Portable Picnic

 Here's a quick idea for a get together I threw last summer.  My family rented a beach house, and one of the meals I brought was lunch to take to the beach.  To make it a little more fun (and easy to carry), I bought these plastic containers at Party City (near the candy-sold for a dollar).  I put a sandwich, fruit, and chips in each ball, closed it up and then carried to them to the beach.

It was easy to pass out, and a vessel to hold the grub as we ate.

Valentine's Day Cone

 I wanted a little container to deliver some Valentine's candy for a friend.  I saw the idea for making these cones on photostreaming and decided to give it a go.  I found some sheet music (you can also download this for free) and I made a photo copy.  I rolled it into a cone, trimmed around the top so it was even and hot glued it together.  I 'squished' some crepe paper around both sides as a ruffle.  I added a few doodads and a handle.

...stuffed it with candy.  Ate all the candy.  Stuffed it again and gave it away.  OK...I'm kind of kidding....you'll have to decide which part....whether I actually gave precious candy away or ate it all first.

Cupid's Arrow

 I had these little pink bags last year for Valentine's Day and some cookies to pass out.  I saw the idea for making these little cupids arrow clothes pins at I gotta create and knew I had to try it out.  Super easy and adorable.  I glued the feather to the end, and covered the bottom with pink yarn I also hot glued onto the end.  I added sticky rhinestones (from the scrapbook section), stamped love onto the end, and glued a little triangle.  Easy and cheap.  Not two words to describe your Valentine, but...it'll free up lots of money to fill your bags with diamonds instead of cookies...though...sometimes I say skip the jewelry and bring on the sweets.

Cupcakes in a Cup

 I posted the recipe for these pink velvet cupcakes yesterday.  I packaged them several different ways-here is another favorite cupcake packaging ideas I've seen floating around the net for the last few years.  You know those little punch cups you get at retirement receptions, and when I visit weddings from the  past and attend weddings these were always there in abundance.  They are the perfect house for cupcakes that are iced....even with a little puff.  Slide them into cellphone bags, add a tag in a ribbon, or I've even seen parents send these up to school for their kiddos birthday...they'd be fun with a favor or two at the bottom as a to go gift at a party.  Have your cake and eat it too....at home.

Devil's Food Cake Mix Cookies

I posted about these treat bags Wednesday.  For the innards of the bags I made these Devil's Food cookies from sallysbakingaddition.  These are really easy to make, and they were really delicious-a mix between a brownie and a cookie-which is never a good thing.  

Devil's Food Cookie Recipe 

This said it made 30-maybe I made mine a little large....or maybe I ate a lot of dough.  I won't investigate either theory too closely-but I'd say I made more like twenty cookies.
Ingredients:  
1 box chocolate cake mix (devil's food if you can find it), 1 1/2 T flour, 1/2 c butter (softened to room temp), 2 eggs, 2 t. vanilla, sprinkles for rolling (optional, but come on-these wouldn't be very festive without the sprinkles!  I also used M&M's to roll the second set).
Directions:  
1.  Preheat oven 350.
2.  Mix all ingredients (except sprinkles) in a bowl.
3.  Place sprinkles in a bowl and roll T size balls in sprinkles (maybe this is where I went wrong?  Might may have been 2 T).

 4.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Let cool for ten minutes before removing from tray.

Olympics: Russian Doll Topper

 This summer, I realized....it's an Olympic year!!!  Better yet, this year's Olympics take place in Russia, which means-NESTING DOLLS!  Fine, maybe it doesn't mean Nesting Dolls to anyone BUT me, but by golly-I'm obsessed.  I started the hunt.  I came across a bunch of ideas, and I saw some various toppers like the one above.....I put my scissors to work and cut out scraps of paper in various colors to make these bags of trailmix.  Granted, I'm excited about the Olympics, but I didn't put all my doll trail mixes together yet because....a party gift kind of loses it's luster when the treat is stale, but.....
The innards are simple-I decide to go with the colors of each dolls (using sixlets I bought in small quantities at Party City, so I can match each dolls outfit).

 I took my toppers and a bag...

 ...and will tape the toppers to each bag.  I scanned this gal, so if you don't feel like using your scraps to make your own dolls-you can print these on tag boards, cut, fold, fill. Party.   Here she is, free to a good home.

