Kraftmas 2015: Christmas Crunch

Every Christmas my mom makes this very simple but delicious snack mix, which we call Christmas Crunch. I have made it a couple of times with her over the years, but this year I made a batch of my own to share.

What you need:

5 cups Cheerios
5 cups wheat Chex
2 cups pretzels
2 cups dry roasted peanuts
2 bags of white candy melts
2 bags of red and green M&Ms

This is so simple to make! In a roasting pan, mix the Chex...

Cheerios...

peanuts...

and pretzels.


Ta-da!

To melt the candy, place the melts in a glass bowl.

Microwave for one minute and stir. Then microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each until all of the chips are melted.

Pour over the cereal/pretzel/nut mix and stir. I used a large spoon, but you can use your hands as well to make sure that all of the pieces are covered.

Allow the mix to cool and the chocolate to set, then break apart into small pieces.

Finally, add the M&Ms and your Christmas Crunch is ready to eat!

Kraftmas 2015: Polymer Clay Ornaments

For the past four years I have given my hubby a personalized ornament to put on our tree. This will be our fifth Christmas together and we have a special new addition to our family which is so exciting! This Christmas I decided to try my hand at making our family ornament out of polymer clay. I knew it would not look at good as the ones that I was buying in the mall especially because I have never worked with polymer clay before, but it is more special to make it for him myself!

The inspiration came from an ornament that I saw on Etsy of faces for each family member wearing Santa hats with the name on the brim of the hat. Looked easy enough, and possibly the least time consuming. I bought clay for the heads and hats, and a pack of green clay just in case I could think of something to do with it.

I started off by making a square out of the white clay to which I would attach the three heads. Next, I made the head with the beige clay. I cut one strip of the clay, rolled it into a ball and then flattened the ball a bit then placed the head on the white square.
 
For the hats, I used a strip of red clay and kneaded it into a flat piece by starting with a round ball then rolling it into a cone, then flattening the cone into a triangular piece. I twisted the top of the triangle to give the hat a little dimension.
 
I then wrapped the hat around the head on the square.

Finally, I cut a small strip of white clay for the brim of the hat and also made a small white ball for the tip of the hat.

I repeated the same process for all three members of our family.

Finally, I cut a paper clip so that I had the round end and stuck the sides into the top of the ornament.

To set the clay, I followed the package instructions and baked the ornament in a preheated oven at 270 degrees on a foil-lined cooking sheet for approximately 30 minutes.

Once the ornament was set and cooled, I used paint and a thin black sharpie to make the faces and write our names on our hats!

With the extra clay, I made another ornament that was not as involved. Used the red and white clay, I rolled a thin cylinder of each and then twisted them together like a candy cane.
 
I then took the twisted clay and made it into some holiday words, like "NOEL" and "JOY"

I baked the words as above. I turned mine into an ornament, but these would also be cute to tie onto Christmas gifts!

Kraftmas 2015: Baby's First Christmas Stocking

It is December again, which means that Kraftmas has arrived! For the past two years I have made December a month of holiday crafting and cooking, and I am looking forward to sharing with you my did-its this holiday season.

Kicking off Kraftmas this year: baby's first Christmas stocking. After spending too much time on Pinterest looking for ideas, I decided that I really liked the quilted stocking tutorial by milkybeer that I found. Initially I thought that I would make matching stockings for our family of three, but I knew realistically that would be challenging. So, I decided to settle for a single stocking for baby girl. But not just any stocking! I decided that I wanted to make something more nostalgic for her first Christmas.

For this quilted stocking, I used left over fabric from the nursery bed set that I made for her and one of her receiving blankets from when she was a newborn.








Following the tutorial, I started by drawing my stocking onto the receiving blanket. I folded the blanket in half lengthwise twice so that when I cut out the stocking there were four pieces.
 
Next, I cut strips of fabric of varying lengths and widths. Then I laid them across one piece of the stocking cut from the receiving blanket to get a rough idea of how many piece I needed and how I wanted them placed.

Following the tutorial, I began sewing on the pieces starting by placing the first strip of fabric at the bottom of the stocking. I took the next piece of fabric and laid it on top of the first piece with the front sides facing. Next, I used my sewing machine to sew both pieces of fabric to the stocking front.

