Yummy summer treat- Ice cream sandwiches

So sorry, I won't be having Freecycle Friday today because I am crazy busy getting ready for a birthday party :( But, I promise it will be back next Friday!

If you are looking for the GIVEAWAY, scroll down to the next post.

Well, it's still hotter than the sun here, ......so today we made ice cream sandwiches!

(I taught my cookies tricks....sit up....stand up! GOOD COOKIES!)

Really, these are for my daughter's birthday party tomorrow (happy 5th Madison sweetie!), so I have been making enough to feed an army (or at least a bunch of sugar-hungry 5 year-olds :)

These are soooooooo easy, and soooooooooo yummy. Especially if you just use already made cookie dough (gasp!).

If you are NOT trying to feed an army, you can just use 3 round pans or 2 round pans and 1 (similarly sized) square pan.

Start by spreading the chocolate chip cookie dough into the bottoms of the 2 round pans. I did it about a quarter inch deep or so.

While you are spreading the cookie dough, set your vanilla ice cream out on the counter to get soft (you want it to be soft enough to spread).

While the cookie dough is baking, spread the softened ice cream into the other pan. I did mine about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch thick. Then, put that into the freezer to get hard again.

When the cookies are done and cooled, use your round cookie cutter to cut out as many cookie rounds as you can get. Save those scraps! They are great for gobbling up after the kiddos are in bed while watching a great romantic comedy snacking on in small quantities so you don't ruin your diet.

Before getting the ice cream out, make sure everything else is READY to assemble because it will melt FAST once you take it out of the freezer. I laid out the cookies and got the bowl of sprinkles ready.

Then, take the pan of ice cream out and QUICKLY cut out the circles and put them onto the cookie rounds. Then, STILL QUICKLY, put the tops on and roll the sides in the sprinkles.

You will want to then, put them back in the freezer for a half hour at least. I wrapped mine in plastic wrap to make things easier for the party, or if you will be having them in there for longer than your next meal :)

When I made my small test batch, I let my girls help and they did a great job with assembly and had lots of fun eating their creations. We made ours with a heart-shaped cookie cutter....but they ended up being wwwwaaaayyyyyy too big (but not for my girls :)

Have fun and ENJOY!!

GIVEAWAY - Tattoo your kiddos and keep them safe!

Well, school is upon us and I'm a little sad. My little baby will start kindergarten this year and she will be going away EVERY DAY! :(

Ok, maybe a little excited to be able to have some one-on-one time with Aislyn before we add another little one to our family (If you are new to my blog, read here)

Anyhoo, Maddie starts school August 17th, so these are a great thing to have around for any field trips she may go on or for when we go to D-Land or our local zoo.

I actually got this idea one day while we were at D-Land and I saw 2 other girls with tattoos on their arms. At first, I thought that maybe they were Mickey tats or something, but when I got a closer look (I think a little too close for their mom :), I saw that they were tattoos with phone #s in case they got lost.

I went and inquired about it to their mom (and to show her I wasn't a weirdo) and she told me that you can make these!

COOL!

I didn't know you can make your own tattoos!

She also told me about a company that sells these....so of course I went right home to investigate!

The company is called "Safety Tats" and you can find them here. They have some really cute stuff and a great product. But....just a little pricey for me (start at 19.95 for 30 regular tattoos or 18 "quick stick" ones) .

So, next I went to find the tattoo paper and got 10 sheets for only 23.00 bucks from this person on Ebay! With great instructions as well!


So, I whipped up a batch for my girls and some for my niece and nephew.

You just print out your tats (tats sound cool-er to say), and don't forget to print them out mirror image since you will be putting them face down on your kiddos skin.

Then, you put this clear adhesive sheet over the top and

VOILA!

Cut out your shiny new tat.....and mark your territory kids.

They go on like regular tattoos (reminds me of my younger days in a motorcycles gang), but they are more like a clear sticker and will last for days (if you kid doesn't pick it off ;) you can even write on these with a sharpie. And these can even get wet. And when you want to take it off, just peel it off like a sticker.

Here's my daughter's super-cool "Hello Kitty" tat after a few days and getting wet.

