Easy Homemade Lip Gloss Tutorial!

So yesterday my 7-year-old asked if we could start planning her birthday party, which is coming up in a few weeks, and I told her no, since I hadn't blogged my lip gloss recipe from her birthday party last year. Seems reasonable, right? Not to her, apparently. So I guess I'd better get going.

Need a simple, fun craft for a birthday party or a rainy day? Here is the absolute EASIEST way to make homemade lip gloss.

I was inspired by the most at Meet the Dubiens, but needed something easier for the format of a birthday party. My daughter was having a pajama party/spa night-themed party, and I wanted the girls to make the lip gloss themselves for a craft. Pretty much every recipe out there I've seen involves heating a bowl full of Vaseline. Hmmmm... sounded kind of unsafe to have around a bunch of sugared-out 6-year-olds, and also not as interactive as I'd like a birthday party craft to be.

So this was our solution....

We decided to spoon the Vaseline into little Ziplock baggies ahead of time. I got small containers, so we only did a little bit of Vaseline in each one (maybe two or three of these spoonfuls - see picture of filled bags below). I think we let each girl do two or three flavors.

Here we go.... all ready for the party guests!

First, the girls held their baggie in a bowl of warm water. They need to hold it there until the Vaseline melts. And, uh, this is my own daughter doing one of our practice rounds. I did not have all our party guests sit on the counter next to bowls of hot water. Only the best for my kids.

Then, open it up and sprinkle some powdered Kool-Aid in there. We had all the different flavors of Kool-Aid in little bowls, and just had the girls put a few pinches of the Kool-Aid in their bags.

We found that adding a little drop of water to the powder sort of "activated" the color and made the color of the lip gloss much more vibrant.

After that, have the kids squish the Kool-Aid and Vaseline together until they are well mixed.

Finally, cut a small piece off the corner of the Ziplock and squeeze the lip gloss into your container of choice (no mess!). We got these in the beading area of Michael's, and they had several sizes to choose from. We went with small ones so that the girls could make several. Let the girls decorate with stickers, if desired!

Here's how they looked in the gift bags with the other party favors - so cute!

The girls LOVED this craft, and the lip gloss actually tasted pretty good! And, after cleaning the Vaseline off of that one spoon, I was suuuuuuuuper glad I didn't have a big bowl of Vaseline to clean out. So, enjoy!

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How-Tuesday: How to Make Tissue Paper Pom Poms

I know these cute tissue paper pom poms (or flowers, whatever you want to call them) have been around for a long time, but it never fails that when I use them to decorate for a party, someone asks me how to make them. So I figure there are at least a few people out there who could use a tutorial!

First, start with a stack of 6-8 sheets of tissue paper. You can do all the same color, or alternate colors.

 Then, fold it accordion-style (about an inch for each fold)...

 Then, trim the ends, either to a rounded shape, or a pointy tip.

 Take some wire and wrap it around the middle to secure it, and then slip a ribbon through. Trust me, it's MUCH easier to attach the ribbon before you fluff it all up! (Not that I would ever have made that mistake or anything...) You can also use fishing line, but I like the ribbon for that extra pop of color.

Once you've got it secured, fan the edges apart and start pulling up the tissue paper, starting from the top. Alternate first one side, then the other, moving down through half the sheets. So, if you layered 6 sheets of tissue paper, pull 3 of them up. Pull VERY carefully, as these can rip, and pull them all the way up to the middle.

 Then, do the same thing on the other side, so they're pulled apart from each other.

Then, fluff the layers gently back toward each other, and arrange them until you have the look you want.

 The one on the left had the pointy tips, and the one on the right the rounded ones.

 You can hang these, as seen here...

 ...or just leave them as a table decoration.

These are pretty flexible, so experiment a little! You can cut the tissue paper in half to make smaller ones, buy larger tissue paper, layer 12 sheets instead of 6, make multi-color ones, or wherever your creativity takes you! But whatever you do, don't buy the overpriced Martha Stewart kits for these. They are super simple and fun to make!

How-Tuesday: How to Plan and Organize a Birthday Party!

For this week's edition of How-Tuesday, I thought I'd share with you how I plan and organize for my kids' birthday parties. Because of the cost factor, we always do our kids' parties at home. I try really hard to create a party for them that is unforgettable and exciting, yet doesn't cost too much money. This usually involves a lot of time and creativity, and staying on top of everything is key so that I don't go too crazy!

A Few Weeks Ahead of Time
First, I have my kid decide on a theme. Then, we decide how many kids we'll be inviting. This drives everything else for the party, since some things are way more chaotic and/or costly when you're talking about 10 friends versus 3. Then, obviously, I turn to the good old internet for ideas, particularly Pinterest. I actually have a dedicated board for my kids' upcoming parties, where I pin things for specific themes, or just things I think they would like someday.

