Possibilities

Last night I fed the kids frozen pizza, when I removed the pizza there was of course a cardboard circle underneath, I looked at it greedily, and though oh the possibilities what crafts could a perfectly formed circle create.....?
I decided a flat wreath form. If you wrap a wreath in something full or fluffy then flat doesn't matter. Actually with a full medium sometimes flat is good so the wreath isn't too huge.

Cardboard is one of my favorite mediums lately. Mostly because its free and I seem to have an endless supply in my garage.

I have yet to have problems using cardboard.  Pinterest has ideas about cheap wreath forms but in my experience they don't work.  

Pool Noodles-- kink 

Insulation tubing-- stretch over time.  

Cardboard no complains, definitely not foam, but works well in its own right.

Better or worse

I kept thinking there was something wrong with my argyle wreath. When I wore argyle socks, I realized my zig zag should be a complimentary color, not the same. What do you think?

7th Birthday

My oldest turned seven. He doesn't really like cake, but he does love chocolate chip cookies. So this year I made a Chocolate Chip cookie icebox cake. It was seriously the easiest thing ever, as long as you planned ahead.

I also borrowed a stamp set from my friend and made him cute little birthday cake bunting for his cake. It was so fun, but also took about TWO hours! I need to get a mini stamp set, it was super fun, I stamped all sorts of things!

Back to the icebox cake, I made the cookies Wednesday, and practically burnt them on purpose, and then stuck them in the freezer until Friday. You want your cookies crisp, to say the least, because by the time you eat your cake, they will be as mushy as mush. I put a ¼ cup less flour in my dough, used butter instead of butter flavor shortening (since it has a lower melting point) and baked my cookies for an extra 5 minutes or so. See the difference.  The top one is what my cookies normally look like, the bottom one is for the cake, maybe I should have used less flour. 

Then on Friday night I made fresh whipped topping, from whipping cream, I made four cups because the whipping cream comes in cartons of two cups, but three would have been plenty for the LARGE cake I made. We fed 14 people this cake, and still had almost half a cake left over. Next time I make this, I think I would only make half a batch of cookies for my cake. Once my whipping cream was made, I covered a plate in one layer of cookies, then put a layer of whipped cream, a layer of cookies, a layer of whipped cream, and on so until it was as big as I wanted. Then let chill over night. Just for the record I was going to make this on a cake stand, it was his 7th birthday after all, but my husband told me to make it on a paper plate. I thought it was weird he cared so I listened, well turns out he thought we were making it for the party we went on Friday night.

So yummy, so much easier than frosting a cake. Next time I want to try with oatmeal cookies. I think it will taste like a Little Debbie Oatmeal creme pie, without all the store bought chemicals. You can also make mini cakes with this. 

For the past two years I've made my son cookie crème sandwiches, for his birthday in school, but to make sandwiches for enough kids you need two packages of cookie crème, and that is almost $6 for just the crème! So I think next year, I'm just going to make sandwiches with whipped cream, and refrigerate over night, I personally like whipped cream better than the cookie crème. Remember my son doesn't really like cake, and he thinks all those cupcakes everyone brings into school are exciting which I get. But at the same time, I don't want to bring in cupcakes for a child who doesn't really like them, normal chocolate chip cookies are too boring for such an event as a birthday, but apparently cookie sandwiches are not too boring.    

I also ate a fourth of the cake in left overs, none one else in my house wanted it, and it was too yummy to waste in my opinion.  (I did give a fourth of it away.) But I got a little sick of the chocolate chips, I'm wondering how it would taste if you either use none or less chips, and made chocolate whipped cream.  Or if you ground up the chips, and then used chocolate whipped cream.  It has so many possibilities. The chocolate chip icebox cake idea I orginally found in Martha, but I found this recipe the most helpful. Back to Martha I did not use mascarpone cheese or whiskey. Mascarpone is apparently expensive and it tastes similar to cream cheese, and my kid doesn't like cream cheese.  I blame that on my husband's genetics, I don't understand how any human being can not like cream cheese. 

Argyle Shamrock Wreath

Well another holiday is come and gone, and its a month until the next catholic holiday, so I made an Argyle St. Patrick Day wreath for my wine rack. Ever wonder why the Saint Patrick and Saint Valentine are special enough for all of us non-catholic Americans to celebrate their days? Me not so much, I just love to decorate. Back to my argyle wreath, other than wrapping the yarn which always takes an eternity the wreath went surprisingly quick. I won't explain how I did it because there are many blogs that already have.
The wreath sort of reminds me if the Boston celtics during the early 90s. My brother was a fan when I was a kid.

Nattie Girl Cupakes

Back in December my daughter turned four. I made Nattie face cupcakes. I saw a similar idea on Pinterest. I made a million of these, including 20 gluten free ones, for preschool. I didn't give her a friend party so I also made them for playgroup.

Love Sign

Here is the end of my valentine crafts
A love sign, like the ones all over Pinterest. I recycled the letters from an old craft so I just had to glue! So easy!

I made these love birds for a wreath, but it just looked too old lady and kitschy, in a wreath, but I thought they were cute on their own.

Lastly these hearts I didn't make, I bought them years ago in clearance. Turns out they are my favorite decoration this year.

Valentine Envelopes

I made my family PB hacked felt valentine's envelopes. Then my daughter wrote all over hers. :(