Sorry about having to block out the phone #s, but Just in case there are any weirdos (you know who you are) I don't want any midnight phone calls :)

I just used Microsoft Publisher to make these, but I also had to have the help of my design software to flip the text backwards. I don't know what was wrong....but neither Publisher OR Office would flip the text, only the design element. (and only upside down).

SO,

That means I can't post a template here for you guys.

I'm so sorry!!!!

If anyone can figure this out, please let me know so I can post a template. Thanks!

So, that means I will be giving away a sheet of these to one lucky person!!
One sheet is 33 tattoos!!

Just leave a comment on this post to enter your name.

AND

For another entry.....become a follower and leave another comment telling me that you
1) Already are a follower
or
2) Just became a follower

You will have until Sunday at midnight to enter and I will pick a name (trying) to use the "Random name picker thingy"

Good Luck and Have fun!

Not enough holes yet

Well, I guess there weren't enough holes in my kids' heads already.....so I had to add more.

Not in a there-are-evil-spirits-so-we-need-to-drill-holes-and-let-them-out kind of way. But in a my-girls-would-look-soooooooo-cute-with-pierced-ears kind of way.

Last Friday was my oldest's birthday and she had decided she wanted her ears pierced (after Chris did his best to make sure she NEVER wanted to go NEAR a piercing gun).

Chris had to work, so I took the girls to the mall myself with his blessing (Ok, actually with his reluctant "fine").

Once there, my youngest made up her mind that SHE wanted to have "pretty pierced ears" too (after listening to Maddie talk about it for the last 4 days and the whole car ride).

I really did try to talk her out of, but she's our strong-willed one and cannot be talked out of much once she's made up her mind.

So, I (excitedly) agreed to let her do it thinking that she would back out once she saw her sister scream and cry in pain.

Well, Maddie didn't end up crying......but Aislyn wouldn't have noticed anyway, since she was too busy looking at all the neat stuff on the racks behind me, and every 30 seconds she would hit me on the back of my leg as I was trying to provide moral support to her sister (and take pictures) and ask: "Mom, can we buy this?"

Well, needless to say....hubby was not too thrilled when he found out that both his sweet girls now had new holes in their ears,

BUT

he had to admit later that they look darn cute!

So, here are the (SO sorry about the pics....we were inside and under some harsh fluorescent lights!)
Before:

(Yes, this is the best shot I could get of Aislyn before)

During:

Not even a whimper out of either one!

And, the
After:

I'll admit, I was really proud of them. Neither one made a peep (just a funny face :) But, it sure did help that they did both ears at the same time. Otherwise, we might have ended up with one earring each!

We did originally agree to wait till they were older......but I caved!

Have fun!

Christmas in July & Freecycle Friday present: Pop top treat cans!

UPDATE: After much un scientific experimentation, I found that you should NOT use the E6000 glue with this project.....it makes the candy taste like, well, E6000 glue :( and the fumes were strong once I opened the pop top! Thanks to my readers for the heads-up since I have never given one of these to myself. And, I'm sorry to those who I have given these to. Instead, just use a hot glue gun to attach the top/bottom.


Hey there, sorry for the super-long title.

Anyhoo, the craft for Freecycle Friday this week is another basically FREE craft (LoVE that word these days)

I call them "Pop top treat cans" (original, I know)

I got this awesome idea here from Crafts on a Whim and was IN love!

I did learn that it's harder to find cans for this than you might think.

After reading this, I went to our pantry to look at the plethora of canned foods I have and........most of them have a curved bottom, ie. you cannot open them from the bottom.

So, nowadays, the only kind of pop-top cans I buy are the regular-bottomed ones so I will have an endless supply of crafting materials (sorry honey).

Here's how you do it:

Supplies

• Pop top can(s)
• Cute paper scraps
• Smooth edge can opener
• E6000 glue
• Ribbons, tags, and any other embellishments you want to use

Start by opening the can from the bottom with one of these "Smooth edge" can openers. This will enable you to glue it back on later because of that little overhang.

Then, after you have yourself a quick snack........wash out the inside and take that pesky label off. DE-SOLV-IT works wonders!

I went ahead and decorated before I glued the bottom back on (but I didn't actually end up gluing it back on :), but that's entirely up to you.

To decorate, just measure around the can, and cut out the paper of your choice (I went with Christmas, since I am doing Christmas in July)

For this, you will NEED to break out your roll of "Terrifically Tacky Tape." Trust me, the paper won't stay around the can otherwise.