Then, I take a paper and divide it into sections. For all my love of technology, I still do my lists with good old pencil and paper. Nothing beats it! One section for the cake, one for decorations/goody bags, one for games/activities, and one for food. As I come across ideas I like, I jot them down.

After deciding which ones are do-able based on time and resources, I first run them by my husband, and he brings me back to earth and reasons with me and gives input on the ones he thinks are actually do-able. Then, once we've decided what we're willing to do, we go over it with the birthday kiddo to see which things they would be most interested in. There's no point in planning something your kid won't enjoy, no matter how cool you think it is. Parties are a team effort around here! I also try to get their input here for things they would like to help with, design, or make, so that they've got a hand in creating the magic as well! At this point, I create a shopping list of things that need to be purchased before the party, so we can grab things over the coming weeks when we go to Target or the grocery store. Also, order anything online that you need at this point.

We usually keep a laundry basket or corner of the house as a central location to toss things as we buy them, so that we're not running around the day before going, "WHERE did you put those stickers I bought for the goody bags? I KNOW I bought plastic forks! Did they disappear??!"

The Week Before
Then, as the weekend of the party approaches, I make a giant to-do list, writing out every single thing I can think of that needs to be done for the party. Then I figure out which day to do it, so that I don't end up too swamped on the day of the party. I can easily look through to see if I'm on track and getting everything done that needs doing! The week before the party is usually buying any last-minute things, making decorations, etc.

The Day Before
We usually do the cake the day before the party. That's a huge thing in our house, so I don't like to save that stress for the day of. At this point, I finish making or buying everything. I try not to leave very much for the day of the party other than cleaning and decorating.

Also, usually the day before the party, I write out a schedule. This is a little over the top, I realize, but it's not as if I'm out there with a whistle screaming, "Move on! Next activity! Hustle! Hustle!" It's more just to help me gauge how much time I should allot for everything in order to fit it all in. I don't live and die by the schedule, but it just helps me to keep an eye on things so that we don't run out of time at the end. I find it usually works to divide your party up into about 20-minute increments. Very few things we do take longer than this. I also have a few ideas, either in my head or on the schedule, of "filler" activities we could do if we end up with extra time.

 I always start with some sort of low-key craft or coloring thing that the kids can work on as they arrive, and try to switch off doing games and other things.

The Day Of
On the day of the party, we decorate, clean up the downstairs, put out the food, get giant Diet Cokes from the gas station, and enjoy the party!

How-Tuesday: How to Make Marshmallow Fondant

Trust me, I hear you. "I don't liiiiiiiiiike fondant. I had it once and it was so nasty!" Give me a chance and hear me out. While it's true that fondant will never approach the same level of yumminess as frosting, it does have a time and a place. While it takes a little while to get the hang of it, I find it waaaaaaaaay easier for decorating most kids' cake. And this one is made of marshmallows, powdered sugar, and water, so really - how nasty could it be?

For those who are fondant newbies, fondant has a texture very similar Play-Doh, making it easy to use to decorate cakes. It is what most professional cake decorators use to make the amazing creations you see on TV. For years my husband, who was formally a pastry chef, refused to use fondant because of the taste, but once I found this recipe online and he tried it, even he relented.

Here are a few of the cakes we've made using fondant:

 Lego Birthday Party

 Pixie Hollow Birthday Party

Disney Princess Birthday Party

The bottom one is one of the first ones we ever did. Now it makes me cringe to look at it, but I wanted to put it on there just to show that even if they don't look that great at first, the more you do it, the more you improve!

So, onto the tutorial.

Easy Marshmallow Fondant
(originally from What's Cooking America)

1 16-oz. bag of mini-marshmallows
1 2-lb. bag of powdered sugar (note: the original recipe says to use name-brand powdered sugar and marshmallows)
2-4 T. water
scoop of Crisco (set aside in a bowl - you will be using this on your hand and the surface, so you don't want to be putting your goopy hands into your tub of Crisco

First, put the marshmallows and 2 T. in a large bowl, and microwave for 30-second intervals, stirring each time, until it is melted (usually 2-3 minutes total). It'll look like this at first:

 Then it'll be melted completely, like this (no, I did not microwave in this metal bowl):

 Dump about 3/4 of the bag of powdered sugar on top

At this point, TAKE OFF ANY JEWELRY, put it in a safe place, and slather your hands with Crisco. As if it were lotion. This is unpleasant, but having sticky marshmallow hands is worse. Mix it up a little until in starts to come together.

 Then grease your countertops with the Crisco, and dump out your fondant. Start kneading, and keep going until it looks smooth. If it starts to get dry and difficult to work with, add a little water. If it feels sticky, add a little more powdered sugar. If the mixture start to stick to your hands or the counter, add a little more Crisco. Keep kneading it for about 5-10 minutes. By the end, you want it to be the consistency of Play-Doh.

