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
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.
Glue one chop/Popsicle stick to the back side of each ear on bunny head and footprint.
Glue the bunny face to the center back of the white paper plate. Do not glue down the ‘bow tie’ yet.
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.
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.
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
Glue 1 chop/Popsicle stick to the back side of each ear on bunny head and footprint.
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’.
Cut six pieces coordinating yarn or string and place on bunny face over whiskers for a bit of added color.
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).
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.
I LOVE VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!! I guess it is the eternal romantic in me that loves all the decorations and sentiments of Valentines Day. I have always felt special when the love and affection felt by others towards me has been shared during this special time. Because I am aware of how special I feel; I always try to share and evoke that same feeling with my family, loved ones and co-workers on Valentine’s Day.
YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THIS DIY PROJECT. I kept it simple with purchased heart doilies and cutouts. This is so easy to make and can be personalized to the colors and textures and length you want. This would be a great project to make during a ‘girls night’ gathering.
SUPPLIES
Ribbon of Choice
Double Sided Adhesive Roller or Double Sided Tape
Decorative Paper Heart Cutouts (I purchased at Hobby Lobby during 50% off sale)
Red Heart Shaped Paper lace Doilies (package will contain several of the same size hearts)
Ribbon (I used six feet of 1 1/2 inch wide transparent red ribbon from a nine foot roll. It is cheaper to buy the entire roll when on sale and use the rest for future projects)
DIRECTIONS
Use the doily hearts to determine the length of your ribbon based on the width of the total number of hearts you will place on your garland. My heart doilies measure 7 1/2 inches wide.
Select and glue the heart cutouts to your doily using the double sided tape or adhesive roller. (I was recently turned onto the adhesive roller by a fellow crafting friend Marsha. What a great tool!) Get creative with your design and personalize it to your taste. I decided to place my cutouts on the bottom of the cut bottom doily over the heart pattern. I left the the top side plain to show off the lace pattern.
Starting about 2 inches down and 1 inch in from the top of the heart doily I cut a 1 1/2 inch opening in the doily to thread the ribbon thru.
Lay your cut and decorated doilies in the order you want hem to hang on the garland. Next, add them to your ribbon in that order. I string the ribbon thru the doilies with the longest part of the ribbon in the back. Space the hearts at equal distances from each other. When all hearts are in place, tie a knot at the ends of the ribbon to to hang your garland. If you are feeling inspired by how easy this has been, you can tie the knot to a “D” or “O” ring at each end of your ribbon to hang the garland.
That’s all it takes; easy peasy and you’re finished. Hang your Valentine garland and enjoy!
This past Christmas I convinced one of my sisters to forgo taking the time and effort to make a dessert for our family Christmas feast. Instead of cooking, I convinced her that the biggest impression would be made if she ordered a cake from Nothing Bundt Cake. Having experienced their yummy deliciousness at several bridal and baby showers recently, I was seriously yearning for a super moist and sweet treat from there.
Being a good sister she came thru after standing in line with all the others who did not pre-order their selection and showed up with a White Chocolate Raspberry cake that was “to die for, after selling my first grandchild”. I am not sure if anyone else got any cake but I swear that I totally indulged in it.
A couple of days later while daydreaming of that same cake, I decided that I could surely replicate and recreate that cake experience in my kitchen. In the past I have had some degree of success after searching the internet for all sorts of useable hacks for other products. So I set out to find the perfect recipe to replicate that yummy deliciousness in my mouth again (incorporating lazy steps, of course).
In my first ever post I promised to share both my epic fails and successes. My first attempt at hacking the Nothing Bundt Cake experience was anepic failure. My final recipe looked pretty straightforward and prominently featured a box cake mix as a lazy alternative for me. I could avoid all the measuring of flour, sugar, leavening, etc. and only add six easy to assemble ingredients.
Being overly confident, I decided to double the recipe; making one for testing, two smaller ones to freeze for later consumption. Not sure what I did wrong; doubling the recipe resulted in a river of cake batter overflowing from all three cakes in the oven. I was so glad I had the forethought to place a long jelly roll pan under the cakes just in case. Having set the timer for the recommended time, I was shocked and disappointed to realize that my cakes were not set after the time called for and required additional time in the oven.
They came out of the oven finally and impatience overtook me. I couldn’t wait for the cakes to cool long enough before turning them out on a sheet of parchment. Bits and pieces were still stuck on the inside of the pan (sad face Emoji here). They still looked great though and once finally cooled, I gathered my test tasters for the big reveal as I cut into one of the cakes.
The outside surfaces of the cake cooked perfectly but the inside looked like a purple gummy tube running thru the center of the cake. The texture was super moist, too moist as a matter of fact. Maybe it was a mistake to substitute butter for oil in the recipe. The taste was right on with the white chocolate and raspberry flavors coming thru. Being lazy but not a quitter, I decided to continue on my search and compare the various recipes to replicate both the taste and texture of the original cake.
