Posts

Showing posts with the label Upcycling and Repurposing

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

Image
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

DIY Handmade Egg-Shaped Soaps, Using Plastic Easter Eggs

Image
I created this project and featured it as a guest post many moons ago. Today, I'm delighted to be sharing this simple and versatile DIY project with my readers at Rook No. 17. Plastic eggs -- they're great for filling with sweets and goodies for the annual Easter egg hunt. But afterward you're left with a bunch of brightly colored plastic eggs that don't exactly lend themselves to sublime home decor.  However, with one simple modification, you can transform those plastic eggs into poured soap molds to create elegant egg-shaped soaps that look like they came right out of a chic little French country boutique. With this simple and versatile DIY project you can design custom soaps by adding your choice of colors, scents, and natural elements (mine are made with dried Lavender and essential oil). The egg-shaped soaps make a lovely gift when packaged in an upcycled egg carton.   DIY: Egg-Shaped Soaps  makes 1 dozen Materials For the soaps:

Paper Scrap Stashbuster: Snail Mail Thank You Card DIY

Image
The handwritten letter may be going the way of the magazine and the incandescent lightbulb, but I still think it's important to teach my kids to express their gratitude for the generosity showered on them by family and friends with a thoughtfully done thank-you note. (Even when it's a few months late)   I confess: We're egregious at getting thank-you notes out in time, especially after the winter holidays.  We always have the best of intentions, but then time gets away from us; we get caught up in the day-to-day hubbub and suddenly * poof * it's February.  So this year, we set aside a Sunday, cleared off the coffee table, and pulled out a hodgepodge of craft supplies and paper scraps.  The girls and I came up with this cute little family card-making project that perfectly expresses both our gratitude and the slowpoke nature of its delivery. This card gives a whole new meaning to the term "Snail Mail". Snail Mail Scrap-Paper T

Upcycling: Dreidel Treat Boxes for the 8 Nights of Hanukkah

Image
Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel You're a sparkly little one A box made out of paper that was easy and so fun For Hanukkah this year, I decided to fiddle around with some tissue paper tubes to see if I could come up with a way to turn them into dreidels. As you can see, my tinkerings were a success! What I love most about this project is the versatility.  You can paint and glitter them any color to match your home or table decor.  They make a great treat for guests at each place setting: They can be filled with a different small gift for each night of Hanukkah and strung on a garland -- a Hanukkah spin on the Advent Calendar! I sterilize my tissue tubes in the microwave, but if tissue or paper towel tubes make you squeamish, you can still use my template on basic cardstock. This is a fun family project.  When done assembly line style, you can whip up a whole party's worth of dreidel treat boxes in an afternoon.   The tops of the dreidel boxe

Tween Room on a Budget ~ DIY Cage Lights
and saving money with GE Engergy Efficient Lightbulbs

Image
Our eldest daughter is turning eleven and starting Middle School in less than 8 weeks.  So for our first project of the summer, my husband and I decided to give her room a tween upgrade.  We live in a wonderful, but very old and quirky Victorian home which presents plenty of decorating challenges.  Our three biggest challenges with this room were lack of space, lack of storage, and outdated lighting. It must have been the exploding down comforter that finally pushed us over the edge! Her room was very sweet before, but not at all practical.  The limited storage made it difficult for her to keep the room tidy and properly display her cherished collections.  The dated light fixtures were shabby (and not at all chic).   The timing of this project was perfect because I had just signed on with Collective Bias to do a DIY post featuring GE Energy Efficient Light Bulbs with supplies purchased from Walmart (#GELighting)!  You can see a full gallery of my path to purcha