recycled packaging for cupcakes, cookies, and macarons

It’s bake sale season!  And soon enough, our kitchens will be converted to cookie factories come December.  So here is an almost-free approach to creatively packaging all of your yummy treats!

This is a fantastic way to repurpose all of those plastic water bottles, as well as to use up scraps of cardboard.  And it’s an opportunity to consume your collection of washi tape or pretty ribbon that have been patiently waiting at the bottom of your craft drawers for the day they are given purpose.

I picked up my 3-pack of washi tape at Daiso for $1.50 back in August when I was in California.  A combined 48 yards!  What.  A.  Steal.  Hundreds of these little packages can be made with a $1.50 inventory of washi tape.  What’s sad is that our households may actually go through that many plastic bottles in a year.  At least this project grants the plastic bottles another calling in their lifetime before they hit the landfill.

For use of two water bottles (ideal for a row of homemade cookies and macarons):

1. Cut off the bottom of two plastic bottles to preferred length.  Fill with treats.

2. Attach the plastic bottles together with tape.

For use of one water bottle (ideal for one mini cupcake, but also great for a smaller serving of cookies and macarons):

1. Cut the bottom of one plastic bottle to preferred height.  Trace on cardboard.  Cut cardboard circle.

2. Place cupcake on cardboard circle.  Cover with bottom of plastic bottle.  Make sure the plastic bottle sits on top of the cardboard circle.  Affix tape around the plastic bottle and cardboard circle.

If you do not have washi tape, you may use double-sided tape covered with decorative ribbon.

Make sure to bake your cookies, macarons, and mini cupcake to fit the diameter of the water bottles.  I haven’t endeavored in baking macarons, so I splurged on half a dozen for the sake of this post.  Really.  Sweets for blogging’s sake!

cupcake liner necklace

What can you do with a few cupcake liners and a couple feet of brass chain from the hardware store?  Why, make a necklace, of course!

This super easy, inexpensive, and surprising D-I-Y fashion craft is one I wanted to post over the summer before I got sidetracked by summer.  But it’s not too late!  So long as it’s not a rainy fall day, there is still lots of sunshine to be flaunting this fun, feminine, flirty necklace!

Yes!  It is what I wore in my D-I-Y engagement photos in August.  I wore it then with two flowers and wish now, in hindsight, that I wore three.

You will need cupcake liners (waxed is best), brass chain in your preferred length (they are typically around 45 cents per foot; for this project I used exactly 4 feet and paid $1.80), scissors, and ribbon.

1. Trim off about 1/8″ of one cupcake liner.

2. For each cupcake liner, trim off an additional 1/8″ than the previous size.  You will have cupcake liners that descend in size.  I suggest 5 for large flowers; smaller flowers can be made with 3 or 4 cupcake liners.

3. Stack all cupcake liners and align so that they are centered.  Fold the stack in half, with all cupcake liners facing out.  Cut two very small slits, about 1/2″ apart, ensuring the slits are just wide enough to carefully slide the chain through.  Large cuts will cause the flowers to loosely slide along the chain.

4. Carefully slide the chain through one slit of each cupcake liner, starting from largest to smallest.  It is best to keep the cupcake liners 1/2″ to 1″ apart at this stage.

5. Slide the chain through the second slit of each cupcake liner, similar to sewing a two-holed button.  Gather the cupcake liners to form a stack.

6. Fold the stack in half.

7. Pinch and fold towards the center.

8. Unfold to reveal a flower.

9. Layer as many flowers and chains as you please.

10. Thread a ribbon through the ends of the chain.

11. Tie a bow to close the chain(s).

Flaunt it.  Feel fun, feminine, and flirty!

 

pumpkin spice candy apples

It’s pumpkin and apple season!

I’ve noticed that when candy or chocolate apples are made to look like pumpkins, lines are piped on the surface of the apple, which happens to be quite the opposite of how pumpkins truly are.  I figured, why not imitate the recessed lines of pumpkins by cutting thin slices out of the apple?

So, that’s exactly what I did to make these apples look truly like pumpkins.

Then I figured, why not make them taste like pumpkin pie?

And that’s exactly what I did.  I threw in some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger into the candy melts.  And now my pumpkin candy apples taste just like pumpkin pie.

Did the apples brown at the cut edges?  Not so much.  They were immediately dipped in candy melts, which coated them well enough to keep from browning.  Would the apples brown the next day because they’ve been cut?  Hmmm, I’m not so sure.  I ate almost all of them almost immediately.

I did save one for a friend, which I packaged using the technique in my recent tutorial on packaging cupcakes, cookies, and macarons, this time using a 2L pop bottle.

birthday giveaway!

