Candy Corn Black-eyed Susan Edible Flowers

Candy corn seems to be a polarizing treat - people either love it or they hate it. I'm one of the rare people in the middle. I like it, but not enough to buy it over a different sugary treat. No matter your stand on candy corn, I think you'll agree that it is beautiful when you turn it into flowers. Specifically, Black-eyed Susans.  

Candy Corn Black-eyed Susan Edible Flowers

Materials: 

• parchment paper
• yellow Candy Melts
• candy corn
• cocoa Candy Melts
• Wilton jimmies (black)

Steps: 

Place a piece of parchment paper on your workspace. Follow the instructions to melt the yellow Candy Melts. Place a small dollop (about the size of a nickel) of yellow candy on the parchment paper, then arrange seven pieces of candy corn to make the petals. Repeat until you have the desired number of flowers. Let the candy set for 15 minutes. 

Pour the jimmies onto a cutting board and chop them into small bits, the way you would mince garlic. 

Melt the cocoa Candy Melts according to the package instructions. Dip a piece of candy corn into the melted candy and then press it to the center. Remove the piece, then sprinkle the wet candy with the minced jimmies. 

Let the candy harden for 15 minutes and your beautiful Black-eyed Susans are ready to serve!

Fun fact: The Black-eyed Susan is the state flower of Maryland. I'm going to be on the lookout for them the next time we visit the Old Line State!

Legoland 2015 and Keeping Track of Stories to Tell

After having the photos on my desk for five years, I finally scrapped Steve and Trevor's 2015 trip to Legoland. They went while I attended the Craft and Hobby Association Mega Show in Anaheim. Why did I wait so long to make this layout? Well, on top of these reasons, I've been searching for my LEGO scrapbook materials. I'm convinced that I have LEGO paper and stickers somewhere, but I've torn the house apart and they are not here. I must have dream-bought them. I did find some Star Wars LEGO stickers amongst Trevor's art supplies, so I used those for this super simple page. 

Legoland 2015 (affiliate link)

I'm really glad to get this layout in the album. It's been sitting at the top of my list of stories to scrap for far too long. See? There it is, right at the top:

I use this list along with my post-it trick to make scrapping out of chronological order work for me. Basically, any time something happens that I want to scrapbook, I add it to the bottom of my list. Every so often, I transfer those topics to post-it notes for the album. That's when I determine whether an event gets one page or two. I indicate the 2-pagers in parentheses in the notebook. When I order photos, I circle the topic. I can see at a glance what topics are ready to scrap, if they're 1- or 2-pagers, and where they fit in the album, as well as what photos I still need to have printed. When I complete a layout and share it here, I draw a line through that item. 

When the list gets too messy (which happens every few months), I recopy it. 

As you can see, our trip through the Panama Canal in 2017 is now the oldest story not-yet-scrapped. It's a 2-pager and the pictures are printed. But that doesn't mean it will be the next thing I scrap. It all depends on my mood. There are a few recent events I'm itching to scrap, so those might be first. Either way, I'll make all the pages eventually.

Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Owls

 Meet the Owlan family. 

Here are Mr. and Mrs. Owlan with her sister, Owlicia Owlexander. 

Can you tell I had the best time making these? Because I totally did. They were a hit with my family and you should definitely make some. Affiliate links below. 

Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Owls

Ingredients:

• graham crackers
• creamy peanut butter
• cocoa Candy Melts
• candy corn
• large candy eyeballs*

Steps: 

To make Owlice, use a knife to spread peanut butter onto a graham cracker. Add two eyes and a candy corn beak. Follow the package directions to melt the Candy Melts, then use that to add the forehead and wings. 

Owlejando is basically the opposite. Start with the cocoa candy melts, add the facial features, then use peanut butter to make the forehead and wings.

To make Owlicia, I spread the peanut butter smoothly, then used a toothpick to draw in the forehead, wings, and tail feathers. 

The owlets (Owlison and Owlex) are made with half a graham cracker each. The easiest way to get them to split cleanly is to use a sharp chef's knife and press down along the score line with equal pressure along the whole knife. Spread peanut butter on each, then pounce the knife up and down repeatedly against the peanut butter to create their fluffy feather texture. Add the eyes and candy corn beaks.   

*I wasn't able to find the Wilton candy eyeballs printed with the eyelashes that I used anywhere online.  I've had them for awhile and it looks like they might be discontinued. You can make your own version by drawing eyelashes onto the candy eyeballs I've linked above with a black edible marker. 

Boo! Eyeball Art

Sometimes, the inspiration for one of my projects comes from a previous craft. When I shared the Boo Halloween mobile, it struck me that the double O's of BOO would make awesome eyeballs. From that idea, I made this:

 

Boo! Eyeball Art

Materials:

• construction paper
• pointed-tip scissors
• glue
• red color pencil

Steps:

Cut two white circles for the eyeballs. Draw wiggly red capillaries on them. Cut a pair of smaller green circles for the irises and even smaller circles for the pupils. Glue the eyes together.

Cut a letter B from green paper. Instead of cutting out the counters from the green, cut them in black and glue them on top of the B. Cut a black witch's hat and glue it to the top of the B. 

Make an exclamation point with a brown broom handle and yellow bristles. Cut the bristles almost all the way to the top. 

Glue everything to purple background paper. 

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I did a search on Amazon for "candy eyeballs" and the search yielded all sorts of interesting things. Lots of fun Halloween possibilities!

World Card Making Day: Watercolor Cards

I don't consider myself a cardmaker, which is weird because I make every single card that I send. But I don't have dedicated cardmaking supplies, don't know the different card size dimensions by heart (99.9% of the cards I make are A2), and haven't tried most of the complicated card folds. I don't use stamps often, don't have a die-cut machine, and rarely emboss anything. So while I am definitely a card maker, I'm not a cardmaker.

Anyway, all this to say that I not only participated in World Card Making Day 2020, but completed the WCMD Colour Challenge at Scrapbook and Cards Today. The challenge was to use analogous colors (or colours - the challenge host is American and the magazine is Canadian, so you see both spellings pop up) and this fun watercolor technique. I used different color palettes to make four different cards.

These two cards are very similar. I drew light pencil lines on watercolor paper, painted in the bands of color, used Sharpies to write the sentiments, darkened the lines and added subtle patterns to the painted areas with colored pencils, mounted the card with coordinating cardstock, and decorated with sequins. 

I started this next card the same way, but I didn't use colored pencils or sequins. I simply added a line of dots with the same bronze Sharpie I used for writing the sentiment. 

For this card, I drew the pencil lines coming out of a central point (which is now covered with the star). I made a gradient of 12 colors from three basics in my beloved Koi Watercolor Field Sketch Set by Sakura (affiliate link). I used a gold Sharpie to add the sentiment and color the lines and die-cut star. 

These cards aren't masterpieces and definitely keep me in the category of card maker rather than cardmaker. But that's ok. The goal was to try a new technique, complete a challenge, and have fun, so mission accomplished.