My twist of that cake replaces the cream cheese frosting with a raspberry cream cheese frosting to further reinforce the raspberry flavor.
White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Cake
This produces a beautifully moist white chocolate cake swirled with raspberry jam and topped with thick raspberry cream cheese frosting. A recipe worthy of mastering, makes quite an impression
1 Box White Cake Mix
1 Box Instant Pudding Mix, White Chocolate Vanilla Bean flavor
4 Large Eggs, bring to room temperature before incorporating into cake mix
1 Cup Sour Cream
1/2 Cup Water for cake mix
1/2 Cup Oil
1 1/2 Cup White Chocolate Chips, finely chopped
1 Cup Seedless Raspberry Jam mixed with 2 Teaspoons water
Frosting
2 Packages of Cream Cheese 8 Ounces each
1/2 Cup Butter Softened
3 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste
1/3 to 1/2 Cup Raspberry Jam (depending on your taste)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour a large Bundt cake pan. Remove excess flour from pan and place pan in refrigerator until ready to fill. Use the large pan to prevent your batter from running over the pan while cooking. Put cake mix and pudding in mixer bowl and stir with fork to combine. Add sour cream to dry mixture and stir together on lowest speed of mixer to combine. Place eggs, water and oil in a cup or container and add liquids to dry cake mixture 1/3 at a time until well combined, stir in the chopped white chocolate chips. Remove Bundt pan from refrigerator and pour 1/3 of the cake batter into your pan. Top batter with 1/2 the raspberry jam mixture randomly around the cake. I use a teaspoon to form a ‘well’ in the batter to hold the jam mixture. Swirl the jam mixture through the batter with a chopstick of wooden skewer. Circle the perimeter twice to swirl. Any further circles will probably create a marble pattern rather than a swirl pattern. Repeat with another 1/3 of the batter and the last 1/2 of the filling (be sure to swirl it through and then finish with the last 1/3 of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 55 to 60 minutes. (at 55 minutes… pull it out and test it with a toothpick or skewer. ) It is cooked throughout when the toothpick comes out dry. Remove the cake from oven and allow it to cool completely before inverting onto a parchment covered surface. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a couple of hours. This step will help keep your frosting in place when you pipe it onto the cake. For the frosting; place room temperature cream cheese and butter into mixer bowl and cream together until they’re smooth ( you can use a hand or stand mixer). Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl at intervals. Add raspberry jam and beat until it is incorporated and color is uniform. Slowly add all 4 cups of powdered sugar to creamed mixture. I like to place a clean towel over the top of my bowl when incorporating powdered sugar and flour to a mixture. Once sugar is mixed in, add 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste and whip it all together until it’s fluffy.
At this point I spoon mine into a ziplock bag or piping bag and let it chill in the refrigerator for about an hour before piping it onto my cake.
This cake freezes well if well wrapped in a couple of layers of plastic wrap. I do not frost the cake if I am going to freeze it.
Enjoy your cake and remember to Be Happy and keep on crafting.
Fleece Blanket from ‘No Sew Kit’ using Sewing Machine
I’m sure that I mentioned before that I am lazy and don’t have much patience for projects that have too many steps or take a lot of time to complete. I realized this when I reviewed the number of abandoned and incomplete projects I have in my project closet. My “Main Man, Kin”, reminds me of them every time I start a new project.
These days I try to work on projects that give me ‘almost’ immediate gratification and look like they took days and days to complete. By doing this I am building a catalog of ‘completed’ projects and satisfying my creative needs. This is a win-win!
One of my favorite time of the day is when everyone else has gone to bed or their respective ‘corners’ and I get to hunker down on my comfortable sofa. This is my alone time. Time when I can watch all my guilty pleasure ‘reality shows’ or catch up on my favorite series without sharing the TV or TV controls. I get to throw off all the pressures and stresses of the day and get lost in another reality.
Of course, TV time on the sofa is never complete without that nice, cozy and comfortable blanket that covers side-to-side and head-to-toe. I have gone thru several purchased versions of my ‘dream blanket’ without complete success. Some of their shortcomings included feathers everywhere, too light weight, not long or wide enough, and just plain ugly.
Recently I was out shopping for after Christmas craft deals with my older sister. Now that I am retired, I have the ability to just hang out and even go shopping in the middle of the day. As we approached the front door to one of my favorite craft ‘haunts’ I noticed a 50% off sign on a large bin of “No Sew anti-pill fleece blanket” kits. Being the bargain hunter that I am, I had to investigate. A few mental calculations verified that 50% off would be a good deal for a complete fleece blanket kit. I have read many posts by fellow crafters that verify the anti-pill fleece is the best choice for long life and sturdiness.
