Recipe: Chocolate Cookie Bark

For our Christmas plates this year (and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that) we made Chocolate Cookie Bark.  I first found this recipe when browsing Kraft Recipes and it looked delicious.  Then I read the ingredients and saw that it has both Oreos and Peanut Butter in it - win.  I've been making it for Christmas ever since.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
6 oz white chocolate, melted
8 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted
10 Oreo cookies, crushed

My Steps:
Note - to see the steps put together by Kraft, please click the link above to go directly to the recipe.  I've put in a lot of the smaller steps here, like actually melting the chocolate.


1. Cover your baking sheet or flat surface or whatever with wax paper.  I usually use my pizza pan because the bark works nicely in a round shape.

2. Put the 10 Oreo cookies in a plastic zip lock bag and hand crush them.  Large-ish chunks are ok, even good.

3. Melt all 8 ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate.  I put it all in a Pyrex measuring cup and stick it in the microwave for 1 minute then stir.  Usually at this point there isn't much to stir 'cause the chocolate hasn't melted much yet.  Then I put it in the microwave for another 30 seconds.  At this point it stirs a little better but there are still some lumps.  Another 15 - 30 seconds in the microwave stirring every 15 seconds usually gets the semi-sweet chocolate to a perfect consistency.

Please note that the Pyrex or whatever you melt your chocolate in will be hot.  Keep hot pads close by.

4. Add half the crushed Oreos to the melted semi-sweet chocolate.

5. Plop the chocolate and Oreo mixture onto the pan with the wax paper.  It is ok to have squiggles and lines of chocolate wherever, there is absolutely no reason to try to make this look perfect.  Set aside.

6. Melt all 6 ounces of white chocolate.  The first minute in the microwave is similar to the semi-sweet chocolate but after that first minute the white chocolate melts a little faster (there are 2 fewer ounces) so be careful not to over cook the chocolate by stirring often.

7. Add the creamy peanut butter to the melted white chocolate.  Mix it in until the peanut butter is melted.

8. Add the remaining crushed Oreos to the melted white chocolate.

9. Plop the white chocolate mixture onto the pan where there is not semi-sweet chocolate.  Don't worry if you have some small spaces without any chocolate.

10. Using the top side of a butter knife (if you use the serrated side you could cut your wax paper) mix both types of chocolate together until they appear marble-y.

11.  Refrigerate for at least an hour (or stick it in a cold garage or on a cold porch or wherever you can find that is cold) then use a sharp knife to cut it into the sizes and shapes you desire.

Done.

Felt Book: Barn Yard Finger Puppets

What kid doesn't like finger puppets (what adult for that matter)?  When I saw this page on Pinterest I knew I wanted to make one for c.b.

By the way, I'll be the first to admit that my barn does not look nearly as good as the barn this page was patterned after but I'll also willingly admit that my finger puppets are super cute.

I saved this page and the ukulele page for last because I was dreading figuring out how to applique with my sewing machine but once I figured it out it was simple.

My pattern for this page came in really handy when trying to figure out how many of what color of felt pages I needed and how to get the barn doors set up.

Materials & Cost:

1 Background Page - From the packet for $0.15.

Brown Felt - About $.05 worth.

Red Felt - About $0.08 worth.

Barn Fabric - I got this from the remnants section for $1.04 and have a good chunk left over for later projects.

Other Felt For Puppets (yellow, pink, orange, white, black, brown, red) - About $0.10 worth.

12 Small Googly Eyes (2 for each puppet) - I got a package of something like 50 for $0.49.

White Pom Poms - I got a package of about 50 (maybe 100, I'm way too lazy to get off my butt to walk 10 feet to go check for sure) for $1.99.

2 Buttons - I used a pink button for the pig's nose and a black button for the cow's nose.  I found both buttons in my big jar of buttons (a lot of which come from the extra buttons that come with cloths).

Glue - I didn't keep the receipt for the clear Elmer's glue that I bought but I'm pretty sure the amount of glue I used was pretty insignificant compared to the price of the whole bottle.

The total cost for this page is $3.90 making the total cost for all eight pages $21.15.

