Cutest pencils on the block

Well, today was the last day of school before break. Not sure that I'm ready to have the boys home yet, but that's ok. I actually was ahead of schedule until I got sick earlier this week-it put me a couple days behind. However, one thing I did manage to get out "on time" was the teacher's gifts this year. Usually I'm the mother that is still working on them at 1:00pm on the last day of school. So I told myself, "never again", and was busy working earlier in the week to get them out on Wednesday.

One thing I hate is coming up with new ideas for gifts. See, here's the thing....my kids don't only have a classroom teacher or two, but they have a Special Ed teacher, aides, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, APE teacher, bus driver and aide, etc. And what about the Art teacher, Science lab teacher, Music and PE teachers, nurses that help Jarrett each day, or Kaden's GRR teacher or counselor that works with him weekly? AGHHHH!!! And this is elementary school! What's middle school going to be like?!?!? Not only are there a ton of staff helping my kids, but the real issue comes in that we have the same therapists year after year, along with the Special ed teachers that rotate among my boys each year and aides that we've had since Kindergarten. So coming up with an inexpensive gift, that's new and exciting each year, is frankly difficult. That's why I've resulted to gift cards for the "major" players, and just try to present it in a new way! We've done "Movie Night" buckets, jars of cookies, boxes of gourmet cookies, etc, with gift cards.

I'm totally not bragging (because these aren't my creations), but I've never had so many comments on a gift before-(though the lemon cookies from last year are still talked about-thank for the recipe Karen!).

 Gordon and I helped at Jarrett's class party today so we were at school for a couple hours. I must have had at least 10 staff stop me and tell me "thank you" for the pencils-they said "they were the talk of the school!" That makes me feel so good to know that just a little token can go a long ways.

Ok, I'll stop talking about them and just get to the point-here are the pencils!

 

Do I hear OOoohhhhhs and AAaaahhhhhhhs??!?! Ok, before you go crazy, NO, I did not come up with the idea. You know me, I'm a copier! I saw these several months ago and figured they would make great gifts for the teachers, with a gift card attached.

I googled "rolo pencil" (yes, I said, "Rolo"-they are made from a package of rolos and then a hersey kiss) earlier in the week and found a website that showed a picture of them (but didn't really explain how to make them). I got the basic dimensions from the website, but quickly decided that I needed to do this my own way-the Cricut way!!!

Well, and I needed to change it up a little. Doesn't everyone know that pencils only have 6 sides?!?! The other websites said to score the paper every 1/8th inch-no way, that makes the pencil 12 sided, at least. And I don't have scallop scissors the perfect size to match my score lines-they have to match, right!??! lol

Some quick designing and I managed to make a template for the yellow, and both pinks (the band around and the circle for the end of the "eraser")

So, if you want to be the "talk" of school, here are step-by-step directions, with photos (well, almost-I'm always great at taking pictures for the first half and then just want to get them done and forget about snapping pics). Just so you know how long it takes, I think it took me probably 4 hours-but I made a whole box (36-0k, that's a lie-I only did 34-I had to eat one pack of rolos each day I worked on these!) I had some trial and error with glue and such so I'm sure it would go faster next time. I just sat in front of the tv and worked on them-kept me from feeding my face with potato chips and other late night snackies (besides the rolos, I mean!)

Supplies:

Rolos (Sam's Club carries a box of 36 for about $10-I think)

1 bag of Hersey's kisses (gold ones-they are almond)

yellow cardstock (I used 9 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11)

pink cardstock  (I used 1 1/2 sheets of 12 x 12)

red cardstock ( I used 2-8 1/2 x 11 sheets)

green cardstock (I used 2- 8 1/2 x 11 sheets)

aluminum foil (less than a 1 ft. length)

Glue of choice-terrifically tacky tape, glue gun, etc

Scotch tape

Ribbon (1-2 rolls depending on how much is on your roll)

Scoring pad-love my Martha one!!

