Put It All Together And What Do You Get?

The last few posts I have shown you how to make a Chain Garland, a Satin Ribbon Garland, Cake Pops and Paper Baskets.

But what I was really showing you, little by little, was how I was pulling together a small dinner party for some very special friends.

Put them all together (with a few extra touches) and this is what you get:

I added some crepe paper, some small hearts hanging from ribbons on the chandelier and some white tulle and colorful ribbon on the chairs. Then I set the table with the paper baskets for the Valentine exchange.

All in all, this whole room transformation was made with one pack of scrapbook paper, ribbon and tape. I added small embellishments like crepe paper and pink party napkins, but overall, the decorations and food were made by me.

The whole space cost me less than $30 dollars and it created a mood and theme, welcomed my guests and made them feel as though I had gone out of my way just for them.

Cake Pops

I told you earlier about Bakerella's blog and even about her S'mores Cupcakes. But this is her signature item, the one the blogging world knows her for... and I had much better results trying my hand at her creations this time around!

Welcome to the world of Cake Pops! You're welcome!

Some of the items I needed to get started I had on hand (boxed cake mix, can of frosting), but some I had to purchase - like candy melts and teeny tiny cookie cutters to make my cake pops heart shaped. And the foam block is essential, so don't skip out on that!

For instructions on how Bakerella makes cake pops, head on over here to her original cake pop recipe.

But don't stop there!! She has made cake pops in all kind of shapes, colors and for many reasons. Do the right thing and check them all out- some of her later posts offer updated tips and were really helpful for inspiration and little logistical directions!

Now you can see why that foam block is so necessary. How else would you dry these things? I bought only one block and was a little concerned that they wouldn't hold all the pops. Well, it didn't hold all of the cake pops at once, but the candy coating dries fast enough that you can swap them out pretty much as you make them, so no worries there!

Her advice to use small amounts of the candy melts at a time is great- the candy hardens again pretty quickly so it is much easier to work with small batches. It can also be re-melted so if the bottom of your cup starts to harden or its just time to melt more candies, you can just pop the whole thing back in the microwave and give it a good stir.

These are were delicious!

Thank you, Bakerella!

Making Paper Baskets

You may have noticed these in the flickr slide show on my sidebar. They are paper baskets that I made for Easter last year; to dress the table, act as a place card, and an Easter basket to hold yummy treats for my guests.

I made them again to collect valentines for friends, so I thought I'd show you how easy it is to make them! You will need paper, scissors, hole punch, stapler, ribbon and a ruler or small square tracer (not shown).

I used a square pack of sticky notes to measure the square I needed to cut out from each corner. The paper I used was 12" x 12" double sided scrapbook paper and I used a 3" x 3" pack of stickies. This made my finished basket 6" x 6".

Next, use your hole punch to put holes in each of the sides. This is how you will pull the sides together. In the very first picture you can see that I only made one hole on each side, but in the background you can see another basket where I used three holes. It doesn't matter how many holes you make, as long as there are the same number on each side!

Cut a length of ribbon for each hole. Then fold each side in towards the middle. Thread the ribbon through the matching holes....

...and tie them to hold the sides together.

Cut a length of paper for the handle and staple it on. You could also make 2 holes here and tie it on with more ribbon, or staples the ribbon on and tie a bow. Be creative!

And there you have it! Paper baskets that dress up your table that are just waiting to be filled with valentines!

For a more shallow or deep basket: change the size of the square you cut out from each corner.
*For a deeper basket (taller sides) make the square larger. This will make the bottom of your basket smaller.
*For a shallower basket (shorter sides) make the square smaller. This will make the bottom of your basket larger.

For a rectangular basket: start with rectangular paper. You will still need to cut a square from the corners, as this shape ensures the sides will be the same height when you fold them up and tie them together.

Trying my hand at Bakerella's S'more's Cupcakes

Ever heard of Bakerella? If you haven't, go ahead and check out her site, I'll wait right here until you get back.

If you have heard of her, then I'm willing to bet you are as enamored and envious of her great ideas and yummy treats as I am! She's a favorite of mine because she loves to play with food and likes to find different ways to use regular ordinary sugary treats.

Recently she created S'mores cupcakes. Oh, the pictures of her little cakes made me want to try some- they looked delicious!

So I started out following her directions. In no time at all I had three different bowls of batter and began layering them in muffin tins. First, a vanilla graham cracker cake layer and then some buttery, sugary, graham cracker crumble.

Next, the marshmallows and then a decadent chocolate cake layer. If you try nothing else, please, please do yourself the favor of making chocolate cupcakes using Bakerella's recipe for the chocolate layer. The batter itself tastes like fudgey frosting. yum... And finally, top it all off with more of the graham cracker crumble.

