{How to make} - Personalized baking pans

Have you every took a dish to a potluck and never got it back? I can't tell you how many times I have had a stack of dishes in my house that no one seems to have brought. I can't find the owner and in the mean time what do I do with this random dish(es)!?

When I first got my cricut I had heard it could etch glasss. Call me crazy but I'm tryin to picture sliding glass under the blade or something! It wasn't until I saw a nice little infomercial on the cricut that I was  introduced to etching cream. The machine only made the stencil and the etching is done checmicaly, a DUH! moment for me. Since then I have used it to spruce up many different glass items. I came up with the idea for these personalized glass pans shortly after. Last year I made several sets for family Christmas presents. They seemed to be a really big hit!

For some reason, I never got around to making our family a set! So when I got a call asking for instructions last week I..it gave me the perfect motivation to make myself a set. I'm so glad I did...I really love these pans! We do lots of carry in type events and meals and these are just too incredibly handy. Bye Bye masking tape labels. :)

Here's how to do it!

Gather supplies: vinyl, etching cream, transfer paper, glass pan, lold paint brush, and an exacto knife and letter stencil if you do not have a cutting maching.

The vinyl and trasfer paper can be found in the cricut section at walmart or micheals (comes in rolls). Etching cream is also at Micheals in the glass decorating section.

I reccomend the glass pans with the lids on top to make them most useful.

Step 1: Measure your baking dish to determin the size of name you would like to use. Mine was approximately 2in X 9in and 2in X 7in.

Step 2: Cut you name out. If your using a cricut lower your pressure to 2 for a nice "kiss cut". If you don't have a cutting machine, no worries! Use a stencil to draw on the letters with a pen, then lighting cut out the letters. Cut lightly to only cut the viynl and not the paper underneath.

Step 3: Remove all of the letters. You only need the outside so that it may work as a stencil.

 Step 4: Pull the backing off a piece of transfer paper and gently lay the stencils you have just created face down on to the sticky side.

Step 5: Now cut around the pieces on the edge of the vinyl. Once flipped over your stencils should look like the above photo.

 

Step 6: Gently pull of the heavy back to the viynl. The name stencils should now be backwards and sticky side out.

Step 7: Apply them to the pan. Once positioned press down firmly, thrn run along the stencil with your fingers. It is VERY important to make sure it if pushed down hard. If there are any gaps the cream will etch outside the letters. I reccomend taking a popsicle stick, pan scrapper, or something with an edge to run along the stencil a few times.

Step 8: Remove the transfer paper.

 
Step 9: Cover in a THICK coat of etching cream. Be really carefully no to go outside the stencil! If you accidently get any outsie the lines wipe it with a wet towel asap. Let set for 20 minutes.

Step 10: Rinse with cold water. I like to use a paper towel to gently wip away the cream under the faucet.

I like to rinse off the pan so it's clear and then let it sit over night. In the morning I scrub it really well with soap an water.

And that's it! Now you will have the coolest pan at the party. Unless it's a family reunion of course. (but even then what are the chances of another!)

These make great gifts for weddings, bridal showers, house warming, Chrismtas, mother's day...

Happy Making!

And don't forget....you have two more days to enter to win a whole box of adorable cupcake supplies. Click here to check it out :)

2nd Birthday Bash - Giveaway!

**EDIT: It seems that blogger is giving some people a hard time entering. I have pushed back the drawing date a few days to give everybody a good chance. I will draw this Friday March 2nd!!**

 Happy 2nd Birthday!

Today marks 2 years of blogging! My how times flies when you are having fun. Sharing my creative stuff on this blog has been so much fun and I really love seeing the photos you guys send me of finished projects!

Since I love throwing parties...I thought I'd celebrate on here! And no party is complete without favors right??

 I thought this would be the perfect chance to do my first giveaway on Make.Bake.Celebrate! Since cupcakes don't travel well ;) I picked the next best thing, cupcake supplies! I'm giving away some of the new Wilton spring items!

This box is full of adorable new Wilton supplies!

4 cookie cutters, spring gel food colors, 2 cupcake wrappers packs, 2 bottles of sprinkles, icing bag, icing tip, and adorable edible bunny toppers (my fav)!

How to enter:

You can enter by leaving a comment under this post. If your not a follower yet no worries! Just click the follow button up top!

Want a second chance to win? Share this post with your friends and have them enter, adding your name to their comment. IF your friends comment gets picked with your name on it...you'll win a little prize too!