Steps:

1. Cut the barn out of paper to make sure it fits well on the background page.

2. Use the paper cut out to cut the fabric for the barn.

3. Pin the fabric barn to the background felt page.

4. Applique the barn fabric to the felt page.

5. Cut out the "stall" for the barn out of brown felt; make sure it fits.

6. Cut out the doors for the barn out of red felt; make sure it fits.

7. Sew velcro to the stall where the two doors are going to meet the stall.  Then sew all but the top section of the stall to the background page.

8. Sew velcro to the barn doors.

9. Sew the outside side only of the doors to the background page.  This allows the doors to be able to open.

10. Measure the size you want your puppets to be.  I used my own finger and made sure to leave plenty of space for sewing.

11. Use the pattern from #10 to cut out all the background parts for the puppets.  I needed 8 in white, 2 in yellow, and 2 in pink.  Remember you need 2 for each puppet - a front and a back.

12. Add sewn on "accessories" to the puppets.  As you can see in the third picture above I've added a black spot and a button nose to the cow; an orange triangle beak to the rooster; a pink triangle nose to the rabbit; a brown face to the sheep (you'll see it later); an orange triangle beak to the chicken; and a pink button nose to the pig (it was going to have ears to but I forgot).  All sewn on accessories (like beaks) need to be done at this step so we don't see the stitching on the back and, more importantly, so we don't sew the front and the back of the puppets together defeating the purpose of making puppets.

Also at this step, sew the back of the puppet onto the front of the puppet with the middle layer accessories.  In the third picture these middle layer accessories (called such because they are sewn between the front and the back instead of being sewn on the front - for more details see the Mr. Potato Head tutorial) are the white horns and black ears of the cow, the red "tuft" of the rooster, the long ears of the rabbit, and the yellow wings and orange inner wings of the chicken.

13. Glue the googly eyes on to all the puppets.  Note - the felt absorbed a lot of the glue and I ended up having to put the glue on pretty thick.

14. (Ok, the first picture in the series below isn't a step, just a note that while I was working on the pom pom for the rabbit that Samus (circled in lavender) was chewing on her fence.)

15. Glue a pom pom onto the lower backside of the rabbit.  Again, use a lot of glue and give it a lot of time to try - like over night or all day while you are away at work.

16. (Last two pictures) Glue pom poms onto the front of the sheep actually making it look more like a sheep.  I can't emphasize enough that a good portion of glue needs to be used and that it will take a good chunk of time for the glue to dry.

Done.

Felt Book: Ukulele

When planning which pages to make for c.b.'s felt book I was at a point when I wanted just 1 more page so I could have an even number of pages (this was the last page thought of not the last page created which is why if you add up all the pages I've blogged about thus far then add this one you'll get an odd number).  I found this blog post and thought the ukulele was cute and simple-ish so I decided to try it out.

My pattern for the ukulele page can be found to the right.  As you can clearly see, my pattern and the outcome look a good deal alike, which, of course, is the point of making the patterns even for pretty simple pages.

Materials and Cost:

1 Background felt page - from the pack for $0.15.

Black Felt - about $0.03 worth.

Brown Felt - about $0.05 worth.

Strings - I used some stretchy gold stuff that I bought by the yard for $1.79.

Fun Fabric - I got the blue patterned fabric from the remnants section for $1.92 and there is plenty left over for some other small projects.

That brings the total cost for this page to $3.64 and the total cost for all pages so far to $17.25.

Steps:

1. The very first step for me was to figure out how to use my sewing machine to applique.  It took a good 30 - 40 minutes but, obviously, I got it.  I took a picture of my machine settings (plus don't forget to loosen the tension just a little) so I would never forget.

2. For the actual page, I first cut out the size of the ukulele using paper (if you look really close you can see it was paper from the pattern of the numbers project).  The ukulele looks suspiciously the same size and shape as Mr. Potato head because I basically used the same size and shape as Mr. Potato head.  

3. Next I pinned the paper to my fabric and cut the fabric.

4. I then checked to make sure it fit the way I wanted it to.

5. Then I pinned the fabric to the felt page.

6. And finally I appliqued the fabric to the felt.

7. Cut out the felt pieces.

8. Put small holes in the bottom black felt piece, insert strings, and tie the string so it doesn't come out.  This was easier said than done.  My holes ended up being bigger than my knots but I account for that in later steps.