Small hole punch

Rotary cutter, mat, and straight edge

Optional: cuddlebug to dry emboss gift tags, or stamps/ink or printer

I was honestly trying to use what supplies I had-so I didn't even go buy paper!! So proud of myself for resisting the urge to run out to HL and shop for paper! lol I had all of the supplies on-hand except for the chocolate-we know that's never on-hand-well, maybe in-hand, then in-mouth!

  

#1-cut out the yellow. I could fit 4 on each 8 1/2 x 11 page. (Yes, I know the one in the picture is scored-I forgot to take a picture of this step before I scored them all) If you have a Cricut, email me and I'll send you an SVG file so you don't have to cut any of it out by hand. Otherwise, you need to make them 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" and use something like scallop scissors to make the bottom edge (make sure you scallop one of the short ends!!)

 

#2-Add the score lines. I flipped my paper over and scored the back of it, every 1/4". So you should have 6 score lines (for a total of 7 little sections). I scored each line twice as I don't press very heavy each time, and this seemed to give it the perfect depth.

 

#3-I tried several different methods for getting the pink band on the rolo-this way seemed the easiest. I took a strip of scotch tape, and ran it along the back side of the yellow (on the short side opposite the scallop). I was able to do this in groups of three. The tape needs to hang off the yellow less than 3/8" (as that's as wide as the pink strip and you don't want the tape showing).

 

#4-Take your pink strips and place them on the tape, right side up. The pink strips are 3 1/2" long x 3/8" wide. (If you're not using a Cricut, and you are doing this tape step in sets of three, you could cut the pink 10 1/2" long x 3/8" wide, and then cut it when you separate these) I didn't overlap the yellow and pink, but butted them right up to each other to make a cleaner edge for the foil.

 

#5-I took my adhesive and rolled it along the edge where the pink and yellow met-I liked it better when I just barely ran it over the pink, and most of the adhesive was on the yellow side.
 

#6-The website I saw these on used something called foil tape. As I didn't have any of that around, I had to cut aluminum foil and adhere it to the paper-worked just fine and didn't cost me anything as I had plenty in the kitchen! I didn't take a picture of how I cut the aluminum foil, so I'll just explain. I tried using my paper cutter-it just tore the foil. I happened to have my sewing rotary cutter out (I've been very busy making baby blankets, but that's a whole other post!) so I  decided to use it. I switched out the blade as I have a "paper only" blade (a duller one that I no longer  use for fabric). I used my cutting mat, and straight edge to cut strips that were 3/8" wide-doesn't matter the length as long as they are at least 3 1/2" Once you have your strips cut, just place them on top of the adhesive-just make sure that the end of the foil strip lines up with an edge of the yellow, or hangs over in excess  (you don't want a foil seam in the middle of the yellow!-that's tacky) When placing the foil on your adhesive, go slow and make sure you get it on straight. If you don't cover all the adhesive, your pencils will be tacky to the touch. So cover your adhesive!!

 

#7-Once the foil is on, cut the sections apart

 

#8-Ok, here's where you might want to do something different, but consider the two options. If you've ever tried gluing cardstock around something round (for instance, water bottles-ohhhh, the nightmares are coming back to me!), you know it's not the easiest thing. I decided to use the terrifically tacky tape "red tape" and not mess around with cheaper adhesives. I lined it up, just along the outer edge of the last score line. The closer you can get to the score line, the better your seam will be.  When I ran out of tape, I opted for the glue gun, which I had to use anyways, on these with red tape-read on and I'll explain. Just keep in mind you have at least two glue options. If you want to use the glue gun instead of the red tape, skip this step and go on.

 

#9-Most of the rolos have two different shaped ends-the top of the rolo is slightly tapered (or smaller than ) the bottom. It worked best to glue the hersey kiss (don't go overboard on the glue or you may melt your chocolate) to the "top", or smaller end of the rolo.

 

#10-Ok, I took my yellow sheets and bent them along the score lines, but DIDN'T bend them all the way up the paper-I stopped about 1/4" below the foil line. If you bend them past the foil and through the pink, your eraser will have a hexagon top, not a nice round one to match your circles.