I also put paper on the tops too. You just need to cut around the little tab-y thing, and slide the paper under it. But this won't work for the pop tops with little tabs (like the slim fast in the picture) because the paper would hide the tab.

Then, just add your choice of extras and embellishments.

Once you are satisfied with the decor (are we ever?), go ahead and turn it over and fill with a yummy treat. I didn't seal this one up since X-mas isn't for another 5 months and I don't want the goodies to go bad by then.

But, if I had sealed it.....I would have used E6000 glue (not too much or it will glob over the sides. But if it does, just wipe it away with your fingers since E6000 comes right off your hands!) and placed a book on top till it dried.

Then......



Voila! Cute little treats to have on hand for Christmas.

You can go ahead and decorate cans now......and when Christmas comes, put the candy in it and seal 'em up!

Another quick thing I wanted to mention about Freecycle Christmas crafts (thanks to a great comment from Cecelia!) was that you could make these great chalkboard tags, but use festive paper and use them on your gifts this year!

Have fun!


ran

SERIOUSLY!!!!

OK, YOU GUYS HAVE GOT TO GO TO THE MEANEST MOM'S BLOG AND CHECK OUT THIS POST!!!!

I laughed so hard....I'm STILL crying!!

SERIOUSLY! :)

Christmas in July - Shadowbox/Picture frame calendars

Arrrhhhhhh!

K, to me it's still Wednesday......but I'm having a problem with my pics, so that's why I'm posting this at midnight.

This is a very cute and super easy craft that one of my friends and I saw at a scrapbook convention we went to last fall (LOVE those!)

The only difference is that they made theirs (can't remember which booth we saw it at) with a calendar printed on a transparency.

So, EVEN if I had a printer that could print 12"x 12".......The transparencies were A)Impossible to find and B) SUPER expensive once I did locate some.

So......

Enter my vinyl cutter.

BUT,

You could probably even do this with a paint pen and a straight edge ruler (haven't tried it yet, though).

So here's how:

Supplies

• Calendar vinyl or paint pen (maybe even a sharpie!)
• Shadowbox or square picture frame
• Cute piece of scrapbook paper
• Yup! That's all!

So, start by taking the door off your shadowbox OR taking the glass out. Trust me, it's so much easier with the door off/ glass out.

Then, take your calendar vinyl and apply it to the INSIDE of the glass. That's why it's backwards.

Put the door back on/glass back in and put some cute paper in,

I took the mat out of this super-cute frame (that I got at Marshall's for only 5 bucks!) to maybe use later on another project. So, instead I cut down a thick cereal box and used it to pad the frame with. By-the-way....this cereal is SO YUMMY. There's teeny tiny chocolate chips inside each piece of cereal. heaven.

AND

Ta Da!

SO CUTE!

These are great 'cuz you can change the paper according to the seasons or your mood.

I even taught these for my Crafter's Club last December and gave some out as Christmas gifts, too!

I used some beautiful valentine's paper in the picture of the shadowbox because I was feelin' it today. And for the smaller one I LOVED the autumn-y colors on that paper. Even though it's still hotter than the sun here :)

I forgot to mention.......that you just use dry erase markers on this. SO EASY.
Oh, yeah, and the little one is going to someone who signed up for my "Pay it forward", but I won't tell who so it will be a surprise (a little).

Have fun!

Cute box for blocks puzzle

Ok, I was going to post this AND a different craft, BUT....

I've had a migraine all day, so this is all I can muster.

BUT IT'S TOTALLY CUTE....so don't leave yet.

I know you all ran right out and made your own photo block puzzles after my post the other night, right?

And after you made them, you wondered to yourselves: "Self......how ever am I going to wrap this to make it sooooooo cute?" and "Self......how ever is the recipient of this awesomely cute and thoughtful gift going to know what the 6 puzzles look like so he/she can put them together correctly?"

And here I am, to end all your wonderings!

I, too thought the same things after I posted that tute, and here's my answer:

Supplies

• 1 piece of patterned paper and 1 piece of solid
• "Terrifically Tacky Tape"
• 1 piece of photo paper
  

First of all, these measurements are for the size that my puzzle turned out (4 1/2"x 4 1/2"x 1 1/2"). If you made a different size, feel free to e-mail me and I can help you figure it out. Click here if you want to get back to the photo block puzzle tute.

