Perfect Caramel Corn

We've made this recipe for years, and it used to be our "secret" recipe. We never shared the recipe because it was what we always made for gifts! But it's only fair to share this one, especially since it wasn't ours to begin with! It is Paula Deen's, lol. So you know it's good! I've tried microwaved versions, sticky caramel corn, etc. but nothing has been as good as this stuff. We made a big batch yesterday when we had friends over and the kids ate it right up!

You will need:

6-8 quarts of air popped pop corn (2 batches)

1 c. butter

2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. light karo syrup

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

Place popcorn into a roasting pan or large baking pan. Set aside.

Combine butter, sugar, salt and karo syrup in a medium sauce pan and heat over med-high heat. When bubbly, set timer for 5 minutes and boil, stirring constantly.

 Remove from heat and add baking soda. Stir.

 Pour over popped corn and stir to coat evenly.

Bake at 200 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Pour out onto waxed paper and cool.

Enjoy your night!

Eleven for 2011

Now that this year has come to a close, I thought I'd do a quick wrap up of the top projects on Gluesticks for 2011. And since it is the year 2011, here are the top Eleven. I went by comments and page views to put these in order. So for my new followers (welcome!) here are some of the projects you may have missed.

And a very Happy New Year to Everyone!

1. Homemade Rock Candy

2. Felt Make Up

3. New Handbag & Wallet {Patterns Included}

4. Candy Cane Soap

5. Homemade Butterfingers

6. Lollipop Trees

7. Wooden Peg Matching & Sorting Dolls

8. Minion Cupcakes

9. Teddy Sleds

10. PVC Pipe Canopy Bed

11. Bunk Bed Book Caddy

THE DISPLAY CASE {My Christmas Gift!}

 My husband gave me the quintessential blogger's gift for Christmas. I wouldn't normally post what I got for Christmas, but this was straight up any blogger's alley so I couldn't resist!

 I could tell that he knew he nailed it this year. He even gave me a hint as to what he was giving me. He said it would be "mind blowing"...LOL. Like that helped me at all. Which is ok, I don't like hints and early gifts so it just sparked my curiosity for Christmas morning.

 This huge tote was wrapped and under the tree Christmas morning.

FILLED with individually wrapped items that probably took him forever to wrap.

It is called THE DISPLAY CASE (notice the added bonus he put in the corner? :)

The drawers are FILLED with all sorts of items for staging my crafting and cooking photos!!!!!!!

A dream gift for any blogger! I am always scouring the cupboards for platters and my fabric drawers for scraps to display projects on for photos.

 A large assortment of place mats and trivets...

 Fat quarters, platters, bowls, ramekins....

 More ceramic items, and a fun set of mini stoneware.

There is plenty of room to add what I already have stored around the house.

Did he nail it? Absolutely!  His gifts are always so heartfelt. He just gets me.

I already put it to use this morning with Kaylee as we arranged some of the items.

So now when you see a certain backdrop, you'll know exactly what it is and know that I don't have complete sets just laying around my house in every color and design. Just samplings which is all I need!

Merry Christmas from Gluesticks

Gingerbread Trees

We made gingerbread cookies for Santa this year. The kids had a great time, the kitchen ended up trashed, and I kept stepping in sprinkles. There was minimal crying and lots of yummy cookies so I will call it a success. The kids decided which cookies they would leave out for Santa and then we used some of the star shaped ones to make these fun Christmas trees.

We cut out 2 of each size star cutter and stacked them after frosting the cookies. Then added sprinkles and red hots.

I hope everyone else is almost ready for Christmas and has plenty of time to relax this weekend!

Wintry Cardstock Wreath

 

The life of my beautiful ornament wreath came to an end and is now in the trash. Wind, crushed ornaments, etc. It was a sad day since it was my all time favorite Christmas wreath and it lasted for almost two holiday seasons so I guess I can't complain. I think I'll get more ornaments after Christmas on clearance and make another one next year.

But my front door still looks pretty because I pulled out my trusty 3D Cardstock Wreath that I made as a demo for a class I taught recently. It was perfect, bright, and popped against our black door.

 These wreaths are SO easy and quick to make. I found these fun papers at Joanns for .25 each. The colors are in a wintry hue so I think I'll leave it up for January too.

As long as we don't encounter any wind storms, we'll be good ;)

Click here to make your own!

Every Year a Memory Christmas Ornaments

Every Year a Memory Ornaments

My sister, Stacy, is the creative mind behind the blog, Piles of Projects. She recently shared these super cute ornaments that she makes for her husband every year for Christmas. Each ornament is a little summary of the year in pictures.  I knew when I saw these that I wanted to make some for our family too, but really wished I had thought of them sooner so that I didn't have to back track 10 years! Also, I can't free hand paint like she can. But I still wanted to make some for my husband too. In the past his favorite gifts have been the homemade ones and it is hard to keep coming up with those kind of ideas for him, so a big THANK YOU to Stacy for sharing her idea with me!

So I headed to Michael's to pick up some supplies. I love these ceramic ornaments. I've used them in previous projects. They are usually around $1. I bought a bunch of them. 10 to make this year and some for the future.

 They make pens that write on ceramic, but didn't have the colors that I wanted, so I bought a few metallic permanent markers in the scrapbooking section.

 I used the markers to write the year and memories on each ornament, then coated them with a thin layer of mod podge to keep the markers from rubbing off since they aren't ceramic markers. It worked perfectly and there won't be any smearing over the years. If you do this same method, just make sure it is thin and you use light strokes to avoid any smearing. When they were dry, I went around the edges with some glitter puff paint for a border.

I printed out small thumbnail photos of our family Christmas photos and mod podged them to the back of each ornament.

 I found this photo box at Michael's for $2 and added some scrapbook paper to decorate it. Each one is wrapped in tissue paper to keep it safe from cracking and the extras are wrapped in the center for future use.

I think we may need a separate Christmas tree for these in a few years!

Milky Way Teddy Sleds

 How fun are these?!?! This was one of my many projects that I had going on this week. They were super simple and pretty quick to make. I put these together for the boys' school Christmas parties.

To make them, spread a small amount of chocolate frosting on two mini candy canes. Add your milky way miniature bar (cut in 2) and sandwich a little teddy graham in between.

That's it! After sitting over night they were nice and sturdy since the frosting had a little time to dry.

Inspiration for this project found here.
 

Chocolate Covered Danish Cookies and Etched Gift Jars

 Last year I made acid etched gift jars. They were so simple to make and well received that I thought, "Why mess with a good thing?" So...I made them again for gifts for the boys' teachers, bus drivers, karate teachers, etc. You can find my tutorial on making these using your cricut here.

 I filled them with chocolate covered Danish cookies. Some with crushed candy canes (to tie in the soap that will go in the gift bags as well). They were super easy to make. You can get HUGE boxes of these at Costco or Sams (we bought 2) and the GOOD melting chocolate at Sams in big blocks. Just dip in melted chocolate and set on parchment paper to dry.

 I found some clearance sheer ribbon and trimmings at Michael's over the weekend and used them to embellish the jars.

 I also put together quite a few of these plates as gifts for the ladies that I work with in primary and ladies that I visit teach.

There are so many fun things going on this week for the holidays, but I  am also looking forward to next week when my children are out of school so that we can relax as a family!