I just love mason jars. They make any gift come together. In this blog post, I will show you how I make these waterless snow globes and hot cocoa jars. In the past, I’ve even used mason jars in substitution of an easter basket.
The hot cocoa in a jar is so easy, I just added a few extra twists. I added crushed candy canes and called it “candy cane cocoa”. I jazzed it up with some stickers I made on my Cricut Explore and some images from design space. I love being able to personalize anything with my Cricut Explore, including hot cocoa.
Making the waterless snow globes was even easier. I always love the idea of making your own snow globes during the Christmas season, however, the idea of water inside a container that I can’t 100% guarantee will stay filled with water deterred me all these years. I decided to try out the waterless snow globes, and they are festive and surprisingly delightful.
I found some tiny evergreen trees at a craft store, along with some paper cranes I’ve made, and other holiday knick-knacks I have lying around the house like jingle bells and bits of gold tinsel. Check out the video below to see how the whole process went for me!
Santa Claus is coming to town, for sure now. We are 25 days away from sleigh liftoff and counting. There are so many things to do like decking the halls and baking our Christmas treats.
This recipe is a variation of the Baker family traditional “mistletoe” treats, a post I will do later on this month.
I love rice crispies. With the right sort of coloring and molds, a person can truly make anything imaginable. They are a great starter method to really come up with some creative ideas. For one, it’s a very stable base for any sort of shape you may want to be covered in fondant, much easier than cakes.
Thank you so much for following my blog and supporting my little small craft business dreams. ❤ Happy holidays! I look forward to posting more fun ideas. I recently purchased a gingerbread house kit from Joann’s Crafts and Fabrics for only $7.99!! (only until 12/1, stock up). I am excited to lay out some fun ideas I love to do with gingerbread houses. The creativity that one can do with gingerbread houses is vast. Have a happy holiday!
Fall is here in full force with the grand finale of Thanksgiving only one week away. As usual, I have been pinning my little heart out, finding fun ideas & recipes for the big turkey day. I can’t believe how fast the season is flying by.
I kept coming across pins for “gratitude trees”. I knew I had to make some of our own. We had some aspen branches in the garage. We use them for our aspen wood branch place card holders. Our supplier for the branches, Natures All LLC, has an amazing selection of wood branches freshly cut from their forest in Wisconsin. So beautiful. The quality is outstanding.
My lumberjack made a larger wood tote from the usual ones he bangs out in the garage and this tote is currently on loan from the man cave. With the branches standing straight up, it really does remind me of an aspen tree forest.
I printed the leaves out on my Cricut Explore, just “sliced” a circle in the Design Space software to make it a tag. I recently got a booklet of glitter cardstock from Joann’s Fabrics & Crafts with one of their amazing coupons. With a 60% off coupon they recently had, I purchased a whole 25 sheets of glitter cardstock for only $8! Wow! Those can range up to $1 per sheet sometimes! I even have enough left for the unicorn invitations I plan on making for Lela’s birthday party next month. Major score.
Lela and I sat down to contemplate what we are grateful for. She started talking about how she was thankful for Santa Claus, candy, and “everything”. What can I say, the kid knows what’s up.
We couldn’t have a crafting night without some sort of treat! I found these “Candy Pretzel Turkey Bites” on the blog Suburban Simplicity. Such an amazing blog. Erin, mother of six children, runs the blog and it has DIY projects, crafts and recipes I could search through for hours.
I did the recipe a bit different from Suburban Simplicity, but it worked too! I didn’t have parchment paper, so I went on the cheap and just went without. I also had a horrible time finding candy corn. Walgreens? A no-go. Walmart? Had to special order them and wait three days. I eventually found some in the clearance section at CVS after calling in to inquiry about their inventory. I actually asked CVS to put the candy corn on hold. (and they did! Thank you CVS!)
When I walked in to pick up my candy corn, the clerk said “Ahhh, so you are the candy corn lady!”
I responded, “Yup! That’s me! The crazy candy corn lady!” We both laughed. The point of the story is try CVS if you don’t have any leftover candy corn from Halloween.
Place the pretzels knot side down. Place the rolo in the middle of the pretzel.
Place in the oven for one minute. Take out.
Put on the candy corn “feathers”, eyes, and reese’s pieces “nose”.
Flash freeze in your freezer for up to 15 minutes.
