Our Very Favorite Crafty Holiday Project: Cookie Cottages Made with Supermarket Supplies!

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Our Very Favorite Crafty Holiday Project: Cookie Cottages Made with Supermarket Supplies!

Sure, gingerbread houses are fun to bake and build, but making these little cottages, constructed from store-bought graham crackers, allows you to skip the baking and get quickly to the fun part: decorating! And (almost) everything you need can be found at the supermarket or in your kitchen. I made these last year for the incredible New York Times For Kids (and somehow never posted it here).

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Fun and Tasty Weekend Holiday Project: Peppermint Bowls!

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Fun and Tasty Weekend Holiday Project: Peppermint Bowls!

With all the leftover peppermint candy I have from cookie-house-making, I am planning on revisiting these peppermint bowls I made many years ago for our book, Candy Aisle Crafts. ⁠They're not as hard as you might think (and super fun!) but it’s good to read through the instructions, below. Especially the tip to use a potholder while handling and shaping the melted candies to the bowl (essential!). Also, as I describe below, it helps to melt the inner candies and then add rows of candies. If you heat them all at once the inner candies are sheltered and won't melt enough.⁠

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Tasty Spring Project: Make These Pretty Watercolor Cookies!

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Tasty Spring Project: Make These Pretty Watercolor Cookies!

Are you looking for a pretty, springy Easter treat, or a crafty food project for spring break? These super easy and fun “watercolor” decorated cookies that I made for the current issue of Reveal Magazine are the thing! (You can use egg-shaped cookie cutters if you have!)

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A Passover Craft to Try With Your Kids: Matzo Houses!

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A Passover Craft to Try With Your Kids: Matzo Houses!

Making a matzo house is a fun Passover craft and all you need is a few sheets of matzo and something to glue it together with, like chocolate hazelnut spread or frosting (or peanut butter, though it’s not kosher for Passover), and a few little items like nuts, dried fruit, shredded coconut, or chocolate chips for roof tiles, doorknobs or pathways!

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A Snack + Craft Activity from the Pantry: Snacklaces!

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A Snack + Craft Activity from the Pantry: Snacklaces!

Cereal and pretzel “snacklaces” require little more than kitchen twine. As an activity for little kids, it is a chance to talk about colors or patterning and sequencing...and it is fun! Set out some bowls of cereal or pretzels, all with holes for threading string through. I’ve made these with dried fruit too: this best for kids old enough to use a needle (clean the needle first).

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Who Wants to Make (Easy) Lollipops?

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Who Wants to Make (Easy) Lollipops?

Many of you probably remember being a kid and making stained-glass cookies where you crush hard candies and melt them inside a cutout cookie frame. That was my entry into the world of (easy) candymaking with store-bought candy…and I was hooked!
When trying this with kids, adults should handle the hot work of candy shaping but kids can have fun arranging the unmelted candies on a cool baking sheet and then seeing what results. You’ll never quite know how your melted candy will turn out, since happy (and, well, not-so-happy) accidents can happen! Flowers are lots of fun to create and organic shapes are forgiving! For this project, over-melting and under-melting yield interesting and pretty surprises!

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How to Throw a Garlic Bread Party for your Teen!

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How to Throw a Garlic Bread Party for your Teen!

In honor of one of his favorite foods, my son asked for a “garlic bread party” to celebrate his 14th birthday, and I was immediately in! It’s always nice to have a theme as a jumping off point…and with this one, the menu pretty much takes care of itself. Themes aren’t as easy to come up with as they were when my boys were dinosaur/planet/science/comics/Elmo-obsessed little kids! FOOD-as-theme, though, is an easy crowdpleaser.
You may be wondering about that string of brown balloons in the photo above. Well, it was my attempt at a garlic bread garland! With a little more time I think I could have used some white acrylic paint to create better-looking scoring to make it look more like bread. (As an aside, this project got me fascinated with bread scoring! I won’t ever look around in a bakery the same way!)

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"Stranger Things"-Themed Halloween Party

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"Stranger Things"-Themed Halloween Party

If your family, like mine, are big Stranger Things fans, channel the creepiness to inspire your Halloween party! I worked with Family Circle to create ST-themed crafts and decorations like the Upside Down portal (below), '80s photo wall and an Eggo buffet (essential)! Click here for the buffet details and here for the string lights wall.

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Sweet Valentines Project to do With Your Kids: Cookie Houses!

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Sweet Valentines Project to do With Your Kids: Cookie Houses!

