Halloween Party Foods

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LHalloween Party Foodsast weekend was Halloween! One of my favorite holidays like I mentioned in my last blog post. I had been talking with my sister-in-law about wanting to throw a halloween party and we decided that this year we were going to do it! So after weeks of planning and waiting for the party day to arrive, we had a successful halloween & pumpkin carving party!

I wanted to share a few of the food items that I made for the party! They were really fun to make and really easy.

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Pumpkin Deviled Eggs

The first I can’t take credit for. The Pumpkin Deviled Eggs were the result of my wonderful husband. I just contributed the idea of making them look like pumpkins 😉

  1. Prepare them like normal, hard boil the eggs, let them cool a little, de-shell them and cut them in half.
  2. Take the yolks out and place in a bowl.
  3. Mix with a little mayonnaise, ground mustard, hint of ground pepper and orange food coloring.
  4. Put into a piping bag (can use a zip lock bag, just cut the corner off to make a piping bag) and fill the center of the eggs.
  5. Next, chop up some celery and place halfway into the filling to make the “stalk” of the pumpkin.
  6. Enjoy!

Oreo Bats

IMG_6155Ingredients:

  • 1 Package of Oreos
  • 1 Block of Cream Cheese (softened)
  • Melting Chocolate
  • Candy Eyeballs
  • Candy Lollipop Sticks or Paper Straws(pictured)
  • Wing Stencil (click here) & wax paper
  1. Finely crush up Oreos in blender or food processor.
  2. Mix Oreos in a bowl with softened cream cheese until well blended.
  3. Form 2 inch balls (can be smaller if you wish) with the mixture & set on wax paper lined cookie sheet.
  4. Stick lollipop sticks/paper straws in Oreo balls.
  5. Set in freezer for at least 1 hour.
  6. While the balls are in the freezer, start making the bat wings (I did this the night before & just put the wings in the refrigerator overnight.)IMG_6108 copy
  7. Print off your stencil & cover with wax paper.
  8. Melt some chocolate & put into a piping bag (again you can use a ziplock bag with corner cut off.)
  9. Start tracing the bat wings with the chocolate.
  10. Trace twice as many as you have balls and place in the fridge when done.
  11. When the balls are cool enough, start melting the chocolate down. I used a chocolate that I found that comes in a microwave safe container and melts down in 60-90 seconds.
  12. Take the balls out and start dipping! you’ll want to do this part carefully as to not over cover the balls. Should be able to evenly coat the balls & let chocolate harden a little before putting down. (to avoid a flat spot, get a foam block to stick them in.)
  13. While the balls are still wet add the eyeballs to the bats & the bat wings one at a time. If you need to, coat the end of the batwing in chocolate and stick to the ball.
  14. Optional: you can add tiny chocolate chips to the top of the balls to make little horns/ears.
  15. Enjoy! – These were a big hit and I promise they will go fas

IMG_6125Mummy Oreo Pops

Ingredients:

  • Oreos
  • Paper Straws/ Lollipop Sticks
  • White Chocolate
  • Candy Eyeballs
  1. Stick the lollipop sticks or paper straws into the middle of the Oreos. (if using paper straws you will want to cut them in half and flatten the part you are sticking into the Oreo.)
  2. Freeze/Refrigerate the Oreos for a half hour.
  3. Start Melting the white chocolate, making sure to save out some for the “wrapping”
  4. Dip the pops into the white chocolate giving it a good coat.
  5. Lay on wax paper & add candy eyeballs
  6. Wait until they are completely dry & start adding wrapping.
  7. In a piping bag (or zip lock – as you can see I love using this option due to the easy cleanup factor!) place the melted white chocolate and start drizzling over the pops going back and forth to make it look like a mummy who’s all wrapped up.
  8. Refrigerate until ready to eat!
  9. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or want see something specific!

Stay Crafty!

Nightmare Before Christmas Theme Manicure

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This post is going to be short and sweet. Halloween my favorite time of year (its tied with Christmas!) and one of my favorite movies from my childhood is The Nightmare Before Christmas. So every year I watch it around Halloween (and Christmas too!) and thought I would do a themed manicure to go along with watching the movie last night! Enjoy!!! 