Enjoy!
If you liked this blog post, be sure to sign up for up for the email list to get updates on new DIY crafty videos and future giveaways for custom paper tags!
I am very pleased to announce that our little Etsy shop is now selling 100% painted wood signs. We are still in the first phases of this new product and are currently taking custom requests! Currently, we have this specific sign with any custom name available. Would be great for any baby shower or little girl’s room.
I am open to any and all ideas/sizes. I think these could make great wooden signs for weddings too. I’ve seen some great wooden signs, and the quality of this product is sure to be treasured for years.
Thank you so much for following my blog and I plan to post another video soon of some Thanksgiving treats for the holidays! I’ve been pinning away and can’t wait to show you some easy, fun crafts I found for turkey day.
Do you love the bath bombs? I do too! But dang, they are expensive! Save the money and make them yourself. I recently fell in love with Fragrant Jewels, a company that makes bath bombs which include gorgeous rings, so after you take your luxurious bath, you have a new piece of jewelry. I don’t know about you, but I think this is an amazing business idea.
After thinking about the Fragrant Jewel rings, I realized there are all sorts of fun objects that can be put into a bath bombs. Shells. Jewelry. Gems. I started my crafting obsession with soaps and bath bombs. I came across CEO of Brambleberry, Anne-Marie Faiola website “Soap Queen” and briefly sold soap through another shop idea I had called “The Paper Crane Soap Company”. Looking back, the first item I ever sold on etsy was actually a trio of soaps. If you are looking to start your own etsy business, soap is an excellent place to start. With the amazing success of the handmade retail store LUSH, one can easily see this a great market.
In terms of presents & favors, my friends and family have always raved about the bath bombs I make. With this bath bomb recipe, you can probably make about 4-6 bath bombs. 🙂 Perfect amount for your besties or bridesmaids.
Do you like the foiled tags from the video? They are available through Amazon Prime. If you have your event soon, you can get the tags to your door in 2-days. Most of the ingredients for this are easy to find at local stores. Citric acid is a little hard to find. I usually buy mine from Brambleberry. I have also been able to find these at hobby home brewing stores in town, they use it in the fermentation process. But if you need them as fast as you need the foiled tags, I have also seen this good citric acid product available on Amazon Prime.
Another component of this recipe is that I actually use food coloring instead of a classic “LaBomb color”. There are official bath bomb colors you can purchase from Brambleberry, which are great and work good. However, I have found if you are in a bind, food coloring works just as good. Plus, I love the color it leaves. When I put these baths bombs in water, they gave the water a tropical ocean blue color to it. (Sigghhhh. Makes me want to take a bath now!) They don’t dye the tub either. Just drain the tub and it’s good as new.
So there you have it! Let your friends know they are the bomb! See the ingredients, video, and written description below. Thank you for reading my blog! ❤
Witch Hazel (available in the aisles of Walmart, just be sure to fill it in an empty spray bottle. You are going to want to spray it a bit, and then check the consistency, and then spray it again.)
Silicone Mold (I prefer silicone because it really is a perfect copy. I’ve made some very intricate bath bomb designs, and when you use a silicone mold you can get an exact precision to the mold, so I highly recommend silicone molds when doing your bath bombs).
Shells (Any sort of fun item that won’t be damaged from a bath bomb and water is great to embed into your bath bombs. Who doesn’t love a surprise?)
Place 1 cup citric acid into a bowl. Mix and sift until you can get all the clumps out.
Mix 2 cups of the baking soda with citric acid. Sift and mix with hands again to get all the clumps out.
Mix the citric acid and baking soda until well incorporated.
Put in some drops of the food coloring.
Put in some drops of essential oils.
Mix until oils and food coloring are well incorporated. Keep mixing the bath bomb mix until the food colorant starts to come through and change the whole color of the mix.
Fill an empty spray bottle with witch hazel. Spray mix with witch hazels. In between sprays, mix and squeeze the bath bomb mix until you get a solid consistency to place into the molds.
Once your bath bomb mix has reached a clumpy consistency, pack them into your silicone molds.
Let dry for 48 hours.
Package up and give to your besties!