#11-Take your yellow sheet and wrap it around the rolo, with the kiss hanging out the scalloped edge. If you did tape, just pull the backing off and overlap one section of the yellow with the section that has the tape on it-it should fit exactly so that one section covers another and you are left with six sections. Now, I did these one day, and stopped here. Came back the next day and the pink section was pulling up because the scotch tape couldn't handle the roundness of the rolo. So, if you are using red tape, you'll want to place a small dab of glue up under the pink band to hold it down where the scotch tape is. If you're not going to use the red tape, you can put three dabs of hot glue on one section of the yellow-up on the pink section, in the middle of the yellow, and down at the bottom of the yellow by the scallop, and fold it over and secure. Move quickly as the glue dries fast, but don't burn your hands. If you use the glue gun, you don't have to tack it any further-three small dabs should hold-no more tacking necessary.

 

#12-Then a little dab on top of the other end of the rolo and you can place your 1" circle. ( I cut these with the Cricut but you could use a 1" circle punch). They fit really well on the "bottom" of the rolo pack as it's a little wider and gives more support to the larger circle.

 

#13-Add a tag and pack them up. Be creative with the tags. I had a dry embossing folder for my Cuddlebug that was a Christmas tree. So I used that on the green paper and then punched it out with a circle punch. I then typed up a little tag on the computer that said, "Happy Holidays-from Jarrett & Kaden". I think I fit 20 of them on a page. I printed it out, and then took my next larger circle punch and punched them out and then adhered them to the green circles. Punched a hole in the top of them for the ribbon-tied a bow and I was done.

 
Here's a picture of the ones that had gift cards. Just punched a hole in the corner of the envelope. Oh, one other thing-I took a black thin Sharpie and wrote on one section of the yellow, up by the eraser, and put the name of the school and then No. 1. Most pencils have a label of the maker and then No. 2 for the lead. But I think our staff are the best and No. 1!! Or you could write the teacher's name there too. 

You could put each one in a cellophane bag, with a cute label on it. I decided to make enough for all the support staff at school so I just put all of them in the box above, except for the ones that had gift cards on them. Or place one in a mug and wrap with cello, or place on top of a cute notepad or with a box of blank "thank you" cards-so many ways to give them.  

Whew...sounds like a lot of steps, but they really aren't hard. And they are SOOOO CUTE!!! I just googled "rolo pencil" again and found some really ugly ones, and even one site that is selling the labels for $3 each-yes, just the label-no candy! What a rip off!!

I think these are perfect for "back to school" gifts, "teacher appreciation" gifts-and not just for school, but maybe Primary teachers too---so many possibilities.....

If you make these and find a better way, please comment. I'm sure that I'll be making them again-and maybe adding the edible crayons with them next time---ohhHHH yahhHHHH!!!! I know where you'll be tomorrow-buying your rolos!!!

 

 

Christmas decorating...I think I found my style!

Boy, it's taken me awhile to decide exactly what "style" of Christmas I wanted! If you know my house, it's anything but "country". However, I've decided that I love that rustic, country style when it comes to Christmas decorating. And thanks to Target this year, I was able to add some great pieces. (I may just be shopping there after Christmas to snag more for next year!)

This is what we started with:

 

Our stockings I made several years ago-I love how they look-they are just too small to fit much of anything-guess that could be a good thing, or a bad thing! lol

 
Our ornaments are very rustic looking, like this sled

 
Or this bell...

 

I use the candles a lot in decorating-I got these tins from Hobby Lobby-I still need a third thing, I believe, to sit in front of the tins-maybe an old lantern or something-I'll still looking for the perfect thing....

This is what I've added:

 
Pillows and throws add the "warmth" to the room. (Target)

 
Metal Christmas trees (Target)

 
The boys picked out the reindeer. I've decided that I love displaying holiday photos. I know, I know, there are no photos in these, yet. I'm trying to decide on my favorite "snow" photos-but rest assured they will make it in the frames for next year! (All Target)

 
A basket to hold our "Christmas" books that we unwrap each night. I love the liner as it looks like a sock! (Target)

Berry/pine trees and snow globe on our mantel (Target)

 

I changed my holder for the wood-the other one was open and it got bark everywhere. I like the basket look (though this one isn't my favorite) and it keeps the bark contained.