It’s October!  In a couple of days, paper, plate, and plane will turn one year old.  At the end of the month, I, too, will turn one year older.  I wanted to celebrate this wonderful month by giving away some cool crafty items.

With thirty two dollars in my pocket, two weeks ago, this diva-on-a-dime ran amok at my most favorite crafty source, Dollarama.  What can I get possibly get my dear crafty friends for thirty two dollars?!  (I guess it goes without saying — I’m turning thirty two on Halloween!).  (And oh, as much as this has a tone of sponsorship, it is certainly just me raving about Dollarama, as I often do, and hauling things out of my own pocket, as I’ve done for the past year to keep this blog alive and kicking).

Well, here goes a long list!  Ok, let’s take a look at what you’ll get.  I tried to keep in mind a variety of your crafty needs.  Let’s start with paper.  It is my first passion, afterall.

Art Blanc Notebook

Art Blanc books sell for as much as $11 at gift shops and book stores.  I was happily surprised to see Dollarama carrying this famous Russian line of luxurious, textured notebooks in their stationery aisle for a whopping $2.  It was so difficult to choose which design to include in this list of giveaways.  Of course, I chose the one that most looks like Turkish tiles (as you may know, I have a weakness for anything Turkish).  I happen to carry a huge notebook (yes, the traditional paper kind) with me at all times so I can scribble and doodle all of my ideas that eventually materialize on this blog.  I’ve never found electronic gadgets that efficient for this purpose.  I actually bought a tablet way back in 2007 and fast forward to 2011, I still very much prefer my good old paper notebook.

Handmade Indian Scrapbook Paper

These sheets are 100% cotton paper, with beautiful gold foil details.  There are two packs, each with 2 sheets of gorgeous handmade Indian paper.  A total of 4 sheets.  Size: 12″ x 12″ (30 cm x 30 cm).

Vintage Handmade Dimensional Stickers

Pretty 3-dimensional stickers layered with buttons, ribbons, rhinestones, and pearls.  There are three packs, each with 8 stickers.  A total of 24 vintage handmade stickers.

Decorative Butterflies

I’m not exactly sure if these colorful butterflies are made of paper, but these are perfect for scrapbookers.  I’m sure I’ve seen similar at craft stores for quadruple Dollarama’s price.  There are two packs, each with 3 butterflies.  Each butterfly is 2-1/2″ x 1-1/2″ (6 cm x 4 cm).

Laptop Stickers

These are intended for laptops, but they can also be for cellphones, printers, windows, walls, wherever you want to stick stickers that won’t stick forever.  These are the removable decals you’ve probably seen being sold everywhere.  Dollarama happens to sell them for $1.50 for a pack of 5 designs.  There are 3 packs in 3 different glittery, blingy colors.

Bottles of Glitter and Decorative Beads

Dollarama has bottles and bottles of glitter in so many colors.  It was difficult to narrow down the choices.  I used shades of purple to make the juice bottle glitter vases back in July.  For this giveaway, I chose green, gold, and blue, considering that Christmas is around the corner.  I also bought a six-pack of adorably cute bottles of micro beads in Christmas colors.

Spools of Ribbon

Sheer organza polka-dot ribbons in yellow, apple green, and fuschia pink.  Size: 1-1/2″ wide x 77″ long (4 cm x 2 m).  Two stylish satin ribbons with illustrated flower prints in green and red.  Size: 5/8″ x 72″ (1.5 cm x 1.8 m).

Magic Clay

I didn’t forget you, clay makers!  Dollarama doesn’t sell polymer clay, however they do sell these soft, light weight, air drying modeling clay packs similar to Crayola Model Magic .  Each pack is 1.4 oz (40 g), in green, pink, and purple.

Decorative Push Pins

I thought these little lady bugs and busy bees would be a fun addition to your home office or your children’s boards.  Each pack has 12 push pins.  You know I love making me my push pins such as the light bulb and Kill Bill push pins.

Sushi Erasers

When I was a kid, I had an obsession with erasers.  My mom would avoid taking me to stationery shops because I always threw a tantrum over buying paper and erasers to add to my colossal collection.  When I saw these as I shopped for crafty items, I couldn’t put them down.  My childhood obsession with erasers is likely equivalent to my current obsession with sushi as an adult.  I hope you or someone you know has an obsession with erasers and sushi, too.

Of course, there has to be a little bit of Halloween in the mix!

Miniature Pumpkins

I adore these!  The package comes with 12 teeny tiny pumpkins, about 1-1/4″ (3.5 cm) in diameter.  There can be many creative uses for these little guys, but last year, I used them as place card stands.