9. Place felt pieces and string down to figure out where to put knots in top black fabric.

10. Put small holes in the top black felt piece, insert strings, and tie the string so it doesn't come out.

11. Because my holes were bigger than my strings, here I tool the strings out completely.  Then I sewed the brown felt to the background page followed by the side of each black felt that touched the brown felt.

12 & 13. Insert strings back into holes.  Luckily each string was still long enough after the knots that I could just sew down the other side of each black felt with the string getting sewn down as well.

14. Cut excess string.

15. Just to be sure the strings didn't come out, I used some clear Elmer's glue at each hole and tried to glue the too large holes shut with the string.

Done.

Felt Book: Textures

Kids like to touch things.  I know this because they often touch me when it is least convenient, like when they've just eaten a chocolate cookie and I'm wearing a cashmere scarf.  This is the reason I wanted to do some pages for c.b.'s felt book that had several different fabrics with different textures - so he could touch them.

Please note that I did my best to get the picture to the left to be horizontal but no matter what I did to the image itself, Blogger kept bringing it in vertical.  So if you twist your head just a little (the red sequence is on the bottom), you should be able to see it the way it was meant to be seen.

One way I thought to do this was quilt like, with each texture being a square all sewn up like a quilt on one felt page but then I decided that that might not be enough of each fabric for c.b. to really get his hands on it.  That's why I went with five strips of different fabrics on two felt pages.

And yes, I have a "pattern" for this one too but it was really more for organizational purposes than anything else - I wanted to make sure I didn't get two of the same fabric or too many fabrics of the same color.

Materials & Costs:

Felt Pages - I used two felt pages from the pack for a total of about $0.30.

10 Different Fabrics - Most of the fabrics I used I had laying around the house: green sweater sleeve from a sweater I don't wear anymore, pink striped flannel from a baby blanket I made, mustardy damask cotton from the shelf backing project, denim from some jeans that fit great in the waist but the legs were driving me crazy (I'll turn them into shorts), orange fleece from an old scarf, cream tricot from an upcoming project, and brown linen from an upcoming project.  That means the only fabrics I had to purchase were the blue vinyl which I got from the remnants section for $2.12 (there's plenty left over), the black fuzzy purchased by the yard for a total of $1.63, and the red sequence which was also purchased by the yard for $2.66.

That makes the total cost for this project $6.71 and the total for all felt pages so far about $13.61.

The steps for these pages were pretty simple, cut fabrics to desired size, sew fabrics together then sew to flannel.  However, it didn't really work out as easily as I had hoped.  More specifically, the vinyl was a beast to work with.  When I first sewed the vinyl to the flannel with the right sides together, everything went peachy.  But actually trying to put the right side of the vinyl through the sewing machine absolutely did not work.  I learned the hard way that vinyl and sewing machines do not play well together.

My machine is fine, by the way.  And I hand sewed the rest of the vinyl - also not incredibly easy but certainly possible.

I also had some trouble with the stretchy materials - sweater and tricot - but with some patience managed to get them on just fine.

The sequence I planned to do by hand from the beginning and I'm glad I did.  It took some time, but it made it on just fine.

Overall these pages didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped they would (not everything is lined up really nicely on the felt) but I still think they will be plenty entertaining for c.b.

Felt Book: Mr. Potato Head

For the second set of pages for c.b.'s Quiet Book I decided to do something a little more complicated than the Numbers page: Mr. Potato Head.  These pages weren't hard, they just required a little more work than the first two pages I put together.

My inspiration for these pages came from this blog, which, again, I found via Pinterest.  I don't think the page in the blog used felt.  I think felt works better.  It has a sturdier and cleaner feel to it than the fabric used in the blog, but to each his own.

I chose to do Mr. Potato Head because he's a classic.  What kid didn't grow up either playing with or wanting to play with Mr. Potato Head?  It is a must for all kids.  Since c.b. is only turning one, Mr. Potato Head might be a little advanced for him but I'm sure he'll grow into it pretty quick.  Or at least be entertained by the zipper on the storage pouch.

Again, I started by writing down my plan ("pattern").  I think I found this one a lot more useful than the Numbers pattern. (If you want to see the pattern, you should be able to click on the image to the left to make it big enough to see.)