So if you're into the "rustic, country" look, stop by Target after Christmas and see what deals you can find-you might just see me there!

 

Holiday baking

Shhhh....don't tell Gordon I'm on here. I'm suppose to be cleaning the house! lol But frankly, I'm not in the mood. So, let's talk "holiday baking", though, technically I didn't "bake" anything!

I'm still in the process of trying new recipes to find the "ultimate" Christmas favorites. I was talkin with G last night, telling him of my quest, and I said, "hopefully by the time we're old, I'll have my list." Then I quickly said, "Wait, we're already old!" I do feel that way somedays!

I do have two recipes that have made the list-they are Oreo Balls (thanks Leigh!) and Fantasy Fudge (thanks to the Jiffy Marshmallow jar!). They are Gordon's favorites. To supplement these, I tried a couple others this year: Gourmet Bird Food (my grandma's recipe), Christmas Delight (my Aunt Danene's recipe), "My Mom's Famous Caramels" from www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com, and pretzel turtles (my friend Beckie's recipe).

I have the recipes already posted for the Oreo Balls and the Fudge. You can find those here:

http://fourinohio.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/12/day-7baking-for-our-friends.html

As for the Caramel, well, I'm not sure that I'm a candy making person! But I tried! I'm guessing  had the heat up too high because I totally burned the bottom of my pan and, two days later, it's still soaking, trying to get this off of it! (And I have nice, heavy duty, expensive pans). The recipe says that you don't stir it at all, once it starts boiling, and that's how I burned my pan. The caramel tastes all right, but has some spots in it (not sure if it's part of the burn or if it's the vanilla that had a hard time incorporating in it). I cooked it between soft ball and firm ball, but it's still, frankly, a mess. I managed to get them rolled up (using a lot of butter), but I just went to unwrap one and it's a sticky, gooey mess. So unless someone wants to show me how to make caramel, it's off my list!

Gourmet Bird Food-this tastes ok. It wasn't a huge "wow" to me, but I'll eat it. But my kids and hubby won't so it's getting scratched off my list. In case you like it, or want to try it, here's the recipe-it's SUPER easy!

Gourmet Bird Food

1/2 bag colored miniature marshmallows

1/2 bag pretzel sticks (mine were really long so I actually broke them in half)

1/2 15oz. box of Fruit Loops cereal

1 small jar dry roasted peanuts

1 pound white chocolate

Mix all the ingredients except the chocolate in a LARGE bowl. Put chocolate in microwave and melt according to package directions. Pour chocolate over mix and stir well. Spread on wax paper to cool. After it has cooled, breat up into small pieces and place in an airtight container.

If there is one thing that I did learn this year, I don't have a big enough bowl for some of these recipes! I'll have to add it to my "to get" list for next year's baking.

Gordon likes the Pretzel turtles and I like how easy they are so they will be back next year too. I'm just not sure, though, if I like the Butter snaps for these, or if I'd prefer just regular pretzels. I may just try both next year and compare them side-by-side-that's the rational way, right?!?!

EASY Pretzel Turtles

 

1 bag Rolos

1 bag Butter Snap pretzels (or regular pretzels if you prefer)

1 bag Pecan halves

 
Place pretzels on baking sheet. Unwrap Rolos and place one on top of each pretzel. Then bake at 350 degrees for 3-4 minutes. The Rolos will get shiny but still need to hold their shape.

 
Then remove from oven and place a pecan half on each one, and press down slightly.

 
Then I took some of my left over white chocolate (from the Oreo Balls) and put the melted chocolate in a small ziploc bag-snipped a very small hole in one corner of the bag, and squeezed it over the top of these puppies-delicious!

