St. Patrick's Day - Rainbow Cupcakes

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Yesterday the boys and I whipped up some easy Rainbow Cupcakes for a bake sale. We are competing with donuts, a bake sale favorite, so this year we decided to take it up a notch. Yes it's still tastes like a white cupcake… but it looks much more fancy with a little lot of color!

Here's why it's easy--
White Cake Mix (I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme)
Eggs
Vegetable Oil
Buttercream Icing Mix (I used Wilton)… I don't usually like frosting, but this one was good.
Butter
Milk
Food Coloring (I used Wilton Gel)… The color is very concentrated and you don't need much.

Enlist the help of eager leprechauns to mix, stir & dollop.

Bake it…

Let it cool then… Frost it.

I didn't even bother with a frosting tip. I put the frosting in a ziplock bag, cut the corner and squeezed.

We'll see how these do at the Bake Sale!


It just occurred to me that the last time couple of times I've posted were also "holidays"… in February. Whoops, I really mean to post more often, but it's been a busy month (heck, a busy 6 months) and time keeps getting away from me. I do have a project that I'm working on… If it turns out I'll share it in the next week or so. Crossing my fingers, because it's a science experiment of sorts.  Have a great rest of the week!

Make // Minecraft Valentines - Free Printable

My six year old loves Minecraft, so this year we decided to make Minecraft Valentine's Day cards for his class. I kept it simple with swords for the boys and hearts for the girls-- All in the pixelated-Minecraft theme of course!

Perler Beads lend themselves perfectly for this. I have to admit that I kind of like working with them-- slow, pedantic and somewhat relaxing if you're not in a rush.  I had a bit of practice with Perler Beads when we threw a Minecraft-themed birthday party last summer (details HERE). 

You can obviously do a lot more with Perler Beads and the Minecraft theme-- Minecraft Creepers, Steves and Mobs, etc. If you're looking for more design ideas, check out these Perler Bead cupcake picks.

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Make // DIY Handwriting Chart… For Under $20!

Last year I bought an awesome penmanship print when my then first grader was learning to write in cursive. I thought it'd be a good tool for him and it doesn't hurt that it's on-trend too. And the amazing thing? It only put me out $4! But it gets better….

So I never got around to hanging it up.  At first I was going to frame it, but that just seemed too formal and was more than I wanted to spend. Then I saw several diy botanical charts that were hung in a clean and simple fashion and I was smitten.

So what IS the best part about this project? It cost me less than $20. Total. Actually, it really just cost me $7 since I already had the stain, miter and twine from previous projects. And it took me just a few minutes to assemble. Seriously, for DIY, it doesn't get much better than that!

Here's the cost breakdown...
artwork - $4
wood - $3
stain - $2
craft miter box - $7 (with 50% off coupon)
twine - $3

Click "Read more" for all the details!

Make // Turn Kid's Art into a Card

Have you ever wanted to create a card using your child's artwork? Or perhaps your own? Here's how!

Before I get too far into it, you'll need a scanner (or camera phone, camera with wifi, etc.) and Photoshop or other photo editing software for this project-- I have Photoshop Elements 9.

This project came about when my 5 year old spent some time coloring a picture and wanted to share it with a bunch of people-- grandma, nana, friend, teacher, etc. I tried to persuade him to color more pictures, but he was determined that THIS was his "masterpiece" and nothing could convince him otherwise.

So, with a little help from our scanner/printer and Photoshop, we were able to give all of the peeps on his list a custom, Made by L card. You can add a background or not. Since it's almost VDay, we added a heart background and turned it into a Valentine's Day Card. I also did a couple with a chalkboard background and font.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Make // Party Blower Valentine's Day Cards- Free Printable

Last week I shared my 7-year old's Mustache Valentine's Day cards for his 2nd grade class. Today, I'm sharing my 5-year old's cards for his Kindergarten class--

To know my 5-year old is to love him. In our family, he's the life of the party. We'll probably have to worry about that more later on, but right now he's all about squawking loud noises, confetti and dancing around like a lunatic basically having a good time. So Party Blower Valentines are not only apropos, but kind of necessary.

 Click "Read more" for the Free Printable & Tutorial

Make // Mustache Valentine's Day Cards - Free Printable

We're no strangers to mustaches around here-- see our funny lil' man party  and cowboy party. Since they are fun and also a sugar-free option, I thought we'd incorporate them into my 7-year old's class Valentine's Day cards. I made a couple of versions.

One that's a straightforward declaration…

And another that's more for the faint of heart (aka, one that won't embarrass a 2nd grade boy)...

