Surprising Hubster

I love love love to wrap his gifts so that he has no idea what he's getting.  He's been wanting a new video game for his Nintendo DS.  He was talking about it all the time like a little kid.  It was really cute. So I bought it for him.  But those games come in boxes that are super obvious. I didn't want him to know he was getting this fancy pants game, not right away at least.

Ferrero Roche was my ticket to sneaky land!  It was so much fun doing this I gave him the gift early so I could see his face!

Mmmmmmm Variety pack chocolates!

I printed the photo of the chocolates. Here is the game, and the now empty box. 

Cut the photo to the size of the box.  MS Word helped a bit with the sizing.
I wrapped the game in black tissue paper. 

You can't tell from first glance that those are NOT the chocolates you are looking for!

Muwahahahah! Empty box of Chocolates!  Take that Forrest!

Slide the game in.  I had to smoosh a toilet paper roll to make it more secure. 

He was pretty sad that all he got for Valentine's Day was a box of chocolates.  Delicious as they are.  Then he turned it on it's side and saw that there were NO chocolates to be had!  He was really happy about the game and even though he didn't really say it, I know he was impressed with my sneaky wrapping tactic!  I was pretty proud of myself, that's for sure!

What's YOUR favorite to 'present' a present?

(A Little Late) Valentine's Day Play Group "Craft"

The day before Valentine's Day I hosted a "Cookie Decorating" play date at my house.  I went to the store thinking, "Hey, I DON'T have to make from scratch cookies."  I was going to buy the refrigerated dough and just do it the 'new fashioned' way.  Man, those things are expensive for only 12 cookies!  Even the cookies at the bakery would have been pretty high.  So I left the store with my usual, a package of butter and some food coloring. 

I found a simple recipe online for sugar cookies.  I used this recipe because it had the word "best" in it. They can't print that on the interwebs if it isn't true, right?  It was also the only recipe that didn't call for something weird like egg whites or Crisco (shiver).   The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe

They were right.  It was the BEST!

Lovely lovely cookie dough! Thankfully it wasn't too hard. 

This is my trying to be creative.

More creativity

Getting practice in for St. Patty's Day

Lovely heart shaped cookies!

Lisa loves Hubster!

Child decorated cookies!

The mom's all brought decorations and frosting for the cookies.  So much so that I will be able to host the party next year without any donations!  I have a lot of red sprinkles and icing at this point so I might need to figure out another cookie that might have a red theme...4th of July maybe?

The party was a success and I had a good time.  The mom's loved the cookies and were pretty impressed that I made them from scratch.  

Making these cookies really made me happy that I started this journey of 'learning how to bake'.  I don't get stressed out baking anymore, I actually look forward to it!  I look forward to sharing with people yummy treats!

What is YOUR favorite cookie decoration?

Baby Valentine Craft

Not such a great paint...

As a gift to Little Man's mother I decided to make a "Card" for his mom.  I made my own 'finger paints' with corn starch, hot water and food coloring.  It didn't turn out the way I thought it would and I'll probably never make it again unless it's just for the kids to play with and not for a gift. The recipe can be found here: Non Toxic Finger paint .  The great part about the recipe is that if the kids eat it nothing bad will happen.  It probably doesn't taste very good though!  The end result was that when it dried it became very brittle and didn't stay on the paper.

Here is where I got the idea for the 'card' Card for Mom.

It was pretty difficult to get the feet right.  I put a bit of the paint on a small paper plate while he was in the high chair.  It dripped everywhere and made a mess but it was easy to clean up.  It took a few tries but I finally got his 'feet stamps' right.  Then I just taped them to a piece of paper and cut out a heart shape.

"From the Top of my Head..."

I think it turned out ok.  I let his mom know that the paint is 'cumbly' and to hang it if she wants too but it may not be around for ever.

All in all, it was a cute project but I don't think I'll make that paint again.  Now I have a container of corn starch I have no idea what to do with.  I'm sure I'll find something!

What is your favorite Valentine craft?