Happy Valentine’s Day and a Cake Pop Tutorial

Happy Valentine’s Day friends!
For Christmas, I bought Courtney a Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and it looked like such fun, I knew I had to have one too.  So, I thought I would share with you the steps that it takes to make these adorable little treats.

First of all, I mixed a box Strawberry Cake Mix Strawberry Cake batter from scratch and filled a squeeze bottle with the cake batter.  The Cake Pop Maker is non-stick, so there is no need to treat the pan a head of time. Preheat the pan.  Once the green light comes one, fill each hole almost to the top, but not quite.  The instructions say to fill with about 1 TBS.  Close the lid (careful, it WILL BE HOT) and bake 4 to 5 minutes.
Open the lid and using the provided fork, remove the Cake Pops.

Melt some Wilton Candy Melts in a deep microwavable safe dish.  I use a Pyrex Measuring cup.  You will want the dish deep enough to dip your Cake Pops in to, but not too wide.  After dipping a lollipop stick into the melted candy, poke it into a Cake Pop. Repeat  this to with of the Cake Pops and place them into the freezer for about 15 minutes or so, to allow the candy to harden.
 
After removing the Cake Pops from the freezer, dip each one into the melted candy. Now comes the hard part…

at least for me. You will need to tap the Cake Pop onto the side of the dish to allow the melted candy to drip off.  Remember, patience is a virtue and also…tap gently. If you get a little to crazy with your tapping, the Cake Pop will break off and fall into your melted candy. Ask me how I know.

Now, sprinkle away!

Set each one aside in the provided Cake Pop stand and allow about  minutes for the candy to harden. 

I picked up a few glass mugs from the Dollar Tree, filled them with M&Ms and TADA!

I saw Pretzel Hugged M&M’s on Pinterest last week, so I made some of those too.  Simply place the Pretzels on a baking sheet and place an unwrapped Hershey Hugs onto each one.  Bake at 200 degrees for about 5 minutes.  Long enough to melt the Hugs.  Take out of the oven a pop one M&M onto each one. Place into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to allow the candy to harden. They are yummy!

Thanks so much for visiting today and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Technorati Tags: Cakepops,Cakepop Tutorial,MM Hugged Pretzels,Valentine's Day Treats

Valentine’s Day Box and a Copic Journal

Hi there friends! I have tons to share with you for the iCopic Lovers Tuesday Tips and Tricks! First off, I have a Heart Box I created for our Heart Challenge. After hunting all over the internet for a tutorial, I finally settled on this one. I fiddled with it a bit, die cut the heart shapes on my Cricut and came up with this. I colored Tilda with Flowers and added her to the top of the box, along with bunches of embellishments to really make the box Valentine-y! ;)

Copics Used:

Roo, Rooo, R17, R20, R22, R24, R39, R46, R81, R83, R85

RV00, RV10

E000, E00, E13, E25, E31, E34, E50

G20, G21, G24,

YG95

I 'm also excited to share with you my Copic Journal. Recently, I came across Brenda's gorgeous journal, which led me to the download for the journal here. I knew I had to make one too!

Since it is important to use the paper that you typically stamp on for your journal, I simply printed the pages out on my Cryogen card stock. I divided the pages into quarters and trimmed them to 5 1/2 by 4. They fit wonderfully into a Photo Book  for 4 by 6 inch photographs, that I found at Joann's.

The first set of pages is where I colored and inventoried all of my markers.

After that, my next few pages are where I have examples of hair.You can add skin combinations here also.

Next, I stamped Tilda with Lace Jeans repeatedly, cut her out with an oval Nestie, colored her up and  popped her into my journal, where I also noted what combination of Copics I used.

 Next, I've colored and listed my favorite Copic combinations.

On this page, you can see where I have come across a favorite combination on someone's project. I noted the markers that they used. This way, I have a shopping list ready to go. :)

There is also a section for you to list the Copic marker families.

I love having my marker inventory, my favorite coloring combinations and my wish list at my finger tips. Also, the the design of the photo album allows me to set it up on my craft desk while I'm coloring, which makes it a very handy resource.

That's it for me today. Thank you so much for sticking with me through my long winded post and I hope you'll make a Copic Journal for yourself too!

Don’t forget to stop by the iCopic Lovers Blog to join the Heart Challenge this week.

Joining these challenges:
CMC Challenge Group ~ Colors of Love 

Magnolia-licious Highlites ~ Vintage/Shabby Chic

Magnolia Down Under ~ Love is in the Air

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge ~ Color Challenge

Stamp with fun ~ Love

Papertake Weekly ~ Anything Goes

Magnolia-licious Challenge ~ Inspiration

Little Red Wagon ~ Valentine's Day or Love

Just Magnolia Challenge ~ Anything Goes with a Valentine's Day option

McGill Silhouette Butterflies

 

I just have a simple home décor project to share with you today.

McGill Punches:

81044 Silhouettes and Shadow Butterfly Punches

Additional Supplies:

Yellow Card Stock

Orange Card Stock

Pink Card Stock5 x 7 piece of white Card Stock

Martha Stewart Fine Glitter ~ Yellow, Orange & Pink

5 x 7 Frame

Beacon's 3 in 1 Adhesive

Spray Adhesive

• With the McGill Shadow Butterfly Punch, punch out butterflies twice in each color of card stock
• With the McGill Silhouette Punch, punch out 1 butterfly in each color of card stock
• In a very well ventilated room, lightly spray the Silhouette Butterflies and apply glitter.
• Attach layers of butterfly to each others and attach to white card stock with Beacon's 3 in 1 Adhesive.
• Place into frame
• Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for dropping by!