 

Stay Crafty! 

Upcycled Wood Family Name Sign

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So a few weekends ago I had a Bridesmaid Tea that I attended for my my childhood friend who is got married this past Saturday. I didn’t know what to get her besides the normal registry list items. I don’t know about you, but I hate to follow registries. I love to make them 😜 but I like to get creative in my presents I give and most of the time that means I need to deviate from their registry.

This couple are so meant for each other! I have known Mallory since we were in diapers, she lived two houses down the road from me. She met Ben a few years ago and I am so happy to see the joy and love they have for each other.

I wanted to make them something for their new apartment for after the wedding and what a better thing than an established name sign!!

I was able to make this sign out of thing I had laying around the house and it took me about an hour and a half. I hope you enjoy this tutorial as much an I loved the finished project! I can’t wait to make more of these for Christmas presents!!!

Materials:

  • Piece of wood (I used pine)
  • Pencil
  • Print out of name you want to copy in right size and typography
  • Acrylic paint
  • Stain

Optional:

  • Picture hanging hardware
  • Polyurethane (if hanging outside)


I Started by tracing the printed out letters onto the wood. If you use a heavier wood than pine, you will have to rub charcoal on the back of the print out first. But since pine is soft it left an imprint in the wood that I could paint over after.

After you’re done tracing the letters, you can start painting! It is very important that you choose a paintbrush that has short bristles. Or else you will have a lot of feathering on the edge of your lines.

Let your paint dry overnight! This is important so that it dries completely before you put the stain on or it might smudge the paint.

You can stain it any color you like, any way you like. I had this stain left over from a project I did a few years ago so it was perfect!

After you’re done, you can either add a couple layers of polyurethane or clear sealer if your sign will be exposed to the elements. You can add hanging hardware or a chain. Whatever way you make it, make it yours!

Stay Crafty!

Pins & Blogs that Inspire Me!

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Pins & blogs that inspire meSo one of the biggest reasons I wanted to start this blog was that I always find so many helpful and creative ideas on Pinterest. I love that I can search for the type of project I am looking for and I get all these wonderful Ideas! In this post I will be sharing a few of the Pins that have inspired me & ones that I have tackled and accomplished!

This pin was where I got the idea for our Gender Reveal cake.  If you haven’t seen my blog post about that party, you can find it here. This pin sent me to babble.com where I was able to browse a few different ideas for the party. It was a hit with everyone and was really easy to make! Just had to make a few different layers of cake, frost them, put them together, cut out a circle in the middle two layers. Fill it with the color of your choice, and top it with the last layer. Finish           frosting it with white frosting and voila!



When I was visiting my sister in Germany I was lucky enough to meet a friend of hers that was really crafty. She threw her daughter a Pinkalicious birthday party. For those of you who don’t know what Pinkalicious is, it is a book series by Victioria Kann, and it is well… PINK!  I was amazed at the party decorations and food she had prepared! And one of my favorite things that she made were these ‘Valentine Pretzel Buttons’. They were so delicious and cute I must have eaten about ate 10 of them! 

I had forgotten to ask her for the recipe and had soon forgotten about them until I was looking for a snack to make for a work party one day. Low and behold… I found this!

This is one of the easiest treats to make and g*rated gives you a great step by step!

With Fall right around the corner, who isn’t looking forward to all the lovely pumpkin & apple scents that are in the air? One of the most delicious pins I have ever tried is this Crock-Pot Baked Apples from Skinnychef.com. This recipe will leave your house smelling amazing and tastes just like apple pie (without the crust). I can’t wait to get my crock pot out and make this recipe for our guests on Saturday night.

What is even better about this recipe is that each apple is only about 200 calories each! So you can indulge without the guilt!

With Autumn comes Halloween! One of my favorite holidays. This was a really fun project I found over at The McIllece Spot. It was really easy to do and only cost about $4.

This snake wreath is sure to scare your trick-or-treaters and looks so real! (I know, my mother who is afraid of snakes wouldn’t even knock on my door!)

 Unfortunately I couldn’t find the original blog post for this Pin but I had to share this. I made this for my husband for our first month anniversary (I know what you’re thinking… “first month, isn’t that a little early to know it’s love…” Well, when you know… you just.. know!)  I was able to print out 52 reasons and glue them each to a card and make a little book. He keeps it in his nightstand. Its a simple inexpensive gift that comes straight from the heart!

