WOW! It is September ALREADY! Time for a Papertrey Ink Senior Design Team Challenge.

These are always so fun, and really get me thinking.

Before you know it Halloween will be here, and gone! Never too soon to start thinking WHAT you will do!

 Nichole posed such a challenge for the team this month-Make a small Halloween treat!

I thought of WOWING you all with some fancy treat idea. I actually found a TON of really cool stuff to make. I wanted to top myself from last years treats in which I actually made—> EDIBLE EYEBALLS! As I searched, and agonized over WHAT to do, I asked myself “Would I actually MASS PRODUCE these treats for my kids classmates?” Given the fact I loathe cooking, the HONEST answer would be NO! Then it occurred to me…….if you are ANYTHING like me, then you are BUSY, (maybe you don’t enjoy cooking either) money may be tight, and if you have more than a handful of people that you want to spoil with something (like your co-workers, neighborhood party/trick or treaters, your own children’s classmates/teachers-let alone the fact if you have MORE than one child that can really add up!) you really don’t have enough hours in the day (or energy) to slave over something.

I wanted a SIMPLE WOW! 

 SO……today I will share my true to life treats! This is a SUPER tasty treat that is QUICK, EASY, and INEXPENSIVE! Totally up my alley! It focuses on the PRESENTATION (which I thoroughly enjoy working on far more than cooking :D)

It takes a simple bag of MICROWAVE popcorn (directions below :D) and turns it into a gourmet treat that is loved by everyone! You can make it for ANY occasion and you can also let your children do most of the work 😀 (I love it even more now!)

Now here are the 2 ideas that JUMPED into my head 😀 Both use my template Pretty Petite version of Pack a Picnic 😀

So, first up…….A Witches Cauldron

filled with a Popcorn Potion!

I turned the Pretty Petite version of the My Timeless Template-Pack a Picnic into a Cauldron in MINUTES!!

 NOTE: You can also take this same idea and make ONE huge Witches Cauldron (using the standard version of Pack a Picnic) to hold all your Halloween  bags of popcorn potion, rather than do individual templates for each person/child.

I printed the template onto Smokey Shadow cardstock.

Prior to assembling, I stamped the black cat from Spooky Sweets II, onto the front.

I used a singlo white gel pen for the eyes, then dotted the centers black. Made the nose pink 😀 So cute and easy peasy.

I then cut, scored and assembled as directed.

Then it was time to add the pot handles 😀

I just used my word window punch and folded the paper punched pieces around some jump rings.

I attached them to the pot using silver brads! Perfect pot handles!

I then wanted the Cauldron to appear to be boiling over!

So green stickels to the rescue! Just drizzle large amounts around the entire top!

Let dry a couple hours (its a lot of glittery glue! SO worth it)

In the meantime you can make your Popcorn Potion, package it into the bags, and then make your tags!

My tag images/sentiments are also from Spooky Sweets II.

I put the bag into the Cauldron, and added 2 chocolate eyeballs! The eyeballs and creepy hand (a huge gummy candy that was actually DELISH! LOL!) were bought at Michael’s Craft store-just add to the fun!

Now I have another idea 😀 and this one is WAY easy.

This SAME template made the CUTEST pumpkin!

Seriously HOW CUTE is that?

Again you can make a LARGE version too 😀

In case you are KICKING yourself for NOT having Spooky Sweets II (there is plenty of time to order it :D) I decided to use Spooky Sweets (first edition!) for this one.

The NEW! Hocus Pocus paper was perfect for making my pumpkin have some POP!

I adore the “make your own pumpkin face” images in that set, and it was SO prefect for this one!

I just stamped and cut out the eyes-adding some BLING 😀 For the mouth I just used oval punches.

I then tied around some ripe avocado grosgrain for the topper

Then filled with my popcorn potion

Now you may be wondering-HOW do you make the POPCORN POTION?!

Well, in just a few minutes you can have a LOT of YUM!!

Popcorn Potion

All you need is some Microwave popcorn (or pre-popped popcorn)

Chocolate melting waffers in colors of choice (I chose orange, green and milk choc. only $3 for a large bag that goes a LONG way!!!)

Note: Usually 3 colors is perfect-o!

Directions:

Pop (or pour out) as much popcorn as you need.

Pour Popcorn onto parchment or wax paper-remove kernals!!!!

Let COOL completely!

Melt chocolate wafers in squeeze bottles.

Squirt generously over popcorn.

Let chocolate cool.

Package into baggies!

DONE

This project is SOOOOO easy my kids actually made it themselves:D

I did a video of this venture, and it was such a FUNNY disaster, that I decided to NOT share it! After-all, I’m trying to be PROFESSIONAL here! LOL! Anything that COULD go wrong did! But my kids did make the popcorn, and they made their own versions of the Pumpkin templates!!

