DIY Cupcake Ornaments

My boys have a little Christmas tree in their bedroom.  Each morning they open a small box that holds an ornament to put on the tree.  The ornaments are small, simple things I've made over the years.  One of my absolute favorites has been these cupcake ornaments.

I saw these somewhere (Pinterest maybe, but it could have been before Pinterest days) once upon a time, and knew they'd be the perfect addition to my boys' tree.  They're so, so simple to make, and who doesn't love little cupcakes (even if they're not edible)?

SUPPLIES

cotton balls

mini cupcake liners

sparkly pom pom

glitter

spray adhesive

hot glue

needle 

thread

HOW TO

Start by puffing your cotton ball a bit.  I like to do this so it fills in the cupcake liner, and doesn't just look like a cotton ball sitting in the bottom of the liner.

Add a strip of hot glue around the inside of your liner, then put your cotton ball in and hold until dry.

Spray your cotton ball with spray adhesive (I've been known to use hairspray before) and then shake glitter on top.

Hot glue the pom pom to the top of the cotton ball, and allow to dry.

Run a needle and thread through the tip of the pom pom, and tie a knot.  This will create the loop for hanging your cupcake ornament. 

  I have a small cupcake liner addiction, so I have quite the stash to draw from.  My boys' tree is red, white, and green, but wouldn't pink, blue, yellow,or any color be adorable?  You can adapt the color combination to fit your tree's color scheme.

And  here it is dangling from the tree.  They're even cuter hanging than sitting!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Grandma Rae's Frozen Pineapple Dessert

If you follow me on Instagram, then you saw my Grandma Rae's Thanksgiving table a few weeks ago.  She has been cooking Thanksgiving dinner my entire life, and to be honest, I feel a bit cheated when I don't get to experience her food on Thanksgiving.  She's an amazing cook, and I know why my mom loves to cook, and now why I love to cook as well.

This recipe of hers takes me back many years.  I've always loved it, and I finally got the recipe from my grandma this year when we were at her house for Thanksgiving.

I love the pineapples, marshmallows, pecans, and even the
 maraschino cherries (which I usually don't care for) in this dessert, but I think my favorite part is that it's frozen.  You'll freeze it over night, and then let it thaw for half an hour or so before you serve it.  Delicious!

Click to Print

I'd never seen this recipe written out until last month, and I realized it is a dessert.  We've always had it a a fruit salad side dish with our meals, but it is sweet enough to be a dessert.  Use it whichever way you'd like.

I have to add one more note about my wonderful grandma and this recipe.  She told me the original recipe called for 24 large marshmallows, but she likes the mini marshmallows better.  To figure out how many mini marshmallows would be equal to one large marshmallows, she stacked mini marshmallows to look about the size of the large ones.  Each large marshmallow equaled 10 mini marshmallows.  That makes 240 marshmallows in all.  My grandma counts all 240 mini marshmallows when she makes this dessert!  I did count them out the first time I made the dessert, but then measured the 240 marshmallows to be approximately 4 cups worth.  I do wish I had the patience my grandma has!

The white and pops of red from the maraschino cherries make this the perfect Christmas dish.
Thank you for the delicious recipe, Grandma Rae.    Hopefully I'll be making it for my grand kids someday!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Noel Wreath Printable

When I shared my first Christmas printable (merry and bright) last week I said every printable I'd make this month would probably have some part of PicMonkey's Santa Land or Winterland incorporated.  Well, here I am with only my second printable of the month and I'm already eating those words.

Click to Print

I was so swept up in all of PicMonkey's fun new themes that I'd completely forgotten about this adorable wreath over at iPiccy.  I've had this wreath saved in the back of my mind for months, and I knew once Christmastime hit I'd use it for one of my printables.  

So, today I have an iPiccy printable for you (I'm sure we'll be back to our regularly scheduled PicMonkey printables next week).  I do use PicMonkey more frequently, but every time I venture over to iPiccy I'm pleasantly surprised.  They have a great font collection, and lots of fun overlays.  Check them out if you haven't.

Have a wonderful week!  Hopefully you're taking the time to enjoy all of the festivities of this magical month.  We visited a darling gingerbread house display and our local Creche over the weekend (check me out on Instagram for pictures).  Such great activities to help a feel a bit of holiday cheer.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.
  

Candy Cane Mice Template {from Angela @ Typical English Home}

"'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse".

'The Night Before Christmas' is the perfect bedtime story to read before tucking your kids in on Christmas Eve. Why not tie in this family tradition with making these cute and traditional candy cane mice?

You Will Need:

Felt (2 colors)
Beads or googly eyes
Candy cane
Scissors
Glue
Candy cane mice template

Download/Print Felt Mice Template

Step one. Print out the felt mice template, shown above.

Step two. Cut out the mouse's body, nose, ears and inner ears from felt, using the template as your guide. Don't forget to cut two slits in the body of the mouse (as shown).

Step three. Glue the nose and inner ears onto the appropriate part of the mouse. Sew on beads for eyes, or use googly eyes.

Step four. Insert the ears through the slits. The candy cane is inserted through the underside of the mouse, as shown in this picture. This will form your mouse's tail. 

Felt candy cane mice are great as a kids' craft, a party favor or a stocking filler!

Thank you Brooke for letting me share a post with your readers. If you enjoyed this post I hope you will swing by A Typical English Home to say hi, and check out some of the other Christmas projects I have been working on. 

Thank you, Angela for the darling project and template!  I love having cute, quick, and easy crafts to do with my three boys at Christmastime.  These candy can mice are exactly the kind of activity that they could do themselves and enjoy.