**(US entries only, sorry!)**

I will be picking a winner using Random.org on Friday!

 

Good Luck!

St. Patty's Day Snack & Printable Topper!

Whew there's been lots of green on my project list! I think I gave the little holiday a fair shot this year? I am for sure ready to start on bunnies, eggs, chicks, chocolate bunnies, and pastels..eek! Can't it be easter for a few more months of the year? .....whoops, back to the Irish. Today we mixed up a fun St. Patrick's day snack.

The green "pebbles" are Captain Curnch's "Opps All Berries" cereal. Cadence loves to sit and sort out colors and teach the twins what to put where. Then we go over which color has more or less ect. We got lucky because this box had 80% green cereal. We saved the red and blue for another project coming up and the kids muched away on the purple! Then we mixed in an assorment of green m&m's, some lucky charms, and a few left over white chocolate chips.

My mom actually sends the girls lucky charms marshmellows from a bulk amish store back home. It's became a regular in our house, and they were perfect for this! :)

                          

I can not belive how the kids munched on this. I guess we found a new favorite cereal for them.

We're going to send out a few bags to some close friends Cadence is really missing. So I made some cute toppers that would fit right over snack size ziplock bags! They are perfect to send off to school with the kiddos.

Of course I share, if you would like some just click to download. Print, cut, fold, and attach! So easy!

If you haven't yet, don't forget to click "follow" to keep up with MBC. I'll be doing my first giveaway this weekend to one of my awesome readers :)

Shamrock Shake

We try to stay away from McDonanlds (don't we all) but every year around this time we have to stop  in for a Shamrock shake. I LOVE mint so this one is a no brainer for me, but even my non-mint-fan husband enjoys these. We set out to make our own and found some good reciepes on the net, but they were all just adding a little green and a little mint. So we bought a McDonalds shamrock shake some ingredients and tested it out ourself. Sip of one sip of the other...until I had a stomach ache and and Ben couldn't tell mint from water :)

The real deal is really a vanilla shake with some mint mixed in and kind of a perpermint after taste. We don't have acess to their soft serve mixed vanilla ice cream but we came in close!

2  1/2 cups vanilla ice cream

1/4 cup whole milk

1tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp mint extract

1/4 tsp pepermint extract

6-8 drops green food coloring (optional)

Just mix it all together and top with whip cream and sprinkles if you would like.

YUM!

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Maybe I was having a little fun with out new camera? :)

Stick around for my first blog giveaway later this week!!

Happy making!

{How to make) Shamrock Wreath!

I really haven't ever decorated for St. Patricks day before. I normally can't wait and just skip right

 to Easter!This year I decided the holiday should get it's fair chance so I decided to try out a yarn wreath and it turned out really great, and super easy. I wasn't planning on making this a tutorial but people are already asking how to do it, so sorry for a gap in some pictures!

Gather your suplies: foam wreath, scissors, green yarn, marker, sheet of green felt, hot glue gun, ribbon (I used gold), gold beads, and clover template (below).

Step 1: To cover the wreath I cut yarn into long pieces instead of going right off the roll. I found this easier. Apply a drop of hotglue to somewhere on the back of the wreath and begin wrapping. The trick is to be consistent with how tight you pull the yarn, this will keep it looking smooth and even. Every few inches add a drop of glue on the back to hold in place. The yarn begings to tilt as you go round since the inside is smaller, so at the end I had to over lap. Not a problem thought because that will be covered up. Sry about the lack of pics!

Step 2: Print and cut this template for the clover leafs. Or you could make your own. (click pic to print)

Step 3: Trace patterns onto the felt and cut. You will need eith 3 or 4 of one size for a clover. I mixed 3 and 4 leafe clovers.

Step 4: Thread a needle and tie a knot. Sew under, over, under, over to each leaf.

 

 Step 5: Gently pull the thread till the clovers gather. Continue to gather  until they fold into a nice straight line so you can slide the needle through the bottom.

Here's what they should like! Wouldn't these be cute on hair clips??

Step 6: Arrange you clovers how you would like, then gently life one side of each and put a drop of glue underneath.

 Step 7:  Add a little gold bling if you would like!

Step 8: Attach a ribbon loop  on the back with hot glue, whatever length you would like!

All done!

I can't wait to try more yarn wreaths. This was SO easy, cute, and cheap! I displayed it in our entry way with this little ceramic pot filled with gold hershy bars. :)

Don't forget to click "follow" on my blog!

And if you try this little wreath out I would love to see pics.

Happy making!

