Monday, October 29, 2012

Mummies On A Stick

With Halloween quickly approaching, I needed a cute and easy treat to give to all of my coworkers. I headed over to a local baking supply store and they had these adorable "mummies on a stick" right in the window and I knew instantly that was what I was going to make.




Here's what you're going to need to make this treat:

-1 pound bag of white melting chocolate
-Lollipop sticks (the longer ones)
-Plastic squeeze bottle
-Twinkies
-Edible eyes (I got these at the local baking supply store but you might be able to find these at Michael's Crafts. If you can't find these exact eyes you can always improvise with chocolate chips!)
-Large plastic goodie bags
-String



1. First off, you're going to put your lollipop sticks all the way up into your Twinkies but make sure not to push it through the top. Put your twinkies in the freezer for about 15 minutes with the sticks already in them to make sure that they're nice and firm for easy assembling (I learned this the hard way and didn't freeze them for my first attempt at this treat. This is an important step so don't forget it!)

2. After letting your twinkies harden, bring them out of the freezer and begin melting your chocolate (reserve about a quarter of your chips to the side for drizzling). When your chocolate is all melted, bring your twinkies above your bowl of melted chocolate and begin to cover the entire twinkie using a spoon (I've found this way to be a lot easier then dunking the twinkie into the actual bowl of chocolate.. But you can do it which ever way you'd like!)

3. Once done dipping all of your twinkies and setting them on a wax piece of paper to dry, begin to melt your reserved chocolate and put it in your squeeze bottle. You're then going to drizzle chocolate in a horizantal motion over your previously dipped twinkies, making sure to place your eyes on before your chocolate dries.

4. Place your mummies in the fridge for about 30 minutes to harden and you're all set.

I wrapped my mummies in large clear goodie bags and tied them up with a piece of twine. This was an easy Halloween gift and everyone loved them!



One large pound bag of chocolate makes about 7-8 mummies.

Manicure Gift Sets

Pinterest has quickly become one of my favorite websites (even over facebook, and that's saying something for a 20 year old college student) and every time I'm on the website, I find a craft that I know I can make myself at home.. Today's craft is these adorable manicure gift sets originally made by Sara Douglass of soshelli.com



Now when I went on the blog, there wasn't direct instructions of how to create this adorable present, but I figured it couldn't be too hard. I set out to find all of the items to make a jar of my own.


Here's what you're going to need...



-1 pint size mason jar 16oz. You can find these at a lot of different places. I personally got mine at Michael's crafts but I've seen them at Walmart, Target, Kmart etc.
-About 5 or 6 cotton balls
-Toe seperators. I got mine at a beauty supply store.
-Mini nail polish remover. Can be found in the "travel section" at most stores. I got mine at Target.
-Clippers & file. Now this one was tough to find, especially because it's rare to find a mini file like the one shown above and I'm picky and wanted mine to be cute and pink. I found these as a set at a local grocery store, very random I know. I'm sure you'd be able to find them at your local drug store too!
-A nail polish of your choice. I went for Wet 'N' Wild brand in pink glitter.

Now to assembling.

Its very easy to put this gift set together. First start off with putting your cotton balls on the bottom of your mason jar and leaving a little room in the back for your polish remover. The remover I got was not as "mini" as I wanted, but it worked. Put your polish remover in followed by the toe seperators.


Next it's time to put in your polish, file, and clippers in the front of the jar as best as you can fit them. There's no set way to put these in, just whatever you think looks cutest!





I used pink and white polka dot ribbon to line the rim of the jar as well as printed out name tags for each of my friends. (font name: Cutie Pop downloadable here)

Total price per jar came to $10! An awesome an inexpensive gift that any girl will love.