Gingerbread houses are fun to bake and build, but these little Valentine cottages, from my book, Candy Aisle Crafts, are made from graham crackers, allowing you to skip the baking and get to the best part -- decorating! They make a pretty Valentine's centerpiece or mantle decoration, too. For a great playdate or snow-day activity, pre-make the house bases, one for each kid, and set out bowls of candy for decorations.

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Cupcakes For Your Animal-Loving Kid!

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Cupcakes For Your Animal-Loving Kid!

I recently made some safari animal cupcakes for Thomas & Friends to promote their movie Big World! Big Adventures! . I used mostly easy-to-find supermarket ingredients like cookies, marshmallows and pretzels to make these along with candy melts...which you can find at craft and party stores nowadays! Start off with your favorite cupcake, homemade or store-bought. I love this recipe for One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes. If you prefer to buy them, you can call most supermarket bakeries and ask them to make you some unfrosted cupcakes (or frosted, in the color of your choice).

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Veggies Taste Even Better When They Look Like Trains!

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Veggies Taste Even Better When They Look Like Trains!

A few months ago I made some veggie trains for a video for  Thomas & Friends! They're fun for any occasion, whether it's a train-themed birthday party treat to a playdate craft activity or an afterschool snack. As I usually work with candy it was so nice to have some healthy "craft materials" to share with my boys when they poked their heads into the kitchen to see what I was doing!
*IMPORTANT* In these photos I attached the wheels with toothpicks but in the video, I "glued" them on with cream cheese. Toothpicks are fine if the trains are for decorations only but if you're giving them to a child to eat, leave off the toothpicks. 

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Yummy (and Gluten-Free) Petit Four Treats for your Valentine

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Yummy (and Gluten-Free) Petit Four Treats for your Valentine

Rice Krispie Treats are not only yummy but a good option for a dessert to serve to gluten-free friends. Making them into mini "cakes" is such a fun crafty food project! You can use square and round cookie cutters or hand-cut them. They work well if you cut into with a pretty thin layer, around 1", so spread them a little thinner than you usually do. (You might need to spread it into two baking dishes.) I use the classic recipe right off the box.

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Fun Gingerbread House Kit Hack Videos!

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Fun Gingerbread House Kit Hack Videos!

I recently worked with Bed, Bath & Beyond to make a series of gingerbread house kit hacks. We had so much fun coming up with different themes using the candy decorations from the kit and some easy-to-find extras like candy canes, pretzel rods, and marshmallows. I will update this post soon with the third video, a snowy palace!

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Halloween Cookie Houses

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Halloween Cookie Houses

Gingerbread houses are fun to bake and build, but these little Halloween haunted houses, a variation of the Valentine cottages from my book, "Candy Aisle Crafts," are made from graham crackers, allowing you to skip the baking and get to the best part -- decorating! They make a spooky Halloween centerpiece or mantle decoration, too. For a great playdate or fall afternoon activity, premake the house bases, one for each kid, and set out bowls of candy for decorations.

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July 4th Party Crafts!

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July 4th Party Crafts!

In this month's Family Fun magazine, I shared a few easy crafts you can do with or for your kids to make your July 4th celebration even more fun!

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DIY Farm Animal Cupcake Video for Fisher-Price

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DIY Farm Animal Cupcake Video for Fisher-Price

Fisher-Price's Little People Farm was one of my most-loved toys when I was a kid and was a favorite of our boys when they were little too so I was thrilled when they asked me to come up with cupcakes inspired by their farm animals. Check out the video we made and you'll see that the cupcakes are super easy to make. Snip some supermarket candy, no piping or cake-decorating skills required! Your kids can help make them and they're great for a barnyard-themed or piggy party, Easter, or even just a rainy day!

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Sweet Easter Peeps Treats to Craft With Your Kids

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Sweet Easter Peeps Treats to Craft With Your Kids

In this month's Parents magazine, I shared a few Easter treat ideas using Peeps, a candy that I have long loved for their bright sugar coating and chubby cuteness....perfect for decorating desserts! These little Peep chicks are in nests made from chow mein noodles in a marshmallow mixture. (click here for directions and a recipe).

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Valentine Portrait Pops!

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Valentine Portrait Pops!

These portrait lollipops I made for my husband are inspired by the Funny Face Pops in our book, Candy Aisle Crafts. Making them was some of the most fun that I had working on the book!  I was creating all different shapes of lollipops for our hard candy chapter and Amy and I talked about including a page of people portrait lollipops. When she suggested that I try making Bert and Ernie–like faces, I was inspired! Make some for your Valentine...or your favorite couple!

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