April 2016Occasionally Crafty: April 2016

Thursday, April 28

The Handmade Hangout #99

Welcome to the Handmade Hangout- where you can link up all things made by YOU!



This week I'm featuring three of my favorite projects from last week's linky.


Here are your hosts:

Allison from A Glimpse Inside

Becca from From Gardners to Bergers

Kim from Too Much Time on My Hands

Heather from Twin Dragonfly Designs

Valerie from Occasionally Crafty

Alli from Made with HAPPY


We'd love it if you would  Share our button or party link in your post or wherever you share your linky parties.

Occasionally Crafty

 
Link up your projects!




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Monday, April 25

Never Lose a Game Piece Again- DIY Game Organization

Need to corral all those small game pieces?  Decorate some cute drawstring bags and never lose a game piece again!


Hey everyone- my youngest son is a board game maniac- but playing games all the time means I find game pieces all over the house!  I finally had enough and came up with an easy solution to keep all those little pieces together.

Click over to Kenarry:Ideas for the Home for the full tutorial!

Have a great week!
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Thursday, April 21

The Handmade Hangout #98 + FEATURES!

Welcome to the Handmade Hangout- where you can link up all things made by YOU!



This week I'm featuring three of my favorite projects from last week's linky.

1.  IKEA Cabinet Makeover from Scavenger Chic.  I am so impressed how she took a cheap IKEA cabinet and made it look vintage and chippy!

IKEA Moppe cabinet and Soda Can Labels


2.  Ham and Swiss Monkey Bread from Lemons for Lulu.  I can say I've never thought about making a savory monkey bread, but this sounds delicious (and easy!)

This easy monkey bread recipe is like your favorite sandwich but much more fun to eat!


3.  Master Bathroom Reveal from She Holds Dearly.  Wow- this is just gorgeous!  I love the character!

She Holds Dearly- Master Bathroom Reveal


Now, on to this week's party!  Here are your hosts:  Of course we'd love it if you follow all our hosts on whatever platforms you use most!

Allison from A Glimpse Inside

Becca from From Gardners to Bergers

Kim from Too Much Time on My Hands

Heather from Twin Dragonfly Designs

Valerie from Occasionally Crafty

Alli from Made with HAPPY


You could even  Share our button or party link in your post or wherever you share your linky parties

Occasionally Crafty

 
Link up your projects!



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Wednesday, April 20

Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel Rice Krispie Treats

These are not your kids' Rice Krispie Treats!  Add delicious layers of caramel, peanut butter, and chocolate for a delicious dessert worth making and sharing with everyone you know!
This post deserves a thank you and you're welcome.

Thank you to Duck and Decanter, a local Phoenix restaurant, for providing the recipe that is about to make you fat.

And, you're welcome.  Because I know you are going to make these and love them.  If you have someone you can make them for, your waistline might thank you, too.

This is a simple recipe- but it adds something to the everyday rice cereal treat.  Don't get me wrong- even though I'm 30-something, I still like a good rice cereal treat.  But add some gooey caramel.  And some creamy peanut butter.  Rich chocolate....

Okay, getting to the recipe, I promise.


Ingredients:

Rice Krispies Cereal- about 7 cups
3 Tbsp butter, plus more for buttering dishes and utensils
1 10 oz bag of marshmallows
14 oz bag of caramels
2 tsp water
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter, divided
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz bag of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (there are two in my pictures because, apparently, I had two half-full bags in my pantry.)

Start out like you usually make your RK treats.  Melt your butter and marshmallows together in a pan, then stir until smooth.

Add the vanilla.

Add the cereal and stir until well coated.  

Press into your prepared 9x13 pan.  I usually butter the back of a wooden spoon and press, but you could certainly butter your hands and do it.


Chill RK in the fridge.

Unwrap your caramels, and add them, along with a few tablespoons of water, to a saucepan.  Stir frequently until all melty and smooth.


Add 1 cup peanut butter and stir until well combined.

Remove RK from fridge, and spread the peanut butter/caramel layer over the top. 


Stop and lick the spoon (not the one you're cooking with!)  You'll thank me. It's amazing.

Return RK treat to fridge.  In ANOTHER saucepan (yes, you'll have a lot of dishes to do), melt the chocolate bits, being careful not to scorch the chocolate.  Keep the heat on low.  

When it's smooth, add the 1/2 cup peanut butter and stir until well combined.  Delicious.


Remove RK from fridge AGAIN, and pour the chocolate layer over the top of the caramel layer.  Try to cover evenly.


You might want to lick the spoon again.  Really.  

Return RK to the fridge AGAIN, and let chill for at least an hour.   Remove and cut into squares or rectangles.

These are much less messy to cut if you do it right out of the fridge, but my poor RA-riddled wrists had a hard time with it.  

However, these are best eaten at room temp or only slightly chilled.  


