Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

Seashell Ornament

Happy Wednesday! 

 A couple of years ago my family took a trip to Costa Rica.  We stayed in Playa Negra.  If you ever get a chance to go.  GO!  It was amazing.  While I was there I found so many of these amazing spiral shells all in about the same size. 

Making this Ornament couldn't be any easier.  I chose 5 shells that were about the same size and used my hot glue gun to glue them to each other.  I then did a ring of hot glue on the back as seen below to keep them all together.  Thread a ribbon through and hang it on your tree and your'e done!

I have a couple of them on my tree and they look really cute.  I love handmade ornaments like this because they take me right back to the beach where I found them and the vacation that I was on.    We had the best vacation rental home!  I will find some pictures and post them!





I am a firm believer all inclusive activities.  If you see something on my blog that you would like to do with someone that has a disability of any kind please send me a message and I will try my best to adapt my post!  I have 15 years of experience working and loving with people with disabilities so it I would be honored to know that my crafts are being shared in the community.  


Burlap & Gold Pom Pom Ornament


Big fan of burlap over here!  I bought some so I could get a handle of what I will need to buy for my wedding (Stay tuned for my WEDDING DIY BLOG).  I really couldn't get an idea of how much I really needed to cover a silly table.  I bought 3 yards of the cheaper more "rustic" burlap and decided that there is no way I could use this for my wedding.  

I love how burlap and gold look together.  I really love subtle gold highlights on anything so I decided to make a "pom pom" with gold high lights.  I have a couple of different colored metallic paints so I am going to make a few pom poms and hang them.  You could really display them in a manner if different ways (wreaths, on stairway bannisters, from garland, in your windows, clustered in a decorative bowl,  or just on your tree).


Once I have have made all of them I will take a better picture for you!

MATERIALS NEEDED:
BURLAP
ROUND FOAM PAINT BRUSH
FABRIC SCISSORS
HOT GLUE GUN
CHRISTMAS ORNAMANET (OLD OR NEW)
GLOVES 





DIRECTIONS:
1. CUT BURLAP INTO LONG 1 INCH WIDE STRIPS. (My burlap is 60 inches wide and I cut 6 strips) 

2. PAINT DOWN THE EDGES OF THE STRIPS.  I did this by overlapping my burlap edges painting two edges at the same time to save time.  Do not worry if it looks sloppy.  You want it to be gloppy.  Look how bad mine is!  I had to blot mine on because I used the rustic burlap I had to be careful of the edges fraying.  

3.  ALLOW TO PAINT TO DRY.

4. CUT THE STRIPS INTO 1-1.5 INCH SQUARES.  I didn't aim for perfection.  I think mine ended up being all different.  

5.  GET COMFORTABLE.  Set up all of your squares, glue gun, and ornament.  I suggested that you use the craft mat because I get hot glue everywhere.  You also do not need to wear gloves.  I burned my thumb pretty bad with hot glue when I took off the rubber gloves. 

6. STARTING AT THE TOP OF THE ORNAMENT FOLD THE SQUARES SO THE GOLD ACCENTS ARE ON THE OUTSIDE.    YOU ARE PRETTY MUCH FOLDING A TRIANGLE SO THAT THE MIDDLE IS THE INSIDE OF YOUR SQUARE.  PUT A DOT A GLUE ON THE TIP AND STICK TO ORNAMENT.  HOLD IN PLACE UNTIL IT STAYS.  REPEAT UNTIL THE WHOLE THING IS COVERED.

7.  CLIP OFF ANY UNWANTED FRINGE.  TAKE OFF ANY GLUE STRANDS THAT MAY BE HANGING AROUND.  I HAD A TON OF THEM.  FLUFF.  If you want to put a big ribbon like I did than I suggest that you carefully pop out the little wire in the ornament and then place the ribbon down and put the wire down back on it.  Do not try to thread the big ribbon through.  You could break your ornament!  

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM AS MUCH AS I DO!!!  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!











I am a firm believer all inclusive activities.  If you see something on my blog that you would like to do with someone that has a disability of any kind please send me a message and I will try my best to adapt my post!  I have 15 years of experience working and loving with people with disabilities so it I would be honored to know that my crafts are being shared in the community.  

Chocolate Coffee Trifle

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything that I have baked so I have looked through my phone/facebook and found the most requested picture and recipes It is a huge hit at family gatherings and is quite easy to make! This is a recipe that I originally found on the internet (possibly from allrecipes.com) and then made many of my own adjustments to. Feel free to find the original.
You will need:
Trifle Dish/Glass Bowl
Boxed Chocolate Cake
1 small box instant chocolate pudding (sugar free to keep it healthy- haha)
1 package heath bar crunch
heavy whipping cream (as much or as little as you want)
instant coffee grounds
chocolate syrup
Kahlua liquor
powdered sugar

Bake cake in 9" round pans as directed and allow to cool-- SO SIMPLE, RIGHT?

Make Pudding in a bowl and allow to cool in fridge -only needs a few minutes. -- STILL EASY!

Pour whipping cream into mixer on low setting with whisk attachment. gradually bringing the speed up. When is starts to thicken i sprinkle in about 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and then 3 tablesppons of coffee gournds. it may be more coffe. you want the whipped cream to be a light tan color. it looks gross at first but the coffee will dissovle. i promise. I should have my meaurements in front of me for you... I usually buy the 8 oz containers. I find one to be enough.-- THIS IS IMPPORTANT! YOU WILL WANT TO ADD A LOT OF SUGAR TO YOU WHIPPED CREAM. DO NOT DO THIS. The whipped cream alone does not taste amazing. I know. Just you wait until it parties with everyone else... By the way you, should have whipped it good.




Here comes the hard part... Layering.

Cut the cake so that it fits into your trifle dish. I actually use the trifle dish as my guide to cut the cake. When cutting the cake you want to remember that you will be fitting two-three layers of cake into that dish. It seems easy now... Just you wait.

Once the first cake is nicely placed in the trifle dish I coat it in kahlua. Don't be shy with the booze.   Every time I make this I add more.  I find the more I add the better it tastes!

Now put a layer of your chocolate pudding on. I plunk it in the middle and then smooth it outward with a spoon so you get cleaner edges. Do the same thing with the whipped cream. Do a layer of heath bar also.

Repaet your cake layer again. Repeat the Kahlua again and the following steps. Top with choclate syrup drizzle and heath on top.


You must refridgerate this for a couple of hours before serving. You can make all of the ingredients ahead of time. You have to assemble the day of delivery.

I have also assembled this in single servings and cooked the cake in a cupcake pan.  I bought my big trifle dish at Kohls.  It is made by the food network.  It looks like they make the individual trifle dishes (posted link below) now.  I don't know if they still make the big trifle dishes.  :)





GOOD LUCK!

So I've made this numerous times now.  This past time I had the genius idea to cut the cake circle in half.  The difference was amazing.  It was so much easier to assemble this way and much cleaner looking.  You also will not be able to see that you cut it as you coat it in pudding anyway.  I also baked my cake 2 days ahead of time and did basted the Kahlua on it though out those days.  It was amazing.

This is the big one I just made.

 Once again I had an extra cake layer so this time I use my pastry rings and cut small cake circles and did the layering in the cups and took them to my brother's house for a gathering.  I think they were upset I only had 6.  Haha.  These bad boys are always in high demand!

If you are using plastic cups like I did make sure that they aren't broken!  I guess one of the rims broke on one of my cups into a trifle and ended up in someone's mouth.  He survived and still liked the trifle... So I was let off the hook easy.  :)