homemade marshmallows

Watch out world (and waistline) I have discovered homemade marshmallows! The recipe has been on my to do list for the last year but I was afraid it would be way too messy and difficult to make. Surprising it was really easy and despite a spilled bag of powdered sugar and marshmallow in my hair, it wasn't as messy as I expected! It think homemade marshmallows would make a perfect sweet treat for Valentines Day!

The recipe I used was from the Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) but I tweaked it just a little by adding orange extract and dipping them in chocolate.

Ingredients-

3 packages unflavored gelatin

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Start by combining the three packets of gelatin

with 1/2 cup of cold water. Set aside and let sit.

Combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of salt

and 1/2 cup of water together in a sauce pan.

Cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 244 F degrees on a candy thermometer.

Pour the syrup into the gelatin mixture.

Mix on high and whip until the mixture is thick.

At this point I added about a teaspoon of orange extract

and continued to whip a little bit longer.

Next, grease a baking pan with vegetable oil

and dust a heavy layer of powered sugar (don't spill the bag of powdered sugar!)

This will keep everything from sticking to the pan.

Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan

Sprinkle another layer of powdered sugar on top.

Let it sit at room temperature over night.

You can remove the entire sheet of marshmallow from the pan and place on a cutting board to cut it up OR you can cut from the pan like I did (I found it was less messy).

I used little candy liners for each of my marshmallows.

I used a heart cookie cutter to cut out heart shaped marshmallows and used kitchen scissors to clean up the shape.

FYI- all the little scraps left over from cutting out the shapes can be used as little marshmallows for baking! Just package them up tuperware.

Add the large marshmallows to hot chocolate or a mocha.

Or even dip in chocolate! The combo of the orange flavored marshmallows and the chocolate is to DIE FOR!

Line up on a pretty tray and serve as Valentines Day treats or even package them up to give as gifts.

Now that I know how easy and TOTALLY delicious it is to make your own, I don't know if I will ever buy marshmallows from the store again!

create retreat

Just a quick teaching update!

I am thrilled to be teaching at the Cloth Paper Scissors CREATE Retreat in Costa Mesa, CA. If you recall, I taught at last year's first ever CREATE Retreat in Chicago- see posts here, here and here. What a fabulous time it was and now they will be offering another retreat in Costa Mesa, California, May 18-22, 2011 for all those West Coast people.

Registration starts tomorrow February 8th and I will be teaching four classes-

Larger than Life
Quilted Graffiti
Doodled Surface Design
Hand Carved Stamps

There is a fabulous line up of teachers, classes and events and I would LOVE if you joined us!
Click here for more information

valentine arm warmers

It is time to start Valentines Day crafting and while I am REALLY resistant to Valentines Day (I don't like anyone telling me when and how to celebrate love) I still enjoy all the fun supplies and heart themed things that can be altered, used in crafts and made into something new!

When I came across these fun Valentines Day socks in the Target dollar bin I couldn't resist buying a handful to transform into some cute arm warmers. This would be a fun kids project or if you are a little funky and whimsical (like yours truly) a great adult project!

Start by cutting up the socks into sections.

Then cut down the side of each section to open up.

Make sure it fits around your arm or wrist by wrapping it around your wrist. If the size is too small, you will need to have enough excess sock fabric to stitch together to create a larger fit (EX- you could stitch two sections together to make 1 large piece) but most socks out there are really stretchy and should work fine.

Lay out the different strips- alternating color and pattern.

(pin together if needed)

Now it is time to sew!

I decided to use red thread

and I started sewing each section together.

I like my stitching on the outside so I used a zig zag stitch along the edge. If you don't like your stitching on the outside simply sew on the inside.

I continued to add each strip of pattern- a total of five for my arm warmers.

Last I folded it in half and sewed up the side- again with the stitching showing on the outside.

I left a thumb hole on each side near the top- optional.

a peek inside my sketchbook

While in Los Angeles I spend a little bit of time each evening in my hotel room working on a few sketchbook pages inspired by my train ride. Here is a peek-

a few new products- my last CHA post

So this is how I spent the last four days at CHA- demoing over and over again all the fun stuff you can do with Tulip's fabric markers at the iLoveToCreate booth. I was thrilled to have this opportunity to work with iLoveToCreate because if I am going to be honest, there are few products at CHA that I would actually work with. While I LOVE walking the show, seeing what is going on in the industry and connecting with creative friends, it has become evident to me that I am creative minimalist (when it comes to supplies). iLoveToCreate makes many of my staple supplies that I have been using for years! They have a some fun new products coming to stores soon that were debuting at the show and I thought I would share a little peek-

please excuse the photos- taking pics under convention center fluorescent light is challenging

It is no secret that a black maker goes a LONG way in my world and I love the Tulip Fabric Markers. There are already a variety sold in stores right now (Michaels, Joanne, etc) that come in different colors and tips and iLoveToCreate will be adding more to the line very soon and I am excited!

If you are a regular reader you will know how much I adore dimensional paint (AKA puffy paint) and that is why I went CRAZY for this this new Tulip product- Beads in a Bottle.

It comes in a variety of really great colors.

And it is a little like dimensional paint but when it dries it ends up looking and feeling like a bead!

I don't typically use glitter (cause I am TOO messy!) but these new line of shimmer sheets make working with glitter totally clean and easy! They are sheets of iron on glitter that can be cut in shapes or letters or even be used with a punch to create a fabric embellishments (without the mess!).

There are also shimmer paints in yummy colors that can be used on fabric!

Here is Kathy Cano-Murillo (Crafty Chica) and I having fun with the shimmer paint. We started to lose it after four days of demoing!

Looking for a fun party idea or even a project for kids? The Tulip body art stencils, glitters and paint would be perfect! There are a variety of stencils, glitter, and paints and they last for a couple of days.

Lots of beautiful colors.

Of course I couldn't resist getting one!

Now that I am back home it is time to jump back into life! My latest online class Sketchbook Delight starts at Monday, Feb. 7th, I have a new website to launch and I am planning all kinds of Valentines Day Tutorials! Stay tuned...