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Showing posts with the label CRAFTS

Chonky Boys: The Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches that Scream Summer!

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Featuring my thick and nuggy Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookies, these ice cream sandwiches are the stuff that summer dreams are made of.  If you've ever had the Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich at Disneyland , you are going to LOVE these!  These big and bold chocolate chip cookies are based on a recipe from my culinary school studies at Auguste Escoffier, but with a few modifications to give them that Jennuine touch.  They make the perfectas book for a fat slice of real vanilla bean ice cream.  And those mini chips?  You just gotta have that extra cronch! Thank goodness this recipe only makes 8 sandwiches, otherwise I would be eating them for breakfast lunch and dinner.  This way, my big family can help save me from my inner child diet-saboteur.   Print With Image Without Image Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches Yield: 8 Author: Jenn Erickson Loaded with chocolate chips and buttery, brown-sugary vanilla flavor, these mall-sized cookies form a perfect partnership with a

Enchantingly Easy Easter Eggs with Flora, Fauna and Family

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These eggs fit in perfectly with our decorating style that pays homage to our family tree   As many of you know, I've been on hiatus from blogging for much of this year due to my commitments teaching high school culinary arts.  Well, the school year is nearly over.  Hello SUMMER!  I'm picking up my graduation gown today, and prepping some desserts for a graduation party.  But before I do, I wanted to share a little creative something that my girls and I did a few weeks back for Easter.   Being an uber-busy working mom, decorating Easter eggs wasn't in the forefront of my mind (until the day before Easter).  My girls are getting older, and I fear it won't be long before they'd rather be out with their friends than dyeing eggs with Mom.  So, I came up with a last minute way to decorate eggs that is definitely out-of-the-store-bought-box, very inexpensive, and yet chic and sophisticated.  My girls loved them, and we ended up keeping them on display throug

DIY: Silhouette Easter Eggs

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I love the charm and old fashioned elegance of the silhouette. For this year's Easter eggs I decided to stray from the usual palette of pastel & polka-dotted whimsy; opting instead to play off the natural alabaster of the eggshell with a sharp contrast of elegant black. The wonderful thing about this technique is that it doesn't require special transfer paper or expensive equipment.    If you have some white tissue paper, Mod Podge, a glue stick and a printer, you can make Silhouette Easter Eggs without spending a penny! Silhouette Easter Eggs Materials Eggs (hard boiled if you plan to eat them, or blown if you want to keep them) White tissue paper (ironed flat if it's wrinkly) Silhouette images (I used the beautiful free images from The Graphics Fairy ) A sheet of copy paper A glue stick (I like the Elmer's Craft Bond Repositionable) Scissors Mod Podge Paint brush An old gift card or club card to use as a refi

DIY: Pressed Flower Easter Egg Tutorial

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After the fun I had last year adhering elegant Silhouettes to Easter eggs, I felt inspired to try embellishing my eggs with a different paper-thin medium this year.  What could be more naturally lovely and simple than pressed flowers?  These beautiful eggs require only three materials:  eggs, pressed flowers and Mod Podge.   Lacking the patience to press my own flowers, I sent away for a sample pack of pressed blossoms from Greetings of Grace .  After a bit of trial and error, I determined that the thinner the flower, the easier they are to adhere.  Try to avoid flowers, like daisies, that have thick centers.  Here are some of the types of flowers that work best:  pansies, verbenas , violas, hydrangeas and forget me nots. Each egg can hold 6-8 blossoms, although I liked the way that the single chrysanthemum on the stem turned out.  The pressed flowers can be purchased in packages and end up costing only a few pennies each.   Ready to make some?  Let

The Easiest & Quickest Way to Make Lace Crowns {Tutorial}

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Lace crowns are utterly enchanting. But they can be time consuming to make. Not these. Whether you plan to adorn one royal head or a whole party of princesses, this new shortcut method for making lace crowns from crochet lace are royalty-read y in just a few hours. In early 2012 I fell head-over-crafty-heels for the lace crowns I had seen online (at Bitter Betty Blogs , Girl Inspired and Joyfolie to name a few) .  The crowns were sensational and the technique was simple.  Yet the fabric stiffener used in the projects often needs 24 hours to completely dry.  I'll admit it -- I'm an impatient crafter.  So I immediately started experimenting to find a quicker way to make lace crowns.  In February, I published my " Lace Crowns: Quick Microwave Method ".  Using the same materials as the other tutorials, I was able to shorten the time by using a microwave oven.  The method is quicker, but has a few quirks, so I've been longing to come

Book Review & Giveaway: Washi Wonderful ~ Creative Projects & Ideas for Paper Tape

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I asked and Rook No. 17 fans on Facebook responded:  When given a choice of three different new and fabulous craft books for me to give away and review, the hands-down favorite was Jenny Doh's Washi Wonderful .  So, here we go... The first part of the book is all about using washi tape to make fanciful custom cards.  My favorite is the "Welcome to the Neighborhood" card tutorial from designer Ishtar Olivera Belart on page 32. If you're not familiar with Washi Tape, it's a colorful patterned paper tape from Japan that has taken the craft world by storm.  This artful and versatile little tape is the subject Jenny Doh's latest book, Washi Wonderful:  Creative Projects & Ideas for Paper Tape (April 2014, Sterling Publishing, 144 pages, $19.95, ISBN 978-1454708117) .  It's one of the first books of its kind -- devoted entirely to showcasing the creative potential of this fun and affordable medium. The second part of the book is brimming w

Quartz Crystal Rock Favor-Gift Idea and Free End-of-School-Year Printable

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  Earlier this year, I completed my teaching program in a 2nd/3rd-grade combination class with a wonderful master teacher!  It was a fabulous experience, and it was really hard to say goodbye at the end of my 8-weeks.  I didn't want the school year to end without visiting the kids and my mentor, so I popped in the other day for a surprise visit.  I remembered from my time there, that the kids were fascinated with hunting for rocks and minerals.  So, I came up with this rock-solid end-of-the-school-year gift for each of them. Rather than candy or junky toys, these little gifts offer up a piece of the earth's history -- a real quartz crystal.  These natural wonders make an excellent gift for students to pass out to their classmates for the end of the year or Valentine's Day, for a teacher to give to their students, or as party favors at a science or archaeology themed party.   I was lucky to have a friend bring my crystals back from a trip