Here are the materials and prices:

1. Two background pages.  I went with pink because I had a good chunk of pink from the multi-pack and because I wasn't planning on using pink anywhere else on Mr. Potato Head.  These pages were about $0.15 each, so $0.30 total.

2. Additional felt.  For Mr. Potato Head himself and his accessories, I needed additional felt: orange, brown, black, blue, white, yellow, red.  The orange was the only one that didn't come from the multi-pack.  I'd guesstimate that I used about $0.52 for all the additional felt.

3. Zipper.  I used a four inch zipper at the top of the storage pouch to keep all of Mr. Potato Head's accessories safely in one place.  The zipper cost $1.49.

4. Velco. I debated whether or not I needed both sides of the velco.  I knew the felt would stick quite securely to the rough side of the velcro all on its own but then I realized that that would wear out the felt quicker than I probably wanted.  So I purchased 30 inches of 5/8 inch wide velcro for $3.99.  I didn't use all the velcro but it will only be used for one other planned page so I'll attribute half the cost to Mr. Potato Head: $2.00.

5. Thread. Again, I just left white in the sewing machine.

6. A Sharpie marker.  I just had one (several really, I love those things) laying around.

This brings the total cost for the two Mr. Potato Head pages to about $4.31 and my total for all the felt pages to $6.90 (but I have lots of left over beads and I'll have some left over velcro).

Steps.

1.  I started by figuring out what size I wanted Mr. Potato Head to be in relation to the background page.  I drew and cut out a paper Potato Head to test it out.

2. Then I got the needed velcro on Mr. Potato head.  The top piece in the second image is for his eyes, the middle piece is for his nose, and the bottom piece of velcro is for his mouth.

3. Next I sewed Mr. Potato Head to the background page.  I did this after adding the velcro because I didn't want all the stitching from the velcro to show on the back of the background page.  The less stitching I can get there the better so the back of the page has a cleaner look.

4. After getting Mr. Potato Head on the background page I added his feet.  I couldn't think of more than one type of foot/shoe to make so I decided to just sew the one I could think of right on to the background page.

5. The last step to actually creating my potato was to add the final piece of velcro.  This piece is for Mr. Potato Head's hats.

6. I began creating accessories by also cutting them out of paper to make sure everything got to be a good size in relation to my potato.  This also came in handy because a lot of pieces actually required two pieces of the same piece so I could prevent velcro stitching from showing through, with the cut-out I could easily make sure all my pieces were about the same size and shape.  In the first image below you can see the eyes that I cut out of paper (the rest of the images are for a nose because the white velcro and the white stitching didn't show well in pictures with the white eyes).

7. Once all the right pieces were cut out I sewed the velcro on to the back piece (second image above).  In the third image above you can see what the stitching on the front of the nose looks like; not a great look for Mr. Potato Head.

8. Then I sewed the front piece on to the piece with the velcro.  An added bonus to using two pieces is that I get a nice quilted look to each of my pieces.

Tips for adding accessories (like a mustache) to Mr. Potato Head's accessories (like a nose).

• When cutting out the mustache (or other accessory), make sure to add a lip so the mustache will fit securely between two layers of nose.
• Start with the velcro sewed to the nose.
• Place the mustache on the stitching side of the velcro nose.
• Place the second nose piece on top of the mustache.
• Sew all pieces together.
• Also, instead of adding black felt to the eyes, I just drew that black part of the eyes on with a Sharpie marker. No use doing more sewing than I have to.

9. After I had all of my accessories sewn together I needed somewhere to store the pieces that weren't currently attached to Mr. Potato Head.  Since c.b. loves to play with zippers I made sure to secure said storage place with a zipper. I've never sewn a zipper before so I just kind of winged this.  First I sewed one side of the zipper to the outside of the pouch.

10. Next I sewed the outside of the pouch to the background page making sure that I did not sew over the section that was sewn to the zipper (that would have defeated the purpose of my storage place even having an opening at all).

11. Finally I sewed the other side of the zipper to the background page.

Done.

Felt Book: Numbers

Normally I wouldn't post about someone's birthday gift until after I've given it to them but since c.b. is only turning one I don't think this post will ruin the surprise for him.  For c.b.'s first birthday (as well as Christmas), I am making him a felt Quiet Book.  I have several pages in mind; this is the first I completed.