You can make many different versions of this for all the important people in your life.

  • 52 reasons why you’re the best
  • 52 reasons that you suck (for breakups?)
  • 52 things to do
  • 52 activities for rainy days

and so on… and so on…

One other blog that has inspired me is my friend and co-worker Jay’s. Over at Blissful Beauty Bird she talks about all the makeup and fashion that inspire her. She credited my blog in her latest post Makeup Geek Haul where she reviews the newest makeup she has  purchased. I must say she energizes me with this blog!  It is because of her that I brought this blog to fruition. Take a second and head over there to read her latest post! You won’t be disappointed!

Every so often I plan on blogging about the pins I can’t live without. But to keep up with what I’m pinning you can visit my two Pinterest pages:  CTru5 & The Crafty Bombshell. Keep in mind that the crafty bombshell pinterest is still new. But feel free to visit CTru5 and browse all the amazing pins I have collected over the years!

Elephant Diaper Cake!

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Hi guys! Sorry I haven’t gotten to post in a while. Life has been a whirlwind of crazy and busy and laughs and tears all mixed together! Today I went to a baby shower for a friend and co-worker and her and her husband are expecting a little boy in October. When she posted about her baby shower I knew exactly what I wanted to do for her, Make a diaper cake!

I had a beautiful diaper cake made for me for my shower and I found it so useful because of all the best things that were included with it (including the cake topper Taggie Monkey which my son loves!) I have never done anything like this and was excited to attempt it!

I will apologize for the poor photos, I did this diaper cake in the hour my son had finally fallen asleep for the night and the time he woke up from teething pain.

Here we go!!!

Materials:

  • Diapers of choice – I chose honest company diapers that had an elephant theme as her nursery will be elephants
  • Take and toss spoons and forks – for decoration & support inside
  • Ribbons & Twine – You can really get creative with this, add embellishments & cute pictures. Since I had already had these colors in my crafty tower, it was perfect!
  • Cute Cake Topper – I used an elephant teether. Kaleb has the same one but only his is a giraffe and he loves it! I try to give people things that I can personally endorse!
  • Cardboard Cake Round
  1. IMG_5343I first rolled up all the diapers into cylinders. I rolled about 60 or more and secured them with the clear rubber bands.
  2. Then, I made the first layer of the cake. I used about 10 diapers and arranged them all on their ends. I put the elephant teether in the middle for the “cake topper”.
  3. I then wrapped the first layer with the jute string to secure it tightly.
  4. Next, I took my colorful ribbon and IMG_5340
    wrapped it around and made a tight bow on the front.
  5. Next, I untied the jute string and re-tied it nicely over the colorful ribbon. I incorporated the knot of the jute with the knot of the ribbon so they both stayed straight.
  6. I continued steps 2-4 with the next two layers, making them noticeably larger to make the layers distinguishable.
  7. After the layers were all done, I started putting the “pillars” inside. I took all the green and blue forks and spoons and put them aside and used the rest of the colors as columns inside to hold the layers of the diaper cake together. diaper cake
  8.  After the cake was assembled, I started putting the rest of the spoon & forks into the cake layers and made them look like candles sticking out. Just something fun to add to the cake. When Kaleb started eating baby food I was so grateful to have these around for him!
  9. The final step was to transfer the diaper cake to the cardboard cake round so I could easily carry it to the baby shower!

You can do so much with your diaper cake. Be creative! Walk down the baby isle at your local store and take inspiration from what you see! A baby’s world is so colorful, you can’t help but be inspired!

Until Next Time – Stay Fashionably Crafty!

 

Welcome to the world! – Canvas Decal Tutorial

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“May you touch dragonflies & stars, dance with faeries & talk to the moon. May you grow up with love & gracious hearts & people who care. Welcome to the world little one, It’s been waiting for you.”

