Melted Chocolate Pops

Ingredients/Materials Needed:
Ziplock Baggies (because they are strong)
Lollypop Sticks (or similar workings)
Jimmy Sprinkles (or something close, colored sugar, dots, smashed candy bits etc…)
Chocolate Bark (found in the cooking aisle in chocolate or white)
(Next try I’ll use a Hershey Bar)
Non-stick surface (I like using Release Foil, you could also use waxed paper, lightly
greased cookie pan…)
Cutting Board
Cookie Pan (or large plate—this is a base to carry the pops to the refrigerator later)
Scissors
Microwave


Set up your work area and your toddler. Get you work base together. I used a cookie tray and lined it with Release Foil. Place a few lollypop sticks on the foil - leaving yourself room to work. My first round I made 5 pops. Keep the sprinkles nearby.

Shave or cut up your bark and put it into a ziplock baggie (that you do not lock during heating) Let your toddler use a butter knife to help. Heat the chocolate baggie in a bowl or plate. Start with 45 seconds. Knead the chocolate through the baggie to help it melt. Heat in little increments till you feel it’s just right. Remember you don’t want to heat it so fast that you melt the baggie (if you are using white chocolate, you could add a few drops of food coloring and knead it through).


Place your toddler or other type of curtain crawler comfortably at the table so you can both work with the chocolate. Cut a tiny piece off the bottom corner of the baggie so you can squeeze out the chocolate. Tiny hands with yours, squirt a spiral of chocolate over the top area of the lollypop sticks, back and forth, swirl and cross over. About 2 inches across and up to a half inch thick puddle.


After all the pops are created, let your little one sprinkle the Jimmie’s or other decorative candy topping over the pops. This is the part they will most likely love.


Now its time to let the lollypops cool in the icebox, half hour or so will do. The longer they stay in the cold—the harder they’ll be. Chocolate Bark will re-harden nicely and is often used a decorative accent that will hold up well in room temperature. I will try other chocolate sources to see what else might work for this fun project.


Later, I went back to make pops from Ghirardelli Intense Dark. OMG! These taste good! They hardened well, not as room temp viable as Bark. I read somewhere that you can add paraffin wax to candy bar chocolate to harden better. So, later, someday, I’ll do this again! :)


If you plan to wrap these as gifts, get them real cold and hard first. Take thinner baggies and cut out a wrapper (see picture) place over the pop and secure with any favorite ribbon.



Victoria Swanson

Kidcraft Covers

Items Needed:
Plastic Trash Bag
Magic Markers
Scissors




Place bag on table or floor. You or the kids draw a happy picture on the bottom area of the bag, and the bag is upside down, see photo. Trim away arm and neck slits as marked on the last photo. Cover up your messy little artist. Keep track of your little one, they will need help taking off the cover-up, and since it’s plastic - you'll want to do the removal. I’ll be able to use Jake’s cover for a few more projects.

Victoria Swanson

Halloween Pumpkin Window Clings #2

We are attempting Halloween Pumpkin Window Clings again. This time we are trying something a little different, document protectors.

Materials Needed
Document Protectors or gallon size zip lock baggies
Sheet of Paper
Pen
Red Food Dye
Yellow Food Dye
White Glue
Scissors
Black Permanent Marker
Green Permanent Marker
Tape

Open a bottle of white glue or pour some in a dish and add 3 drops of red and 4 drops of yellow (for whole bottle) reduce according to the size you pour in a dish. We only used 2 drops red and 3 drops yellow for our whole bottle and we think the shade is a little light. Shake the bottle or stir. Draw your pumpkin outline on a plain piece of paper and place under the document protector.


Next we outlined our pumpkins pattern with the orange colored glue. Then we filled them in. For some reason our cheap bottle of dollar store glue didn't leak at all this time. We started with a spiral and then let is settle and filled in the holes until it was totally filled in.

Now we wait again until tomorrow and I know these will work, since my husband was able to get the ones we made on the glass frames off and they actually do stick to glass. But we will finish these completely and show you the final results. Wish us luck.

It's been 24 hours and they are totally dry now, they peel off the document protector very easily not like the glass, they are also much more soft and pliable than the ones we made on the glass, must have something to do with the plastic? Also, notice how much darker the orange color became after it dried. After you peel off your pumpkin take your permanent green marker and color in the stem.

Next with your black permanent marker, draw in your pumpkin face, it could be nice or scary whatever you please. I also drew in the crease lines and drew in lines in the stem.

See the bubbles and imperfections, I really like this effect. Now lets see how it looks on glass.

There it is sticking to the window of my car. Wow, I love it. I like how the light shows through it where the orange food coloring in the glue faded out, the food coloring seems to migrate to the outsides for some reason, but it leaves a cool effect. These actually stick better than the ones I've bought at the store for holidays. It was extremely simple to make and imagine the other shapes you could try. Happy Halloween!

Kemi and Holly Doran

Halloween Pumpkin Window Clings #1

My daughter is helping me with this one, finally. She took the photos also.

Materials Needed:
Plastic sheet or glass
Sheet of Paper
Pen
Red Food Dye
Yellow Food Dye
White Glue
Scissors
Black Permanent Marker
Green Permanent Marker

We happened to have these small photos frames from the Dollar Store just laying around the house so we decided they would work perfect for window clings, since they are made for glass. Open a bottle of white glue or pour some in a dish and add 3 drops of red and 4 drops of yellow (for whole bottle) reduce according to the size you pour in a dish. We only used 2 drops red and 3 drops yellow for our whole bottle and we think the shade is a little light. Shake the bottle or stir. Draw your pumpkin outline on a plain piece of paper and place under your plastic sheet or glass. My daughter's is green and mine is orange for Halloween.

Next we outlined our pumpkins with the orange colored glue.

Then we filled them in with more of the orange colored glue. Ours got a little messy, these cheap dollar store glue bottles leak badly. Make a stem if you like out of plain white glue, they will be colored in green with the marker.

Now we wait till tomorrow and see if they are dry, cross your fingers!

Well they are dry now, but we can't get them off the glass. So Attempt #1 is a failure. I now realize why you should use something more pliable like document protectors. We will attempt this again this afternoon.

Kemi and Holly Doran