Blue and Gold Cake - Olympic Theme

It's that time of year again - Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts!!  This is the last year I will have to make a cake, because my youngest son will turn 11 in 2 weeks!  I'm a little sad, but mostly excited. haha :)

 

Well, the theme this year is the Olympics!  So fun!  We decided we wanted to do torches for our cake this year.  Way easier than decorating a cake, in my opinion.  :)

 

We baked cupcakes in sugar cones, made little Olympic papers to wrap them in, and then just squirted frosting on top - super easy, huh?

 

Here's how they turned out....

 

 

Okay, the really hard part, was finding something to hold them all in.  I tried cutting holes in a disposable pan, (That was how I baked them.) but then remembered we had this handy little put-together organizer thingy.  It's a little big - not sure what that will look like on the cake table, but it saves me a HUGE headache!  Whew!

Here is how I baked them...

 

One little tip - DO NOT FILL THE CONES TOO FULL!!  My first batch looked like volcano cupcakes instead of torches.  Not pretty.  You will want to fill them only 1/2 way full - leave a good 2 inches or more because they seriously expand!  Also make sure they are standing straight up - that helps too.  I baked them at 325 F for about 15 minutes.

 

I just used a box cake mix, and a can of lemon frosting.  I added a couple drops of red food coloring in and didn't even really stir it, just scooped it into my frosting bag.  It turned out a little pinkish in spots, but it looked way better than the yellow plain.  I added red sprinkles on top and that was it!

 

Well that's it!  I am also in charge of a little Olympic craft, so I bought a package of large craft sticks, and I am having the boys design and decorate their own "snowboards" using markers.  I think it will be fun for them to do, and pretty easy for me!

 

Let the games begin!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

 

Girls Camp Stuff

Well, girls camp is coming up next week, and my house looks like a craft store blew up! Haha 

I have 25 t-shirts drying on my deck that the girls and leaders bleached the other night.  I have canvases, paints, brushes, vinyl lettering, bracelet stuff, nail polishes, glitter - you name it - all stacked in a bin ready to go!! Whew!

 

This is the craft we decided to make:

 

Don't mind the colors - it's just kind of a sample to see if they would work.  I'm sure the girls will make them WAY cuter! :)

 

I bought little 6x8 canvases at Michael's, they came in a pack of 5.  Then the girls will put the lettering and temple wherever and however they want.  Make sure to seal the letters first by painting over everything with white.  (It makes the letters look really clean when you pull them off.)

 

Then the girls can paint however they want. I bought a bunch of fun, bright colors.  After everything dries, peel the vinyl off and embellish!  Super easy!

 

We are also making some cute bracelets with colored braiding cord/twine and beads.  I will update with pictures after camp. 

 

UPDATE 6/26/13:  Here are some of the canvases that the girls made...

 

 

And a couple more...

 

 

I love how they are all individual.  They had fun and did a really good job!!

 

 



I am also in charge of the camp awards.  I found a cute list online and made up some cards to go with them that we can fill in at camp. 

 

 

My absolute favorite is the Big Red award - for the girl with the brightest sunburn!! Haha (That's bad, huh?)

 

If you would like to print these out to use, here is the download PDF file.

 

I made them kind of small, because I was using the regular-sized candy bars and didn't want them to overpower the candy.  Hopefully you can make them bigger.  If not, just leave me a comment and I will upload some bigger ones. :)

 

Oh and I purposely made 2 of the Mentos awards, because I am giving those to the youth leaders.  They get to decide who gets each award and I didn't want them to have to do their own.  Make sense?

 

Happy camping to me!! Haha :)

S'mores On A Stick

These are the treats I made for our Young Women's Camp Kickoff. They turned out really cute, and apparently they were delicious, too.  :)

 

 

Here is what you need:

 

pretzel rods

jumbo marshmallows

1 pkg chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

vegetable shortening

graham crackers

 

Carefully push the pretzel rods into the center of the marshmallows until they almost poke through, then lift up slightly so they are secure.

 

Put some graham crackers in a ziploc bag and crush with rolling pin until crumbs are fine.  Pour into small bowl.

 

Melt 1/2 the bag of chocolate chips with a couple tablespoons of shortening in the microwave.  Stir until smooth.

