Sugar Cookie Work

I have dabbled in a little bit of everything and my latest and favorite has been sugar cookie decorating.  Now the trick to the sugar cookie work is practice, practice, practice!!! I was ready to give up after the first day I tried but kept with it and now I understand the consistencies. I have read blogs about the thickness of the outline icing needing to be like toothpaste, for some reason that didn't register! but after almost a year and a half of working on it I have managed to figure out what that means...In my opinion I think the thickness of the consistency varies on the baker!!!  Also, there are many great recipes out there for the sugar cookies and I have tried many of them!!! Again don't keep trying something that just doesn't work for you ... my favorite way to make sugar cookies is ... betty crocker sugar cookie mix! But it has to be the the small packs from the dollar tree! I really dont know why its different but the dough stays thick and easy to work with, compared to the big bag from a grocery store that gets too soft and impossible to work with. Anyways another great little trick is that once you cut the cookies out, place them in the freezer for 5 minutes then bake them. This will stop the cookies from stretching and will hold their shape!!!!!  This is what I have learned in my short life as a baker. Hope it helps and saves you some headaches. Here are Pictures of some of the cookies I have made! 

FIRST COOKIES EVER!!! 4/25/12

6/22/12

7/4/12

9/24/12

1/30/13

6/22/13
These Minnie ones were made by placing them in the freezer before putting them in the oven! Can you see what a huge difference it made!!

Well the Minnie ones are my latest and favorite, and in my opinion my best work thus far! I have a couple requests for pink dresses, minion and halloween cookies! I will post them and please share your tricks and pictures because I'm just a beginner like you!!!

Back to school supply box

A couple weeks ago I was debating on either reusing the container I made my son last year or buying/making him a new one for the new school year. Here is the link from the first one: http://emsmom611.blogspot.com/2012/09/cheap-and-easy-back-to-school-present.html

(please let me know if my links work).

So, I made my mind up and decided to reuse the same box from last year (since its big enough to fit all his school supplies. I did add some stickers to the lid to make it look less like a diaper box. So besides reusing the wipes container I also reused the following supplies: 
(not really reuse since the pencils are new) 

So here's the box:: 

 

And here is what I bought ... I spent a little less than $3.

And here is how I set it up...

And this is what he came to... He was so excited!

Hope you like it!!!

50's themed birthday party!

I have no new posts... I have been extremely busy finalizing all my plans for my wedding. Now that its over I wanna post something I haven't shared before. So for my little ones first birthday I went a little crazy and here's what I came up with ...

Here are the invitations I made. They took a while to make but they turned out just how I envisioned it. 

The initial set up...

 

I made these sugar cookies ! Overall I was pretty happy with it. 

 We had soooo many treats! 

This is what the gift bags had in them. Everything was purchased from Oriental Trading Co.

My baby girls birthday outfit! My mother in law bedazzled her shoes! 

 We all had a great time!!

Dom's Space Themed 5th Birthday Party

Last September my son decided he wanted to do a space themed party! So I looked all over Pinterest and here is what I came up with ! This was before my blog so, here it is ! 

I have been dabbling in the art of sugar cookies  and I am by far no pro but I thought they came out pretty cute and they were really yummy (or so I was told). I tried to make them as cute as possible with my beginner skills and probably not all the tools necessary here is what they came to look like.

These bottom 2 were my favorites. They came out just how I wanted, for the earth one, I let the icing dry a bit and then with my finger I dabbed it, I think it added a little something to it :)

I thought this was a really cute way to display the cupcakes (since we decided not to do a big cake), I found these at a closeout craft sale! 

 Now I like to do a little activity, so I found these ceramic robots on Oriental Trading Co. and purchased enough for all the kids, then I went to the dollar Tree and found the paint and bought enough for the kids. This was a little pricey but I really like the outcome. This is my sons. 