Corsage of Cookies-Salted Caramel Filled Brownie Sandwich Cookies

 Last year I wanted to try out a recipe I had received at our cookie exchange the month before.  Taylor brought a delicious brownie cookie with a salted caramel filling.  I had also seen the idea for housing cookies in a corsage box on beeinourbonnets site and I knew this was a combo made it cute heaven.ions
First, the cookies-I really liked this recipe-it was the perfect balance of salty/sweet.  If you don't like things sweet-this may not be for you b/c it's rich, but I LOVE it rich.
Brownie Cookie
Ingredients:  12 oz chocolate, chopped and divided (I just used milk chocolate chips), 3 T butter, 2 eggs, 2/3 c. sugar, 1 t. vanilla, 1/4 c. flour, 1/4 t. baking powder.
Instructions: Put 7 oz of chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat and gently stir until melted and smooth (set aside, don't overcook-it heats within a few minutes at top).
Place eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and mix it for 10 minutes (until pale and creamy).  It's a long time, but I didn't dare mess with the recipe.
Add flour, baking powder, melted chocolate and remaining 5 oz of chocolate.  Mix to combine.  Place in fridge for 5-10 minutes (it needs to harden a little so it won't spread too thing while baking).
Spoon tablespoon of batter on parchment or silpat lined pan.  Bake for 10 minutes at 350.  Allow to cool completely.

 Salted Caramel Filling:
1 c. butter (room temp), 2 c. powdered sugar, 1/4 t. salt, 1/4 c. caramel (I added a little more-you can use caramel sauce, but I made my own by boiling a (closed) can of condensed milk in a pan of water for 3 hours).  Stir together until blended.

 I put the caramel into a bag and snipped the end, then added some to the the bottom of a cookie and added a lid.

 I bought these corsage boxes for 50 cents each along with some baking cups.

 I added four to each little box.

 Tied on ribbon and hearts and tags.

 Oh my.

 Definitely going to use this storage idea again.  Heart it!

Packaging for Edible Presents

 I'm headed to Good Morning, Texas on Monday morning.  I'll be doing two live segments, so here is half of one of those...the outer layer at least...with a few more ideas I'll share on the show along with the insides.  I'm using a bunch of things you'd normally toss to deliver edible gifts this year...I'll be sharing those edible gifts after the segment.  I'll link up that video to facebook on Monday.  Both.  I'm also doing a post tape for a show to run on Thursday.
First up, my friend Kelly shared this idea with me.  You can fill these little cardboard canisters with cookies and then wrap the outside.  It's the perfect size to slip cookies inside.  Subtract the bow, adding some mailing tape and a label and you can mail these through the mail in the can as well-fun!

 Next up, one of my favorite things-filling egg cartons with mini muffins, or in this case...cake balls.  There will be a theme...more to come soon, but here is the outside.

 Last, I made some wax paper a few years ago via a tutorial I had seen (all linked here).  I decided I could use this same concept to create Christmas themed wax paper.  Gingerbread men!

 I cut out the shape of gingerbread men out of tissue paper.  I just found a template online for the outline.

 Scatter them around a piece of wax paper.

 Cover the wax paper with a second sheet of wax paper.

 Use a heated iron and slide it all around the paper it makes them stick together.  I did several shapes.

 I wrap up bread for a fun and (practically) free delivery.

Now....I'm off to make the innards for these packages!  

Spider Bag

 Just a super simple packaging idea.  I saw this via Martha, but instead of a stamp.....I ran a paper bag through a printed.  Did you know you could do that?  It changed my life.  Clearly. 

I added some string with a dab of glue, and-of course-goodies on the inside.  Because sweet treats is clearly the whole point of Halloween. 

Pinata Gift Card Holder

I recently made this baby pinata to hold a gift card to a Mexican food restaurant that I bought as a gift and wanted a clever way to present it.  You could do this for a dinner parties etc.  I saw a tutorial like this at HappyDay and at first I thought-no way, too much work.  I went on a hunt of baby pinatas...I could find them in bulk online, but not in stores, so I decided to give it a go....these were MUCH easier than they look and made a really fun way to present a treat!
I created a little outline in the shape of the traditional donkey pinata.

Here is the link to the donkey outline (free to a good home).  You could use this same strategy for any shape/design.  This is what I chose.  I cut it out of tagboard (you could also do this on any recycled box-cereal etc as the original tutorial suggest to be 'earth friendly).  I cut out two shapes, and then a thin strip of posterboard to connect the two.
I tapped the poster board strip along the edge of the outline on one side. 

I made mine just large enough to hold the gift card to the Mexican Restaurant.  You could fill it with little candies or confetti just to make it fun.

Once I had the git card in place I attached the top outline to the rim with more tape.  I also added a string to 'hang it' that I would cover with decorations later. 

Then I cut little strips of tissue paper, folded it in half and fringed the edges...

...and attached it with a line of glue.