Click "Read more" for the free printable cards

Make // Rainbow Loom Bracelets... A Tutorial Round-up

O.M.G. I'm not the only adult staying up late, watching YouTube and making bracelets out of rubber bands... Am I? I don't know what it is, but something about the bracelet-making process is addictive-- Is it learning the pattern? The repetition? The satisfaction of pulling the final product off the loom to the cheers of young children? *slight exaggeration*. While it is a somewhat addictive process, sometimes I find myself wishing that the final product wasn't made out of rubber bands... Maybe I need to take up knitting or something.

Anyhow, after spending time watching many rubber band bracelet tutorials, and getting frustrated with a few of them, I thought I'd put together a list of my favorites. I prefer tutorials with photos and written description, but it seems that most of the rubber band bracelet tutorials out there are videos.

I've weeded through several tutorials and here are some of the ones that have worked for me.

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Make // DIY Kids Halloween Cards

Every year the boys make Halloween cards as one of our school's community service events. These cards, accompanied by a handful of goodies, go to children who are part of our county's foster care system. I love that this project is hands-on and meaningful for both the children who receive the cards, as well as the ones who make them.

The boys and I brainstormed and decided to make cards with ghosts and bats. I've been testing out a few ideas for Christmas and happened to have  a lot of "stuff" out on our kitchen counter. AKA, I make a mess and don't always clean it up! The white "abominable snowman" fur grabbed their attention and we agreed that furry white ghosts were in order!

White Furry Ghosts

materials needed: white craft fur, black craft foam or card stock, glue gun, small alphabet stamps, white ink pad, scissors

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Make // Responsibility Chart

Have you ever made a chore chart for your family? Did it work? It's always been something that I thought we should do, however I could never think of a way to make it work for my family.

After giving it a lot of thought, and also figuring out what motivates my children, I finally decided to give it a go. But instead of "chores", I wanted to focus on responsibilities.

Here's how my version works-- 1) Every day I choose a variety of daily responsibilities and place them at the top of the chart; 2) When the kids complete their responsibilities, they place it in the "done" section; 3) Discuss at the end of the day-- dinner... or anywhere that we have their undivided attention.

From "chores" to responsibilities

Responsibilities are more than just a chore to "get through". I want my kids to think broader than that and  realize that their responsibilities are more important than just helping out around the house. And yet they are just five and seven, so I also need to keep it real!

So at five and seven, they can start doing some serious tasks! For their daily tasks, I kept it simple-- do homework, wipe table, set table, make bed, etc. Then I threw in some special things that they are working on-- practice balance (for my aspiring pitcher), shoot hoops (for both young hoopsters), practice piano (I'm not a tiger-mom about piano so my kids actually like this one!). To go along with their everyday tasks, I also rotate in a few responsibilities that are more "social" than actual tasks-- Be helpful, Do something nice, etc. Like most children their age, my kids sometimes get sucked into the pitfalls of childhood-- teasing each other, bringing each other down instead of lifting up, thinking they are the center of the universe, etc... Actually, I know some adults who haven't advanced passed that stage! So I think it's good to start young with developing those important social skills. More details on social responsibilities later.

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Make // Sunglasses T-Shirts

My boys are almost seven and almost five. They sorta care about what they wear, but... not really. Their fashion sense became noticeably worse when they started wearing school uniforms. In fact, one day I asked the almost seven year old to change and he came down with his brother's red athletic pants (only 5 inches too short) and a green stripe button down shirt... N-I-C-E! 

So Mama had to do a fashion intervention. I bought him some trendy jeans (um, not pictured below... those are his grass stained uniform pants. slight oversight on my part) and made him this cool, on-trend, age appropriate t-shirt. I'm mean... look how happy the kid looks. All dancin' and posin' and stuff.  And I didn't even have to shell out the big bucks.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

bliss bloom blog // Favorite Projects

A compilation of some of my favorite projects...

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[Our Lives] 12.19.12

The kids are officially on Winter Break (yee haw!) and the holiday preparation craziness is subsiding (phew!).  Here's what we've been up to this week... Is it only Wednesday???

Prepping the Teachers' Gifts

some of the house boxes are printed on the diy marbled paper that i made this summer. i filled the boxes with an assortment of Dove wrapped chocolates... sea salt caramel... nom nom nom.