Halloween Cupcake Liners

Who can resist Halloween cupcakes?  These orange and black cupcake/muffin cups have a spider web design, are standard size, and come in a pack of 50 pieces.

Skull and Pumpkin Molds

These rubber ice cube trays make for great candy molds, too.  I used them last year to shape my pumpkin butter.

 

So how can you grab all this stuff for yourself or for your kids/grandkids/friends?  Please comment below before Monday, October 3, 2011, 10:31 pm EST.  Say anything that comes to mind — what your favorite posts were in the past year or what other ideas you want me to explore or the types of crafts you most enjoy or simply share your blog link with the rest of us or anything else you want to say!  I will count the number of comments, place the count in a number generator, and announce the giveaway winner with the winning comment number on Monday, October 3, 2011 after 10:31 pm EST.  And wherever you are in the world, I’ll be happy to ship to you!  Stay tuned!

D-I-Y engagement photos: part 3 of 3 — beyond the camera and tripod

At last, Part 3!  It has been too long, here are reminders of the two D-I-Y engagement sessions that O.T. and I had back in the summer (is it really officially fall?!?).

Part 1: Ed Levin Park, Milpitas

Part 2: Napa Valley, California

As mentioned in the previous posts, we used a regular pocket-size digital camera, a tripod, and a heavy dose of post-processing.  In this part, I will discuss the challenges you’ll encounter as well as the techniques of achieving a “dreamy” soft focus to any of your regular pictures, even if you don’t have the most up-to-date equipment (as neither do I) and even if you don’t have Photoshop!

My modest little camera is an old Canon PowerShot SD870 IS purchased at the time of its release in 2007.  I really loved this camera when it came out; its performance outdoes most others in its category of compact digicams.  I am still quite happy with it after four functional years, however, lately I’ve become aware that it doesn’t successfully serve the purpose of this blog.  I do hope to retire it soon for a DSLR (*hint, hint, O.T* :p).  Regardless, this little gadget didn’t stop me from taking our own engagement photos or all the photos you’ve seen on this blog thus far.

I must forewarn: the set-up of shots takes the most time, more so than we anticipated.  We took turns setting up the shots.  While setting up the camera, one would tell where the other should stand, before bolting to take their place in the shot.  The timer was set to 20 seconds (which was sufficient time to bolt and freeze) with three consecutive shots at 5-second intervals.

The challenge of doing your own photography session is that no one will tell you that his hand is totally cropped out of the picture.  Or that your belt is not perfectly centered in the shot.  Or that your sweater is a bunched up hot mess. Or that your cupcake liner flower necklace (tutorial next!) has been turned over backwards by the wind.  You may be disappointed by the number of times you will have to run back and forth from the tripod (though exercise is good for us all).  But all in all, the efforts will be worth it!

We took 15 shots just for the scene with the “love at first flight” airplane props, until we both got annoyed and decided we’ll use whatever is “best”, even though there was none we were truly happy with.  Over the two days (a Friday at Ed Levin Park and a Sunday in Napa Valley), we took a combined 337 shots, out of which we were happy with about 60.  A more discerning photographer would likely be happy with about 6.  A professional photographer would likely be happy with none.  But we’re easy to please!

For post-processing, I found some helpful Photoshop tutorials online at: www.photoshopessentials.com.  I mainly used the techniques in the tutorials:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/soft-focus/

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/soft-focus-lens/

The technique for a soft focus effect is incredibly simple:

1. Duplicate the layer, then choose Overlay as a blend mode,

2. Apply a Gaussian Blur filter to the overlaid layer, then adjust opacity, and

3. In most cases, a mask is required to remove the soft focus on parts of the photo that should be sharp, such as the face.

The above Photoshop-edited version has 30 pixel Gaussian Blur with 50% Overlay.

This is the unedited version:

I realize that not everyone has the access to Photoshop, so if you require a free photo-editing program, GIMP is available online for free download.  GIMP is a really impressive imitation of Photoshop, for the fact that it is free.  It offers the same filters (such as the Gaussian Blur that you’ll need) and blend modes (such as the Overlay that you’ll need).

This is the GIMP-edited version:

Of course, cropping provides impact in the composition of shots, as in the final chosen edit for the scene above:

There is also a trick you can do by adding lens flares in the photo-editing process, such as in these shots.  The tutorial is found here: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/lens-flare/

Just to give you an idea of how post-processing can change the life of your photos, here are some raw shots and their corresponding Photoshop-edited shots.