And I saved the best for last-the "Christmas Delight"-oh baby, this is sooooo good. There is a funny story that goes with it, though, that I'll tell first. My aunt emailed me this recipe several months ago, and told me that it's one food, that when she takes it places, that she gets asked for the recipe. In fact, she keeps laminated copies of the recipe in her purse, so when she takes it, she can say, "Here's the recipe". Wow! Ok, in my dreams I'd be that organized. She puts me to shame!!! Ok, but that's not the story-so I called her up the day I was making this because the recipe calls for Karo sugar, and I only know Karo syrup. When I talked to her and got it clarified that it is Karo syrup, she tells me, "If you don't just LOVE this when you eat it, something must be wrong with you." So I get cooking and it's suppose to cook for 15 minutes (according to her recipe). I'm at it for 30 minutes and FINALLY, after making me late for an appointment, it gets done. I throw it together and run out the door. When I get back, I taste some, and call my aunt back. I'm like, "It's ok, but it didn't 'wow' me". I think I crushed her feelings! Well, as soon as I'm off the phone, I start feeling sick. I end up sick in bed for two days. When I do get out of bed, I find myself in the kitchen, munching on this stuff (as it's sitting under a cloth on the counter). By the time I'm feeling better, I can't stop eating the stuff. Oh, man, it's THAT good! I took 1/2 a recipe into the school for the staff, and the other 1/2, well, my hubby and kids don't care for it, so frankly, I've finished it! That's so bad!!! And then I go and make another batch for all the neighbors! Aghhhhh!! Ok, so here's the adapted recipe:

Christmas Delight (Adapted from my Aunt Danene's)

1 cup butter

2 cups cream

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup karo syrup

 

4 cups Wheat Chex cereal

4 cups Rice Chex cereal

4 cups Corn Chex cereal

13 oz. Golden Grahams cereal

2 cups mixed peanuts (your choice)

1/2 package shredded coconut

Melt butter, add sugars, cream and karo syrup in large pot. Cook to soft ball (cook on medium-high heat, wait for it to boil. Let it boil for about 15 minutes-stirring every couple minutes, and check to see if it is at a soft ball stage. Test with water or use candy thermometer)

Mix last 6 ingredients in a big bowl and pour the liquid mixture over it. Mix up well and place on a cookie sheet to cool. Do not store in a sealed container (I left mine on the cookie sheet and just draped a towel over it or place in a container that's not air tight)

What I learned is that stoves vary GREATLY. She cooks on a gas stove-so 15 minutes gets it to the softball stage. I'm on a glass, flat top electric. It took 30 minutes to reach soft ball stage. So if you're using electric too, expect it to take a lot longer and just be patient-but it's worth it!!

And I don't care if the hubby or kids won't eat this one-I'm still adding it to my "ultimate" list and I'll just have to share it with all of you!

  Here's pictures if you need them:

 
Here's it cooking on the stove. (Make sure you use a pretty big pan as it really bubbles up while cooking-the first time I made it my pan was a little small and it just about flowed over the rim)

  
Here are the dry ingredients mixed-note, I had to do it in two large bowls as I don't have a HUGE bowl. Don't fill the bowls full or you'll have no room to mix it up.

 
I poured the hot mixture over the "cereal mix"

 
Final product, cooling on my jelly roll pans (note it fills up 2 pans)

It's that easy!

 

 

Throw in a baby shower...

With Karen in town, I couldn't resist the temptation to throw her a baby shower. Yes, this is her 3rd boy, but I found out a couple weeks ago that she's never had a baby shower with any of her pregnancies. So I rounded up some of her friends and had a party!

A big thanks goes out to my sister-in-law, Leigh, who had the theme and all the stuff to go with it (as she did it for my nephew's 1st birthday). It really saved me a ton of time!! Thanks Leigh!!

 

One thing Karen learned about me is that I'm a procrastinator! Well, that's not entirely true. But my time management on this shower wasn't my best. I was busy the week before, and I couldn't figure out how to work on all the shower stuff with Karen living with me (I didn't want to be working on it in front of her). I ended up running short on time the day of the shower, so I know everything isn't hung perfectly, but it's the thought that counts, right!?!?!

 

 

We had Chicken salad croissants, fruit salad, craisin spinach salad and pasta salad. I had flashcards that labeled each salad (that's what the "Ff" card is beside the fruit bowl).