If you need to store it for a few days at this point, coat it in Crisco and wrap it up really well with Saran Wrap. Leave it out on the counter - do not refrigerate! When you're ready to use it, you may want to stick it back in the microwave for 10 seconds to make it pliable again. If you're ready to use the fondant right away, let's move on to the next step!

 Now you can add in some color. We use the liquid food color gels that you can pick up at Michael's and even Wal-Mart, I think. I apologize in advance for this picture. It looks like vampire action gone wrong! We are doing red here, and it needed to be red red, not pinkish, so we ended up using almost the whole bottle of gel coloring. Really try to stay away from red and black if at all possible - way more hassle.

So, using a toothpick or fork tines, put some gel on the fondant.

 And then start kneading again to mix it all through.

I did this for approximately 1.5 minutes before I got bored and let my husband finish up this job. When I came back downstairs, it looked like this!

 Note: you can see here that we are using a cutting board to knead the fondant with the dye. We were just nervous because we're in a rental, and we were using red. If you have light countertops, you may want to consider doing the same, especially if you're using reds or pinks, as you don't want it to stain.

To apply it to the cake:
First, you're going to want to make sure your cake is frosted with some buttercream. This is actually a vanilla cake, with chocolate frosting. A few reasons for this. First, most kids will peel off the fondant (ingrates!), and then they still have some yummy frosting underneath. But more importantly, it helps the fondant lay smoother and stick on better when it's going onto a layer of frosting. Make sure the frosting has "crusted" and it's not wet and sticky. So here's the cake. I wouldn't recommend a shape like this for your first try - a basic round is actually easiest.

 Roll out your fondant. You'll want it to be about 1/4" thick. Take some measurements of your cake so that you can be sure your fondant is going to cover the top and sides. You can't really take it off and try it again. Sorry for the blurry "action shot" - I didn't want to ask my husband for the thousandth time to move/stop/slow down so I could take another picture. We sprinkle some powdered sugar down on the counter at this point. You can see it's getting all over the red fondant, but it brushes right off.

 After you have your fondant all rolled out, transfer it to the cake. You can either lift it up with your hands, or roll it around a rolling pin, and then unroll it over the cake. Do not fold it, as it cracks and leaves a crease. There are more pictures of the transferring step on the "What's Cooking America" link above if you need more of a visual.

Pat and smooth the fondant down over the sides of your cake. If you have a little tear, you can use a little bit of water to try and smooth it out, but be really careful you don't gouge the cake with your fingernails - that's a hard repair. See the yellow scraper thing off to the side? That's what we use for smoothing and cutting. If you don't have one, your hands are fine for smoothing, and you can use a knife or pizza cutter for cutting it.

 Here's me cutting off the excess and then sort of tucking the edges under the cake. This is my shot proving I contributed at least a little to the cake construction!

 If you are putting fondant decorations on a fondant cake, like all this stuff on the Pixie Hollow cake, just dip your finger in some water and put a tiny dab on the decoration, then put it on the cake. The water reacts with the sugar to make a bond, and they stick right on.

 Finally, add whatever else you'd like to your cake! When finished, store out on your countertop, or in a baking box. Do NOT refrigerate, as the moisture can ruin the fondant.

We usually do not attempt to create any character figurines out of frosting or fondant. We create a background and then add the toys to the cake (see the Lego minifigures, pixies, and princesses above).

We also try to let our kids add a little something to the cake. In the Lego cake, my son built the "dump truck" bringing over more blocks, and my daughter made the fondant heart in the Pixie Hollow cake and the doorknob(s) for the castle on the princess cake. Sometimes it's hard for me to relinquish control to their vision, but if they have something they'd like to add, I try to always say yes. Since, you know, it is their cake, after all!

Here is the finished product of this Lego cake:

So, give it a try! Make a batch just for fun one day, play with it, let your kids play with it! Roll it out, fashion some shapes, try draping it over a cake pan or shoe box and see how it goes. What you definitely DON'T want to do is to wait until it's party day and you're working with fondant for the first time. Practice, practice, practice, and you'll be creating masterpiece cakes in no time!


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How-Tuesday: How to Dice Tomatoes

Marrying someone who was a chef for ten years has certainly made for a lot of surprises in the kitchen over the years. One of the first things that surprised me was how he diced tomatoes - it seemed like he was throwing the whole thing away! But he explained that by leaving out the guts (my word, not his) of the tomato, you don't have extra juice seeping into your recipe. He was dicing these Roma tomatoes for me for a bruschetta chicken recipe I was making (stay tuned next week), and you don't want a lot of juicy tomato innards in bruschetta. It also just looks better and neater, and you don't end up mashing tomato all over the place (more super-technical cooking lingo, courtesy of me).

First, quarter your tomatoes.

 Then, slice out all the juicy stuff, leaving only the outer edge.

At this point, you dice those outside parts, giving you nice, neat, perfect little chunks of tomato, perfect for salsa, bruschetta, or whatever else you're making! Yum! Stay tuned for the recipe next week using these delicious tomatoes!