 

Then I folded the second strip of fabric back so that the back of the fabric was on the stocking. I then ironed the fabric.

I repeated these steps until the entire stocking piece was covered with the fabric strips.
 

I then cut away the excess fabric around the stocking to finish the front "quilted" piece. 

To finish the stocking, I placed the front quilted piece together with one of the back pieces of the stocking made with the receiving blanket. I place the two sides together and sewed them with a 1/2" seam allowance, then turned the right sides out. I did the same with the remaining two pieces of the stocking to make the inner lining, then placed the lining into the stocking. This is not the same way that milkybeer finished her stocking, but I found that part of the tutorial confusing so I did what seemed easiest to me!

Finally, I sewed the lining to the outer shell of the stocking and added a loop of fabric scraps to the side to hang the stocking with care for Santa to come and fill it with goodies for baby girl!

KT Baked It: Thanksgiving Pumpkin Cheesecake

Happy Thanksgiving 2015! 

This year, we are staying home and cooking this annual meal for our family of three. We are sad that we will not be able to see our families, but I am excited to make my mom's most beloved Thanksgiving dishes this year. These include baked cream cheese mashed potatoes, broccoli and carrot casserole with horseradish dressing, sausage stuffing, cranberry jello salad, and last but certainly not least her favorite pumpkin cheesecake!

Today I am excited to share her cheesecake recipe with all of you!

What you need:
For the crust
3/4 cup crushed pecan Sandies
4 Tbl melted butter
2 Tbl brown sugar

For the filling
3 8oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs + 1yolk
1 cup pumpkin
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbl corn starch
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
2 Tbl cream or milk

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust, use a food processor to break apart the pecan Sandies into fine crumbs. Then combine the crumbs with the butter and brown sugar. NOTE: I ended up using an entire package of Sandies crumbs because the mixture was too oily.

























Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9" springfoam pan.

For the filling, combine the eggs, sugar and cream cheese with an electric mixer. 

Next, add the pumpkin. Another deviation from the original recipe - I used an entire 15oz can of pumpkin by mistake! However, it still turned out perfect (thankfully). Next, add the pumpkin pie spices or create your own blend of spices to taste (I used nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves and ginger).

Finally, add the cornstarch, vanilla, pinch of salt and milk or cream. I substituted 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour in place of the cornstarch and used almond milk. 

Then pour the filling into the crust.

Put the cheesecake into the oven and bake for 55 minutes. Allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven with the door ajar. 

And you have a delicious pumpkin cheesecake perfect for the holiday season!

KT Made It: Diaper Wreath

Last weekend I was lucky to celebrate with my husband's family at my sister-in-law's baby shower as she looks forward to welcoming the long awaited arrival of a baby boy to the Baker family. I wanted to make her something special for her baby shower, and the invite to a diaper raffle afforded a great opportunity to make her something! I've seen many different diaper crafts including wreathes, bouquets, and cakes on Pinterest. I decided to make a wreath for this celebration!

There are several ways to make a diaper wreath. For this one, I chose to use a wire floral wreath. I used a package of size 2 Pampers Swaddlers, although any size will do. You also need rubber bands and ribbon. 

To make, open the diaper and insert the wreath in between the two sides of the diaper, with the open end facing outside. Secure with a rubber band as you see here. 

Add diapers around the circumference of the wreath, as many as you can fit. 

Next, tie ribbon around each rubber band.

Ta-da!

Clearly this needed a little more decoration! So I decided to make a large bow to go on the wreath. To make the bow, I started with a circle of stiff felt for the base and four different sizes and colors of ribbon 

I cut two slits in the center of the circle, and slid a long piece of ribbon through the center which would be used to attach the ribbon to the wreath. Next, I used the ribbon of the largest width and folded the ribbon lengthwise to make loops, attaching them around the circumference of the circle with my hot glue gun. 

Using the next ribbon, I created loops by folding the ribbon so that the outside ends were touching as you see below. 

Then I glued each loop around the circle...

Then I did the same thing with the next color...

And the same thing with the last color...

Finally, I used the green ribbon and made small circles and glued them close together in the center. 

Voila! And here is the finished wreath. Hope that I get to make another one of these soon!

And of course matching closet dividers like the ones that I made for my little Princess!