Crafting a Wedding Keepsake Box

Time for some sharing about crafts.  I was recently asked to give a hand in pulling together a get-together for my cousin's George's grandson Justin and his new bride Shoko. They were married in Japan and she was finally able to come to the US to meet our family.  I hope we didn't scary her to much! LOL

Since they are moving to Maine from Washington, Grampa George thought it would good to have a money tree, then they wouldn't have to "move" gifts that far and could buy what they need to create their new home when they get to Maine. Of course I have a money tree, but I thought they could use a personalized card box to hold cards, pictures and any other mementos they wished to put in.

So I set out to create this box.  I've been making the tissue roses for years and I thought they would represent a "bouquet" but also nature and sweetness.  I hope Justin and Shoko liked the box and use it to keep their treasure in for years to come.

As I've stated before I suck at taking pictures but I hope with my directions you'll understand how to create these simple tissue roses. They really are simple to do and can be adapted for so many uses and be done in any color combination.

To make this card box you will need: box of choice (I found this all white paper mache' box at Michael's Craft Store for only $2.49), gift wrap of choice, glue stick, gift wrap tissue in your choice of color for roses and green for leaves, #9 width (about 1 1/2 inch wide) satin ribbon in choice of color, small gauge floral/craft wire, hot glue gun and glue sticks, green floral tape, pencil, scissors and wire cutters.

Step 1: wrap your box with your choice of gift wrap. I allowed about 1 inch to wrap over the top open side of the box.  Using a glue stick to adhere the paper, wrap the box and it's lid.

 

                                Make sure to adhere the paper to the inside of the box and lid.

 Add the satin ribbon, making a criss-cross on both the lid and box.  Centering the ribbon on each side, overlap the ribbon and adhere to the inside of the lid and box, press down well, making sure ribbon is taught.

 Step 2: Creating the roses.  For each rose, cut a rectangle approximately 2 inches wide by 5 inches long. Loosely wrap this strip around the pencil.

 Using both hands, gently "squish" the tissue together, crinkling it.  Gently pull back out and unwrap from pencil.

 Cut a length of floral/craft wire to desired length.  For this project I used about a 5 inch length of wire.  On 1 end bend over about a 1/2 inch length, creating a "hook".  Fold the "crinkled" tissue in half lengthwise.

 Place the "hook" of wire over one end of folded tissue.  Press the hook closed on the tissue for better hold.

 Start wrapping the tissue around the hook portion to form the bud of the rose.

 Continue wrapping till the end of the tissue.  I kind of "poof" the end by slightly pushing up on the tissue and angling the end down.

 Once you have the shape of a bud, Begin wrapping with the floral tape, stretching the tape to release the glue in it.  Continue wrapping with the floral tape until all wire is covered. I made 3 "just" buds for my design arrangement and then more buds to make 1 slightly open rose and 2 fully opened roses. 

 To make the petals: Accordion fold a strip of paper for the size of petals you want to make.  You will make 2 sizes of petals - for this project I cut about a 2 in x 2 in wide petal for the smaller and about a 3 in x 3 in one for the larger petals.

 I fold the folded strip in half and cut a flat bottomed heart shape from it.

 After cutting the petals out I wrap a few layers at a time around the pencil and squish it together and then unwrap and separate the layers or petals into individual pieces.

 Then place a petal around a bud, note how the edges are curled and I have placed the petal so the curl is on the outside -- just as a rose would unfurl as it blooms.

 using the floral tape, wrap the tape around the petal, securing it to the wired bud.

 continue adding the petals.  I used 5 of the smaller petals, alternating them so the seems aren't lined up.

 continue adding the larger petals to get the desired size.

 I added leaves by cutting a leaf shape about 3 inches tall by 1 1/2 inches wide, wrapping it on the pencil and "squishing" it. I placed 1 leaf close to the top of the rose and another about 1 inch below this one.  For both I slightly pinch the bottom together to give the leaf some shape, with the curl to the outside I then wrapped with the floral tape to secure to the wire.

 Once you have all your buds and roses created do a dry run and place them in a bouquet shape on the top of the box lid. When you have your desired arrangement, hot glue the flowers in place. Add a bow.  You can make a floral bow, tie a simple double loop bow or use a purchased gift bow that matches your ribbon used on the box.