{how to make} Pot of Gold Cupcakes

I get daily questions about cakes and cupcakes. I want to help but it's hard to give instructions from afar. I finally decided to share a cupcake how to! 

 I had been thinking up some St. Patrick's day cupcakes but I wanted something a little different and easy so others could try it out. I came up with these cute little pot of gold cupcakes. So here goes...

Gather up your supplies and ingredients. You can use a chocolate cake mix or your favorite scratch cake and your favorite buttercream. If you've never made buttercream here's Wilton's standard buttercream. To decorate the cupcakes you will need the items pictured above: black gel coloring, black cupcake liners, gold sprinkles, a small amount of fondant, toothpicks, papertowel, and a small circle cookie cutter (not in photo). I use a food brush to adhere the fondant but you don't have to have one.

Step 1:  Mix cake batter together. Add a few drops of black food coloring to darken the cake.

Step 2: Add 3tbs of cake mix in each paper. (this is how I keep mine so even)

Step 3: Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes until you get a nice little rise and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on cookie rack.

Step 4: Make your buttercream.

Step 5: Once cupcakes have cooled insert a round cookie cutter (just a little but smaller then the top). Pull cookie cutter out then take a small spoon around the cut to lift out the top center of the cupcake.

Step 6: Fill cupcake with icing, you don't even have to use a icing bag! Let them all set for 15 minutes to "crust"

Step 7: After icing has crusted. Lay a paper towel over the top and gently rub smoot creating a little mound.

Step 8: Lay cupcake in bowl and cover with sprinkles.

Step 9: Color fondant ball black.

 Step 10: Roll some fondant into a rope. Gently wrap the rope around the sprinkles to find the length need, cut. Roll out the rope a little thinner then cut two 1in pieces for pot handles.

Step 11: Lay rope around the sprinkles pressing gently and applying water to the seam (here's where I use the paint brush) Then make your two little pieces into arcs.

Step 12: Apply some water on the end of the pot handles and "glue" to the rim, press down gently.

All done! Super cute little pots for the end of your rainbow :)

First cupcake tutorial over, whew? What did you think?!

Happy baking!

ARMY Party MRE Printables

I think just about every little boy of a soldier has an ARMY party at one point or two. It's super cute and special when your daddy serves...what little man (or grown up man) doesn't play ARMY guy every once in awhile? One of our good military friends is throwing her little man a ARMY birthday boot camp and asked me for help with food ideas. We came up with some cool stuff. One of the ideas was to create fake MRE's. Translated into civilian words: packaged food kits that allow soldiers to eat when dining facilities are not avalaible. She could have just used real MRE's but well, EW! Instead I created a little lable and attached them to brown paper sacks, then slid a little lunchable inside. If you would like to use them for your own ARMY party, or maybe just to create a cool lunch for the kids just click to download/print!

                               
                                    Turkey and Ham labels perfect for lunchables.
                              
        Survival mix lables incase you want to add other things (beef sticks, crackers, trail mix, ect.)

 

 

I used a double sided tape runner to attach them. And then I closed the bottom to give it more or a "packaged" look.

Happy celebrating!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!
I hope everybody was showered with love and fun things this Valentine's day! We had a good day at the Miller house (yep no hotel, we're in our house!). It didn't involve flowers, big candy hearts, or jewelry. Just simple acts of love, fun treats, and a great message of God's love. And after two weeks...we have internet again! Hence the blogging ;) I've been baking little Valentine's treats all week long..guess I couldn't wait!

One of my FAVORITE things about Valentine's day is conversation hearts. I just love the sassy little sayings and fun colors so naturally when I remembered at about 8pm last night I needed a dessert for bible study this morning....I busted out my conversation heart sprinkles, cordinating papers, and colored a little fondant to match. They were simple and quick but I love how they turned out :)

For lunch we had heart shaped sandwhiches and fruit. Later on I made the girls snacks with yogurt and melons cut into hearts(they hever got to the kabobs they were intended hor!). We're going to have to do this more often! The girls ate everything heart shaped...what a simple little act of love!

and last..if you ever look in my pantry you will always find a party mix of some sort. So naturally we love to make holiday themed mixes. This time we used strawberry shredded wheat, cherrios, white chocolate chip, mini marshmellows, and valentines candy corn. This was a great combination....the kids have been snacking on it all day long. Of course I wanted to make it coversation heart themed...but Cadence really wanted those little candy corns :)

That's all for today!

So thankful for the people God has put in my life for me to love on!