50 Sucks

Today is my mom's 50th birthday!  Happy birthday mom!  Along with fixing the Children's Book eReader Cover I made (revised post coming soon) and getting her a real gift, I HAD to do something Over-The-Hill as an extra little gift.  Since her coworkers at the time threw her an Over the Hill black birthday party for her 30th (ouch!), I didn't want to be too mean about it, so I stuck with something a little more cheesy and fun.  I made a gift basket of 50 suckers that says "50 sucks" (50 sucks = 50 suckers... get it?? I've had to explain it way too many times... maybe it's way too cheesy for most "normal" people to get it).

One thing you should know about me is that I'm kind of a procrastinator, especially when it comes to birthday gifts and cards.  It's not that I don't care, or don't remember birthdays, it's that I always seem to lose track of time and not realize that the week has gone by so fast.

This project was planned MONTHS ago... so you would think that I would have had it done at least a week ago, right?  Nope, I finished it today during lunch.. after buying the suckers at Fred Meyer on my way to work this morning.  I had been thinking of this project for a long time, but I kept forgetting to buy the suckers so I never bothered putting the rest of it together since it's easier to do it all at once.

I also have to apologize for my super horrible pictures that are even worse than normal.  In my rush to get this done and trying to not be late for work or miss my entire lunch break, I didn't grab a real camera to take any photos.  I just used my really awful old phone that I need to upgrade.  So, I apologize for the horrible photos, but this project is pretty simple.

Materials needed:
Basket, box, or bucket
Cardstock
Bamboo Skewer (one)
Styrofoam to fit your basket/box/bucket
Tissue paper trimmed to size
50 suckers (I suggest using different types to give more variety and pick something tasty!)

I found a sparkly green gift box during the after Christmas sales (see!  I really did plan this out!) so it was really inexpensive and I liked all the glitter.  I purchased some styrofoam similar to this at the craft store:

I used a block 15/16" thick x 5-7/8" x 11-7/8".  I would suggest using something a little thicker if you can find it, but the material was great and really easy to push the sucker sticks in to!  The width was pretty close to matching the box, but I had to trim it down.  I used my trusty Xacto knife and made a HUGE mess cutting this down to size.  Make sure you measure twice, cut once, and have your entire work space lined with newspaper that you can throw away.  This stuff gets everywhere!  Since the box was tapered, I didn't need to stuff the bottom of the box full of foam but depending on your box you might need to stuff the bottom.

I designed up a "50 sucks" sign using Photoshop and gave it a nice thick black border.  I printed the sign on hot pink cardstock and cut it out with my Xacto knife.  

I thought this project needed even more glitter, so I used some glitter craft paint to the "50 sucks" sign!

The styrofoam block doesn't look pretty, so I trimmed down some hot pink tissue paper and lined the top of the styrofoam, leaving a little bit poking out the sides to give the suckers a border and more of a separation between the box and the suckers.

After lining the styrofoam with tissue paper, I began poking in the suckers (after counting twice to make sure I had exactly 50!).  One thing I had noticed when poking in the suckers is that if I didn't use a steady hand, I would puncture the styrofoam and the sucker would go too far down.  I would suggest trying to find styrofoam a little thicker or just stuffing under the styrofoam so the sucker can't go down any further.  I had to be careful to make sure they didn't all puncture the styrofoam and it actually created a nice effect with the different heights.

After putting the suckers in, I attached the "50 sucks" to a bamboo skewer by using regular gift wrap tape and taping the skewer to the back side.  I forgot to take a picture of the back.  It doesn't look too pretty, so you could be creative and sandwich the skewer in between two pieces of paper if people will be seeing this from the back.

So what do you think (aside from the awful picture quality)?  My mom loved it, so that's all that really matters, but I would love to see if you have made your own!  I think this would be great for any birthday, but is especially fun for milestone birthdays and an easy gift to give for someone you don't know too well. 

This post contains affiliate and/or referral links. However, ALL opinions and recommendations are my own and are not affected by the use of these links.

Newborn Subway Art

One of my cousins just had her first baby, so I put together a quick Subway Art canvas for them for Christmas!  This is a great project and is relatively quick to put together.  The most time consuming part is the graphic design and making everything fit on your paper size.

Below is a quick tutorial, but it's really a simple project so I'll show the steps via photos.

For this project, you'll need:

• ModPodge of your choice (I used matte)
• Brush for ModPodge
• Canvas of your size (I used 8x10, which is convenient for printing on a home printer)
• Printer (laser jet works best, ink jet is okay and what I used, but let the page sit for a while before ModPodging to help prevent ink smear)
• Photoshop or other Computer Program to design subway art (or contact me in my Etsy shop and I can create a custom design for you - see here)
• Paper cutter (I used an Xacto knife for a precise cut - and managed to leave my finger intact this time)
• Baby stats of your choice: Name, Birth Date, Birth Time, Length, Weight, Hair Color, Eye Color, Birth Location (City and/or Hospital) and you could add a Photo or a Custom Quote (such as "Gift from God", "Sweet Baby", "Baby Boy", Future Cougar, Etc.)