 

This was dessert/party favor. I baked up a batch of cupcakes and froze them so Karen wouldn't see them. I had thought about freezing them with the frosting on, but wasn't sure how it would turn out (and I ran out of time the day I baked them) so I just made up the frosting early and kept in the fridge. Then I quickly frosted them before the party. Originally I had wanted to use gum paste/fondant letters to top them. However, for the sake of time, I used the Cricut and cut out cardstock ones and attached them to toothpicks for the "personalized" cupcakes (first initial of each lady that attended)

Then I placed each cupcake in a clear cup, wrapped with cello and tied with a bow. Oh, and on each cup was this label: "This party was brought to you by the letter Bb (Karen's last name is Bradley")

 

 

Doesn't she look good?!?!

 

She received some adorable outfits (super cute outfit Dena!)!!

 

Last but not least, I did the water bottle labels again. This time it went a lot smoother using regular paper and tacky tape! They actually held together!!

Good luck Karen-we're excited for Evan's arrival in January (I know, the bottle says February but she's have a C-section and is scheduling it early)

 

Gratitude Tree

I've been pondering a lot of things lately and I've decided that we all could use a little more gratitude in our lives. It makes us humble, and I know that's something I need to work on.

So I saw a post online somewhere about making a gratitude tree. I've done a little craft in the past with our kids on Thanksgiving, letting them make their own trees. However, I decided that one day of gratitude just isn't enough.

I grabbed a dead branch from outside and used my Cricut to cut some leaves out of cardstock. Each day, as we are sitting around the dinner table, each member of our family is going to express their gratitude for one thing. I'll write that down on a leaf, and we'll slowly build our gratitude tree. By Thanksgiving, it should be full!

 I was hoping to start this Nov. 1st, but as always, I'm a little slow....but we have it started.



Kaden: "I'm thankful for my family"

Jarrett: "I'm thankful for my cousins"

Dad: "I'm thankful for a job that provides for the family"

Mom: "I'm thankful for a husband that knows my faults and still loves me unconditionally"



 The first ones are always easy. We'll see how difficult it gets as the days go by.

What are you thankful for?

Halloween-let them eat cake!

This year it seems that we have a "Cake" thing going on at our home. Or maybe it's an obsession...I learn a new talent, and then it seems to just take over my life. Then I get burned out....and move on. Well, that obsession is anything to do with cake-at least for now.

I asked the boys about a month ago what they were going to be for Halloween. They couldn't come up with any ideas, but we were going through a phase of watching every "Cake Boss" on TLC, so I came up with the idea-Cake Designers! They thought the idea was awesome and I figured I could get the outfits pretty cheap and not have to sew-music to my ears!

But you know me, I thought-what else could we do to "play up" the "Cake" idea? So I thought about having the boys make cupcakes, and while they are trick-or-treating, to actually give out their cupcakes to each house they visit. Cute huh? (Or maybe crazy!) Well, transporting that many cupcakes, when you don't have a wagon, isn't very easy. So I scrapped that idea. Finally I found the perfect idea and I could "kill two birds with one stone"....Cake POPS!

I signed up to bring a "baked good" for Jarrett's Fall party at school that was yesterday. When I was at RS last year, they did a class on cupcakes and Mindy told me about http://www.bakerella.com/. Well, I finally got up the nerve to give the cake pops a try. While they aren't perfect, they are delicious! It's basically a crumbled cake, mixed with frosting, then dipped in chocolate-how can you go wrong with that?!?! I went ahead and ordered the book because I heard it had a lot of secrets in it, that aren't on the website. So many possibilities! I narrowed my list down and ended up making three for the party: jack-o-lanterns, mummies, and ghosts! And to throw in something healthy (or maybe not so healthy!), I did bite size strawberry muffins around the base-presentation does count you know..

I never knew they sold edible markers. It was so funny when I was working on these and Kaden saw me using a marker to draw the faces-he freaked! I had to inform him that it was all edible and not to try it with his own markers!

Just drizzle a little extra white and add some easy-really easy!

One cake makes at least 48 pops. I used a small scoop and I think I got at least 54. Jarrett's class only needed 26 so I have plenty left for the boys to take around and hand out!! I think I'm probably more excited about it than they are-but heh, it's ok...