Thank you for reading my post! Please comment if you have any questions! I monitor my blog frequently and would love to help you make your bath bombs. 🙂
Want to have s’mores at your big day, but don’t have a venue that allows fires? These s’more pops are incredibly easy to make and look great displayed on a Styrofoam stand covered in any sort of colored tissue paper you may want (I used pink tissue paper. 🙂 )
Almond bark is every baker’s best friend. (I still get confused as to why they call it Almond Bark, it is chocolate, right? Can anyone help me with this? lol) I only recently discovered it after doing some Pioneer Woman recipes. (I am kind of in love with Ree. ❤ ) I learned this marshmallow pop recipe from her, and you can check out her original recipe here. These marshmallow pops can really be decorated in any way you may want, maybe with mini m&ms, Oreo crumbs, or whatever additions that tickle your fancy. Almond bark also comes in white & regular chocolate, so the color options are endless, something that comes in handy if you are a DIY bride looking for color options and fun favors.
Almond bark is so easy to use too. You just put in the microwave, melt it in intervals of 30-60 seconds, stirring along the way to see that it doesn’t get burnt. Once the almond bark is melted, the possibilities are endless. After finishing these marshmallow pops, I used the rest of the chocolate to make chocolate dipped strawberries and graham crackers. Yum. These didn’t last long in my house. 😀 They probably won’t last long at your wedding either. 😉
\Having so much fun getting orders together as we enter peak wedding season. Use coupon code 35OFFALLORDERS to get 35% off of your whole order until June 15th! Customers have been loving the beer totes & the paper tags. We’ve also introduced some custom matchboxes too.
Want to celebrate state love? Check out my online shop, https://papercranewishes.patternbyetsy.com/ and if you find a product you like just click “ask a question” and I can send over some potential proofs for your big day. 🙂
DIY Bird’s Nest Pendants are a great gift during the spring season. Put it on a jump ring and string it on the favorite necklace of your choice. Subscribers to HandCrate get the materials to make the pendant in this month’s box. 🙂
I’ve changed the approach to the box as I’ve wanted to increase the value of the box without having to charge more. I am now going to making a lot of fun craft projects and whatnot out of my own studio here, Paper Crane Wishes. I am always to include other artists who may interested in marketing their product with tiny samples. If you are interested always feel free to message me at handcrate@handcrate.com.
Here’s the video tutorial for the bird’s nest pendant, very excited to do more tutorials. I am thinking a paper flower bouquet for mom next month. 🙂 Plus some special soap gems I will instagram later, because you know “mom rocks”. 🙂 🙂
PS, excuse my misspelling of “gauge”, just trying to get these YouTube videos and made this little typ0 after I uploaded
I get a lot of HandCrate subscribers asking what they can do with the washi tape that comes in every month’s box. I thought it would be fun to do a weekly blog post about all the amazing projects a person can do with washi tape because there are a bundle.
I will keep posting ideas weekly to keep the creative juices flowing for my fellow craftys.
Thank you so much for reading this blog! If you would like a seasonal washi tape sent to you monthly, along with all sorts of other fun handcrafted goodies made by the Paper Crane Wishes studio, sign up for HandCrate! ❤ Amy
With Valentine’s Day only 29 days away, I am already thinking about lovely things, like Nutella, and cupcakes, and chocolate, and more chocolate (did I say chocolate enough? LOL :-D)
For these cupcakes, I just did the standard Betty Croker box of chocolate cake mix. I also used these fun cupcake liners/toppers from the recent Valentine’s Celebration Box at HandCrate.
Chocolate-Nutella Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
4 cups powdered sugar (usually 1 whole package, but measure it out if you aren’t sure)
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
2-3 tablespoons vanilla
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1-3 tablespoons milk
7 ounces of Nutella (or half of a standard 13-ounce jar)
Decorating bags
1 Wilton Large Star Icing Tip
Mixer
In your mixing bowl, add 4 cups powdered sugar. Mix gently for 30 seconds to break the lumps apart on lowest speed.
Add 1 cup softened butter. To soften the butter, put in the microwave for about 30-60 seconds.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk.
Turn the mixer on the lowest speed setting. Keep on low until the mixture is incorporated.
Once the base of the frosting has been slightly incorporated, add the 3 tablespoons of cocoa. Mix. Add the Nutella. Mix again.
Check the consistency of your buttercream. If the frosting is stiff, add a tablespoon or so more of milk.
Frost onto cooled cupcakes once you reach desired consistency. Add sprinkles and candies if desired. 🙂
