Caramel Apple Kits

A few years ago, I made witches' shoes for my students. I filled them with witches' toes (cheese puffs), and they were a huge hit...especially because of my thing for shoes! I didn't think I could top that, but I did last Valentine's Day with the iHeartpods. They're still talking about them.

Let me tell you - having the same students year after year can be wonderful. You see them grow up and accomplish so much. But it's a pain when it comes to gifts!! There's so much pressure.

While this little treat may not be super impressive, it did get some ooooh's and aaaahh's (thanks Glossy Accents!). I had lots of questions about how I got the "caramel on the apple" - here take a looksie:

I made these fun caramel apple tags to attach to a caramel apple kit - a cellophane bag with apple, tongue depressor, and individually wrapped caramels. I created the template and hand cut the apples and drippy caramel. Squirting Glossy Accents on 12 of these puppies sure did hurt my hand, so please excuse the air bubbles - at that point I just wanted to get them done :)

The kids liked them; and for those who insisted on eating the apple & caramels right away, they wanted to keep the tag. I guess that shows their approval. When they brought up the iHeartpods & Witches' Shoes, I knew that I didn't get there yet. And the fact that they didn't mention their owl treat bags from last year, I know I was off the mark a bit then too. Well, at least I can repeat projects every 6 years :)

Start the Year Off Right

Today was such a productive day at school! The students don't start until Wednesday, so the days preceding are filled with trainings and meetings. I almost have my schedule finalized - other than the fact that I haven't fit lunch in, it looks great!

There are so many people in my school (as well as other schools) that do so much for me and my students throughout the year - secretaries, guidance counselor, computer lab teacher, custodians . I always try to give out treats throughout the year to show my appreciation, so I've been working on a little something to wish them well on their first day. I created Ghirardelli boxes (even though I stuffed them with Hershey's Extra Dark treats) using this tutorial.

I used the apple from the MyGrafico Yummy Fruits set- you may remember when I created the notecards & holder using this image. The site is still being updated, but it should be up and running soon! Yippee! I'm sooooo excited to see all the new images the artists have been working on!

Here's the final product:

I was able to fit 3 Hershey's Extra Dark chocolates in the box. I think it's the perfect treat!


Details:
Stamps - Yummy Fruits (MyGrafico), Polka Dot Basics II (PTI)
Ink - Copics, Versamark
Paper - Real Red, white, black, kraft, green (Archivers)
Accessories - black gingham ribbon, EK Success Embossed Curves edger punch, Nestabilities square & scallop square dies, dimensionals

It's a Poppin' Good Time

I'm so excited!!! I'm hosting a challenge over at SCS for the latest VSN!! VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) is what got me back into stamping after a looooong hiatus, so I'm so happy that I might be able to spark someone else's interests just like mine were.

My challenge is to create a card/LO/project inspired by popcorn. There's so much that you could do with this....make a microwave popcorn wrapper, create a gift card holder for movie night, alter a Jiffy Pop container, make a card with a popcorn image/sentiment ("E-kernel-y Yours"), or simply create something that's yellow & white.

I had tons of ideas and wanted to make them all, so here are the pics and deets :)

Altered Jiffy Pop:

How fun is this!! Perfect for camping, I thought...hence the reason behind using the Happy Camper set from The Cat's Pajamas. I loved how this ribbon looked with the altered topper - yep, it's another great find from my Offray outlet trip - okay...I'll try to stop...I know that I'm making you jealous :) I hand cut the little lake and the rocks, but the trees are courtesy of my Cricut and the Christmas Cheer cartridge.

This was super simple to make! All you need is to cut a 7" circle, decorate however you'd like, open the crimped foil around the package, slide in your altered topper, recrimp, and VOILA!! Just think of all the themes you could do with this!!! Want some more ideas? Check out these alterd Jiffy Pops at SCS.

Details:
Stamps - Happy Camper (TCP)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Walnut Stain Distress Ink; Copics (E33, E35, E37, E47, C-5, C-7; R32)
Paper - all greens & blue - scraps, So Saffron, white, black, striped dp(Me & My Big Ideas)
Accessories - Regatta Coral ribbon (Offray), circle punch, circle cutter, Cricut (Christmas Cheer cartridge), dimensionals



Microwave Popcorn Wrap:

I've seen many microwave popcorn slides/wraps over the past two years, but I've never made one. Boy, it was a snap....cut cardstock to 6" x 9.5" and score along the 9.5" side at 2" & 6". I used this fun popcorn image from the Slumber Party set by Zenware at MyGrafico. I have another great popcorn image from the Circus set (Zenware for MyGrafico), so I may make some coordinating items to go along with this! I'm thinking this would go great in a gift basket with a theater or rental gift card.

Don't you love the tickets?!! I almost forgot that I had this stamp....boy I'm glad I remembered :) I also added some cool red pearls that I picked up at Archiver's on Tuesday to give it a little dimension along with the white dots around the pinking circle.


Details:
Stamps - Slumber Party (MyGrafico); Polka Dot Basics II (PTI)
Ink - StazOn black; Copics (100, R29, Y02, Y06, Y08, Y17, BG10)
Paper - white, Basic Black, red (DCWV)
Accessories - Nestabilities circle & pinking circle dies, white Gelly Roll pen, black gingham ribbon, red pearls, microwave popcorn

Happy Independence Day!!

I hope all my pals in the US are enjoying a wonderful 4th of July. We're having spectacular weather! If only everyday could be this wonderful - sunny, mid-70s, calm breeze.

My family will be coming over in a little while, but I wanted to share two photos. The first is of the dessert I made. It's a sour cream poundcake baked in individual dessert shell pan by Wilton. I got my at Michael's in their cake supplies section where all the brownie hoopla stuff is, but you could grab one here as well. I really like the pan because the cake has a well to put berries, ice cream, whipped cream, or whatever you'd like. I knew I'd forget to snap a photo when everyone was here, so I took one when I popped them out of their pans. I'll be adding some vanilla ice cream - and a few more days at the YMCA for aerobics this week :)



I tried to get the recipe from allrecipes.com yesterday, but the computer gods weren't on my side. The recipe I used is from Paula Deen (yep, there's 2 sticks of butta) and you can find it here (if you look, you'll be thinkin' I should think about more than a few days at the YMCA). Oh well, it's a holiday :)

Maybe I'm ahead of the game though because I've done laundry over the past two days, which consists of carrying dirty loads down two flights of stairs and clean loads back up. I hate doing laundry and have more clothes than any sane person should, so I can go for weeks without a problem. Then laundry weekend (can't fit that many loads in one day) comes, and it's a major event.

Here you can see Coco was even getting involved!




Well...enough with my banter..wishing everyone a terrific day!!