Da-who Dor-aze!

For Christmas, I decided to start a new tradition - recreating a famous scene from a Christmas movie in gingerbread. I'll be doing this every year, hopefully. I decided to start with the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It took me two whole days, and while it's certainly not professional, I'm proud of it. For my first time I think it's pretty good.

 I started off by printing off the characters on photo paper, as per the instructions on University of Cookie.

I used those as a pattern for cutting out the dough (warning: it takes forever!)

It required a lot of baking (I made extras of everything, just in case, which was pretty useful in the end). The project took over the whole kitchen for both days. Sitting on the stove are pans of triangles - I made those to use as bases to get the Whos and buildings to stand up. It worked perfectly!

I used royal icing for the outlines, and then tried to do flood icing inside. It didn't really work - the tips clogged about every 2 centimeters, and I had to keep stopping to try to fix it. It took at least twice as long as it should have. I was using a fairly large tip, too - maybe the icing was just a little too thick?

The Whos getting their clothes. In the end, I only used about 4 or 5 colors for the clothes, just so I wouldn't have to keep coloring new batches of icing.

One of the Whos standing! And Mom said it would never work. The triangle on the back is attached with regular icing.

The finished village! The trees around the back are ice cream cones with green frosting, and the star on the Christmas tree is cut from tin foil (Dad did it). Yes, I know it's not exactly show-stopping, but for my first time, I think it's pretty good.

Close-up. I ran out of icing before I could finish Cindy Lou Who (hence the ornament not being filled in). My problem was tinting too much icing for each color in the beginning - it meant I ran out just before the end.

Another shot of the village with all the singing Whos. I love their hair. All in all, I think it's a success!

Cupcake Crafts

Just a quick post today: All Things Cupcake did a post on cupcake crafts including a cute game for kids and little cupcake washcloths. Go check it out!

Peppermint Candle Holders

Want your house to smell like Christmas? What better way than with peppermint candles! They look pretty and smell great! First we have an easy one from Crafting for the Uncrafty:

And now, for the slightly more advanced crafter, here's an elegant one from The Mother Huddle:

It might be hard to get the hooks to line up so it will sit evenly, but the finished product is worth it!

And still more cupcakes!

Yes, it's an old trend in the food world, but in the crafting arena, cupcakes are still a hot topic. So here are a few of my favorite cupcake crafts.

First off, here's a tutorial from Turtle Taylor for making your own cupcake bath bombs. I used to love these when I was little. 

  

And another one that could have gone with yesterday's post, here are some absolutely fantastic plush desserts

from Meet the Dubiens:

And now for the more seasonal items - cupcake Christmas ornaments! Our first is a full tutorial from Bake It Pretty: 

 

And finally, my favorite cupcake ornaments so far (and I've seen a lot), these adorable ones from Kiwi and Kiki's Etsy shop:

Make sure to check out their full menu of ornaments. Delicious!

Kid Craft: Cupcakes!

Classes are over! Hooray! Ah, it feels good to not have homework for a few weeks.

I know I haven't posted a kid craft in forever, so to make up for it, here are two. First up, for the baby-toddler range:

Here's an easy-to-make cupcake matching game from Naptime Crafters. View the complete tutorial here.

Next, for the older kids:

Tiny cupcakes made from pipe cleaners and pom poms, from She Wears Flowers! 

 

Hope you're all making progress on your Christmas lists (and crafts, and sweets). Have a good weekend!

Fruit Art

Great craft from Crafts By Amanda that's making the rounds. View the tutorial to see the original that inspired these - honestly, I think Amanda's are much better!

Happy December!

It's finally December - hooray! I finished my novel and we've only got a week and a half left of the semester, so life is good.

December: 5 Things in the Food and/or Crafting World I Love Right Now (in no particular order):

1. Bento! I've been obsessed for a while, but I haven't had time to make any. I'm hoping to start over the break. You can find a whole bunch of great bento sites in the box on the left, and they've all got some really creative stuff, but right now my favorite is Bentolicious.

2. Papercraft cards! I'm not sure exactly how to go about making them, but this is definitely the way we're making Christmas cards this year. My current favorite site: Ready, Set, Craft!

3. Extreme gingerbread houses! Neiman Marcus' Fantasy Catalog has a life-sized (for kids) edible gingerbread house  by Dylan's Candy Bar. Naturally, Slashfood had to make on to keep up (but NM still wins). I'll be watching this trend with great interest.

4. "Gourmet" Jewelry. Jared's is now carrying the Le Vian Chocolatier jewelry collection (see the Chocolatier info here), featuring chocolate diamonds and pearls, strawberry gold, and raspberry rhodolite. I've never been a jewelry person, but I'd wear this line!

5. Creating your own cookie cutters and/or making cutout cookies without the cutter! For a video on the latter, head over to University of Cookie, which is a fantastic resource. That post doesn't have pictures, but here's a great one from the same site:

Adorable, right? This is going to be especially useful as I get ready for the Christmas party. I have plans...impossibly grand plans. Is there any other kind?

Here's to a great December!