Into the oven they went and when that timer went off a short 15 minutes later, the smell was amazing- just like toasted s'mores!

Bakerella suggests you put a cookie sheet underneath your muffin tin to catch any drips. Good advice; they are gooey and messy and they overflowed. I would add to that suggestion that you cover that cookie sheet with tin foil, that way you can trash the foil and not waste your time scouring hardened marshmallow of your nice cookie sheets.

Gooey, melty, oozing cupcakes full of chocolate and marshmallow. Just make sure you spray every little bit of the surface of your muffin tin before you start filling your cups, marshmallows are sticky.

I could not wait for these to cool enough to tuck into one and see if they lived up to the way the smelled and looked!

But then, a curious thing happened.

My cupcakes completely deflated. I was left with a cavernous hole where the marshmallows used to be.

I thought I could save them by maybe refilling them with fresh marshmallows (the instructions encouraged me to garnish the cupcakes with more marshmallow) and then cover them with chocolate ganache.

I waited until they were cool and then tried one and they were not salvageable. While the chocolately tops of the cupcakes were baked perfectly, the melted marshmallows had turned the vanilla graham cracker layer back into warm wet cake batter.

Even though the house still smelled like warm baked s'mores cupcakes, I couldn't serve them to my guests.

So here's where I appeal to you: have you made these? Did they turn out right? What did I do wrong? This was probably my first attempt at baking with marshmallows, and I know they tend to puff up and then deflate a little, but why did it liquefy my bottom layer of cake? And, tell the truth, would you have eaten them anyway?

Satin Ribbon Garland

In the last post I left you with this picture of how I used my scraps to create a second garland.

I started with many different hearts cut from Valentine themed scrap paper to make a Chain Garland.

The insides of these hearts are what I used to make this Satin Ribbon Garland.

All I needed to complete this was a length of 1" satin ribbon and an Xacto knife. I made 2 slices in the paper with the knife that were wider than the ribbon.

Then I thread the ribbon through it. It was really that simple.

Then I went on to the next one. And the next one.... and the next one.

They're light enough that all I had to do to display them was tape a few to the wall. They're also easy, practically free, and they use up scrap materials!

Materials:
scrap hearts
satin ribbon
Xacto knife

Chain Garland

Here is a quick, inexpensive craft that creates a theme and can be done relatively easily. I made these from hearts, but you could use almost any shape.

I bought a collection of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper that was double sided and that was my only expense. I did use my Cricut Expression cutter and I used the Accent Essentials cartridge to cut out the hearts. I made them 5" tall. On a 12 x 12 piece of paper that made 4 hearts. I saved the inside of the hearts for another garland (see below).

The hearts are going to create a garland by linking together. In order to link them, you will need to make a small inconspicuous cut, link the hearts and then tape the cut back together. First I tried it here, in the bottom of the V.

I quickly realized that this was not going to be the best place for two reasons.

First, having a cut in the bottom of the V would make that area weaker when the garland is hanging.

Secondly, I planned to tape the cut back together. With the cut in a curve of the heart, there would be no easy way to fold the tape over and hide the tape. There would always be an ugly clump of tape there unless I trimmed it with scissors. With a long garland, that could become labor intensive pretty quickly. Also, I wanted to tape the cut back together in such a way that it would not be obvious to the eye.

On my next heart, I made a cut at a diagonal along the side of the heart. This way the tape would be easy to fold over a straight edge, making it much easier to hide.

I also cut some smaller hearts using solid colored paper to mix in and give the garland a more interesting and whimsical look. I used 8 1/2" x 11" paper for this and was able to make six 3 1/2" hearts on each page.

I laid out each of my papers on the floor, decided on the order and got kitten approval!

And then I started assembling!

There is a small thing to point out during this step which will matter depending on how you wish to display your garland. I intended to display mine by hanging it freely from 3 points. I wanted it to look whimsical, allowing the hearts to be displayed in different directions and the paper to be seen from both sides. It didn't matter to me how the hearts were linked together.

If you have a preference about which paper is showing next to which or that all of the hearts be upright, you will need to secure each heart to one another and be aware of which way the hearts are linking together as you make the garland. For example, in the picture below I always added a new heart to the right and always used the new heart to loop through the last by passing it through the center from above, not below.

When I had finished I took it down stairs and hung it up!

I was careful not to make the sides hang too low as to temp that sweet kitten to play with it, but I left enough hanging to balance the sides.

And with the centers that I saved from cutting out each heart (and a long satin ribbon) I made another garland!

Materials:
patterned paper
scissors
clear tape
any die-cut machine or pattern cut with scissors