Paper trimmed to size and everything ready to go

Gingerbread Play-doh

I saw this link on Pinterest for Gingerbread play-doh and thought my niece and my friend's kid would both love it!  My niece loves her play kitchen, so I thought making some gingerbread cookie dough would be a fun addition to it.

This play-doh smells heavenly and I love knowing exactly what is in it and that it's completely non-toxic.

Home is Wherever Mom is - Wall Plaque

I saw a print (I believe on Etsy.. but I didn't bookmark it so I can't find it now) that had a quote that said "Home is Where Mom Is" and I thought it would be great to make a wall plaque with that saying to gift to my mom!  Instead I made it say "wherever" mom is because I like how it looked better.

This is a quickie tutorial since it's mostly self-explanatory, but let me know if you have any questions!  I'm hoping to make another since I'm not 100% happy with how this turned out (it just didn't quite match my vision).  

Items needed:

-Wooden Plaque (purchased at craft store)

-Craft Paint 

-Paint Brush

-Sharpie

-Printer for lettering (or you can freehand)

-Wood stain for distressing (or darker paint - or omit this step)

A Glittering Waterless Snow Globe

Making Lemon Extract

In addition to Homemade Vanilla Extract, I made some Homemade Lemon Extract to give as gifts this year. I used the same cute 2 oz amber bottles from specialtybottle.com and designed the labels myself.

Bird Seed Gift Jar

I know a few bird-lovers so I thought it would be a fun idea to re-purpose a couple mason jars to gift some bird seed.  These are way cuter than a giant bag of bird seed, easier than making the bird seed ornaments I've seen on other blogs, and would look great sitting on a shelf by the back door!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

About six months ago I saw a recipe for homemade vanilla extract on Pinterest and I thought I HAD to make this for Christmas this year!  Not only do I love baking, but I love giving gifts that are useful and I have a lot of friends and family members that enjoy baking almost as much as I do.  Shortly after I found the recipe, I bought Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans on amazon.com (1/4 pound, or approximately 27 beans), bought a huge bottle (I believe it was a half-gallon) of the cheapest 80-proof vodka I could find, and started following the recipe.

I have no photos of the initial stages, but I used about 20 vanilla beans for the entire half gallon of vodka.  I cut the beans in half, then followed the recipe to slice the bean down the middle leaving the end intact.  I used three mason jars and put an equal amount of vanilla beans in each jar, covered with vodka, gave them a good shake then put them in our pantry (so they are out of the sunlight) and then waited...

I gave them a good shake again after a couple weeks and then waited some more.

I shook them up again after another couple weeks and then waited some more.

I continued to shake the jars every couple weeks for about five or six months, or until the vodka has been infused with the vanilla and is a nice dark brown and looks something like this:

Vanilla Bean & Vodka mixture after sitting for about five months

If you don't want to wait five months to gift your vanilla extract, you can place some of the vanilla beans in your small bottles so the extract will continue to steep after you give the gift.  Just be sure to note on the label when the extract will be ready to use!  For me, I didn't want to include the vanilla beans in the small bottles because I could see it as an annoyance when you're trying to use the extract and the bean comes out of the bottle and dumps into whatever you're making.

With my vanilla finally done steeping (yay!) I found 2 oz and 4 oz amber colored boston round bottles on specialtybottle.com and decided those would be perfect for my gifts!  They have many options for sizes and colors, but I thought amber would work great and help protect the extract from sun penetration if it's left on the counter.  I removed the vanilla beans from the extract before pouring the extract into the smaller bottles, but I didn't strain the mixture so there are some of the small seeds in each bottle.

Everything is cuter with a baker's twine bow!

I decided to gift a mixture of both 2 oz bottles and 4 oz bottles depending on how frequently the gift recipient bakes.  I designed my own labels to note what it is (Homemade Pure Vanilla Extract), the date (Christmas 2012) and ingredients (vanilla beans, vodka and a pinch of love) and printed on shimmery tan paper.  I used spray adhesive to mount the labels to the bottles and tied each bottle with a baker's twine bow.

I can't say how many bottles my half gallon of vodka made since I started using it straight out of the mason jar for some of my baking for a Bridal Shower, but I can say that this made a TON of vanilla and is definitely cost effective if you bake a lot and want to make it for yourself.

For gifts to some of my closer friends and family, I'm combining a bottle of my homemade vanilla extract with  a bag of store-bought cookie mix and placing in a cute bag.  I considered making my own cookie mix in a Mason jar, but I think the store-bought mix in a bag will last longer and be great for a few months AFTER Christmas when everyone is done consuming the massive amounts of cookies they made themselves.

Vanilla extract and cookie mix gift

For my coworkers (and would be great as a neighbor's gift or teacher's gift as well!) I just tied a simple tag with their name on it.

Great coworker gift or neighbor gift

I was really glad that I decided to give this a shot as it turned out better than expected and I love giving gifts that are useful!  I don't think I'll be buying vanilla extract again; I'm going to continue making it myself from now on!

If you like my labels and bottles, I'm selling them in my Etsy shop (DigitalCake) so you can save time by not having to design and adhere the labels to the bottles yourself!  Custom orders are welcome (for quantity and to change the design and paper color).