watching you, Valentine” for the one with all the eyes.  OK, a little stalker-y, but he’s 6.  This isn’t supposed to be Hallmark!  He wrote out the saying, and signed the cards.
3. Scan the drawing and the words.  If you have photoshop or something similar, you can make the scanned drawing look a little cleaner by adjusting the Levels.  (Slide the left most slider slightly to the right, and the rightmost slider to the left, to remove shadows from the scan and darken the lines.)
4. Use a photo editing program to shrink down both pieces so you can fit approximately 8 cards on a page.  We used the same words with 2 of the monsters, to save time, since his writing isn’t exactly speedy.
5. Print on cardstock, and cut apart.
6. Use an exacto knife to cut two slits near the hand, and slide the lollipop through.

The pops are basically Rolo candies, covered in marshmallow fondant, with fondant details.  No baking required!

Though I do admit that they are a bit time consuming…

But were definitely appreciated by the young Star Wars fans…

Wanna Make them yourself?

I’ve written up the whole thing as an instructable, with tons of photos and instructions for both the clone troopers and the storm trooper versions…  Click the image below, or go here…

Jo and I have been doing lots of projects over the last month or so for Little Jo’s birthday party. I’m not gonna let you in on what the theme was just yet, but I want to show you one of the projects I did for part of the party decor. We found ourselves needing some round gems in just the right color of teal. If they could be edible, all the better. So I did some shopping and some research and came up with everything I needed to make hard candy jewels. And I gotta tell you, this turned out to be one of the most fun projects I’ve done in ages!

By the way, there was a lot of trial and error as I figured out just the right techniques for making hard candy, and I’ll tell you about that at the end of this post. But for now, here is the right way to do it!

Go read the whole thing!

1. valentine westie cookie – red, 2. Engagement Cupcakes, 3. pink hot chocolate, 4. Valentine Fortune Cookies, 5. Hearts and Flowers for V-Day, 6. valentines day cupcakes, 7. Valentine Cake Balls, 8. Valentine Cake, 9. Valentine’s Day Cake

Wanna share yours?  Add them to the Dabbled Flickr group!

Hi, everyone – Sister Diane here – and I’m excited to be guest-posting on Dabbled today!

I recently published an ebook of weaving projects you can do without a loom, so I’ve been weaving a lot lately. I got to playing around one day with some variegated cotton yarn, which weaves up to look a lot like Fruit Stripe Gum. (Anybody else remember this stuff from the 80’s?)

Since the weaving looks so candy-like, I decided to turn it into a cute little candy-shaped drawer sachet. I particularly like it because it’s cheery, compact, and not too frilly. Here’s how to make your own!

Materials:
Cardboard
Ruler
Sharpie
Skein of variegated cotton yarn (I’m using Sugar n’ Cream)
8″ Straight tapestry needle (optional)
Tapestry needle (large eye, dull point)
Scissors
1/8″ Ribbon
Cotton ball and fragrance oil
Scrap of cotton quilt batting

Begin with a piece of stiff cardboard, at least 10″ x 10″. Measure out a 5″ x 5″ square in the center, and draw it with a Sharpie.

Now, measure and cut a row of slits in the top and bottom edges of the cardboard. Take a look at this tutorial I did on CraftStylish for instructions on how to set up a simple cardboard loom.

Begin weaving, following the instructions at the CraftStylish tutorial. The variegated yarn will create its own stripes.

This is a good moment to mention this long needle I’m using to weave. It’s called a straight upholstery needle, and you can often find them at big-box craft stores. They’re inexpensive, and they make this kind of weaving a snap. But if you’d rather not get one, just use your regular tapestry needle to weave.

Once you’ve woven a square, remove it from the cardboard and finish all four edges. Again, that CraftStylish tutorial will show you how.

Now, fold the woven square in half, matching the edges with the short, knotted fringe. Thread your tapestry needle with about 12″ of yarn and tie a secure knot in the end. Sew the two layers together along this edge, using a small running stitch. Knot the yarn securely at the end of the seam.

(You could also sew this seam on your sewing machine, of course.)

