Summer - 5/12 - The Idea Room

Red, White and Blue Candied Popcorn

I have one last festive recipe for your Fourth of July or Canada Day festivities (Happy Cananda Day today!!)…Red, White and Blue Candied Popcorn (or Red and White for you Canadians)! Super easy and delicious and a fun way to celebrate your Nation.

Here is the recipe from Cooks.com.

Candied Popcorn

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. vanilla

6 cup popcorn (popped)

Few drops of food coloring (optional)

Boil sugar, salt and water to 235 degrees (soft ball stage). Remove from heat.

Add vanilla. Pour over popped popcorn and stir until glaze sugars.

Pour candy over popcorn that has been placed in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Mix the candy over the popcorn so that it is evenly spread out. Let cool and serve.

I made two batches so that I could share it with a lot of my friends and family. One batch red and one batch blue. Then I just intermixed some regular popcorn pieces into the red and blue mixture to make it red, white and blue.

Package it up cute or serve it in a big bowl for everyone to share.

Hope you have some fun holiday plans! We are spending our holiday with my husband’s family! We have a lot of fun things scheduled. Hope all of you stay safe and have a great holiday weekend!

June 30, 2011 · Filed under: Food Crafts, Fourth of July, Recipes, Summer Tagged with

Fourth of July–S’mores on a Stick

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Summer is just flying by! I can not believe that the 4th of July is right around the corner! It really snuck up on me this year. Anyone else feel the same way? We are going to be spending our 4th of July Holiday with family again this year. But when I think of the 4th of July, I think of summer and nothing represents summer to me quite like ‘S’mores. ‘S’mores mean summer time and late nights sitting around the campfire. We love S’mores! And since I have been on a “food on a stick” kick lately (graduation pops, snowman pops, reindeer pops, Lollipop Cookies, and Easter pops)…I thought it would be fun to put our beloved S’mores on a stick!

I simply took the basic ingredients needed for making S’mores:

Chocolate bars

Marshmallows

and Graham Crackers

and the stacked them on top of one another and melted them in the microwave for about 10 seconds (microwave timing will vary according to your microwaves—watch closely). Have you seen the new flat marshmallows?? I LOVE them. No more Marshmallows rolling off your graham crackers! They were perfect for making a nice flat S’mores! I found them at Target.

After they have been melted, you will need to simply slide a stick into the middle of them and place them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This will make them so easy to dip in your chocolate. When they have hardened simply dip them into your favorite melted chocolate and place them onto some waxed paper to dry. I dipped some of mine into some red, white and blue sprinkles to add some extra fun to them.

They turned out to be so yummy. They tasted kind of like a moon pie…but so much better! My kids loved them and wanted me to make some for their friends.

These would be a fun and festive treat to take to your family and friend’s 4th of July BBQ! Or give to a friend to brighten up their day!

What do you think? Would you like your S’mores on a stick? How do you like to make your S’mores?

Another way we like to make S’mores is with Melted Peanut Butter Cups…HEAVEN!!

June 29, 2011 · Filed under: Food Crafts, Fourth of July, Gifts, Kids, Recipes, Summer, Treats Tagged with

Safe Child Labels–Silhouette Tattoo Promotion

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It is time once again for another Silhouette Promotion! This time we were given some Silhouette Temporary Tattoo Paper to test out.

Instead of going with just a regular picture tattoo, I thought it might be fun to make a tattoo that was cute and functional at the same time. Since we spend a bit of time at amusement parks and other touristy attractions in the summer time, I thought it would be nice to have a way to identify my youngest kids just in case they were to get lost. I usually stick a business card with my husband’s cell phone number on it and a note to call the number if someone happens to find my lost child. But the problem with that is that they child may not know or remember to give the stranger the card and it might never be found, despite us practicing it before heading out. This way the information is right there.

I also made some that had her name on it along with the phone number. The fun part is that you can totally customize the tattoos with your own personal message.

To make your tattoos simply follow these easy directions:

1. Download your favorite Tattoo shapes and pictures.

2. Upload them to your Silhouette software program on your computer.

3. Add text and modify colors to your liking.

4. When images are how you would like them, make a mirrored image of the shapes and the texts.

To do this select Object from the top menu bar.

Then select Transform.

And mirror options (I chose mirror image right).

5. Then print your images onto your tattoo paper (the white one) with your printer. Be sure to select photo paper as your paper and the size 8.5 x 11.

6. Then when it has printed out, take your clear sticky transfer paper (with the green background).

7. Peel off the corner and line it up so that it fits perfectly in alignment with your tattoo paper. Carefully peel away backing and smooth it onto the tattoo paper. Do this carefully and then press it on with your rubber scraper.

Then load paper into your Silhouette Machine and cut it. I cut mine at a speed of 3 and a thickness of 25. It will require a double cut to go through both layers. Then simply peel off the plastic layer and place the tattoo on the skin so that you just see the blank backside of the paper. Hold a wet washcloth to the back of the tattoo for a few seconds and the tattoo should easily peel away from the backing and stick to the skin.

And guess what? You can even make these without a Silhouette machine if you don’t have one or it is not in the budget right now. Simply print the tattoos onto the paper and then cut them out the old fashioned way. A little more work and effort, but hey…it works!

Silhouette’s Promotion this month is for the following:

1 Silhouette SD Machine and

2 Packages Temporary Tattoo Paper for $199 (U.S. only)

(That’s 120 bucks in savings!)

Also, 25% off all other products in the Silhouette shop (excluding gift cards and download codes)!

The promo will run from June 21-29!

**To get this great offer, you will need to use the code “IDEAROOM” upon checkout.

Thanks! And Happy Tattooing!

Click the Silhouette button and it will take you directly to Silhouette’s site!

And…I guess great minds think alike! I saw my friend Beckie’s, from Infarrantly Creative, sneak peak for her Tattoo tutorial and we both came up with the same ideas! Head on over and check out her version! Super cute I might add!