NOTE: ALL the templates make FAB kid project in one way or another 🙂

Top: Amber

Bottom left: Noah

 Bottom Right: Alexa

I just assembled the templates FLAT, let them decorate (they stamped the faces and colored), then we put them together.  You could have your kids do ALL of it! From making the popcorn (each of my kids had a color) to decorating the templates!

You can make a couple a day and let them decorate them-OR just assemble the template BLANK and let the kids you give them to decorate them for them-self.

ANOTHER idea-the LARGE version could be your child’s Trick or Treat container too 😀

Pretty cool huh?

Can you tell I make my kids do lots of crafts? That means more craft time for me if they do! LOL!

More photos of the kids pumpkins

They had fun and were so proud.

As soon as the photo was done the popcorn got eaten.

Bottom line-this was so FUN, inexpensive, , and got the kids involved- as it was total hands on! I love that. Oh and the popcorn really is YUMMY!!! We demolish a huge bag of it 😀

Now it is time to go check out what the team did-

and check out our Guest Designer : Teri Anderson

I HOPE you liked my projects 😀 I really wanted to share something do-able and affordable. I’d love to hear what you thought.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow as I have TONS to share this week 😀

Until then

Hi everyone 😀

Its Monday! Back to the REAL world.

Jay returned to work today, after his 5 week recovery. I can actually get some work done! LOL! Oh and I can actually get back to blogging more 😀

Seriously though I will miss having him home. It was a rude awakening when I was back to getting everyone together this morning. Note to self: Need X-LG coffee with TURBO Exspresso shot on Monday’s!

On a downer note we all woke up with cold’s this morning :C WOW! 3 WHOPPING days in a germ infested school and we all get sick! LOL! Maybe its the change in season? Who knows.

I decided after ALL my hard work playing mom and nurse, and having little to NO MY TIME, I am going to buy myself the Cricut Expression!!! I have been having creative withdrawls here, and NEED something FUN!

(Insert a vision a me doing a happy dance all over my house-especially since Jay didn’t FLINCH yesterday when I told him what I wanted-and he knows how much it costs! LOL! He said “Well I’m shocked you waited this long! (Maybe he just accepted defeat?))

As soon as Amber is off to school and I am off to the store 😀 I am very excited about this and simply cannot WAIT to give it a go! I really love all the Disney stuff they offer, along with the cool tags and things I have seen on cartridges.

SOOOOOOO, that being said, if you have a favorite cartridge you’d like to recommend to a total Cricut NEWBIE, OR any advice…….let me know! They are on SALE this week so I want to stock up! I deserve it 😀 I’m a little nervous I won’t be able to figure the CRAZY machine out. I’m quite techno challenged, and Jay already informed me he has NO interest in trying to deal with me while I get it figured out! So I HOPE it is user friendly (aka Lauren capable). People don’t really believe me when I tell them how techno challenged I am but TRUST ME, it is so true.

I also want the Sure Cuts Alot thingy but I have no real clue WHAT it is, HOW to use it or any of that fun stuff, so figured I’ll get the basics FIRST.

I am busy here gearing up for more FUN releases!

Pink Cat Studio had a NEW! icon for you-HERE! You don’t want to miss the details on HOW to WIN the NEW! Release to come!!

In the meantime I figured I’d share a sample I created using Papertrey Ink’s CHA set Floral Fusion (not available for purchase-sorry) and Birds of a Feather

I have to say I adore Red, Berry Sorbet, Kraft, Dark Chocolate and Sping Moss together!

This is a sweet and SIMPLE card, but I LOVE it.

The bird was lightly stamped using the lightest of the Tea Dye Ink Duo. I didn’t want the bird to be BOLD-just sitting on the branch, somewhere.

I just used my Labels nestability to get the purty main layer, and top cuts on my mat layers.

The little paper punched flower was perfect.

I love making Thank You cards because you can never have too many! I am however AWFUL at actually MAILING them :C I need to get better at that. It is something I forever vow to do, and yet it rarely gets better.

Just as the shoe makers family has no shoes, the card-makers family gets no cards!

There are NO excuses! I have many ways to keep organized, I just am not good with the follow through. I get lost in my own mind, and dive into some other task that needs my attention. Stampers ADD for sure.

Can you tell I have serious guilt over it too? Its just awful!

Well that is all for me today.

I have a fun post for tomorrow-its the 1st so we have our PTI Senior Design Team challenge! Don’t miss it 😀

Thanks for stopping by and ANY Cricut help you can offer is MUCH appreciated 😀