19 Decoupage Egg Tutorial

Hi y'all! I am so excited to share this tutorial with you today. We are all so ready for spring!

It's snowing as I type this. Yay.

In my quest for an early spring I went looking for brown speckled eggs to fill my apothecary jar. And I couldn't find a thing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. So I made my own!

You will need:

Scrapbook paper {torn into small pieces}

egg forms {I used both styrofoam and plastic}

modge podge

paintbrush

egg carton

Start by soaking your patterned paper in water to give it more flexibility. You could use tissue paper and skip this step.

Then paint some modge podge onto an egg and layer moist {not wet} paper over top. Keep layering and coating with modge podge until completely covered. I covered half of an egg then set it in an egg carton to dry before coating the other side.

As I was covering the eggs I set them in this carton to dry. I used a heat gun {for embossing} to help them dry a little quicker. This worked well for the plastic eggs but tended to melt the styrofoam.

I love how these turned out. Even better than my hoped for brown speckled eggs I think.

Thanks for reading. I love having you here!

Linking to these parties.

4 "C" is for Cookie...

good enough for me. Doncha just love Cookie Monster? I want to be him when I grow up. Or maybe I just want his job. Eating Cookies all day?!?!? Sign me up!

Oh well these cookies are so good they never last a whole day at our house.
I thought that I'd mix it up a bit and used my mini muffin pan for cookies...
and if you invest in only one cookie tool your whole life, it's got to be this one! The cookie scoop from Pampered Chef is my best friend. We're like this.
So in writing this post I just realized that I've never shared my Grandmas Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Shame on me. I am sorry to have deprived you this long! This is seriously the BEST recipe you'll ever try.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together:
3/4c margarine
3/4c brown sugar
1/2c white sugar
1 egg
2 T water
2 t vanilla
Add:
1c flour
3/4t baking soda
2 1/2c oatmeal
3/4c chocolate chips {I use milk chocolate}
Drop onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 mins.
I wish there were some of these left in my kitchen. Logging onto Monster now to look for a cookie eating job....
Thanks for visiting. Nom, nom, nom.

0 Winter Playground

We're all going a bit stir crazy here. Ready for Spring for sure. So let's head outdoors...

Here's C-man. He told me the other morning that he was a Superhero. He said "Mom, I'm a Superhero. I'm not an actual boy." Do you think that he meant 'real' boy? The boys turned three in October and I am. Loving. It.

It's been beautiful here. Sunny skies with melting snow. I even saw buds on my roses and bulbs before I covered them with a protective pile of leaves. The temperature dropped to -28 Celsius this week though!!! Brrrrr. We're all shivering in our booties.

I love this shot ~ can you see all of the ducks in the reflection of his sunglasses?

Thanks for reading. Have a fabulous weekend!

14 Felt Rosette Wreath Tutorial

Hiya! I wanted to share a quick tutorial with you today. These gorgeous Felt Rosette Wreaths have been all over blogland. I found some great examples here, here and here. Now for my take:

I created this one to hang on our front door this summer. Our flower pots usually overflow with purple lobelia and yellow daisies.

Okay, so to start you want to pick up a wreath form {I used a wicker wreath}, 15-20 sheets of felt material and a glue gun with lots of glue.

Now cut your sheets of felt into circles. You want 2-3 different sized circles. I cut some of my felt sheets into four circles and some into six.

 

 Cut all of your circles into this spiral shape. Leave a little circle in the centre to glue to the bottom of your rosette. Tip: work in an assembly line fashion. First cut all of your circle shapes, then cut all of your spiral shapes.

 Start rolling your felt, beginning with the pointy end.  Keep rolling.

Glue the small circle to the bottom of the rosette.

One down. A billion to go. After three or four hours of TV watching, combined with rosette making, comes the best part. Gluing all of your lovely rosettes to your wreath and...

Voila!

0 Cookie Decorating

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then I don't have much to say...

Okay I can't keep quiet! They are so cute hey?!?!? And they loved cookie decorating. Just put some icing in ziploc bags, cut one of the corners off and let your little ones have at it.

Yum!

3 Inspiring Creativity and a GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to Inspiring Creativity! Where we share projects, tips and inspiration every Wednesday! New to Dragonfly Designs? Please grab a button to share and add to your Linky Lists!

I just finished making this gorgeous Spring Wreath! And I am giving it away to one lucky winner. I know.. I can hardly bear to part with it. Check out my giveaway here.