The house was decorated in informational posters, a lot of stuff was bought on Oriental Trading Co. We bought the inflatable solar system, glow in the dark galaxies, it was great! We had different sized rockets (Hobby Lobby) that we shot off throughout the party, a rocket bouncer! It all came together perfectly and my son ran up to us at the end of the day and couldn't stop thanking us for the awesome party, and has been asking to do it again this year !! 

Hope all is well! 

Back to school gift year 2

So that time of year is approaching soon ... school starts in 20 days!! Where did the summer go? 

Last year my son came home to a small present (http://emsmom611.blogspot.com/2012/09/cheap-and-easy-back-to-school-present.html) all new school supplies in a wipe container to keep it all in. I have looked for a cooler pencil box but nothing is quite as big and can fit all supplies. Again my goal is for my son to be able to sit with his box and not need to get up in search for a glue stick, or sciccors. Its all there. So my great debate with myself this is year is wether I should redo the box or just restock with all new supplies. I have been leaning to just restocking it ... hmmm dilemmas.... 

** Take advantage of those back to school sales! I went to Staples today and with some rewards bucks and their sales ... I payed .25 for a pack of Crayola Crayons. $1 for a 12pk of Crayola colored pencils and so much more!!! 

Check out my blog for the way I presented the wipe container to my son! The link is above ... my son loved it and knew where his box was, just grabbed it and was ready to go! 

Thanks ! Constructive criticism is always welcomed. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Emily! (minnie theme)

My Baby girl turned 2!

I cannot believe my baby girl is 2 years old! I have been planning her birthday party and really tried to make a lot of stuff myself. But I got so excited that I got a little carried away! (Can you blame me?) 

So, I had a great idea to use a local business as a location for my daughter's birthday party. The place is Classicakes, and they teach classes on decorating. They also sell all supplies necessary when baking anything! They do cupcake tower parties and thought this is a great idea and something that's not done daily! I decided to do a Minnie Mouse theme. It's age appropriate and so many cute ideas on pinterest! So out of all the ideas here is what I came up with! 

This is my baby girl's birthday outfit!  I had the outfit made by a local business lady and brought my ideas to life! 

 
I wanted to do an all girls birthday party! For all the little girls that attended I wanted to give them all Minnie Ears and an apron. I found an inexpensive way to do this by having my sister in law make the ears and I ironed on the Minnie silhouette using the Circut and Cricut craftroom. I also had (what I think is an ingenious) idea of making the bow on the minnie ears removable for daily use! We put a loop using the felt material in the middle and putting the bows on alligator clips! 

I also made the banner using my Cricut! I know it may look like I am crafty do it all mom but I started making stuff 6 months ago. I worked at a slow pace, making sure I didn't overwhelm myself. I made the sugar cookies and used disco dust to give them that sparkly look! I used an used damp makeup brushed to paint the dust on! 

The girls decorated cupcakes and melted candy into molds. Once they finished the cupcakes they would put it on the tower, making a cupcake tower. NO NEED FOR CAKE! 

For party favors I bought the chinese take out boxes at the dollar tree 3 for $1. I used some ribbon as handles which added a nice touch (I think). And again using my computer I made the inner circle label and had it printed at kinkos for that nice shine. I cut out the pink outer circle with the cricut.

Inside I filled it with all things from the dollar tree and most minnie theme::

1. bubbles (bought stickers and put minnie on all of them)
2. pencils (the ones with pull out lead)  
3. stickers
4. flying discs
5. tons of stamps
6.  a ring pop
7. And a notebook 

If you have any questions on anything please ask. I can give a step by step on how I made it! 

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Teacher end of the year gift!

So to follow up on that last post on the teacher gifts (http://emsmom611.blogspot.com/2013/06/teacher-appreciation-gift.html)  

... I had decided to not do the weekly gift since the last day of school was in a week! But I loved the idea that I didn't want to spend too much money since that's not what's important! I had donated materials to the classroom throughout the year. And gave the teacher gifts at all occasions possible. I wanted her to know we were thinking of her without all the money! So here is what I came up with...

