Valentine Lollipop Bouquet!

Isn't it the cutest?! Forget roses that die. I want my flowers made out of sugary sweetness!


Want to make your own bouquet for your Valentine? Here's what you need:

Lollipops (you can get boxes of Tootsie Pops or Blow Pops at Wal-Mart in the Valentine section)

Floral foam (mine came in a pack of 4 from Dollar Tree. These were the perfect size)

Cupcake liners (mine came from Hobby Lobby)

Flower Pot (from the garden section at Wal-Mart)

Paper shreds (Dollar Tree)

Green Duck Tape (Hobby Lobby)

Wire (I used 24 gage beading wire from Wal-Mart)

Hole punch

You need 1 lollipop and 6 cupcake liners per flower. First, take your cupcake liners and fold them all in half.

On two cupcake liners, you're going to use your hole punch and punch a hole on the fold.

On the remaining 4 liners, punch a hole slightly above the fold (approx. 1/4 inch):

Keeping these 4 cupcake liners folded in half, insert the lollipop stick into the hole. Offset each liner from the one before to create a circle around the candy portion of the lollipop.

Open the 2 remaining cupcake liners and insert them onto the lollipop stick. I like to put the wrong (non-printed) sides together. If you do this then you see the pretty printed side on the top and the bottom.

Now, we're ready for the leaves. Take a length of the duct tape (approx. 6-8") and lay it sticky side up on the table. Place a length of wire on top of the duct tape.

With another piece of tape, place the sticky sides together, sandwiching the wire between the two pieces of tape. Using scissors, cut the tape into an hourglass shape with pointed ends.

Once the leaf is cut out, you can wrap it around the lollipop stick and give it a twist to hold it tight.

Once I had a pile of 5 flowers, I was ready to move on to the flower pot.

I took some of my craft paint and painted the rim of my flowerpot. In hindsight, I should have painted the whole pot. Once I put the flowers in, you couldn't really see the rim.
Once the paint dried, I used a black Sharpie to write "Be Mine" and draw some hearts.

My floral foam bricks were pretty small, so I stuck some crumpled newspaper in the bottom of my pot first to take up some space.

Then I put in my floral foam. My brick was exactly the right size, except that it was square instead of round. No worries - the edges got shaved off as I shoved the brick in. I just brushed off the floral foam dust and was ready to continue!

To cover the ugly green floral foam I used a handful of paper shreds. I put a couple of spots of hot glue on the foam first to hold the paper shreds in place. Next came the flowers. The first one I put smack in the center. The next two went to the left and the right; the final two went in front and back.

I love the way it turned out! I'm going to have to make a couple more. Wouldn't this be a cute teacher gift?!

Cupcake Bath Bomb Tutorial

I made these yummy looking (but not yummy tasting) cupcakes for birthday party goodie bags. They were so easy and fun to make. Best of all, you should be able to find everything you need at the grocery store and at the craft store.

Here's what you need:
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup citric acid (usually found in the bulk section of stores like Sprouts and Whole Foods)
2 1/2 tablespoons grape seed oil (I used this, but any nut oil will work)
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon borax (found in the laundry aisle)
1 teaspoon fragrance oil for soaps
8-10 drops of soap coloring
Witch Hazel (put in a spray bottle)
Silicone cupcake liners

Here's how you make the cupcakes:
1. In a bowl, stir together the baking soda, citric acid and cornstarch.
2. In a small bowl, combine the grape seed oil, water, soap fragrance, soap coloring and borax. Mix together well.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and blend together well. The mixture should feel like wet sand. If it's too dry, spray lightly with witch hazel (using too much can cause the mixture to foam, so don't apply witch hazel liberally)
4. Pack the mixture tightly into a silicone cupcake liner and place upside down on a lined cookie sheet.
5. Wait about 10 minutes and then remove the cupcake liner
6. Leave the bath bomb to dry overnight.

Frosting Instructions

3 tablespoons meringue powder (found in the baking section of craft stores)
6 tablespoons water
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon of soap fragrance oil
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon soap coloring
Sprinkles (optional)
Plastic cake decorating bag and cake decorating tip (or Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off)

Here's how to make the frosting:

1. In a large bowl, mix together the meringue powder, powdered sugar, cream of tartar, soap fragrance oil, soap coloring, and water using a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.

2. Put the mixture into the cake decorating bag (or Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off, and pipe the frosting onto the base as you would a real cupcake.

3. Add sprinkles if desired.

4. Let dry overnight, or until frosting hardens.

5. Package and enjoy!

Tips:
-go lightly with the witch hazel. Sometimes you won't need to use it at all
-to make round bath bombs, use the top recipe (don't make the frosting), and pack the mixture into round, plastic Christmas ornaments (found in craft stores)
-to make shaped bath bombs, use the top recipe (no frosting), and pack the mixture into candy or soap molds
-to give as a gift, put them into little cellophane treat bags, add a tag and tie with a ribbon
-these may look and smell yummy, but they are not edible!

To use: Toss into the tub and enjoy!

Cupcake Party Goodie Bag Goodies!

The cute cupcake bag was part of the favor, but it wouldn't have been as fun if it went home empty. So, I filled it with more cupcake goodness! A jar of sprinkles, a cupcake bath bomb, a cupcake hair bow for the girls (more on these to come), and a lollipop filled the bags.

Cupcake Party Goodie Bags

I'm knee deep in cupcakes here! These are the bags I made to hold the party favors for Megan's birthday party. I made them in several different colors (light pink, dark pink, fuchsia, green, blue, orange and purple) so that everyone could pick their favorite colors. They are made out of felt and have rhinestone sprinkles and a button cherry on top. I'll post again soon with the goodies that are going into these yummy bags.

I've got them listed in my Etsty store, too!

Cupcake Invitations

Megan just turned 3! I picked the theme this year, but I'm pretty sure this is the last time I'll get to do that. I'm sure she'll have definate opinions from here on out. So, for my final birthday theme I picked cupcakes. Why cupcakes, you ask? Honestly, I'm not really sure! They're cute and oh, so yummy, so that is reason enough, I suppose!

I'm one of "those" moms who makes pretty much everything - from invitations to decorations. Yes, I could buy them, but what's the fun in that? So, with cupcakes on my mind I headed to the scrapbook store.

I picked out brown cardstock to make the bottom of the cupcake. It's actually a pocket, that the pink part slides into. Pink cardstock makes up the cake part of the cupcake, and pink polka dot paper is the frosting.

Using plain white paper, I made my patterns - one for the cup, one for the cake, one for the frosting. Then, I traced them onto the colored papers and began cutting. This part takes quite awhile, but it's a good thing to do when you are watching TV and don't want to be interrupted (Honey - can you get that? I'm making invitations!)

Once everything is cut out, I print the party details on the body of the invitation. To do this I get the text the way I want it and in a shape that will work with the shape of my invitation. Then, I print the text on white paper. Once I've got that and I'm sure the text is what I want, then I put some re-positional adhesive on the white paper, line up the colored paper and press it down. Then, I just load the white paper (with the invitation stuck on top of it) back in my printer and print as usual. Works like a charm!

I added a pink tulle bow and some rhinestone sprinkles and the cute little cupcakes were done!