Olaf Marshmallows

On December 20, 2016February 22, 2017 By glucrafted2 Comments

_mg_7579 Can you think of anything Olaf would rather do than soak in a piping hot cup of cocoa? This week we decided to up our hot chocolate game by crafting these adorable marshmallows shaped and decorated like Olaf from Disney’s Frozen. We made them for our friends (and us, really) to enjoy, but assemble them on marshmallow skewers and you’ve got a perfect addition for your next Holiday party, and a guaranteed smash hit with kids.

We have finally finished exams and are splitting up, headed to San Francisco and London for the Winter break. Nothing sounds better than a little downtime with family and friends. We hope you all have incredible holidays filled with love and laughter (or shall we say “Olaf”ter) – we’ll be back after the New Year with more new content!

Materials:

Flat marshmallows (we got the marshmallow “stackers” from Target)
Royal icing (find our recipe here)
Marshmallow skewers
Ziplock bags (or piping bags)
Black and orange food coloring
Chocolate sprinkles
Hot cocoa

Carefully cut half of the marshmallows with a sharp knife to look like the bottom half of Olaf’s face. It’s a bit of an odd shape, but we just cut the bottom two corners off at an angle. Then cut the remaining marshmallows to look like the top off his head, which looks like a small trapezoid.

Make your royal icing; you want it to be stiff icing so don’t add any water. Spoon half of it into a ziplock bag and snip the corner to make a piping bag. Then divide the remaining icing in half and dye one half orange and the other black. Once again put them in bags and snip the corners. Make sure your cut is very small so that you can easily achieve detail in your decoration. Pipe the white icing onto the longer edge of the bottom half of Olaf’s face, then attach the trapezoid shape, also on the longer side.

Skewer them onto the sticks, careful not to deform them. Then begin decorating with the icing. Use the black to make the mouth.

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Make black dots slightly larger than the eyeballs, and use the white to make the eyes on top of them. Then make the pupils with the black. Finally, add an orange nose and black eyebrows.

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To finish them, make a dot of white icing on the top of Olaf’s head, and use it to attach three chocolate sprinkles to make his hair.

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Voila, you are finished! Now you can sit back and relax with a pot of hot cocoa and your adorable marshmallows.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Kirby and Michelle

Mason Jar Gingerbread Cookies

On December 13, 2016February 22, 2017 By glucraftedLeave a comment

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In my family, the day after Thanksgiving has always meant the first day of Christmas. It may seem a bit early to some, but with all of us living in different places it’s one of the last times we’ll be together before Christmas Day itself. So in the true holiday spirit, our house begins to resemble Santa’s workshop as we all get to work. My dad hangs the lights outside, my sister and I grab container after container of ornaments and stockings off the shelves in the garage to bring inside, and my mom whips up some homemade hot chocolate and cookies for us all – Noodles hovering close by, waiting for scraps of food to be dropped to the kitchen floor. With a full fire going and Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and other members of the Rat Pack playing in the background, we all gather around to decorate the Christmas tree.

It’s truly one of the most special days of the year in the Embury household, and something I wish I could share with everyone. While I can’t personally invite every person I know into my house, I did the next best thing. I found a way to bring our holiday festivities to you through some of my favorite gingerbread cookies!

These were very simple and affordable to make, which is always a plus on my college budget. They make the perfect gift for friends and family, and go a long way in spreading the holiday cheer. I made quite a few at home over Thanksgiving break, but saved one to enjoy with Kirby and our friends in Los Angeles.

Materials:

1 quart-sized mason jar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup packed brown sugar
Small spoon or ladle
Twine
Gingerbread man cookie cutter
Fabric to cover mason jar lid
Card stock paper to write instructions
Pen
Scissors
Hole Punch

Mix 2 cups of flour with the baking soda and baking powder. Mix the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour with the ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. Layer the ingredients in the mason jar starting with the flour and baking powder mixture, then the brown sugar, and finally the flour and spice mixture. Pack firmly between layers. I used a small metal ladle to press down each layer as I went. Seal the mason jar tightly with the lid.

