carrot | Search Results | paper, plate, and plane

carrot easter basket

April 19, 2011 § 8 Comments

Today, I’m crafting over at Canadian Living’s The Craft Blog. The photo I posted in my sneak peek yesterday is actually that of a carrot Easter basket. What I didn’t mention is the totally random and unlikely craft item it’s made of, which is…a pylon! Quickly hop over to your local dollar store to pick up your pylon before the holiday weekend (of course, I got mine at my favorite, Dollarama). Then read my super simple tutorial to magically turn your pylon into a carrot Easter basket in three easy steps!

carrot treat boxes

April 5, 2011 § 3 Comments

Today, you will find me crafting over at CRAFT. Head right over to their site and check out my super simple tutorial with free printable, so you can make and give away these cute carrot treat boxes this coming Easter (or any day this sunny spring season!). Enjoy!

carrot cake pops

March 27, 2011 § 47 Comments

I have officially jumped on the bandwagon of cake pops. A bit tardy on the trend, but better late than never. For my first endeavor in cake pop creation, I thought to start with something simply and organically shaped — the carrot. Of course, carrot cake is among my favorites. Appropriately so, these carrot cake pops are both carrot in flavor and form.

I had ambitious plans to make my own carrot cake with honey walnut cream cheese frosting. However, considering I have never developed my own carrot cake recipe (yet) and although the recipes I’ve posted here have been my own making, I decided to skip that process by sticking to the tried, tested, and true method of making cake pops — cake mix and ready-made frosting, which is what I discovered online that most people use.

Cake pops are usually in the form of balls, like a lollipop, although they are evolving with more dimension. These carrots are my take on cake pops. If you haven’t seen cake pops before, head straight over to Bakerella, who, from what I gather, is the person to thank for inventing cake pops in general.

I did face one very, very silly conundrum — which side of the carrot to insert the stick. I wanted the cake pop to be held as you would hold the wider end of the carrot when being eaten (meaning the stick is at the top of the carrot). I already knew in advance I wanted paper grass in the photo. The stick being at the top of the carrot, I had the forethought of the carrots appearing to grow upside down and above ground. So with that thought, I was stuck. I chewed it over for a while. But I thought to stick with it. Oh, the little things that confound me.

You will need: carrot cake mix, cream cheese frosting, about three cups of orange candy melts, half a cup of green candy melts, and lollipop sticks. All this stuff is about $10 and yields 20 carrot cake pops.

1. Bake your cake according to package instructions. Let cool. Crumble baked cake into a bowl and mix with 2/3 of the frosting.

2. With clean hands, take about 1/6 cup of cake and form into a carrot shape. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour. NOTE: In hindsight, I realized that I could’ve achieved great details by using the edge of a butter knife to create short horizontal creases, giving more realism and texture to the surface of the carrots. The more organic, the better. I will try this butter knife technique next time.

3. Melt green candy melts. Dip about 1-1/2″ of the lollipop stick. Insert 1″ into the chilled carrot cakes. The candy melt will automatically pool around the lollipop stick.

4. Melt orange candy melts in a tall, narrow container (I used a 6″ mug). I did a cup at a time. Dip the carrot cakes. Tap off excess by holding the stick with one hand and flicking the tip of the stick with fingers of the other hand. Stick into a Styrofoam block and let dry.

Enjoy making these carrot cake pops for Easter!

chalkboard christmas cone

December 9, 2011 § 3 Comments

For a while I felt chalkboard crafts have grown tired, but I just couldn’t resist another! It’s been a while since my last (the 3-D chalkboard cake I made for Craft was back in July). What I also couldn’t resist (the carrot Easter basket I made for Canadian Living‘s The Craft Blog glares at me daily as it hangs by the doorway to my craft room) is another project using a dollar store safety cone…

So here it is, a chalkboard Christmas tree born out of a love affair between chalkboard spray paint and an orange safety cone. And a couple of sprays of primer (you don’t want to skip priming!).

This project has actually been sitting on newspapers on the floor for the past week, dried and unattended for days. I was so wrapped up in researching (nightly; obsessively) my own Christmas present to myself, erm, to Paper, Plate, and Plane (i.e. a new camera!), that I forgot all about it. Then this morning, amidst packing my lunch for work and packing my clothes for an upcoming weekend in NYC with O.T., I remembered it was incomplete. I hastily scribbled some designs before leaving for work. As much as I would’ve wanted to spend time on them, I couldn’t. But if and when you make one for yourself or your kids or grandkids, I wish you many hours of doodling merriment!

