Let’s Make Cat Donuts

Please excuse yet another break in my ten year story (actually I checked and saw my part two never posted! I’ll have that up tomorrow) but I made these cat donuts for crafternoon and wanted to share! I’ve seen cat donuts like this that you can buy in Japan, and have wanted to make them for so long. I searched for instructions but couldn’t find anything…so I thought I’d experiment and hope for the best. After a few bumps, they worked out really well and were pretty easy to do.

Here are the basic supplies…
-peanut butter melts When I was thinking about what kind of frosting could work for these donuts I knew I wanted something that would coat the top in a nice thick layer. Then the chocolate melts came to mind and I thought they would work great. When I got to the store and saw they had a peanut butter flavor, it was the perfect color and flavor. You could also do chocolate, or pastel cats.
-whole almonds If you make these for some one with a nut allergy you will obviously need to sub the peanut butter melts with another flavor, and the almonds for something else like the melts cut into a triangle shape? I haven’t had a chance to experiment with this part but I’d love to hear if you have any other ideas that would work. ETA–Seanna Lea commented that candy corn might work for the ears and I think that’s a great idea! I’m going to give it a try next time I make them.
-plain cake donuts I went with plain cake donuts because they are nice and dense
catdonutmypapercrane1
1. First you want to melt your candy melts into a deep small dish. Follow the instructions on the melts. I found that two bags coated about 20 donuts.
2. Dip an almond into the candy melts and press into the donut, for the ears. Stick these into the freezer for a few seconds to harden the almond in place. At first I had tried just pushing the almond into the donut, but lost a couple of ears this way when I turned over and dipped the donuts. It’s worth the extra step to secure them in place.
3. Once the almonds are secure dip donuts down into the peanut butter melts, then turn back over and let sit on parchment paper until the coating is dry. This actually went pretty smoothly and easily. Just make sure you bowl is deep enough to easily dip the donuts with almonds sticking out of them.
4. Once they are completely dry you can use various icing to raw faces on your cats. You could use candy eyes, or just pipe little faces on. I used premixed/precolored frostings for these.

Cat themed party invitations

cat themed party invitations
My youngest son has a birthday coming up and he is one cat crazy fella, he decided he wanted a cat-themed birthday party so we have been having fun coming up with ideas for it. It’s sneaking up on us quickly so I made up some invitations the other day so we could quickly get them into the mail.


ci3
You simply print them on cardstock, cut them out, punch little holes for the brad fasteners and put them together! I found the tiny brads that look like buttons at Michael’s craft store.
Once made you can fold them up and fit them into card sized envelopes.

I made a plain invitation for you if you’d like to use it for a cat party of your own. Download it here These invitations are free for personal use only.

Personal use means non-commercial use of the invitations including copies and print outs for yourself, and to give to friends. The invitations may not be used in any way whatsoever in which you charge money, collect fees, or receive any form of remuneration. The invitations may not be used in advertising, and they may not be resold.

The Language Of Love : Morse Code

morsecode
Personally I find Morse Code incredibly romantic. What could be sweeter then a love note fashioned out of code? I was excited when I stumbled upon this video by the amazing Robert Mahar showing you how to make a morse code necklace out of little beads, just fantastic! Be sure and check out all his video tutorials. I needed to come up with a craft project for the Valentine’s day party at my son’s school on Friday and this one kept sticking out in my mind, but I worried about the logistics of a room of 23 nine and ten year olds trying to string tiny beads.

Then I got to idea to recreate the necklaces using bigger beads for the dots, and cut up paper straws for the dashes. I have a big jar of the paper straws on hand, and they are perfect pastel colors. I also couldn’t find a print out morse code chart on the video so I created a PDF that I am going to print and bring in so each kid has a copy to write out their code on the bottom, and then take home in case they want to make more later.
You can print/save a copy here The cute little guy is from a vintage record that teaches you morse code. For the beads I found a one pound container of at Hobby Lobby for $13.99 and then used my 40% off coupon. For string I chose a red nylon, since nylon is strong yet still thin enough to make threading the beads a breeze.
morse
morse

And in the case that this wasn’t enough More Code love for you, how about..
-A Morse Code Necklace made from clay
-Coatt’s gorgeous line of Morse Code necklaces made from gold and silk
-crochet a Morse Code scarf
***Oh and just a note that the Moo winners have been emailed and I updated the Moo post to include a screen shot of the winners list. I am using a plug-in called “and the winner is” it makes it very easy to randomly select winners from comments on a particular blog entry :)

DIY Paint by number valentine printable

DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
Today I wanted to share with you some paint-by-number Valentine printables. My older son Kurt asked me to design a valentine that was not so cute for his friends, so I decided on paint by numbers in heart shapes. Printed on card stock and cut out with pinking shears, I think they are pretty fun…and if strung together could make a cute Valentine garland (and there is still time!) I wanted to share them with you for your own personal use.
just a little reminder (and I hate to have to do this but……)
**Personal use means non-commercial use of the valentines including copies and print outs for yourself, your personal crafts/scrapbooking and to give to friends. The valentines may not be used in any way whatsoever in which you charge money, collect fees, or receive any form of remuneration. The valentines may not be used in advertising, and they may not be resold.*** I want to always be able to share free designs with you guys, but please respect the personal use clause.
Okay, all that said you can find the PDF here. They print our 8 per sheet, and you can then write your personal note of affection on the back.

DIY: valentines for friends

DIY vintage valentines for friends
vintage valentines for friends DIY
vintage valentines for friends DIY
I thought it would be fun this year to give some of my lady friends some special little boxes of chocolate for Valentines day. Of course I had to dress them up a bit, and I thought I’d share the real easy DIY with you in case you’d like to make some for co-workers, friends, or anyone you’d like to give a little something more then a card to on Valentine’s Day.
supplies
Supplies:
-Russell Stover 2oz I purchased a bunch of these little 2oz boxes of chocolate, these are the kind with just 4 pieces inside. Mine arrived in red boxes for Valentines. If you are really ambitious you could make your own chocolates and find little boxes to put them in.
-cardboard circles for the bases: I free hand cut mine from cereal boxes. These do not need to be perfect because your going to cover them up, you just want them to be about the size of your boxes.
-glue: I used a hot glue gun
-decorations: flattened cupcake wrappers, crepe paper streamer (I ruffled some of mine using a ruffler foot on my sewing machine, but you can also gather and glue down by hand) garland (I found red, and red and white garland after xmas on clearance and in thrift shops)
-vintage valentine cut out: I’ve made two pages page one and page two I had mine printed on card stock.
All you need to do for assembly is build up layers on your cardboard circle with glue. I changed each one around a bit sometimes using the garland first, some times a cupcake wrapper. Then I added a few little items to some like buttons, or little heart cupcake picks. Then just write a little note on the bottom of the box of chocolate and you are ready to give them out!
vintage valentine DIYvintage valentine DIY

**Personal use means non-commercial use of the valentines including copies and print outs for yourself, your personal crafts/scrapbooking and to give to friends. The valentines may not be used in any way whatsoever in which you charge money, collect fees, or receive any form of remuneration. The valentines may not be used in advertising, and they may not be resold.***