Fold a piece of card stock paper over and write down the ingredients and directions on the inner section. I used white card stock so that you could clearly see the writing on the page. Feel free to decorate this card however you want. On another piece of card stock (I used brown to resemble a gingerbread man) I stenciled a gingerbread man using the cookie cutter to cut out and paste on the front section of the ingredients and directions card. Make sure to leave room at the top, inner corner to punch a hole.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter
3/4 cup molasses
1 egg, slightly beaten
icing and candy to decorate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚F
Empty contents of jar into a large mixing bowl
Stir to blend together
Mix in butter, molasses, and egg
Cover and refrigerate (1 hr)
Roll dough to 1/4″ thick on a lightly floured surface
Cut into shapes with a cookie cutter
Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake (10-12 mins)
Decorate and enjoy!

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Place enough fabric over the top of the mason jar to cover the metal lid – I chose red to match the holiday theme! Secure the fabric to the jar by wrapping twine around the lid. Make sure to loop in the ingredients and directions card as well as the gingerbread man cookie cutter before tying a bow.

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michelle-and-noodlesgoldleaves Now you’re ready to gift, bake some cookies, and relax!

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Happy holidays!

-Michelle

Candy Advent Calendar

On December 6, 2016February 22, 2017 By glucrafted1 Comment

It’s that wonderful time of year – December is finally here! We’ve been overwhelmingly busy with final exams and packing for winter break, but decided to take a day off to craft and embrace the holiday spirit together before we leave for home.

Advent calendars are the most exciting Christmas decoration thanks to the sweet surprise that hides behind each day. Usually we get the cardboard ones where you punch out the chocolate each day, but this year we decided to make it more interesting. We loaded up on our favorite candies (pretty much all of them to be honest) and wrapped them up like mini Christmas gifts. The end result is so festive and cute, plus the wooden structure is sturdy and reusable so we never have to go back to the plain old cardboard calendars again. Because we were a little late starting this one, we embraced the excuse to eat five candies in one night, and there’s no shame in you doing the same!

Materials:

A long piece of wood
White spray paint
25 nails
Black acrylic paint
A thin paint brush
Wrapping paper (we mostly used tissue paper)
25 small candies
Ribbon
String (we used the red & white twisted kind)
Tape
Scissors
Command strips for hanging

Use a piece of wood that is long enough to hold all 25 candies. We found this scrap wood at the UCLA sculpture lab – it doesn’t need to be fancy. Set it down outside on paper or newspaper and coat the wood with white spray paint. We only did one layer for a more rustic look but feel free to do another for a cleaner style. Allow to dry completely.

Carefully measure out where each number will go. It’s been a while since we took math and this took us a few tries, but it will look much better if it is evenly spaced apart. We marked each space with a small pencil mark. Then using whatever font you would like, paint the numbers over each dot. If you don’t have faith in your calligraphy skills, you could easily use number stickers from any craft store.

Next, hammer the nails into the pencil dots. You want them to be secure, but still protruding quite a bit in order to hold the candies (Note: doing this in a Christmas sweater will add to the festive vibe).

Pick out your 25 candy surprises. We opted for a large variety of things from chocolates to fruity chewy candies. Pick what you like, because you will be the one eating them! The goal is to find candy with small, easy-to-wrap packaging. Some things, like the starbursts, you can divide up into three separate days. We poured the skittles into little plastic baggies that would be wrapped into cute pouches.

Wrap all of the candy. Warning, this is not a craft for those who hate gift wrapping. This is probably what it feels like to be Santa Claus for mice. We used tissue paper except for the plaid gift wrap, and we used variations of gold ribbon to create consistency.

Cut different lengths of string (so that the mini presents will all hang at different heights) and tape them in a loop to the back of each candy gift.

Using command strips, attach the wooden piece to the wall. Hang the gifts onto the advent calendar in a random order. We tried to arrange them based on wrapping color and the length at which they hang.