happy birthday, paper, plate, and plane! and announcing our giveaway winner…

October 3, 2011 § 2 Comments

Yay, today marks the first year of this blog! Looking back, I don’t know whatever propelled me get it started. Perhaps because my wedding stationery business at the time wasn’t allowing me to explore my highest creative calling. Perhaps because I always wanted to be a professional crafter, but so few and far between are the opportunities to become one. Perhaps because wasting good ideas by keeping them to myself would become a lifelong regret. So here I am today after having blogged 146 posts, welcomed nearly half a million page views from around the world, written guest posts and online articles, and contributed ideas and articles to Canadian and American print publications for the upcoming, even more exciting year of 2012 — all done in the past twelve months, along with the past seven months of juggling a full-time job working in a cubicle and a rewarding part-time job working with children. Whew! It’s been amazing because you are here — visiting, reading, recreating, passing the ideas along, and allowing me to have this creative outlet.

You motivate me to continue this journey. THANK YOU for sticking around! I hope you’ve been enjoying visiting, reading, recreating, and passing these ideas along, and that you continue to do so. I hope I’ve given you a wee bit of inspiration through this blog, as you have reassured me that giving inspiration is exactly what I am meant to be doing in this lifetime.

Let’s look back at the 10 most visited ideas in paper, plate, and plane’s first year:

ONE: KEYS TO MY HEART

TWO: NO-FUSS PAPER ROSES

THREE: HEART WALL LAMP

FOUR: FOIL PIE PAN ROSE TOPIARY

FIVE: EASTER EGG CARTON CHICKS

SIX: CARROT CAKE POPS

SEVEN: ROLLED PAPER ORNAMENTS

EIGHT: HIGH HEEL TREAT BOX

NINE: ROLLED PAPER CHESS SET

TEN: FLORAL STAMPED CLAY BANGLES

My Personal Faves

The rolled paper chess set I designed for O.T.’s birthday is definitely my most personal favorite. But here are another 5 creations that have personal meaning for me, or took a bit more thought to conceive/create, or a combination of both:

FAIRYTALE WEDDING INVITATIONS

HALLOWEEN BALLOON BODY PARTS

ADVENT CALENDAR LEGO-INSPIRED TREAT BOXES

KILL BILL SWORD PUSH PINS

CALLA LILY TUILE COOKIE WITH LEMON RICOTTA

I pray the muses stay by my side so that I may conceive and create a more prolific set of ideas on this blog in its second year. Stay tuned.

Giveaway Winner

And…drumroll…who won the $32 giveaway pile of crafty materials?

Comment #22 is from Betty in Barcelona! Congratulations, Betty! I will be emailing you shortly.

Thank you all for participating in the giveaway! And thank you for the fondest birthday wishes! Turning another year older ain’t so bad! Besides, it’s not til the end of the month. I’ll relish being this young until then. :)

Happy creating!

♥ Jeromina

solar system cake pops

March 29, 2011 § 27 Comments

As I consider the diminished frequency of my posts (thanks to several weeks of juggling three jobs, followed by a dramatic lifestyle change into a 9-5 as of last week), I really ought to avoid consecutive posts on the same topic. However, I had a surplus of cake and frosting from my previous post, carrot cake pops. The result: a further exercise in the making of cake pops, specifically marbleizing, manifested in the likeness of planets.

In the midst of my cake pop research, I stumbled across Wilton’s decorating technique of marbleizing candy for pops. I contemplated uses for this particular technique and was inspired by something I’ve been teaching children over the past three years — to build a model of the solar system.

Simply take several colors of candy melts, swirl a tiny bit, and let the act of dipping create the full marble effect. For Saturn’s rings, I made a marbleized candy disc on parchment, carved away the center with a knife, and slipped it over the planet.

Marbleizing is a fitting process to make planets, especially the hazy clouds of Jupiter and Saturn. This is a fun kitchen project to do with kids. Your little ones can learn about the colors and surfaces of each planet as each is created. What’s best is these planetary models are not only educational, they are edible!

Entertaining Ideas

January 5, 2011 § 2 Comments

My culinary education is, well, nil. My approach to food has been due to hunger for the most part and, in part, an unrelenting need to construct. I construct food (at times), experiment with unlikely concoctions (at times), and make a disaster of my kitchen (always). I don’t have too many reasons to entertain or throw parties, but the thrill of creating is reason enough to carry out the various entertaining ideas that come knocking, even if guests aren’t always.

Click on a picture to link to the post and I hope you can get inspired before your next big gathering.

Crafting Ideas

January 4, 2011 § 12 Comments

A crafter? I prefer to consider myself a builder of things (maybe, just maybe, even a perpetrator of ideas). Originality and innovation are treasured values I bear in mind as I conjure up and create all of the ideas you find on this site — all in hopes that I can offer you crafts seen here for the first time.

Enjoy the ideas you find by clicking on each image to link to the post.