Cake Pops

Hope you had a great weekend! The weather had predicted it to be a nice weekend, but not so much in these parts. Now...it wasn't nasty out or anything, but we've had enough icky weather here in the Pacific Northwest! We want sun!

Our blessing came today...it was beautiful!!! A glorious 75 degree sunny day!!! The best.



I had to run some errands this afternoon...getting ready for MOPS tomorrow. If I haven't mentioned, I am working in the Hospitality function of our MOPS group this year. It's a good and necessary position, but definitely has its share of work attached to it. We are having our Spring Tea tomorrow and each mom is going to receive a really pretty box filled with inspirational quotes. I had to cut the quotes that had been printed out into little strips to be put into the boxes. That's 50 sets of quotes with 13 cuts each. That means I made 650 cuts with my guillotine cutter today!!! My fingers were tired by the time I was done!



So, no card today. But instead I have something really fun *and yummy!* to share! I have started to casually follow Bakerella's blog. She has some of the neatest creations. If you like to bake you should check her out.



These are cake pops...and they are yummy!

Iwanted to take a better picture...but we ate them all before I got around to snapping a picture of them all, LOL!

The pops I made were done using Strawberry cake mix, vanilla frosting and Wilton Pink Candy Melts. These are really pretty easy to make. If you would like the recipe, here is Bakerella's.

Here's the recipe for those of you that can't wait....LOL!

Cake Pops

1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)

1 can frosting (16 oz.)

Wax paper

Candy melts (1 lb. pkg.)

Lollipop sticks

After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
Mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting. (I use the back of a large spoon, but it may be easier to use fingers to mix together. But, be warned, it will get messy. Also, you may not need the entire can of frosting, so start out by using almost the entire can and add more if you need to.)
Roll mixture into quarter size balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50)
Melt chocolate in the microwave per directions on package. (30 sec intervals, stirring in between.)
Dip the tip of your lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy coating and insert into the cake balls. (Insert a little less than halfway.)
Place them in the freezer for a little while to firm up.
Once firm, carefully insert the cake ball into the candy coating by holding the lollipop stick and rotating until covered. Once covered remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess chocolate falls off. Don't tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off, too.
Place in a styrofoam block to dry.

*recipe instructions Bakerella's

These were SO good! I preferred them chilled from the frig as opposed to room temperature. Personal preference.

I had some issues with them not dipping well...things like falling off the lollipop stick and such. I discovered that I had made my cakepops too large. Keep that in mind when rolling the balls, around a quarter size is probably the best for dipping. I'm thinking next time I try these I will see how a small cookie scoop would work for making them into little balls.

I hope you have fun and enjoy these if you give them a try. Let me know, I'd love to know how it went for you.

On completely different note. I am SO excited for my most recent purchase! I got the ok from my dear hubby to get a photo tent kit!!! I have been wanting one for ages. We have terrible light in our house for taking photographs, so it is a challenge for me to get nice photos of my creations. This is especially challenging when I would like to list some of my creations on Etsy. This includes my paper creations as well as the doll clothes that both my mother and I create. I can't wait for it to come. Hopefully it will be her within the week!

Construction Card

Hello world! Here I am *again* LOL!!!

I guess you could say I took a little break from blogging for a bit. It wasn't planned and wasn't intentional...just one of those things. You know...busy living life...enjoying my sweet little Bella and husband, time with friends, etc.

Good news is I'm back and I have a card to share!

This card is for our nephew's third birthday. He turns 3 and is having his party this afternoon. I was racking my brains trying to think of something to get him. Keeping in mind that whatever I get is going to be for both his brother and himself. He has an older brother...they are 3 & 4...yup, I know what you're thinking...busy family, tired mom!

So I'm wandering the aisles of ToysRUs trying to find something. They are into the typical boy stuff...cars, construction, planes and the like. I ended up getting him a Matchbox cars construction set and extra construction vehicles. Along with the game Memory. What kid doesn't love Memory? I remember I did growing up.

On to the card :)

I whipped this up this afternoon while Bella was down for her nap. Ahh....I love nap time!

I had the perfect images for his card that I had received from the PIF image swap over at SCS. These cute little construction vehicles are from an old Stampin' Up! set. I'm not sure of the name, sorry.

I think these guys are SO cute! They were a lot of fun to color in too. I used my Copics...and of course I didn't keep track of what colors I used.

The layout for the card is Lauren's Saturday Sketch found here, I chose to use sketch mytimess30. This was a super fun sketch to use! I find I am using sketches more and more often as a starting point for my cards. They really help me. I often don't follow them to a 'T' but I love them as a place to begin. You can find the sketch here.

I used some creative liberty and flipped the layout so that it was vertical rather than horizontal. This just worked for me with the images I was using.

If you notice this is not your normal card size. It is roughly 3 1/2" x 8 1/2". So long and skinny. As an FYI...it fits nicely in a normal letter size envelope. Which is super nice and a great way to use up envelopes you already have at home!

All of the images were cut out using my detail scissors and them I pop dotted them onto the front of the card. The sentiment down in the bottom right corner is also pop-dotted, but with a double layer so that it sticks up a bit higher than the images.

If you're a follower of Lauren's blog (I *heart* her blog!) you'll know that she's looking to revamp the way she does the Saturday Sketches. Part of this revamping is looking for a new team to work with her sketches. I thought I'd join the chase and see what happens. It would be kinda fun to work with her...just an eensy-weensy little bit!!!

Gotta get ready for the birthday party! Have a great afternoon!

ETA: Jeff and I had the wrong day for the birthday party! We showed up at their house and found out the party is tomorrow! LOL! Luckily, our friends (Jeff's best friend...like family, hence the nephew) were home and we got to visit for a little bit with them...and laugh over our mistake!!!