 After bow is placed add a few extra leaves for some added color and dimension. To finish off the box and personalize it I added a little tag with the couple's name and wedding date on it. Below is a full view of the finished box, I think it turned out really cute.  I hope you try this easy to make project or even just the roses for another project -- so many possibilities!  I think it took longer to write this blog post than it did to do the project!!! LOL

Trick or Treats?

I LOVE Halloween! It's the one holiday that you can just be creative and fun and let your inner weirdness come out!  I'm not into the spooky movies, I'll admit I'm a whimp when it comes to those - to many Boris Carloff and Lon Chaney movies as a kid.  But I love decorating my house and making fun candy and treats.

Although I didn't make these "special" treats for Halloween (ran out of time) I had made these as a gag gift for a neighbor's birthday a few months ago and I thought this post would be the appropriate time to share.
These are just those old fashioned easy to make Chocolate No-Bake cookies. But I added extra chopped peanuts and a little bit of edible Parafin wax to make them shiny - sigh of a healthy diet! (Yeah I know GROSS).  I'm always telling the neighbor guy he's my favorite turd, so when it came time for his 40th birthday I couldn't resist.  He said they were the best tasting "shit" he'd ever had! LOL

After following the recipe and mixing in all the ingredients, letting it cook for the appropriate time and of course letting the wax melt.  I let the mixture cool slightly so I could handle it.  I buttered up my hand and shaped the "mix" into little logs that I then placed plopped over each other in muffin cups.  I purchased a cute little bakery box at the craft store that I layered these into and tied with a bow.  They were quite the hit and laugh at his party - and quite tasty too!

For our Annual Halloween party the last several years I have taken my Peanut Butter Ball recipe and shaped it into Rats complete with a Black Licorice tail! This is such an easy recipe and really good.

You'll need: 1 Cup graham cracker crumbs, 1 & 1/4 Cup Crunchy Peanut Butter, 1 & 1/2 Cups Crispy Rice cereal and 1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar, 1 pkg Chocolate (milk or dark) coating, Black String Licorice, sliced Almonds and a tube of Red Decorator frosting fitted with a small round tip.

                        Put the first 4 ingredients in a large mixing bowl, gently stir together.

 After mixing somewhat with a spoon or spatula you'll have to get in there with your hands! Yes it's messy, but it's really the best way.  Gently mix and squeeze the mixture together, it'll be a little dry feeling at first, but as you mix it up it'll start sticking to itself.  You don't want to mix it to hard - you don't want to crush the crispy rice cereal.

 After the mixture is mixed well and is sticking together nicely, shape your Rats.  I use about a good Tablespoon of the mix pressing it into somewhat of an egg shape.  Place the shaped form onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper, repeat until all mix is used.

 Next gently poke a hole with a Corn Skewer or wood skewer at the "rear" that will be large enough for the black string licorice to fit into. Place the Rats in the freezer for about 2 hours or overnight - tightly wrapped or covered.

While your Rats are cooling and firming in the freezer you can prep your chocolate coating and the black licorice.  I can only find the Haribou brand licorice wheels, so I have to unroll the wheel, slice the two ribs into single widths and then slice it into the length I want - generally about 2 to 2.5 inches long  For the coating you'll need to chop it into small pieces for quicker melting, place it into a glass bowl placed over a pan of simmering (NOT boiling) water and let it gently melt, stirring often to break up any large chunks.  If it seems to thick you can add about 2 tsps of Vegetable Shortening into it, stirring well until it's melted.  If you want your Rats shiny add a little shaved/chopped Parafin wax.  Place the sliced almonds in a small bowl or on a small plate so they're easy to pick through - after all all you want your rat to have matching sized ears don't you?

 After you have everything prepped, it's time to dip! I use 2 forks, 1 I place the rat on to dip in the coating, tapping off the excess coating on the side of the bowl.  I place the rat back on the tray and use the other fork placed at the "nose" of the rat while I push the licorice tail into the hole that I previously placed before freezing.

 After the tail is placed I quickly place 2 sliced almonds for the "ears" and continue until all the rats are done.

After the rats are all dipped, using the tube of red decorator frosting fitted with a small round tip, place a small red dot for each eye on the rats. Set aside or in the fridge to chill. These will keep for several weeks in the fridge - if they last that long! If you want to make "dirty" rats, while the chocolate coating is still wet sprinkle some chocolate cookie or graham cracker crumbs over their backs - makes them even creepier!!!