My inspiration for the Numbers pages came from a blog post I found on Pinterest.  I really like having the different numbers of beads on the ribbon so c.b. can play with the beads without choking on them.

I started out by making a "pattern" of my own.  To be honest, this page was so simple I probably didn't need a pattern but I did one anyone, 'cause I'm like that.  Sorry the image isn't incredibly easy to see, I used pencil.

Here are the materials needed and their prices (if known/relevant):

- 2 background pages.  I chose white because I wanted the numbers and ribbon to be rainbow colors and I thought it'd be cute to have a white background.  These two pages came from a multi-pack that had a handful of pages in it (not all of them complete pages, which irked me a little when I got home and opened up the pack).  Each page in that pack came to about $0.15, so my two background pages cost $0.30.

- Felt for each color the numbers would be in.  This price is going to be difficult to come to.  The pink, yellow, green, and blue came from the multi-pack but I obviously didn't use full pages.  The multi-pack didn't have any orange so I had to buy that one separate, on sale, for $0.25 (and it wasn't even the orange I wanted but the best JoAnn had at the time).  I figure all the felt I used for those numbers comes to about $0.10.

- Ribbon.  The purple ribbon I used came from a pack I purchased from a friend while she was getting ready to move.  The whole pack had a ton of ribbon in it and I think I paid her $10 so I'd guesstimate the cost of the ribbon I used for these pages to be about $0.20.

- Thread.  I just used the cheap white stuff that is currently in my machine.  I think the cost is probably too insignificant to put here.

- 55 Beads.  The smallest pack of the big plastic beads that I could find had 245 pieces - way more than I needed but whatever.  That pack cost $1.99.  I chose white because I couldn't find any good mutli-colored packs.  I saw a red, white, and blue pack and a multi-colored pack that has some funky colors but I wanted to stick with traditional rainbow-like colors, so white works.

This brings the total cost of these two pages to $2.59 - that includes the 190 beads I didn't use.

Steps.

1. I started with cutting out the numbers.  I cut the color felt I wanted to about 2 inches by 2 inches, then drew the number on the felt (using a thin Sharpie marker) backwards.  I did it backwards so less of the marker would show when I put the numbers on the pages.
2. Next I sewed each number on to the background felt and sewed  one side of the ribbon to the background.
3. Then I placed the appropriate number of beads on the ribbon, secured the beads back with a pin, and sewed the other side of the ribbon.
4. Done.  Ok, so these pages are technically done but I'll still need to place holes on the inside side of each page when I finish other pages and want to secure them all together.

DIY: Reheatable Rice Hand Warmers

Padre called me this morning and asked if I wanted to go to a football game with him.  My first question was "How cold is it supposed to be?" To which he replied (not his exact words) - pretty darn cold.  It has been a while since I've been to a football game (just before CJ and I started dating) so I decided to go.  Ever since (about 2 hours), I've been thinking about how I'm going to keep myself warm.

I'm going to need lots of layers: multiple socks, long johns under my jeans, thermal shirt plus hoodie plus down coat, gloves, scarf, ear muffs.  Then I thought it sure would be nice to have those heated hand warmers too, but they are so expensive.  But wait, on Pinterest the other day I saw some of those reheatable rice hand warmers that I could make myself.  The pin that I saw was actually a link to someone's Etsy where they were selling them so I decided to do a Google search and I found this site.  It's not as though I needed a site to help me, these are pretty simple.

1. I started with a fleece scarf that Big Sister made me years ago for Christmas.  She actually made me several scarfs in several colors, this is just the color I use the least.






2. Then I cut out two pieces (for two hand warmers)  to the size I wanted.








3. Next, I folded each piece over and sewed along the edges leaving a small opening.







4. When they were both sewn I turned them in-side-out.

5. Next I filled them with rice making sure not to fill them all the way, about 75% full.









6. Then I pinned back the rice.








7. Finally, I sewed up the side with the opening and then sewed another line along that edge just for extra measure.


Now I have two hand warmers that I'll heat up in the microwave at the last minute in an attempt to keep my hands warm during the game.