These are not your kids' Rice Krispie Treats!  Add delicious layers of caramel, peanut butter, and chocolate for a delicious dessert worth making and sharing with everyone you know!

Enjoy!
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Thursday, April 14

The Handmade Hangout #97 + FEATURES

Welcome to the Handmade Hangout- where you can link up all things made by YOU!



I'm so excited to see what you've made this week and every week!   Here are your hosts:

Allison from A Glimpse Inside

Becca from From Gardners to Bergers

Kim from Too Much Time on My Hands

Heather from Twin Dragonfly Designs

Valerie from Occasionally Crafty

Alli from Made with HAPPY


We'd love it if you would  Share our button or party link in your post or wherever you share your linky parties.

Occasionally Crafty

 
Link up your projects!



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Monday, April 11

Harry Potter Birthday Party



This weekend we celebrated my daughter's eleventh birthday.  So of course, being huge Harry Potter fans, she wanted a Harry Potter birthday party!

There are so many great ideas out there to put on an epic party.  I had a hard time narrowing it down.  I ended up following this post from One Creative Mommy for most of the party.  She has some great ideas and printables, plus links to other things that were very helpful.

I didn't get pictures of every thing because my husband was gone and it was just me running the party by myself.  So, here we go!


Thursday, April 7

The Handmade Hangout #96 + FEATURES

Welcome to the Handmade Hangout- where you can link up all things made by YOU!



This week I'm featuring three of my favorite projects from last week's linky.
1.  How to Paint a Piano from Run to Radiance-  I have to admit that the musician in me shudders at the thought of painting my gorgeous piano, but if I came across the perfect one at a thrift store I'd totally be up for doing it.  
rustic fall home tour from www.runtoradiance.com_0002

2.  Straw Tote Door Decor from Sadie Seasongoods- this is such a fun and pretty alternative to a wreath!

DIY unique Spring wreath door decor with thrift store straw tote bag filled with flowers by Sadie Seasongoods / www.sadieseasongoods.com

3.  How to Build a Princess Bed Loft from The Summery Umbrella- this is a little girl's dream!  Make sure you click through for the entire tutorial to make your own!

Learn how to build a princess castle loft bed with this AWESOME tutorial! Your little princess definitely deserves a gorgeous place of her own!

Allison from A Glimpse Inside

Becca from From Gardners to Bergers

Kim from Too Much Time on My Hands

Heather from Twin Dragonfly Designs

Valerie from Occasionally Crafty

Alli from Made with HAPPY


2.  Share our button or party link in your post or wherever you share your linky parties

Occasionally Crafty

 
Link up your projects!

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Wednesday, April 6

There's No Place Like Home Vinyl Chalkboard

Vinyl up a chalkboard with this gorgeous temple quote inspired by The Wizard of Oz!

I am so excited that it's time to prepare for Girls Camp!  In our church, girls 12-18 have the opportunity to spend a few days at a camp where they not only learn things like first aid, compass reading, fire building, and such, but also have the opportunity to grow as a person, leader, and daughter of God.  I love camp and I am so excited to be the Girls Camp Leader in my ward.

This year, our stake has a theme of "Strive".  Each ward or congregation then takes that theme and comes up with a "sub-theme" for their girls.

This year, we decided to do a Wizard of Oz-themed camp.  As Dorothy had to "strive" to find her way back home, so we all strive through our journey here on earth to make it back to our Heavenly Home, represented by the temple.  This also goes really well with the Mutual theme for this year- "Press Forward...."


Last night we had a kick-off for our girls to introduce them to our theme and help them get excited for camp.

I wanted to share with you one of the decorations I made.  I love this because it will also be a fun decor piece to have in my home.

Michaels had these distressed frame chalkboards for 50% off last week, so I snagged one (get a similar one here) I have terrible chalk drawing/writing abilities, so I knew I wanted to vinyl this up.

I designed a decal to put on the chalkboard in Silhouette Studio.  I traced a clip art picture of the Salt Lake City LDS temple, then offset it to .050 and made the outline a compound path.  This made it cut the outline the way I wanted it.

Then I just added the words I wanted.  The fonts are Bromello for the script and Cabana for the "Home".
Vinyl up a chalkboard with this gorgeous temple quote inspired by The Wizard of Oz!

For those of you who aren't LDS, I made a version of this file with a house instead of the temple.  You can snag it here.

Then, just cut the vinyl, peel away the unwanted parts, and use transfer tape to apply it to the chalkboard.

I love how it turned out.  The girls liked it so much they decided they want our camp t-shirts to have this same design!  You can download a Silhouette Studio cut file of this design here. If you have trouble downloading, just shoot me an email.

Thanks for stopping by today- have a great rest of your week :)


Vinyl up a chalkboard with this gorgeous temple quote inspired by The Wizard of Oz!



Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund this blog so I can keep bringing you fun new craft projects to try at home!
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