With the 4th of July right around the corner, I wanted to share a few patriotic ideas I have created for Fiskars.
Using paper punches to get creative with your food simply...
View the full patriotic snack tutorials here.
And getting creative with what you have at home to make last-minute patriotic accessories...
... and nails! View the full accessories tutorials here.
You can view all of my previous patriotic posts here.
My daughter had her last basketball game of the season this weekend (it was an awesome game!) and I wanted to bring in a little celebratory treat for her to share. With very limited time during our chaotic weekend, I ended up coming up with these quick and easy basketballs inspired by these much more beautiful cookies.
All you need to do is draw the lines onto Nilla Wafer cookies as shown using a black food marker...
... and pipe a small dollop (what a fun word) of desired frosting onto the bottom of another cookie. Sandwich the two together and the frosting will spread, filling out the cookie. Make sure you just add a little or else it will all just squeeze out of the sides.
And that's it! You could also add a marked cookie onto a store-bought cupcake as a topper for another last minute basketball treat.
Speaking of last minute, check out this cute lunch I'm sharing over at Chef Mom using up dinner leftovers for lunch here. =)
Halloween is a great holiday for adding in fun embellishments to treats and desserts. I like serving snacks both at home and parties in little ramekins for individual servings. I buy them at my dollar store in packs of five for a dollar.
Here are a few ways to add spooky eyes to a vanilla yogurt snack. Add three raisins for a ghost face. Add a slice of a blueberry layered on a slice of kiwi for an eyeball. Or add green grape halves with a chocolate chip inserted into a carved out center for a pair of eyes. Add the rest of the cut up fruit on the side for a well rounded snack.
Easily add character to jello ramekins for a fun dessert. For monster jello, stir up jello after it's set and add mini marshmallows with pupils drawn on with an edible food marker. Pour orange jello right into a ramekin to set and add a simple chocolate chip jack-o-lantern face before serving.
It doesn't take much to add a little fun to snacks and desserts for parties or for everyday Halloween fun =).
Are you ready for some football? With the first big football weekend upon us, I wanted to re-share a Super Bowl party I created for Fiskars last season in case you are planning some fun festivities soon! You can find the full party, photos, and directions here.
With the start of school, I am also sharing some school lunch ideas over at SheKnows. Can you figure out the theme of this lunch? You will likely be surprised. You can find full photos and directions here.
And earlier this week I shared some free, printable miniature candy bar wrappers for Halloween over at Eighteen25 as part of their annual Spooktacular taking place all month. Be sure to check out all of the other cool Spooktacular projects, and you can find my wrappers here.
I admit to having an owl addiction ... and "owl" be back soon with more fall fun! =)
Summer is in full swing! Are you in need of a mid-summer creativity boost? I'm guest blogging today over at Kiki & Company sharing ideas for super easy summer snacks for the kids ... or anyone young at heart!
This is part of Kiki's Fun in the Sun series going on all July full of new ideas each day to keep summer filled with fun for you and the kids, so be sure to go back and check out the rest of the super fun posts!
You can find my summer snack ideas post right here.
It's been a very crazy start to the school year in the Storms household, and I have been making super simple lunches that I haven't bothered photographing. But then I decided that everyone goes through busy times and might be looking for inspiration for quick lunches that still have a little personality.
We had some leftover whole wheat hot dog buns, and I figured I'd use them up to make sub sandwiches. Which reminded me of a card I made a few years back for Fiskars (paper-pieced by creatively cropping a speech bubble combined with a flower punch chopped of all but two petals).
So the sub sandwich turned quite literally into a sub sandwich with a simple cut straw. I originally planned on having it sitting upright, but wasn't thinking how thick it would be once filled. So it ended up on its side. Of course I had to add a few Goldfish crackers. And one in the blueberry "water".
Super simple. But kinda cute =). And the kids got a kick out of it.
After doing lunchbox research this summer, I decided to go with the Easy Lunchbox system again this year. The price and function fit well for our family. I get a lot of emails asking about our lunchboxes so I wanted to add a link here ... easylunchboxes.com.
So I've been on the hunt for new things to cut into shapes. My newest obsession comes in the form of croutons. My kids love croutons. They come by it honestly! Mmmm...
