Month: March 2020

‘TWO-IN-ONE’ EASTER BUNNY FACE CRAFT

Easter Bunny Face and Feet Hanger
Easter Bunny Face and Feet Hanger

Turn an ordinary Easter gift bag into two quick and fun Easter hangers! Your imagination is the only restriction to how and where you can display this hanger. The small additional details can make all the difference!

After weeks suffering thru the winter blahs (even in Southern California) I am always happy to see any signs of Spring (except daylight savings time “Spring Forward”). I immediately start looking for ideas to decorate for Spring and Easter. After winter, It is always so exciting to see our house wake up a little and start sporting light and bright spring hues.

Right now we are in “Be Safe, Stay at Home” mode in Southern California and I am only able to venture out for short jaunts to the pharmacy and to buy groceries. On one of my recent trips to the 99 Cents store to stock up on fresh fruits and veggies, I spotted a darling gift bag that featured a delightful bunny face on the front and back and a package of Easter Bunny Footprints. Both came to a total cost of $1.98. I quickly grabbed them and gleefully returned home with a renewed purpose. After thinking about it for a couple of hours, I came up with a ‘two-for-one’ craft using these two finds and other leftover craft project items I had around the house.

If you don’t have chop sticks or Popsicle sticks hanging around, can you think of a better excuse to order Chinese food delivery just to get the free chop sticks (wink wink)? How about a good reason to buy a four pack of that expensive brand of ice cream on a stick??????

YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THIS.

Materials

  • 4 disposable chop/Popsicle sticks
  • 1 bunny face gift bag (99 Cents Store)
  • 1 package bunny foot prints (you will need a total of 4 footprints from package for our 2 projects) (99 Cents Store)
  • 1 large white disposable paper plate
  • scissors
  • glue gun and sticks
  • optional: color coordinated yarn or string for whiskers, ribbon or string for hanging

Instructions Part One

  1. Separate the gift bag into front and rear sections and cut out the bunny face from each side. For easy hanging later; leave the bag carrying handles in place. Set second face aside for use in our second craft project.
  2. Glue one chop/Popsicle stick to the back side of each ear on bunny head and footprint.
  3. Glue the bunny face to the center back of the white paper plate. Do not glue down the ‘bow tie’ yet.
  4. Next, glue your bunny footprints to the plate under the ‘bow tie’ placing the end of the heels touching each other under the center of the ‘bow tie’. After the heels are glued down, glue the ‘bow tie’ down over them.
  5. If you did not remove the bag’s carrying handle you are now ready to find an appropriately noticeable space to hang and enjoy your beautiful but easy masterpiece.
  6. Optional: cut and glue a length of ribbon or yarn to the plate to hang by. Cut six pieces coordinating yarn or string and place on bunny face over whiskers for a bit of added color.

That’s it! Can you believe how simple and fast that came together?????

Okay campers, lets get started on part two of this craft adventure.

Instructions Part Two

  1. Glue 1 chop/Popsicle stick to the back side of each ear on bunny head and footprint.
  2. Glue your second set of bunny footprints to the face under the ‘bow tie’ placing the end of the heels touching each other under the center of the ‘bow tie’.
  3. Cut six pieces coordinating yarn or string and place on bunny face over whiskers for a bit of added color.
  4. Hang and Enjoy.

‘Two-For One’ crafts in a snap; that doesn’t happen everyday. Original, inexpensive, and oh sooooooo easy for all of us lazy bones who love to craft.

Until the next time; stay healthy and “Keep on Crafting” (the lazy way).

Easy Coconut Easter Bunny Cake Decoration

Decorate a cake for your Easter celebrations that will really wow the group from a bunny shaped cake pan, flaked and sweetened coconut, and candies. For this Bunny Cake, make your favorite white or yellow cake recipe and top it off with tasty candies like licorice and jelly beans.

I was browsing in one of my favorite ‘everything’ craft stores recently and stumbled upon the cutest Easter Bunny cake pan. It immediately brought back memories of Easter traditions such as egg decorating and coconut covered bunny cakes when my sons were young. Those are such sweet cherished parenting memories. I couldn’t restrain my self from purchasing the cake pan and recreating the decorated cake.

The final cake proved to be pretty easy to achieve the look I remembered from past Easters. I am going to share the steps with you today.

What You Need:

1 baked Easter Bunny cake white or yellow cake (single layer). When baking cake, be sure to fill pan only 2/3 full or cake batter will run over during baking.

Baked Bunny Cake bottom side up. This is side that gets frosted and decorated.

1 batch fluffy white frosting of your choice. I used cream cheese frosting. Set 1/2 cup of frosting aside to color and use for ears, nose, and cheeks.

1 (7 ounce) package of sweetened flaked coconut

Decorations: licorice, jelly beans, red food color, pink decorating sugar

1 Fun and Fluffy Bunny Cake pan. I used a pan from Wilton (for which I receive no compensation). You can view it at this address. https://www.wilton.com/shop-cake-pans/. There are other cake pans on the market, but this is the one I chose to use.

1 photocopy of rabbit face insert from pan. Cut out nose shape and pink shape inside ears. This will be used as a template to lay down pink frosting and determine location of eyes during the decorating process.

Let’s Decorate It

Make sure cake is completely cooled and crumbs removed before beginning. Turn bottom of cake face up. The face image from the pan will be visible in the baked cake.

With an off-set spatula, spread the white frosting on top and sides of cake.

Place 2-3 tablespoons of reserved white frosting into a piping bag or zip lock sandwich bag and pipe two small oval shapes directly below nose location.

Mix remaining reserved frosting with 1 or 2 drops of red food coloring to make your desired shade of pink. Mix frosting and food color well and add additional coloring one drop at a time. Be sure you are mixing well each time.

Place cut out template gently on top of frosted cake. Place a toothpick thru the middle of each eye into the cake. (This will hold the template in place and mark eye location) Pipe pink frosting into cutout areas inside ears and nose. Gently lift paper template straight up and off of cake leaving toothpicks in place.

Alternate to using pink frosting: If you want to skip the pink frosting step you can use cutouts from fruit leather candy using the template for sizing.

Sprinkle top and sides of frosted cake with coconut and gently press it so that it adheres to frosting.

Garnish: Remove toothpicks and replace with 2 black jelly beans. Place a small amount of frosting on bottom of jelly beans to hold them in place and gently press in place.

Candies for decorating

Repeat jelly bean process using three pink jelly beans for each ear and one for mouth and nose.

Take one strip of licorice in your desired color. Measure and cut 1 1/2 inches from strip. Take cut strip and divide into half and then cut each half strip into three pieces. Dip the ends of each into the frosting and place three on each side of the jelly bean nose.

Optional: Highlight ears and nose with a tiny amount of pink decorating sugar just to give a little bling.

You can store this cake for two days in the fridge if well covered in plastic wrap. Chill finished cake uncovered for twenty minutes to let the icing harden, then cover carefully. 

You can also freeze the cake for up to three months. Seal in foil and freezer-safe plastic wrap. let the iced cake freeze uncovered before covering. Thaw in the fridge the night before you plan to serve and enjoy.

Bring cake to room temperature before serving.

Here’s to creating cherished Easter memories with your loved ones and friends. Keep crafting and creating ’til next time.