Canvas Decal Tutorial

When I was pregnant with my son I had this huge urge to make him a custom wall art canvas for his nursery. I am obsessed with Pinterest (as you all probably know!) and loved looking at all the nurseries that people post about. I started looking for some wall decals with cute quotes for his room and I came across this quote decal by Vinyl Masterpieces on Etsy. I fell in love with it and knew I wanted to create something special. It took me a few days to complete this project but I felt so accomplished at the end and would recommend doing a similar project to just about any new mom!

Canvas Decal Tutorial:

Tools Needed:

  • Wall Decal of your choosing (quotes work best)
  • Credit Card/ Decal Rub Card
  • Canvas that is bigger than your decal (not too much bigger or else you’ll have extra space)
  • Painters tape
  • Paint in your choice of colors
  • Paint brushes
  • Modge Podge
  • Ruller & Pencil
  • Book or hard surface for under the canvas
  1. Start by laying out your design you want to keep white with the painters tape. I decided to go with a chevron theme in my son’s room so I did a cross between a chevron and herringbone pattern.
  2. Paint your desired colors over the whole canvas. Make sure you let it dry completely between layers of paint.
  3. Wait at least 4 hours for the paint to dry.
  4. Peel off the painters tape, being careful not to tear any of the paint that might have stuck to it.
  5. Apply one thin layer of Mode Podge. Let dry completely before next step.
  6. Line up your wall decal and tape down so it won’t move but you can still access the other side.
  7. Put your book or hard surface under the canvas so when you start rubbing the decal you have a good pressure.
  8. Start rubbing your decal on the canvas being careful to apply generous pressure to all areas of the decal.
  9. Gently pull the decal backing away from the decal, be careful not to tear any letters that might not have stuck to your canvas. You may need to go over a few spots again.
  10. After you are all done with the decal, start applying thin layers of Modge Podge over the whole canvas, allowing it to dry completely in between layers.

Stand back and admire your wonderful one of a kind canvas!

Stay Crafty!

Guns or Glitter? Gender Reveal

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Back when my husband and I found out we were pregnant we decided we wanted to know the sex of the baby, but we wanted to find out with all of our closest friends and family around us. We had been toying with the idea of having a gender reveal party and thought, well why not! So I took to Pinterest, pinning all the ideas I could find because I wanted to make the party  special, not only for us, but for everyone. A way to get everyone together and relax. We had had a busy year, Jack and Jill in the spring, followed by a surprise bachelorette party, not to mention finding out I was pregnant 3 days before said bachelorette party (surprise!). Then the whirlwind of the rehersal and wedding we had a busy 6 months! When we learned we were going to have the ultrasound to find out what we were having in the beginning of September we were ecstatic! We had a honeymoon cruise turned babymoon planned for September 6th and we couldn’t imagine having to wait until we got back to find out if our little bundle was going to be a boy or girl. So we did what every sane person would do and planned the party for the night before we left on the cruise. (Did I say sane? I think I left out a few letters there) All in all I think that party was a success! I had a lot of fun planning it and making everything for the party. We ended up having to make the reveal cake ourselves. I made it out of vanilla cake with white frosting and had cut outs inside where when we cut open the cake and blue M&M’s came pouring out 🙂 everyone was gathered around and so excited when they found out what we were having! I would recommend any expecting parents to consider a party like this! And I hope this gives you all some inspiration to throw your own!    The end result of our “Guns of Glitter” party (minus the cake!) We also had different cupcakes, ones with pink edible glitter frosting, and the others with little army men on top. We played a game where everyone could guess the gender and they got a sticker.   Got all these at my local Walmart! Didn’t have to spend a lot for the supplies! This was a very fun and cute favor for our guests! All you need is the candy, the sharpies, and patience! All in all, it was a fun way to include everyone in this wonderful news!

HELLO WORLD!

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Hi! I am writing this now thinking of all the wonderful things I want to share with you! I am a very crafty person and I love letting my artistic and creative side go wild! You should see me in a craft store… kids in candy stores have nothing on me! I am hoping with this Blog I can reach out to viewers and teach all the neat things I have picked up along the way. I am a photographer, a mother, an administrative manager at a salon & dayspa, an artist and a crafter.

There will be tons of different things for you to look forward to because I know myself and I know that I won’t keep to just one topic. I will be posting a little bit of everything and sharing all the wonderful things to inspire!

Stay tuned!