Play around with the blur and overlay to adjust the softness as you’d like.

Remember: a bulk of what you pay photographers is to compensate for the enormous time they spend on editing photos.  Some refuse to believe this fact: most award-winning professional wedding photographers heavily edit their work.  Plenty of photographers, professional and amateur, invest in add-on actions and presets, such as those found in Totally Rad!, in order to jazz up Photoshop and Lightroom photos in a few clicks.  I am so impressed by the things you’d find in Totally Rad!

If you already have a great camera, you are already half way there (even more ahead of me in these pictures I’ve taken with my PowerShot).  I suggest taking the time to study the work of your favorite wedding photographers.  Look at style and composition, such as subject placement, angle, perspective, frame.  Especially look at wedding photography trends.  Did you realize the more current wedding photos are composed with a lot of room above the head?  And that often the subjects are cropped in ways that aren’t conventional, such as the cropping of feet or of bodies?  After you analyze your favorite works, with a bit of help from Photoshop or Gimp, you can mimic the styles and save a lot of money.  They are not going to be perfect, but you cannot beat the personal touch of D-I-Y!  How many people have said they took their own engagement pictures?  Now you can!

Click on any of the above to enlarge.

edible bunting

This week on Iron Craft: “Just Bunt”.  The challenge is to design and create bunting, which seems to be all the rage in décor these days.

I thought making decorative flags would be simple enough, being a stationery designer by trade.  However, I would be remiss if I weren’t to explore this challenge outside of the usual parameters (of paper).  So, I decided to save my beautiful stock for something less, well, flat.  I moved on to my next obsession: food.  My bunting is made out of 100% candy.

Thank the geniuses who invented Fruit Roll-ups for providing the world with edible paper, pretty much (albeit very sticky).  Hats off to the masterminds behind licorice lace.

All kudos to the manufacturers aside.  A rant…..I went to two grocery stores and two Walmarts before I found Fruit Roll-ups!  What gives?  Is it a fad of the past?  Fruit-by-the-Foot is fully stocked at all stores.  Betty Crocker must have conclusive market research that children prefer their candy in strips instead of sheets.  But how about grown-up children like me with capricious urges for edible bunting?!?  And don’t get me started on licorice lace.  I couldn’t find the never-ending one-length kind anywhere.  I do love me my Pull-n-Peel, though.  Even if it comes in shorter lengths, it does the job and makes my tummy grin wide (or just wide).

To make your own candy bunting:

1. Take a sheet of Fruit Roll-ups and cut into a triangular flag.  Press a cookie cutter, if desired.  (I wish I had letter cookie cutters to create a version spelling “Eat Me”.  For now, this bunting is a hearty ode to Valentine’s).

2. Press licorice lace about 1/2″ from the edge, with enough hanging on each side to facilitate bow-tying (I used two pieces of Pull-n-Peel).  Fold the edge over the licorice.

3. Trim the remnant into a narrower triangular flag and add licorice lace as above.

4. Tie the two flags together into a bow.  Trim the bow’s tails.

5. Repeat pattern.   NOTE: The candy has much more weight than paper.  It is best to create separate lengths of bunting, each having no more than 4 sheets of Fruit Roll-ups (remnants included).

Kids may just be asking for this as party décor for their next birthday.  Though I can imagine it would be torn apart and eaten before the last guest arrives.

There’s a lot of miniature bunting going on cakes and cupcakes as well.  This, being translucent, is a great alternative to gum paste.

Crafting Ideas

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.

    
      

food bouquets

Here’s a chic tip I’d like to share with you.  At your next party (and there’s a likelihood you will be hosting a fête or two this busy month of December), save money on decor and adorn the table with delightful skewered food arrangements.  If you’re pressed for time, pinwheels are always a timeless and easy party staple.

Make sure your vases are squeaky clean and dry, then fill with rice.  The rice anchors the skewers, as well as creates a wonderful aesthetic to your bouquets.  And it’s never going to be wasted because it can still be cooked and eaten.

Some ideas for pinwheels include my favorites shown above: salmon and dill; spinach and artichoke; and honey ham and Swiss.

Of course, you can skewer anything, which is the fun of it.  If you have your hands full, there are always pre-made appetizers available, like spring rolls, sausage rolls, coconut shrimp, sliders, etc.

These wonderful arrangements can be either savory or sweet.  I’ve hosted several parties in the past using this concept for desserts.  I’ve even skewered profiteroles.  One day I’d like to try mini cupcakes, 1″ cake slices, colorful French macarons, the works!

Your guests will be impressed.  Memorable as this is, it is one party idea that sticks!