Felt Poinsettia Napkin Rings

As many of you know, I've volunteered in our local elementary school for years and years - my niece P was in the second grade when I started and she is now 23. I loved 2nd grade, and her teacher Mrs. Whitmore, so much that I just kept repeating 2nd grade over and over! I kind of borrowed (ok, ok, I stole it - whatever) this Christmas craft from Mrs. Whitmore - this is a simple project she had the kids make for parent and grandparent gifts (I can't tell you how many poinsettia outlines I drew on felt squares for the kids to cut out and assemble). They are fun, kid-friendly, simple and quick - all things you need with a roomful of 2nd graders haha, but also perfect for bigger crafters too (like me!).

I was 'savvy' enough (is that the right word? hmmm) to keep a template of these poinsettia napkin rings so I could share them with you like 15 years later - I did google them and there are lots of free templates online if you don't want to just look at mine and freehand them yourself. There is 2 different sizes of the same 4 petal shape - you need red and green felt to make 1 large green, 1 large red, 1 small red, and one red middle post piece that holds it all together. We didn't add sequins on the petal tips back in 2nd grade, but as a grown-up who doesn't know when to quit I attached some with a bit of elmers glue after assembling the napkin rings.  The photos are pretty self-explanatory I think:

trace the template onto red and green felt

cut out the shapes - one large red and green, one small red, and one middle red piece

layer the 3 petal shapes on top of each other, smallest red piece on top

cut a small slit thru the middle of all 3 pieces 

feed the 2 ends of the middle post piece thru the slit to create the napkin ring

add sequins if ya want! and of course you want - cuz...sequins! 

feed a napkin thru the circle created by the middle post piece. 

12.16.18: 🔥week 50
12.16.17: reindeer cupcakes
12.16.16: candy cane mice
12.16.15: sea salt body scrub

Fudge Wreath

Last wreath for the year (I'm pretty sure) - perfect for holiday parties, dessert buffet, to give neighbors or co-workers... and like most of the things I make it's quick and easy! Note to self: I should count how many times I used the words "quick and easy" this past year!

I used Rachel Ray's recipe for 5 minute fudge with a couple changes I'll note after her recipe:

1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
9 oz butterscotch chips (3/4 of a 12 oz. bag)
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. walnut halves
1/2 cup currants or raisins
candied red and green cherries


8" cake pan, lightly greased with softened butter

1. Place a heavy pot on the stove and preheat it over low heat. Add chips and milk and stir until chips are melted and milk combined. Save the empty condensed milk can. Stir in vanilla and remove fudge from heat. Add nuts and currants and stir in immediately. 

2. Cover empty condensed milk can with plastic food wrap and center it in the greased cake pan. Spoon fudge into pan around can, making sure to recenter can if it drifts. 

3. The fudge will set up almost immediately. Garnish can only be added in the first minute or 2 the fudge is in the pan, so work quickly. Decorate your wreath with "holly" made from cut candied red and green cherries. A wreath left plain can be garnished with a pretty fabric bow when serving. Chill covered in the refrigerator and slice fudge very thin when ready to serve, a little goes a long way.

*My notes: I used the same donut-shaped cake pan from yesterday's cheeseball wreath sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. I substituted dried cranberries for the currant/raisins because I don't like raisins, and used walnut pieces instead of halves because I don't like big old bites of nuts, and I added  mini-marshmallows. My store only had green candied cherries so I just cut them in pieces to resemble leaves and made 3 little clusters on the wreath. This was a big hit at Dave's ukulele holiday party!

Melting Snowman Bark

Here is a very easy, fast, and fun candy idea - I made this for Dave to take to one of his ukulele group get-togethers and it literally only took minutes to make!

Just melt white or semi-sweet chocolate chips according to the package instructions, then thinly spread on a piece of non-stick foil or parchment paper. Very quickly add the snowman parts - really, you do need to work quickly as the chocolate sets up fast. Tip: have all your add-ons ready to go and have a good idea how you want to lay them out - you can keep them in a somewhat snowman shape like they would melt, or scatter them all around. Another thing I learned is to only melt half a bag of chips at a time - I did the white chocolate first and melted the entire bag at once, I almost didn't get all the pieces in place before the chocolate hardened. I melted 1/2 of the semi-sweet bag and added the snowman bits, and then repeated with the other half. Much easier.

For the white bark I used 1/2 mini reeses peanut butter cups for the hats, candy eyes, orange sprinkle for the nose, red hot buttons, pretzel sticks for arms.

For the semi-sweet one: I added mini marshmallows, snowflake sprinkles, and sprinkled coarse white sugar over the whole thing in addition to the reeses, candy eyes, orange sprinkle noses, pretzel arms and red hot buttons.

Once the chocolate is hard, break into pieces or leave it in a whole sheet and let people break it apart themselves.

12.18.17: how to stabilize whipped cream
12.18.16: cocoa snowballs
12.18.15: how to make a gift bag using wrapping paper

Hot Chocolate Spoons

My friend Janis needed gifts for her neighbors so we made crunchy fruity granola for the adults and these hot chocolate spoons for the kids - I'll post the granola tomorrow - it turned out SO cute, I'm loving this for gifts!

I saw the idea here - instead of candy melts we used a tray of chocolate I found at the grocery store meant for melting right in the tray and dipping strawberries or whatever.

Melt the chocolate according to directions. Spoon chocolate into ice cube trays using about 1 1/2 tablespoons in each of the squares. Decorate with toppings and insert spoon into each square. After it is completely set gently remove from the cube trays.

We decorated with crunched up candy canes, mini m&ms, andes mint bits, and colored chocolate chips.

To package them we cut off the ziplock top on cute treat bags I got at the dollar store, put in a chocolate spoon and a few mini marshmallows, tied with bakers twine, and attached a label with directions (which are to stir into a glass of hot milk). I found the label from here, and then made a sheet of them to print out.

We used 16 oz. of chocolate and made 20 spoons.