[house box template from design mom]

 [diy marbled paper tutorial]

Wrapping Presents

gift wrapping is slowly coming along

[cinnamon ornament tutorial]

Making Salt Dough Ornaments

the boys' salt dough ornaments. metallic paint & glitter "fix" everything!
[salt dough ornament tutorial]

Making Gingerbread Boys & Girls

my mom and my 30+ year tradition! each year we say "maybe not this year", but then the gingerbread guilt kicks in and by the end of the night i have tendonitis in my right paw.  ;)

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[Home] JOYeux Mantel

Here's our kid friendly, "not boring", somewhat disco-like mantel in our family room.  It's bright and colorful and I think it'll transition nicely to New Year's Eve.  This all started with the water color star garland that the boys made (mini tutorial coming soon). The bright colors brings a perfect pop of "joy" as the days get shorter and the light in our house becomes more gray.  

Click "Read more" for the details

[Make] Cinnamon Apple Scented Gingerbread Men

Good enough to eat!  

Or maybe not... probably won't kill ya but your taste buds will hate you...

Click "Read more" for the details

[Make] Painted Stained Glass

I love anything translucent and have been wanting to experiment with glass paint.  On a recent trip to Joanns, I didn't find exactly the glass paint that I wanted so I decided to try out stained glass paint.  It's not dishwasher proof, so not something you can use on drinking glasses or glass plates, but for pure decorative purposes, it was easy to work with and did the job.

Since this was an experiment, I decided to use upcycled jars. Now that I know how it works, next time I will paint-up some glass vases and ornaments.

Click "read more" for the details

[Make] Bouncy Ball Photo Stands

If you have kids or are often around kids, there's a good chance that you have several of these rolling around your home.

And although you may only see one, most likely there are several more hiding under your couch, lurking deep within the depths of your junk drawer, or perhaps playing with the dust bunnies under your refrigerator.  

Over the past year I've been collecting all of the random bouncy balls that I find around our house. I've quite a collection so it was time to start doing something with these guys! That's how these bouncy ball photo stands were born.

Easy, unbreakable, lots of fun summer colors and, if you mess up... no problem!  Just grab another one and start again.  

Click "Read more" for the details

[Make] Ninja-Pop Valentines

This weekend I was busy making the boys' classroom valentines.  Smarty Pants requested ninjas, so with a little help from a purchased clip art set, I created these fun cards--

I also created a non-photoshop version...

[Oh Martha Monday] - Sweet Things

The kids' winter break has officially begun... I'm scrambling to come up with activities to keep them busy since I still have a bunch of things to do for Christmas-- mainly wrap presents, deliver gifts and come up with the menu for Christmas Day.  Some of these projects from Martha Stewart are too advanced for them, but they're pretty darn cute.

gumdrop pops

button snowman cards

sweet snails

button wreath ornament

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[Make] Salt Dough Gift Tags & Ornaments

A couple of weeks ago we had a few days of damp and cold weather...  which is so odd to say since it was 85 degrees today and dry as the down of a thistle (ah yes, I've been reading Twas the Night Before Christmas over and over again...). Anyhow, we're not very good at being housebound on the weekend, so I had to come up with an activity to keep the boys busy and my sanity intact.  

I've had clay gift tags on the brain for a while, so that seemed like the perfect project that everyone could do. At first I was going to use air dry clay, but since I didn't feel like running to the store... and I had LOTS of flour and salt... I decided to make Salt Dough instead.

I remember making salt dough ornaments as a kid.  I also remember my dog eating them off the Christmas  tree and getting sick as... well, a dog.  So, just something to keep in mind if you have a salt-loving hound in your house.

cut & painted by the boys

The boys (ages 3 & 5) had a great time playing with the salt dough.  Their favorite part was rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters.  After the ornaments were dried, they painted the hearts-- first white, then red... which soon became pink.  Then they topped them off with some fun glitter paint. Pretty snazzy!  Hmmm... I think I'll keep these in mind when Valentine's Day rolls around.

Click "read more" for the tutorial.

Teacher Appreciation - You Deserve a Hand!

Our school's Teacher Appreciation Day was this week.  At first, I was going to do a plant, but then the classroom started to resemble a florist...  And then I was really tempted to do this cute coffee card, but wasn't sure if the teachers were big coffee drinkers...  So I quickly put on my thinking-cap, and this is what Smarty Pants and I created this morning.

i decorated one side...

smarty pants decorated the other.

This idea has been around for a while (I know because I've already done it a few times!), but I think it's fun... and who couldn't use more hand cream?  It's originally a Valentine's Day idea, but easily translates to Teacher Appreciation.

Now I have to get to work on the teacher's year-end gifts.  I can't believe that school ends in a week!

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