Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and spooktacular Halloween!

The ghost and web toppers are made from piping melted white chocolate

and semisweet chocolate. 

A Back-to-School Celebration!

Wishing you all a safe and successful school year,

full of wonderful fun-learning experiences!

The candy legos are made from melted white chocolate,

a variety of food colorings, and silicone lego molds. 

Christmas in July?

Paperless Post®, an online card and invitation company, specializing
in Christmas cards, reached out to me with an interesting question.
How would I celebrate Christmas in July?

Well, it’s summer.  I’m thinking about fresh lemonade,
cold watermelon, popsicles, and swimming with my kids.
And many of us are thinking about the beach.

Ahh, of course!  I’ll team up with my favorite beach buddy characters.
Dive in with me into the creative realm, and let’s plan
a splashing Christmas party.

For starters, my friend Crab will take care of the decorations.

Mrs. Octopus will bake her most festive treats.

Puffer fish will plan the party crafts and games.

Mr. Whale will round up some festive holiday music.

Can you guess his favorite song?  Frosty the ......

Starfish will bake his famous gingerbread star cookies.

Turtle will bring dreidels and chocolate gelt,

and share some Chanukah love too.

And you can trust that I will handle the invitations.

Thanks for joining me with this fun post.  Will I see you at the party?

Harry Potter Party

My girls, though years apart, are big Harry Potter fans.

We had a lot fun recreating Hogswarts and Diagon Alley in our home.

Enjoy the party photos, and hopefully you'll find some
inspiration for your Harry Potter party! 

Mandrakes!  How fun are these?
To make them, you'll need Goetz Caramel Creams.
Work on the Mandrakes one at a time.  Roll and blend two pieces of candies
together.  Heat the blended caramel in the microwave for about 5-8 seconds.
Shape the warm caramel to form the Mandrakes.  I used a skewer to
create the eyes and mouth.  Top the Mandrakes with faux plastic leaves. 

For the base, bake chocolate cupcakes in 
Wilton Pot Shaped Silicone Baking Cups.  Once they are cool,
frost them with chocolate frosting, and add the Mandrakes.
Garnish the frosting with crushed Oreo Cookies for the dirt.

The kids loved being sorted into houses!
The house ties are made from felt and yarn.








What's a Harry Potter party without wands and Hedwig?  
I purchased the wands and stone backdrop (below) from Oriental Trading.

The witches and wizards enjoyed stopping by Gringotts bank for coins,
which they used to purchase robes, wands, and candy from Honeydukes.
The signs you see in this post are printables from Printyca.

The Honeydukes' candy station was a big hit.
I found the candy printatables from Printed Instinct on Etsy.

The cockroach clusters are made with crushed pretzels
and melted semi-sweet chocolates.

The house banners set the tone for the dinner table, with a flying snitch.
The Hogwart crest is by Geijvon Taen.
The house banners are printables from  TheDesignDarling.

The Potion Class was hands down the highlight of the party.

The experiment used dry ice.  I was very careful to prevent kids from direct
contact with the ice.  There are many tutorials online for this experiment.

A happy group of Hogwarts graduates!

Double-Sided St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

What took me so long to think of piping icing on Girl Scout Thin Mints?
I'm going to do this more often for other festive occasions.

To decorate the cupcakes, you'll need:

Skittles™

Airheads Xtreme Bites™
Rolos™
Martha Stewart's Royal Icing Recipe
Green food coloring

 

Be sure to decorate the other side.  Enjoy!

For more St. Patrick's treat ideas, visit:

Lucky Saint Patrick's Cupcakes

A Leprechaun's Treat Bag

Happy Website Launch!

Hooray!  I've accomplished one of my New Year's resolutions -
a much needed website make-over.  Please swing by and check it out.
This year, I'm looking forward to developing new book ideas,
fun novelty formats, and spending more time enjoying arts, crafts,
and baking with my family.  Happy 2016 to all!