These flower croutons became a flower lunch, of course ... to celebrate me finally planting my spring annuals this week after a cold, wet start to spring. Flowers make me so happy!
I don't expect the carrot slices to stay on the cucumber flowers, but I thought it would be cute for a picture =). I couldn't stop myself and ended up attacking slices of watermelon with the flower cutter, too.
So to make them, I sliced up a loaf of bread and cut flowers from the slices with a small cookie cutter. (Use the leftover pieces, too for irregularly shaped croutons.) I tossed them with melted butter mixed with Italian seasoning and lined up on a cookie sheet. Bake 30 minutes at 300 degrees flipping once halfway through.
And there were plenty leftover for me =).
This spring has been crazy busy in the Storms household, but I have managed to photograph a couple of particularly cute lunches to share. =)
This was for my son's zoo field trip. I based the monkey quesadilla on the monkey valentines I made this year. I like working with tortillas because they are so easy to cut. He is made up of both wheat and flour tortillas cut from a bunch of different cookie cutters I had in my stash ... circles for the face and ears, an upside down pumpkin for the second layer, part of a rocket ship trimmed for the oval, and the eyes are the bottom of a mini candy cane cutter I had. Being resourceful! I trimmed the eyes and mouth from bread crust for a dark color. The layers are all "glued" together with shredded cheese baked in the oven.
To finish off the theme I added animal cookies (I asked my husband to get them and I didn't mean frosted because it takes away all of the animal features!) and a little giraffe fork for the melons. Why is the giraffe so sad???
Around Easter I made these bunny sandwiches with cookie cutters. We had some large bread slices leftover from a camping trip so I got two bunnies from each sandwich. I smooshed mini marshmallows for the tails. To make sure they stayed on I added a drop of melting chocolates I keep on hand for stuff like cake pops. The kids really liked these.
To round out the theme I added carrots, of course, and a little bit of Annie's Fruity Bunnies mixed in with almonds =).
I needed to use up the rest of the leftover garden spinach herb wraps and decided to bake some tortilla chips to make nachos for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to find a shamrock cookie cutter in my ridiculous stash (I never know what I actually have in there!) and knew I had to make shaped chips. This ... is my new obsession. =)
I cut out the rest of the tortillas I had with the shamrock cutter, brushed them with a little oil, and baked in the oven. I layered them with leftover chicken I warmed up from the night before, shredded cheese, avocado for a little more green, and sour cream. Yum!
The kids had friends in and out all day but I had time to squeeze in one St. Patrick's Day craft I came up with. With all that is going on in Japan and around the world, I wanted them to stop and think about how lucky they are. This Lucky Clover Patch is the same concept as a Thankful Tree at Thanksgiving.
We took a block of styrofoam and covered with green tissue paper. We fringe-cut two strips of green cardstock to adhere around the edges. The kids wrote down reasons they were lucky on cardstock shamrocks (I cut using an electronic cutter, but the kids can always trace a template and cut out themselves). We glued green toothpicks to the back and once dry inserted into the foam.
The rainbow was an afterthought because by this point in the day I was sick of all green and thought we needed a pop of color. =) I cut out circles in rainbow colors in descending sizes using Fiskars' Ultra ShapeXpress and circle template. I layered and adhered them altogether centered and cut in half. I used my cloud punch from the baby shower at the end of the rainbow.
I had to put the Wii clover in front because it cracks me up. =)
I love this little guy. I purposely left him very simple, because usually they are just cuter that way. =)
The leprechaun is assembled from two cheese quesadillas. For the face I used a regular tortilla cut with a scalloped biscuit cutter. For the hat, I handcut with a knife using a garden spinach herb wrap. I folded the tortilla in half and cut both pieces at the same time so they'd match up. I was happy it cut very easily. I added cheese inside and baked. Next I added a shredded cheese beard and a little bit on top of the head to "adhere" the hat. I layered the hat on and stuck it back in the oven just long enough to barely melt it all on to secure. Once cooled I added eyes with a food marker (because I'm lazy like that).
For the side items I made rainbow (of course) fruit kabobs on toothpicks and added a few marshmallows from the Lucky Charms cereal I bought for St. Patrick's Day breakfast to theme it up a little more, as if it needed it. :P
The kids took this to school Wednesday since they are off now for Spring Break. So we may have more St. Patrick's Day fun to share soon...
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