Now, take your solid paper and cut it to 7 3/4"x 7 3/4" and then score it in 1 5/8" on all 4 sides. Then score it at the corners. You can go to my tute for exploding boxes here and look at the part where I made the lid , it's the very same way (just different sizes).

Now, cut the cute patterned piece to 7 7/8"x 7 7/8" and do the same thing as with the solid paper.

Ta Da! You have your box!

Now, go here and download the template for the little pictures insert to go in the box, and insert your own pics and text! (Be sure to crop your pics in photoshop first, so they look the same as the ones on your blocks)

And then, Ta Da! You have the whole gift ready for Christmas! (Wow! I'm so impressed at you).

Have fun and I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas in July!

ps. I'm still working on my blog....thanks for asking :)

Christmas in July - Photo blocks puzzle

Hey there.....I figured I would do a week of "Christmas in July posts" to get everyone thinking about all the cute crafts they can crank out for the holidays.

Plus, this way, you can start all this stuff now and take your time....instead of rushing around at the last minute like I usually do (I need to take my own advise :)

Anyhoo (my hubby informed me that this is annoying when he reads my blog.....so of course I'm gonna keep saying it! Love you honey!!! :)

The first craft I'm gonna show is something that would be a great gift for grandparents or aunts & uncles, or anyone that you may not be able to see alot.

Photo blocks puzzle!! (Woo Hoo!)

In fact, I made this set for my dad for Father's Day (but I'm sending it out tomorrow since he just got home from the Middle East, so ssshhhhh, don't tell)

This is something I saw here, but didn't want to pay $20 bucks for a kit (even though they are cute!). So here goes:

Supplies

• 9 blocks cut from a 2"x 2" (in reality....a 1 1/2"x 1 1/2")
• Paint color of your choice
• 6 photos of your choice
• Mod podge
• A bit of free time

So, I'm not going to lie to you....even though this is a pretty easy craft, it will eat up some time just because you are doing six sides. So this is a great: do-after-the-kiddos-are-in-bed-while-watching-television craft.

First, don't forget that some lumber supply stores will cut you wood for free or very cheaply. You can even get pre-cut blocks at your local craft store for a pretty reasonable price in the wood-working aisle.

Once you have your blocks.....make sure to sand them so they are pretty smooth.

Then, paint em'! You just need one coat since the paint will be pretty much covered up.

Then cut your pics down to 9 little squares for each side. For mine, the total size of my puzzle was just over 4 1/4", so I cut each square just over 1 3/8". But, there were a few squares that I had to trim just a tiny bit off before gluing down. So, just keep that in mind.

Also, I just printed my pics off from my own printer since I was in a hurry, so the pics aren't the best quality. And, I had a little hard time with the colors trying to run when I put the Mod Podge on. So next time I know better :)

Once you get them glued down, and it dries......put a few coats of Mod Podge on to seal it up. Or, I did one coat of Mod Podge and when that dried, I sealed them with a spray sealer.

And....Ta da! A great gift for grandparents or even your spouse.

Or, I might make more of these for my kiddos since they keep wanting to play with this set :)
Maybe I'll do one with pictures of Disney characters! They would LOVE that!

Have fun!

UPDATE!! Click here if you want to get to the tute I made for a box and insert for these.

Update: Come join me over @ Just a Girl for her fun "I can make that" party!

Freecycle Friday - Drink coaster mini album

Yay! It's Friday again.....and you know what that means!

FREECYCLE FRIDAY!

Today's craft is something that is totally cheap to make....and easy!

And the basic supply is completely FREE!!!

Drink coaster mini album!!

So, I was sitting at Islands a couple of weeks ago with my family, and our server came up to greet us and put down these coasters (just like they do at every other restaurant).

And I looked at them and thought: "These would be perfect to make a mini album!!"

So, before we left, I took the ones from our table.....and a few extras. And even though our drinks were on them, they were just fine once I put cute paper on them.

All it took was some scrap paper and my cricut and a circle punch (and a stamp for the journaling lines)

So.........here's the before!

And here's the after!

And a couple of pages inside.

So cute!

And FREE!!
(just about)

Have fun!