 

Dip the marshmallows into the melted chocolate, and roll in graham crackers.  If you are making more, you can repeat with the other half of the chocolate chips.  (I made about 24, and I used all the chocolate!)

 

I set them in a cup and put it in the fridge until the chocolate was set. 

 

You can serve them just like that if you want - I put them in individual plastic bags...

 

and then I displayed them in these cute buckets!  Fun, huh?  (They looked much better in person.)

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Girls Camp "Blow Dryer"

I am helping with our church's girls camp this year!  I am so excited!  I have never even been to girls camp before, so this will be a new experience for me. :)

 

As I was looking around the internet for cute ideas, I came across these camp "blow dryers".  Someone was selling them on etsy, and I couldn't believe it because they would be sooo easy to make!

 

So I made my own.....

I don't know if you can read it or not, but it says:

 

Camp Blow Dryer

No electricity required!

Fully Automatic!

 

Instructions:

1.  Blow full of hot air.

2.  Aim at hair and release!

 

Okay, so I thought this was hilarious!  We are having camp at a campground somewhere instead of the usual place and there are no showers!  No electricity! No cabins - nothing!  Some have already complained about not being able to do their hair, so I thought this would be so perfect.  I'm mean, huh?

Here is what you need:

Small treat bags with zip tops

1 bag of large balloons

Blow Dryer instructions - download PDF

 

That's it!  Just print the instructions on cardstock and cut them out. 

 

Place a balloon inside of each bag and staple the intructions to the top. 

 

(I know, you didn't need the explanation - it's soooo easy - but just in case...) haha

 

I will probably put these in the girls' goody bags, or even in their packets on the first day of camp.  They would be cute as a pillow-treat/gift as well. (I obviously have no idea how this goes down.)

 

Have fun and Happy Camping! :) 

Campfire Cake

Well, it is that time of year again - the Blue and Gold Banquet! :)  Last year, I took the easy way out of the cake-making thing, and made a fake one.  You can see it here.  This year, I had a little more time, and so I decided I would at least try something creative.

 

Searching around the internet, my son I saw some really cute campfire cakes and we I decided that is what we I wanted to make. (Because we all know that it's really the moms who do this, right?) haha

 

I had about three different cakes that I liked, so I picked the best of each, and just kind of threw it all together.  It doesn't look quite how I pictured it in my head, but oh-well.  Here it is:

Okay, first of all - don't look at the extremely distracting cake plate.  I don't have any good round serving trays apparently.  Second - I did make 2 layers, but they are super thin, so it looks like one layer.  (I even made one layer blue swirl and the other layer yellow swirl.) 

 

I put rock candy around the base and a few on top, along with Pirouette cookies, crushed oreos and crushed graham crackers.

 

The flames were made by melting hard candies in the oven, and then cracking them into shards.  Jolly Ranchers work the best, but they don't make yellow or orange, so I had to improvise. :)

 

I stuck a battery-operated tea light in the center, and turned it on right before we got to the banquet.  It was so cute, it really looked liked flames!

 

Well, there you go - our campfire cake!!  We really thought it turned out cute!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Primary Spotlights

This year in our primary (which is part of our church) we are spotlighting each of the kids so we can get to know them better.

We had either them or their parents fill them out, and then each week we read them and have everyone guess who it is.  

Instead of more candy, we decided to just give them a big sticker to show that they were spotlighted.  Afterwards, we post their spotlight form on the bulletin board for everyone to see.

I just got a package of Avery Shipping Labels at Walmart - they are 2" x 4", and there are 10 labels to a sheet.  This page should fit that exactly.  (It better - it took me HOURS to get it right!!)  

My little sister is doing spotlights in her primary also, and they are using a cute little CTR mailbox to pull the spotlight out of.

Sooo cute, huh?  It totally matches the CTR birthday cards! 

I think I would be all "Here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail..." (I know you all are singing that in your heads right now, admit it.)

Spotlight Form PDF

Spotlight Sticker Labels PDF

Towards the end of last year, we did a spotlight for our teachers to show how much we appreciated them.

This is what we gave them.  We made sure to tell them they didn't have to share with their class! Haha :)

We also made a form for them to fill out, and put it on the bulletin board also.

You can download the scripture and spotight forms also.

Teacher Spotlight PDF

Scripture PDF

Well, hopefully someone can get some use out of these besides just me. :)

Thanks for stopping by!