Photo Booth Frame

Hello Bloggers!
     Let me begin by apologizing for not having step-by-step pictures to show how I made this photo booth picture frame.  I made it before I ever even thought I would be a blogger so I had no reason to take pictures of each step.  With that being said, this project was super easy and can be followed without the help of pictures.
     We are going to have a photo booth at the party, and of course I don't want to pay a lot of money for props. Actually, I was recently at a flea market and the large frames sold anywhere from $40.00 to $70.00.  Although they were cute, I'd much rather save my money and do it myself. 
     So my initial plan for getting a nice big frame was to go garage sale hunting for it.  That was until my daughter walked in my room with a piece of foam board that we had previously used as  concession sign  for her "Welcome to Summer" movie party.
      I purchased this piece of foam board from the dollar store and used it for 2 different projects. Talk about getting my monies worth!

Materials

• A large piece of foam board ( go to your local $ store)
• Duct tape of your choice, roughly $3.99;  There are so many fabulous varieties of duct tape. Have fun with it!
• Letters; I used my Cricut machine to cut my letters, but you can purchase letters from the dollar store in the office supply/teacher supply aisle.  Also the letters are optional. You can decorate your frame with anything you like or choose not to decorate it.  It's all up to you!
• Exacto blade
• Ruler and pencil
• Glue stick
• Hot glue gun

Procedure

Step 1:  Begin by using a ruler and  pencil to draw a
             rectangle on the foam board for where you
             want the frame cut out to be.  I left about a
             three inch frame border on mine.

Step 2:  With the exacto blade, cut out the rectangle
             you drew in step 1.  Do not discard it, you
             will use it later.

Step 3:  Cover the frame you just made with duct
             tape. I only covered the front side but you
             can do the backside  too if you like.

Step 4: Now it is time for the letters. After I cut my
            letters, I found that I wanted to add some
            depth to them to make them "pop." Here is
            where the piece of foam board you cut out
            comes in handy. Glue the letters to the foam
            board and cut them out with the exacto
            blade.

Step 5: Place the letters on the frame to your liking
            and hot glue them to the frame.  That's it!
            You're done!

Here is a picture of the project!


Well that's all I have for now folks. Until next time...


Keep krafting,

Keybbler

Decorative Paper Rosettes

Hello Fellow Krafters!
        So as you know I'm planning my daughter's rainbow art party for her 8th birthday.  In order to be the thrifty person that I am, I am going to make as many of the party decorations as possible.  Which brings me to today's post.  I just looked online and the rosettes that I am making can cost anywhere from $26.00 to $65.00 for a set of roughly 10 to 15 rosettes. So far I have made about 16 for about $6.00.
        The beauty of this project is you can really make them for any occasion, just change the paper to whatever theme you are celebrating.

Materials

-8.5 x 11 card stock or paper (Depending on how big or small you want your rosettes,you may want to change the paper size.  Mine came out to about 9 inches in diameter)  You will need 5 sheets for each rosette you plan to make.
-hot glue gun
-hot glue sticks
-scissors

Step 1: Fan fold the paper in about 1 inch increments. Don't worry it doesn't have to be perfect. If it ends up uneven just trim the access paper off.

Step 2: Fold the paper in half

 

It should look like this. Repeat this same process with 4 more sheets of paper.















 You can see the rosette forming when you put the papers together like this.

 Step 3: Begin by hot gluing 2 rosette sections together. Allow the glue to set for a few seconds before hot gluing another section of the rosette. Keep in mind how you want your rosette to look and be sure to glue the sections in the correct order.

 

Step 4: After you have glued all the sections together, now glue in between each section.

Repeat this process for each section of the rosette.

 Step 5: Glue the very last 2 sections of the rosette together forming  a complete circle.

Step 6: Hot glue the center of the rosette together and push all sections together while the hot glue sets.

 

Viola!!!

 

There are so many ways to use the rosettes. I haven't quite decided how or where I'm going to put them but I have a few ideas up my sleeve!  Once I decide, I'll be sure to show you krafters! I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope I shared with you a way to save some $$$ on party decor.  Until next time...

 

 

Keep krafting,

 

 

Keybbler

 

 





Fantasy Fondant

        Hi Everyone!  Look at me, my very first post on my blog! How exciting!  Well my daughter's 8th birthday is quickly approaching and she wants a rainbow cake for her rainbow art themed party. So since I have no experience with making a rainbow cake nor working with fondant, I decided to give it a semi-trial run.
        I went to Michael's and was searching through the aisles to see what kinds of products were out there to use.  When I saw the price of fondant, I thought "No way am I going to spend that much money."  Soooo I went searching an online bulletin board and "Viola!" I came upon an inexpensive and EASYYYYYYY way to make fondant myself and it said it is better tasting too!  And they were right! So I'm going to share with you what I did.

Fun Fantasy Fondant

Ingredients

•  16 ounces of mini marshmallows
• 3 tbsp of water
• 6 cups of powered sugar
• Crisco vegetable shortening
  
  
  
  

  

  I used parchment paper for easy clean up afterwards. Also coat
  your mixing spoon and parchment paper with Crisco to avoid
  excessive sticking of the marshmallows once melted.

  
  
   

I put the marshmallows and water in a microwave safe dish and
microwaved for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I stopped and stirred
 the marshmallows every 30 seconds until they were nice and
 smooth.



Smooth as silk

 

 



Add about half of the powered sugar and mix it in. Then pour
it onto the parchment paper.

Gradually add in the rest of the powered sugar, folding it in.
Be sure to coat your hands with Crisco before working the
powdered sugar in. Otherwise it will be a gooey mess.


 
















Keep kneading the powdered sugar in until it is all mixed well.
You will know it is ready when you can stretch the fondant
about arms length without it breaking or being too sticky.

Just about done.  If it is too dry, just add a tiny bit of water.




 



After breaking the fondant into balls, it is now time to
add the food coloring gel.  This was actually the most
time consuming part of the process.  I just added a small
amount of gel to each ball and kneaded it in, until I got
my desired color.


 

Ta-Dah! Rainbow colored fondant!  I let the fondant
sit for a little while before using it. I wrapped each ball
in plastic wrap so they wouldn't dry out and the colors
seemed to have gotten deeper since it was allowed
 to sit a bit.

Now like I stated earlier, I just wanted to get a feel for how to work with fondant for my daughter's birthday party. So I didn't actually make the rainbow cake, but I did decorate some cupcakes. Here are a few pictures.

By making my own fondant, not only did I save a lot money, but it tastes pretty good too!  Not to mention, I think it's pretty to look at.  Anyway, thank you for reading my first post and I look forward to sharing many more with you!

                                                                                                                  Keep Krafting,

                                                                                                                  Kellee
PS.
  Now that I'm an official blogger, I promise to take better pictures.