I went to Albertsons and bought a plastic cup with that jelly stuff to help keep the drink cold. And bought a couple king size candy bars. And used some fillers I already had at home, (from birthday parties).  I made a simple thank you tag with a personal note using stuff I had at home and some ribbon. Total I might have spent $15. The cup was the biggest expense! Here it is... Let me know what you think.

Sorry for the blurry picture ... so not my style! 

Teacher Appreciation Gift!!

Since not many people read this, it is a little hard to be encouraged to keep up with it. I'll try a little harder since I know I can relate to many moms out there and I would LOVE feedback on my little projects. I am a first time mom with two kids. My son(step) is 5 years old and my daughter is 2! It has been a struggle to adjust to a life with 2 kids, especially since recently I have had to switch as a full time parent for my son. 

 I was excited for his first year of school but I never realized that all the cute and nice ideas that I saw on pinterest would put a hole in my pocket! So toward the end of the year convincing hubby to fork over more money was a little of a fight, especially since the school our son was in many parents didn't seem to be involved. 

Well, with that said teacher appreciation week was vastly approaching and my intent was to do a small gift every day of the week. But then the end of the year was coming to an end and that was 6 gifts I had to plan and purchase. Well with the chaoticness (I know its not a word but it should be) of motherhood I completely forgot about the gifts! So Monday I come home from dropping my son off at school and it hits me .... ahhh the gift! I have 2 hours to put something together!!! So here is what I did ...

I had old jars of spaghetti sauce cleaned out and peeled ready for use! I used my cricut to cut out an M for Mrs.M using vinyl and I remember her telling me purple was her favorite color! I threw in some cotton balls and some new files I had purchased a couple weeks ago. I grabbed some purple ribbon and tied it around the top of the jar. Lastly, I wrote out a little poem using as many M words as possible, to put inside ...

The poem read:: 

Mrs. Montero,

Thanks a Million

For being such a

Marvelous Maestra!

Hope you get a Minute

For some Me time,

Here is a little something

Hope it Helps!

Then I ran to rite aid and bought 3 nail  polishes all in the purple family & on sale, some single use nail polish removers, toe separators & tape to cover the lid! I ended up spending less than $6 on the whole gift and I ended up really liking it! Hope you do too!! 

Tooth Certificate of Record

So, my son will soon be turning 6 and his first tooth should be coming out soon! I have been on pinterest and saw some very cute ideas but I didn't really want to pay for it .... I mean the memories are awesome but its just a piece of paper...Right? Anyway I am pretty good with my computer and decided to make my own. (Thanks to clip art ;) ) I took ideas of what I have seen and made it my own and put what I thought was the best little certificate from the tooth fairy. I hesitated on posting it but figured someone out there  might like it! 

Here you go I Put a little picture of an envelope but I am planning on getting a template for an envelope ! https://plus.google.com/photos/103629240386524066426/albums/5849862927717905649?authkey=CJLy4u3PxY2SPA

This is the link without the envelope ..... hope it works for you! 

DIY Handprint Calendar

Ok, I have been very busy making things and trying hard to make my kids childhood's as memorable as possible! So I know I am a bit behind but I am trying to catch up. After the holidays it seems like I am finally back to my routine of things. The craziness is over!!!  For Christmas my husband's family does gift exchanges amongst the adults, but I felt that the kids should get the grandparents a little something. I decided to go with a very personalized calendar. Being a fan of pinterest I found the template to a handprint calendar.

http://littlegiraffes.com/teaching-ideas/257/handprint-calendar/

I thought this would be cute but instead of an 8.5 X 11 page calendar I found some desk calendars at the dollar tree. Then using the template from pinterest I made these calendars. I placed some color construction paper in the background and using my Cricut I cut 3X3 squares. And I alternated the months between both my kids. I bought a 6 color hand paint set made from Crayola at Toys R Us for around $5. I cut out the labels and hand wrote the poems ... it was the easiest option i could think of. 

And lastly for the cover I found a cute picture of my kids together... this one was from a year ago. And wrapped it up!