Make Your Own Mold

I have spent a small fortune on fimo molds on Etsy over the last 6 months. Then I saw this product and decided to try to make my own. You can bake the fimo in this stuff too! No need to remove it from the mold first!
There are two putties inside. You need to take equal amounts of both. I rolled each into a rope and that made it easy to compare the two.
You only have one minute so you have to move fast. Mix the two together until the color in consistent.
Roll into smooth ball and carefully insert prototype into the putty. I used a flower I had gotten from Pick Your Plum.
Let putty sit with flower embedded for about 20 minutes. The mold will firm up and then you can remove the flower. The putty is flexible so it is easy!
Now you can fill it with chocolate, fimo or anything you want! If you are using fimo, you can bake it at 260 for about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool. Now you can remove the flower! Be sure and wash the mold after each use. Now I am hunting around the house for anything I can turn into a mold. Think of the possibilities! Diana

Wrist Wallet

My kids love these! Little guy always loses his money. Since we will spend most of July on vacation in various places I knew that I needed to find something to help him keep it together. I found a great tutorial for a lunch money cuff at this website

http://alemonsqueezyhome.blogspot.com/2010/09/lunch-money-cuff-tutorial.html

Her tutorial is FANTASTIC! It is easy to follow and literally only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to make. The best part is that all you need is fabric scraps.

I made them for our cousins that we will see on vacation, too! These would be great for birthday or back to school gifts with a little something extra tucked inside.

The only changes I made was using interfacing to back the entire exposed front panel. It adds a little more stability. I also made two button closures on each one rather than the Velcro-it's what I had on hand. I couldn't find any zippers shorter than 12", so I just measured how much I needed and stitched back and forth at that point to create the right length. Then, just trimmed off the excess.

Little guy hasn't taken his off in three days. Success!

Birthday Banner

Family traditions are so very important! I am sending this banner to my three littlest grandsons and it is sure to become their newest birthday tradition! I made this with my embroidery machine. It took a bit of time but that is a whole lot of letters! It is made with felt and pretty fat quarters. Button holes make stringing on a ribbon very easy and so tidy.

I used my pinking shears to finish the edges. By the way, that table the banner is stung from is my newest garage sale find. $25.00 for a gate leg table! Love it.

Pastel Pennsylvania Dutch Card

I needed a card to go with the wedding gift I made for our Amish friends and knew it needed to be "plain". Here is what I came up with. The cuts are from Wrap it Up. I did a lot of inking to help give the colors depth. I think it is a simple card but it needed to be! Diana

Please tell me this doesn't look like a purse

I promised my eight year old that it doesn't look like a purse, but I am not completely convinced (shhh). He needed a carrying case for his robot covered scriptures he received as a gift for his baptism in May. I found this great fabric at Hobby Lobby and came up with this case. I stitched up two envelopes of fabric and then sewed a 45 degree angle at each bottom corner to create a 3-d envelope. Then after sewing both envelopes together with right sides facing I flipped them right side out through a small opening. A little top stitching and striped handle and he has his own non-purse like carrying case (or so I keep telling him).

Boston Cream Pie Twinkies

Do you ever see something on a blog and just have to make it? I saw these adorable twinkies on Confession of a cookbook queen. Check out her blog for more delicious recipes and her hilarious sense of humor.
First you need a twinkie pan. And I mean NEED a twinkie pan. Doesn't everyone?

I made my cake from scratch but a cake mix would work fine. I also overfilled the cups so I had to trim off the bottoms so they could stand straight.

Instead of pudding, I used premade custard from our local amish bulk food store. It is really good!

I then melted a combination of dark chocolate candy melts and fondue chocolate. Holding the cakes firmly, I dipped them into the chocolate and lthen sat them on wax paper.

And, cuz I love sprinkles, each pie got a pinch of white goodness on the still wet chocolate. Aren't they pretty! I am storing them in tupperware to keep fresh until my husband gets home and can eat them up. Yum. Diana

Easy Microwave Suckers

Candy making is fun but keeping track of the temperate until it is just right can be a pain. Here is a no fail recipe for suckers that required no thermometer!

Here is the recipe!

Prepare molds by lightly spraying with nonstick spray. In a 4 cup glass measuring cup combine 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup corn syrup. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave at full power for 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir. Be very careful when removing plastic because the steam WILL burn you! Use a new piece of plastic wrap to cover and return to microwave for another 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Stir in food coloring until you get the desired hue and then add a few drops of flavoring. I used cinnamon. I wanted it spicy so I used about 6 drops! Immediately pour into molds and insert sticks. Let set up until hard and release from molds. So yummy! One note: do not half this recipe! The times will not be correct and YOU WILL BURN the syrup. I know this from first hand experience!

I made these little tags with punches. The star is cut from a printed paper and then mounted with foam tape.

This round sucker is formed in a 3D mold.

It is difficult to see but this tag is a red heart (inked). The circle is mounted with foam tape on top of the heart. Sorry about the pics. We have been having thunder storms so it is overcast making picture taking difficult.

Now I have some sweet treats to give out to special little ones! And big ones too! I love cinnamon! Diana