Friday, May 29, 2009

Happy Teacher's Day : MARSHMALLOW POP HOW-TO

Happiness is a 'marshmallow' pop! Nigel's class celebrated teacher's day today and I had an idea I wanted to try for awhile. It's a simple marshmallow on stick covered in chocolate and rainbow springkles! I would advise you to prepare the night before, but waking up early in the morning to prepare this was quite fun for me. Everyone was asleep - only me and a bowl of melted chocolate!!
Prepare the styrofoam base. I decorated it with a round piece of styro with ribbons and cute sticky tape. Just attach the ribbon with double sided tape all around. You prepare the cupcake paper a few days ahead. I pre-poked the mini cupcake paper with a pin first. Insert bamboo skewers and make sure the height is just right for the marshmallow to poke through without jutting out from the top. With a craft sticky tape, make a little flagline and pinch together. Cut the flagline as you will a ribbon edge. This little flagline helps stop the cupcake paper from sliding down.


I didn't know melting chocolate was so easy. All you need is a pot of hot boiling water enough to submerge the bowl with the chocolate halfway. Let it be for awhile. So while you wait for chocolate is melting (use broken pieces to speed up the process, stir with a fork ocassionaly) (I forget - I live in a tropical country, chocolate is bound to melt, but if you leave in a cold country - melting the chocolate over a double boiler or microwave is a good idea!) poke a marshmallow through all the pre-prepared bamboo skewers! When chocolate is fully melted and silky after stirring. Deep the marshmallow into the mixture. (I only dipped the top, don't want the kid's teeth to jump off their gums!) With a lift and twist motion, lift the marshmallow up and this is my favourite part...

Use a spoon and sprinkle with any topping you like. I should try white chocolate and coconut next! NEVER NEVER dip the still wet chocolate onto the sprinkles - you'll have a messy bowl of sprinkles after. AND YES, do this while the chocolate is still melted.

What I did to make the base more yummy was I added over 32 miniature cupcakes I store bought earlier in the evening. I arranged them in a tight circle and poked the marshmallows around it to fill up the base. The whole thing looks so yummilicious!
See the cupcakes.
Adding more marshmallow pops. It's a pretty arrangement.

Close up of the marshmallow pop. See the base. You can buy these colourful sticky tape everywhere now. I have quite a collection!

I printed a banner and attached it to the base with bamboo skewers.

Close up of banner.
What do you do with extra chocolate and sprinkles....MORE MARSHMALLOW POPS!

Back from school and hungry for more!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Granny Square Exchange : Received from Paul!

Picked up my granny square exchange from my secret partner days ago but my camera has been acting up so the pictures do not do any justice to how beautiful Paul's granny square shawl turned out. Have a look...

Look at the box my exchange came in! So sweet!!!! Thanks Paul!

The lovely note and stash. Paul knows about a girl's favourite things!

Oooh! My shawl....Look at the work put into this shawl.

Paul took up crochet only months ago, and he's been churning out masterpieces.

I think I'll put it on like this.

Close up of his workmanship. Excellent!!

Who's Paul? Find out about this wonderful, talented guy & very much eligible guy right here....http://theheartofpaul.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

5 TAIWANESE CRAFTING TITLES AT THE STORE NOW!


Come visit my studioshoppe for these fantastic crafting books. Handpicked for cross-stitchers, bagmakers, zakka enthusiasts and crafting book collectors just like me!

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Crochet Catch-Up May : How do you dress an Elephant?

Edmund's baby is turning 1 this Saturday and we decided to make Ethan an Elephant softie. After scouting around for the perfect packerderm, I was set on making one right away. Here is 'Eli!'...
Amigurumi's are really cool to make. I don't have a pattern for this, it was really free form crochet.
I learnt a terrible lesson working on Eli. I totally broke the head-off my clover plastic needle. Boo-Hoo!!! Never use a plastic crochet needle for amigurumis. Thank goodness for my old faithful Tulip crochet needle.
The shirt was crocheted right on the body to get the exact size right. Cannot imagine stuffing the shirt through that huge cute head.

The shirt is 100% cotton yarn I got from Spotlight. Eli looks like he's wearing the rainbow.

I love this last part. Embellishing Eli with buttons!!! I combined a white flower shaped button with a itsy bitsy brown one for the eye. Check out the lashes. I used DMC embroidery threads and of course made sure I secure them buttons for extra safety.

Getting the eye to match the other side was easy if you look at the lines of your crochet, if they correspond it'll be just like cross-stitch.

Meet Eli the Crocheted Elephant.

The Teddy on Eli's shirt. We took a while deciding on the best button for his shirt.

The little micro button for the sleeves, sure add a little special touch to the shirt. I love t-shirts with buttons on the sleeves. They remind me of my favourite blouses when I was a kid.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!!