Of course Halloween wouldn't be complete without some little white "lab" mice!  I use a basic Chocolate Covered Cherry recipe to make these and just use white chocolate coating instead of the dark.  After mixing the fondant layer and shaping it onto the cherry I place 2 sliced almonds for ears and then place the mice in the freezer for a few hours before dipping.

 As with the rats I do an Egg shape for the little body, letting the stem of the cherry act as the tail - it's just a natural thing!

If the bottom gets a little sticky before you dip the mouse in the white chocolate coating - dust the bottom in a little powdered sugar.  It helps dry up any leakage from the cherry and keeps the fondant together better when dipping in the hot coating.

Another cute idea I wanted to do this year was to make some Frankenstein brownie pops.  These were so fun and I think they turned out very cute!  I just used a store bought fudge brownie mix, baked it in a 13x9 baking dish that I lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick coating.  Let the baked brownies cool completely, then using the foil lift up out of the baking dish onto a cutting board.  I trimmed about 1/2 inch of the edges off so there weren't any hard edges on the finished pop.  I then cut the brownie into 20 pieces about 3" tall by 2" wide.  I shaped each with my hands, kind of compressing it a bit, making sure there weren't any loose pieces that would fall off when dipping.

I purchased a package of Green for Frank's skin and a package of Black for his hair of the Wilton Candy Melts.  I melted about 8 of the green melts in a small bowl, I then dipped one end of a lollipop stick into the melted coating and pushed it into the center of 1 end of the shaped brownie and placed it on a wax paper lined tray.  After wrapping the tray with tin foil I placed it in the freezer for a few hours to get nice and firm - makes dipping much easier!

After the pops had firmed up in the freezer I then melted the rest of the Green Melts in a double boiler and then dipped the pops in the green coating.  I used a spoon to ladle the melted coating up and over the brownie, making sure all was coated.  After tapping the pop on the edge of the bowl to remove any excess coating, **this in 1 step you'll need to be careful on - if you tap too hard you may break Frank loose from his stick! LOL I then placed the pops in bricks of Florist Foam to cool and set up. 

After the green coating has set up you can move on to Frank's hair! To add the hair, after melting the black melts I used a rounded butter knife to paint on his hair -- looked a little like Elvis for a bit there!  I painted around where his face would be and covered the back of his "head" I was going for a 3D looking pop!!!  Once his hair was on and cooled, I use little pearl dragees dipped in the black melts as his neck bolts -- I had to use a very small tipped (and clean) pair of tweezers for this. But by having the pops stuck in the floral foam, I could easily turn them to place the "bolts"

                                He's coming to life! Looking a little like Elvis though!! LOL

Getting more of the Frankenstein look with his neck bolts. Silver dragees would have been awesome but I had the white ones already, so I went with what I had.

After the bolts were set up and the hair was dry I then used a tube of black decorator frosting fitted with a small round tip to pipe on the eyebrow and mouth and pupil.  I used a tube of white with the small round tip for the eyeball.  I did lay the pops flat on the counter for this step and then placed them back into the foam to finish drying.  To display for the party I used a faux white pumpkin, got my son to drill holes in it and VIOLA! I think I'll decorate up the pumpkin next tine - it was a little blah for Frankenstein.

I hope you enjoy seeing my little creations, I had fun making them and my party guest had fun eating them!

Cream Puffs with Raspberry and Lemon Mouse

Prior to the family Potluck I asked for suggestions on FB as to what to make - I was brain dead and nothing sounded good.  One of the items brought up in discussion was Cream Puffs.  This sounded good, they're fairly easy and relatively inexpensive to make.  We have a lot of diabetics in our family so I thought I would try to make them as "diet" friendly as possibly.  Nothing worse than delicious looking desserts and you know you can't have it because of the sugars or fats.

 

These Cream Puff's were so light and airy and DELICIOUS!

For the Cream Puffs I used the recipe from my old "trusty" but certainly not "dusty" Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that I've had since I was 18 - no don't bother doing the math! Just know that I've had it for awhile and let's leave it at that! It's a quick and very simple recipe of 1 C water, 1/2 C (1 stick) butter or margarine, 1 C flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 4 eggs, comes together very quickly and is very versatile in it's uses for shaping the dough.  In fact I've already thought of some ideas using this dough to create some festive looking desserts for the holidays.

