Monday, November 19, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been so long since I lasted posted. I've been so busy and have not had any time to craft! As you know I'm starting a portrait photography business and have been occupied with that. But now that it's the rainy season I get a bit of a break. So finally this past Sunday I had a minute to do this fun crafty Thanksgiving project with my children. We had so much fun. I'm so glad we did this. We haven't laughed like that in a while.


Someone brought this snack to the church potluck. These acorns were so adorable. I also saw them on Pinterest and I knew that we could make them too. We used Hershey Kisses, Nutter Butter Bite Cookies, pretzel sticks and I melted some chocolate candy in the microwave to use as our "glue."


I didn't actually read the directions on how these are made. We started to put the kisses onto the cookie first and then realized the pretzel stem wouldn't stay on because the cookie could not lay flat. The trick is to lay the cookie down first. Add the pretzel stem with melted chocolate and let dry. Once it was secure then we added the kiss to the bottom using melted chocolate. Some of the stems didn't stay upright, but that's okay. They still tasted good. I think next time I'm going to use caramel Hershey Kisses. Caramel, chocolate, peanut butter, pretzel. How good would that taste?! Thinking about it makes me hungry for Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream!


I made these toppers using Bigz Dies Top Note (SU!) I cut it out and folded it in half length-wise. I bagged the goodies in a cellophane bag and sealed the tops using my Food Saver sealer, but you could just tape the top, too. I adhered the bag topper with double stick tape, punched a hole on the left and added organza ribbon embellishment. Stamps used are from SU! also. It's a very old set but it's my go-to every Autumn. I got this fall effect by using that double ink technique again. I wish I knew the correct technical term for that. Ink the image using the lighter color and then using a darker cat eye tap the edges, then stamp. See the leaf on the left? It's green in the center with red edges.


This leaf on the left is even cooler. I learned it from my SU! rep a while ago. It's called "thumping." Ink the image all over using the lightest color. Here I used a light orange hue. Then using a red ink pen "thump" the image. Hold the pen at the end and tap the image all over rotating it to get random all over coverage. Do the same with a green ink pen and darker orange ink pen. Before stamping the image onto your card stock, "huff" on the image. This sounds weird, I know, but your warm breath moistens the ink so you get a better image stamped. Finally, stamp the inked image onto your card stock. My directions don't make any sense but I don't know all the technical terms for these techniques and I'm not able to explain them without showing it in person so I hope you're able to translate it. But look at how cool this leaf came out. It's really like the falling leaves you find this time of year that have the beautiful yellow, red and brown hues.