A note on those fringes – just brush them out of your way as you sew. They should end up hidden inside the sachet.

Now you have a woven tube. Carefully turn it right side out, so your seam faces the inside. The best way to do this is to push the bottom edge of the tube into the center, and continue pushing until it emerges from the top, as shown here.

Cut about 8″ of ribbon. Tie a tight double knot around one end of the tube, about 1/2″ away from the edge. Tie the ends of the ribbon into a bow and trim them to about 3/4″.

Now you can add a fragrant filling to your sachet. I’m using a cotton ball with some drops of cedarwood oil, but you could use any fragrance oil you like.

I like to use cotton quilt batting to stuff these sachets, since it will hold its shape more precisely than fiberfill.

So first, I fold the batting into thirds, so it forms a long strip that’s as wide as the center of the candy shape, as shown.

Next, I place my scented cotton ball at one end of this folded strip, and begin tightly rolling it up. See how much that cotton ball is compressed? Keep rolling until you have a roll just big enough to fit into the woven tube.

Slide the roll into the tube, pressing it firmly.

(And by the way, you could also skip the batting and fill your sachet with dried lavender or cedar shavings.)

Cut another 8″ of ribbon and tie another double knot and bow in the open end.

Voila! Your sachet is ready to tuck into a drawer. Wouldn’t a little set of these make a cute gift?

Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Hearts – and ways to fix and avoid chocolate problems. – More DIY How To Projects

It’s got some good hints for working with chocolate, and ideas for rescuing chocolate projects, too!

Don’t forget, voting ends today in the Anti-Valentines People’s Choice Award Vote

PS: If you are a winner in the Anti-Vday contest (judge’s choices) and haven’t emailed me, be sure to do so asap, so I can get the prizes out! If you don’t email me, you’ll be stuck with what’s left of the prizes!!

This is really simple to make, and has tons of creative opportunities.

You’ll need:
“Rice” The base is your basic rice krispy treat recipe.
“Fish” – various dried fruits (mango, papaya, & candied ginger all work well, but just go wild in the dried fruit bins)
“Nori”- green or purple fruit leather (fruit rollups–or the natural stuff looks even better). If you can find nicely colored strips (like Yogos Rollers or Fruit by the Foot) that makes it even easier. For ours, we cut green fruit rollups into strips for the nigiri and used green Yogos for some of the maki. The Yogos doesn’t look as nice, but it worked in a pinch.
– Condiments: Wasabi Peas, Sliced Candied Ginger

1. Make the rice krispie treat mixture. You’ll need to work quickly, so make it right before you start.

2. Form the rice bases.
Nigiri:
While the rice krispie treats are still warm and workable, form little rectangular pillows with your hands, about 2-3 in long. We tried making a pan the right thickness and cutting out little bars, but I think this worked a little better (more realistic) — but you can do that and then just round them out with your hands.

Maki: Spread a 3/4 in thick slab (or whatever you want the height of your maki to be, should match the width of your nori strips), and use a small round cookie cutter (I think we used a tomato paste can) to cut circles for your faux maki.

3. Decorate
Nigiri:
Mango or Ginger can be used as is, just place on top and wrap with a strip of ‘Nori’.
Papaya looks great if you slice it, exposing it’s lovely orange-red center.
Maki:
Wrap the sides of the circle with a “nori” strip.
Press small chunks of various colors of fruit or candy into the center of the circle, to give the illusion of a roll.
Halloween option: If you have extra fruit leather in various colors, you can make these into eyes by cutting out a small circle (pupil) and a larger circle (iris), and placing them in the center, instead of the true sushi look.

4. Serve with wasabi peas and sliced candied ginger.

If you have any leftover rice krispie mixture, you can make these fun monster balls, using gummy body parts!

Some of my inspirations:
Evil Mad Scientist’s Dessert Sushi
not martha’s Snack Cake Sushi
Brownie Points super gorgeous Sweet Sushi

and a really cool sushi cake I ran across today from Bitter Betty – love it!

Related Posts:
Halloween Eyeballs
Halloween Flayed Skin Cheeseball
Silly sushi inspirations