 In a medium sauce pan (I use my non-stick 2 quarter) melt the Butter or Marg., add the water and bring to a boil.     

   

Add the Flour and Salt all at once and STIR VIGOROUSLY! -- hardest part of the whole recipe!!!

continue cooking and stirring until the mixture is all combined and forms a nice ball that doesn't separate. Add Eggs 1 at a time, using a wooden spoon mix well after each one for about 1 or 2 minutes until smooth.

  

You can drop the batter by teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet or put the batter in a large decorator or pastry bag or a gallon sized zippered freezer bag.  **HINT, don't use a regular storage bag - they will blow out on you, they're just not strong enough for this kind of batter.  Squeeze all the air out you can before closing the bag, snip about a 1 inch cut off a bottom corner and "pipe" the batter onto the cookie sheet.  The size and shape is up to you, I like to do about a doughnut hole size of batter.  I prefer to make desserts like this in about a 2 or 3 max bite size for parties and potlucks, that way you don't feel so guilty having several different things when they're only a few bites each.  I also think it would be really pretty to fit your bag with a large STAR decorator tip to pipe the batter out, just would give a little fancier look to them. Thinking I'll try this next time I make them.

  

 If there are any little "peaks" of dough or they are not as rounded as you would like, just dip your finger in a little water and pat the dough into shape.

  

Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, longer if making larger shapes.  Just watch the first batch close so you'll be able to do the next with ease.

 

 After baking, remove to parchment paper and let cool.  When completely cool, carefully pull off a little top or cap and set aside, if there's extra dough, just pinch it out. Generally these come out very airy with a nice little cavity to hold the filling, but sometimes there is more dough than I want, so I just pinch it out.  

On to the filling! In my efforts to keep the sugars and fats down, I decided to use the basic 2 pt pie recipe idea I like from Weight Watchers as the base and then just kick it up a bit!  For each filling I used 4 ozs of softened "light" Cream Cheese, 1ea .3 oz pkg Sugar Free Jello (1 in Raspberry and 1 in Lemon), 4 T Whipping Cream and 1 8oz thawed Lite Whipped Topping (I used store brand - works just fine).  For the Raspberry flavored Mouse I also added about 1/4 cup Raspberry Jam that I stirred up to loosen a bit first, it just adds a little more flavor and texture.  For the Lemon Mouse I added about 1/2 of a Lemon's Zest - really kicked up the flavor, plus the lemon I had were very fragrant.

 Place the 4 oz of Softened Cream Cheese in your mixer bowl - whats great about this recipe is that from 1 - 8 oz brick of cream cheese you can get 2 different flavored fillings.

 Whip the Cream Cheese till light and smooth, add the Whipping Cream and continue whipping for about 3 minutes - will fluff up a little bit and add some volume.

 While the Cream Cheese mixture is whipping combine 1/4 C Boiling Water to the .3 oz package of Jello, stirring until all the Jello is dissolved.

 With the mixer on LOW speed start pouring in the Jello, use a spoon to get it all out from the bowl, continue mixing until combined well, making sure to use a spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom.

 Add your freshly zested Lemon Zest or Jam if doing the Raspberry flavor Mouse, mix it in well.

 Almost done, next use a spatula or wooden spoon FOLD in your thawed 8 oz container of Whipped Topping.

 Look at how light and fluffy the filling is! If you want a more intense color add a few drops of food coloring before you fold in the Whipped Topping.  Between the Cream Cheese and the Whipped Topping the color of the Jello lightens up considerably.

 Fill a pastry bag or gallon sized zippered freezer bag and pipe in the filling into each little Puff, filling just a little above the rim of the Puff.

                                                 Put their little tops back on.......................

After all the Cream Puffs were filled I drizzled them with some Chocolate Sauce I made from melting some Semi-sweet chocolate wafers (can use chips too) in a little bit of the warmed Whipping Cream, stirring till all were melted and mixture was smooth.  **HINT, the sauce was good but next time (which is how I usually do it) I will just melt some chocolate and thin it with some Shortening and use it for the drizzle.  I like how it "sets" back up or hardens better.  It's not as messy to eat and I think the shiny threads of chocolate are so pretty and very decadent looking. Then just refrigerate until ready to serve.

I hope you enjoy this dessert as much as my family and I did.