We had some great projects last week:

Lori At Paisley Passions made this fabulous Menu Board! Now it's on the top of my "to do" list!

Courtney at Crafty Project Girl shared this Altered Book. Love it!

And Sunny from Life in Rehab linked up these awesome spring shots!

Ladies please grab an "I was Featured" button from my sidebar.

Now on to the linky party!

The guidelines:

1. All projects, parties and inspiration welcome.

2. Please no links to Etsy or online shops.

3. Link to your specific post.

4. Please grab my button so that others can get in on the action!





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5. We all love comments, please try to comment on at least two other posts.

I can't wait to see your projects! Here we go...

110 Spring Felt Wreath GIVEAWAY!

You read that right! SPRING!

Oh yeah... and I have a fabulous Giveaway for you!
** GIVEAWAY now closed**

 Spring Felt Wreath!

Love these rosettes... love the colour...

and loved making this especially for you.

Now who wants in??

Here's how you can enter:1. Leave a comment and tell me what you would do with this wreath.
2. Become an official follower of Dragonfly Designs...just click that little 'follow' button on the upper left side of my blog. Then leave me a comment saying you did!! If you're a follower already just leave a comment ~ and THANKS!
3. Become a fan of my Facebook Page. Simply click the 'like' button at the top of the page. Come back here and leave another comment saying you did or that you already have!

4. One more chance to win: Blog or post about this Fabulous Giveaway! Leave a comment with a link to your post for another entry.

That's FOUR chances to win peeps!

This Giveaway will end Tuesday March 1st.

Good luck and have fun!

Linking to these fab parties.

4 Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Okay, so I just have to share! I recently taught a course called, Cupcake Creations. Where participants learned a number of different cupcake icing techniques that included piping, filling and modelling chocolate. Honestly? I was a little worried that my class wouldn't be up to the ladies' expectations.

But the participants were thrilled, THRILLED to be learning all sorts of new techniques while taste testing cupcakes. Mwwwahhh to you ladies! I had a great time too. This was one of three cupcakes that we created ~ Jackie at I Design shared this yummy idea a few weeks ago.

Fill your cup 1/2 full of vanilla cake batter and plop in a Tbsp of chocolate chip cookie dough.

Bake as usual.

Check that out right?!?! Your guests will think that you're a culinary genius and that the girls at DC Cupcakes should be watching YOUR show!

Iced with a 1M tip. For each of the three cupcakes we made ~ the participants had little mini cupcakes to practice on and taste test. I know. You wish you lived here. Me too.

These were some of the leftovers that I took to my preschool class the next day. Yeah. Rave reviews there too.



Now go.
Bake some Cookie Dough Cupcake and become the cupcake goddess you've always wanted to be!

1 Topiary Revamp

Had a crazy 8 hour day in the ER yesterday! Everyone is okay ~ thank goodness ~ but I'm still a little discombobulated. So here's another quickie:

My mom found this topiary at a garage sale ~ she's the queen of Fab Finds ~ and asked if I wanted it {it's actually one of a pair}. I said sure!

That was over a year ago. Time to paint me thinks. A quick brown paint job and sanding. Better hey? What do you think?

Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful weekend!

0 A Killer Cheesecake Recipe

Seriously, so good. Especially for...

Yes. That's right. I finally bit the cheesecake bullet.

The result? FABULOUS! Creamy, smooth and fruity.

Any tips on creating a smoother side though? Ahh... who cares when it tastes this good...

1c Oreo baking crumbs

3T melted margarine

3 pkgs cream cheese {at room temperature}

3/4c sugar

3/4c sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

Fruit toppings.

Start by mixing Oreo baking crumbs with margarine and press them into the bottom of a greased spring form pan. Bake for 10mins at 325.

Then blend together 3 pkgs of {room temperature} cream cheese with sugar.

Add sour cream and vanilla and blend well. Add eggs one at a time and mix until just incorporated.

Pour into your pan and bake at 325 for 40-45 mins.

The best tip? When you remove it from the oven the centre will still be slightly glossy looking. Slide a knife around the edge to loosen and allow to cool.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight before serving.

I covered mine in raspberry pie filling {you could use jam} and fresh fruit.

I used to be totally intimidated by cheesecake.. now I just want to make more! This shot is of the last piece {that was divided between three hungry boys}. I told my husband that I wanted to try another cheesecake recipe... he said "no, don't change a thing." Aw thanks hun!

Enjoy!

And thanks for following along.