Now my insanity took over...what else could we do!?!? Well, we always have an annual Trunk-or-treat at church. Usually there isn't dessert so I opted to bring a cake, to go along with our "cake" theme. Here's what we did...

It's our version of a haunted house and graveyard. This is the second fondant cake I've done-didn't work as well this time. Not sure if it was due to the size, or the different brand of fondant that I used. I much preferred Duff's brand (Michael's) over this Satin Ice brand. It stuck like crazy and the powdered sugar that you roll it out on, wouldn't come off the surface of the cake.

This is the graveyard. I used gum paste to make the arms and legs of a mummy, that appears to be digging himself out of his grave-finding a cat's tail to pull on. The tombstones were candy molds. They were the biggest headache of it all. I had to tint chocolate to get the grayish color and it kept ruining my chocolate. Then, I didn't have any chocolate wafers, and Wal-Mart was out, so I opted to use chocolate chips that I melted down. Well, they don't harden like the other stuff. So every time I went to touch the tombstone, my fingers melted the chocolate and left my fingerprint. Next time I'll make sure to have the chocolate candy melts on hand. The dirt is ground up oreos (minus the cookie filling). The fence is color flow. Piped them all by hand, filled them in and let them sit a couple days. Make sure you do plenty because they are SUPER FRAGILE. I learned that color flow doesn't like buttercream frosting (even though I have a fondant cake I was taking precautions). So I added these last, using toothpicks "glued" to the inside of the fence, to stick them onto the cake. The brown rock is fondant.

To make the tree, I took a plastic cake dowel and lined the outside of it with licorice. Originally I was just going to make a licorice tree, but the branches drooped so I opted to scrap that idea add wiring for support. After I got the licorice on, I wrapped it with wire, and then took larger gauge wire pieces, bent them in half, and stuck them through the other wire that was wrapped around the truck, to make the branches. Once I got them all on, I cut strips of fondant and wrapped each branch, and then wrapped the trunk. The bats are fondant with a little gum paste mixed in.

The house is a kit-figured I didn't want to make my own pattern this year. But it was a pain to get together because the roof pieces didn't fit, and the frosting that came with it didn't have a good consistency. But it worked in the end...

I think I had the most fun with the characters. They are made from gum paste. I did learn a couple things with them. I found that gum paste is really hard to work with-I bought the Wilton mix and it was so stiff, but still sticky. I was so much easier to shape fondant. I looked online and a lot of people just add tylose powder to their fondant and use that instead of gum paste. For some of the pieces I used a 50/50 gum paste/fondant mixture to make it easier. Originally I used a toothpick to stand up the characters. Worked fine for the ghost girl (love the striped socks!!) The pumpkin girl was too heavy because of the pumpkin that she toppled over and I ended up using a lollipop stick to get her to stand.

Pumpkins are gum paste. Leaves are fondant that I cut, veined, and rolled some to make vines. Fence is pretzel stick. Here again, should have used candy coating as the glue to stick them together-the chocolate chips took forever to dry and didn't hold up well.

All in all, I think it turned out great. And we got a lot of compliments on it.

The actual cake is a Duncan Hine's cake mix that you add pudding and sour cream to. I thought I'd try to make it look like a candy corn so I did a yellow layer, orange layer, and white layer. I don't think many people noticed that because the colors were subtle. I'll probably buy a yellow cake mix and orange (if they make it) next time to try that. I used real buttercream on this cake too, unlike what I did on the baby shower one. I had heard that buttercream doesn't hold up as well under fondant, but I had no problems with it. The only issue was that I made my layers on this cake slimmer-about 1" each. When you add three layers, and all the frosting inbetween, it was really sweet. Next time I'd make my layers thicker to help balance out the buttercream frosting better. But it stayed REALLY moist-we baked it on Monday and the party was on Thursday. Kept it in the fridge one assembled.

This is all that was left at the end of the party.

Go ahead, say, "you've got way too much time on your hands"! lol I prefer to say, "I'm developing my talents" and if people ask me now what I'm doing since I'm not working, I guess my answer will be, "I'm doing cake"....at least until I find something else that catches my attention!!!