The finished size is 72 inches by 60 inches thereby fulfilling my size requirements. The kit included two precut coordinating panels in a pleasing print and colors as well as instructions for assembly. This sounded like the perfect blanket for my nights in TV land. I was not impressed by the idea of finishing the blanket edges by cutting and tying off fringe pieces on all four sides of the blanket. I had visions of losing interest really quickly with tying approximately 80 fringe pieces. If I accomplished the tying, how long would they stay tied under daily use and cleaning?
Upcycling me spoke to lazy me and saying, “you can just sew the four sides together and be done in no time. It’s only straight lines”. Upcycling won and my blanket was born. The sewing requires only minimal sewing skills (did I mention ‘straight lines only’) I am going to share the easy steps I utilized to from start to finish my blanket in one day in time to enjoy it the same night.
If you want to make one, you will need: (1) one kit for a no sew blanket or throw. (2) matching or coordinating thread. (3) Scissors (4) quilting straight pins (5) chalk and (5) sewing machine.
No Sew Fleece Blanket/Throw Kit with Instruction Sheet
Front and Back Layers of Blanket
Let’s get started!!!
Place your front and back blanket layers together, right-side-in and put a quilting pin in each corner securing the two layers together. The corner pins provide stability for the next couple of steps. Once the corners are pinned, line up the edges as much as you can and trim any edges you need to get the pieces to match up.
Once the edges are matched and trimmed, lay your fabric on a flat surface and place quilting pins every three or four inches all the way around the blanket. Leave a hole about four to six inches wide on the final side – just big enough to turn your blanket right-side-out when the time comes.
At this point you are ready to start sewing your straight lines. I measured in 3/4 inches from the edge to start sewing my blanket. This happens to line up with the marks on my sewing machine plate. I use the marks to help keep my sewing lines straight. Sew the first three sides together in a straight line from one edge to the other. On the fourth side, remember to leave the opening to turn the blanket right-side- out at the end.
Carefully snip the corners off, being sure to not cut the thread. Then turn your blanket right-side-out. Push the corners out nice and square with your fingers or a pencil eraser. Lay it out on a flat surface to make sure it’s all lined up right.
At the unsewn corner, fold in the fabric and make sure it lines up with the sewn edge. Pin in place and sew it closed. Place pins all around the four edges. Optional: put several pins across the center of the blanket to keep the layers from shifting while you work. Sew a topstitch all around the outside of the blanket with a 1/8″ seam allowance.
Unsewn edge of blanket with pins after turning right-side-out
Because my blanket came with two built in borders as part of the print, I decided to use that as my guide for the next process. This next step will provide extra stability to your blanket by preventing the layers from shifting from use and cleaning and give your blanket a longer life.
Once again, lay your fabric on a flat surface and place quilting pins every three or four inches all the way around the top of the inside blanket border. Starting at one corner, follow the straight lines to sew a border on the blanket.
I use the following trick to make it look a like it was done by a professional and took more time: once you reach the edge/corner of the border make sure your needle is in the down position, lift the sewing foot and pivot your fabric to the new direction, lower the sewing foot and continue sewing. Repeat this step for all corners.
Depending on how lazy you are you can stop here and have a perfectly presentable and useable blanket or you can repeat the last two steps above to sew the bottom of the inside border lines. I chose to complete the inside border top and bottom to give it a quilted appearance.
If your chosen fabric does not come with preprinted borders, you can create your own borders. Measure in and pin your fleece two to four inches from the seam on all four sides. Starting at the measured distance from the first corner, sew in straight lines to sew the top-inside border on the blanket. Make sure to use the trick mentioned above to turn your sewing at the corners
To create the bottom of the inside border, measure in two inches and mark with chalk at two to three inch increments in a straight line and sew to create a border on the blanket. Once again put needle in down position and raise foot to turn fleece in new sewing direction.
I was really pleased with way my blanket looked and not at all frustrated sewing straight lines.
Alternatively, if sewing the inside border seems too complicated, you can try this for your blanket. Because your blanket measures (60) sixty inches across from side to side, you can measure and mark intervals with your chalk across the top every (10) inches and sew (6) six channels from top to bottom on your blanket.
Snip off any stray or extra threads and ‘magic presto’, you are now ready to snuggle under your beautiful, comfy blanket to binge on all those “Did she really say that??” episodes. With the 50% off sale, it cost me about $17.50 and less than two hours to make this blanket. Stopping to document and photograph the process added to my original blanket time.
I was so thrilled with the ease of making this and the outstanding results that I immediately went out the next day and purchased another one. I have now completed it and plan to give it to my “Main Man, Kin” for Valentines day (he is always cold and I have caught him using mine several times). Because he is my ‘Sweetheart’ I took a little extra effort and picked one of the hearts on the front of the blanket to quilt around. That’s another blog and project I might cover in the future.
That’s it for now from this Lazy Crafter, remember to keep crafting and “Be Happy”.