I've raved about my love for Angela's font round ups many times before.  Just when I think she can't come up with any more amazing fonts, she does.  Check out these Christmas fonts she's shared.  I always like making my own gift tags, and these fonts will make that totally easy!  There are so many amazing fonts to choose from, and the dingbats will add the perfect finishing touch.  I can't wait to get started.  Thanks again, Angela!

Free Christmas Fonts

More Free Christmas Fonts

Felt Bauble Tutorial

Reindeer Food

Bauble Wreath

DIY Christmas Crackers

DIY Recycled Christmas Tin Cans {@ TwelveOeight}

Happy Friday to you!  Can you believe the first week of December is coming to a close?  I need a slow motion button this time of year!  

Today I'm over at twelveOeight with Tanya.  I'm sharing another version of my recycled tin cans (Christmas version).  I just can't seem to get enough of this project.  I've been making these cans for years, and I still love to make them.  I think one of the reasons I love making them so much is the fact that they're easy to change out every year.  I love finding a new line of holiday scrapbook paper, taking it home, and then wrapping up a tin can.  Then when the next year comes, and I'm not loving the previous year's paper I can tear it off and start again.

You can click here to see my entire post at twelveOeight.  I share several of my favorite tips and tricks for making this project look as beautiful and polished as possible.

And here are a few of my other recycled can projects you can check out.

Tin Can Organizers

Valentine Tin Cans

Patriotic Tin Cans

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Santa Math Game with Printable {On/Off}

Here's a repost for you from last December.  My boys love playing this game!  It's a great way to keep up on some math facts over the long Christmas break.  If you were here during November you may have seen the turkey math game I posted.  This one is very similar, and actually easier so it's great for younger kids.

When I taught first grade we had a math program that used a lot of fun games to help the students learn math concepts.  One of those games was called On/Off.  It's such a simple concept, but it helps kids learn number combinations while having fun.
Here's what you'll need. 

A board of some kind.  I made mine with a cute vintage Santa from The Graphics Fairy.  I printed out the Santa, then cut off the excess white on the sides and mounted it on red scrapbook paper.  My board turned out to be about    6 1/2" X 8".   You don't want your board too much bigger than this size, or the game won't work out as well.  A standard paper size (8 1/2" X 11") would work as well, but I wouldn't go any bigger.  

Next you'll need some type of counters to drop.  I used mint M&Ms (my favorite!), but you could use anything.  Candy is fun because the kids can eat them when they're done.  I've also used marshmallows and Bingo chips.  You just need something small you can drop and won't roll around too much.  

You'll also need a recording sheet.  I've made a fun one here you're welcome to use or you can use any piece of paper.  You'll notice I have a 5, 10, 15, and 20 at the top of the recording sheets.  That number indicates the number of counters you'll need.  I also made a blank sheet so you can use any number of counters you'd like. 

Here's how you play.  

Take the number of counters you've chosen, hold them in you hands, and drop them directly over the board.  

Some of the counters should land on the board and some should land off.  After the counters have landed, record your numbers on the record sheet.  If you are using 10 counters and 3 counters land on and 7 counters land off, then put a 3 on side of the table that says "ON" and 7 on the side of the table that says "OFF".  Keep playing until the entire table is filled in.

It's fun to see all the number combinations that have been recorded on the board at the end of the game. Point out that all the combinations are ways to make 10 (or which ever number you choose to use).  Your kids will have their addition facts down in no time.  It's also fun to point out flip/flops.  Ten can be made with 3 and 7, but also 7 and 3.

This game is easily adapted for different age groups.  Use smaller numbers for younger kids and bigger numbers for older kids.  I made the blank record sheet for this reason.  Adapt the game to whatever skill level you need.

I hope this all made sense.  Now I need to make some boards for every month.  This is an easy game to play with each season/holiday.  I need to find a cute snowman for January and use some min snowballs (marshmallows) for counters.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Crushed Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

My mom has made these cookies for as long as I can remember, and my holiday season is never complete until we've made a batch and I've eaten far more than I should.

I usually use the Kneader's sugar cookie recipe for all my sugar cookie needs (hey, that's not a bad pun), but that recipe has hints of lemon, honey, and nutmeg.  I'm not sure how that would pair with the peppermint (I should try once, it might be delicious), so I stick to my mom's good old Betty Crocker recipe for these particular cookies.  I don't want anything to take away from the crushed candy cane flavor.  A basic sugar cookie and plain vanilla frosting are all you need once the crushed candy canes have been added on top. 

 I even just use a store-bought tub of vanilla frosting (which I hardly ever do) because the candy canes do all the talking in these cookies.  I'm thinking you could even add a bit of peppermint extract to the dough or frosting, but I haven't ever tried it.  I hate to experiment on what I think is perfection, but I just might be missing out.  If you try it, let me know how it turns out. 

Crushed Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Betty Crocker sugar cookie recipe 

1 tub vanilla frosting

crushed candy canes

Make and bake cookies according to directions.  Allow to cool.  Frost, and top with crushed candy canes.

My mom used to make these as star cookies all of the time when we were little, and they always looked beautiful!  I like the candy canes, but they are a bit small to frost.  And actually, this last time my mom just made some circle cookies and they were super speedy to frost and looked just a gorgeous!  Any size or shape to your liking will work.  I just had the thought of tiny bite-sized circle cookies with a bit of the frosting and crushed candy cause on top would be so, so cute for a neighbor gift, party, or any occasion.

Pardon the overload of pictures.  It was way too easy to get a lot of fun shots of these cookies (why can't that happen every time I take pictures?) and I couldn't pick just one or two.  Don't you love peppermint and red and white?

What are your favorite Christmas cookies?  Do you have some you make every year?  Or do you try something new?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.