DIY Peppermint Bark

Hello and welcome back! Today we're going to make peppermint bark.

You will need:

• White Chocolate
• Dark or milk chocolate
• Plastic ziplock bag
• Candy canes
• Aluminium foil
• Container to make it in- I used a casserole dish

First, line the dish with the foil. This will make it easier for the bark to unstick to the dish.

Then, melt your dark or milk chocolate.

Pour your chocolate onto the dish, and put it in the refrigerator until firm. I didn't take pictures for the white chocolate, but just do the same thing you just did with the dark chocolate.

Before putting the white chocolate in the refrigerator, put some candy canes in a plastic ziplock bag, and crush them- I used a rolling pin.

Once they are crushed, sprinkle them onto the chocolate and put it into the refrigerator until firm.

When the chocolate is cool, use a knife to cut them into shard-like pieces, and you're done! This is how mine looks like:

This DIY was super fun to make! It is so easy, and isn't time consuming. It makes a great gift, and is an amazing holiday treat! You should try this out sometime.

Until next week,

-Vasti

DIY Match Holder

Hello! Today we're making DIY match holders. You will need:

• Fireplace or barbecue matches
• Wrapping paper tube or paper towel tubes
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• Decorative paper- I used wrapping paper
• Glue stick
• Clear tape
• 2 lids or caps big enough to fit perfectly in your tubes- I used prescription bottle lids

First, cut the tube to the height of the match, and save the other end.

Get your paper and cut it to the size of the tube, leaving a little extra to fold over the tube.

Glue it to the paper towel tube.

Then, cut little flaps all around the paper and glued them onto the inside of the tube. Do this to both sides.

With the extra piece of paper towel tube, first cut it down the middle, put it around the other tube, and tape it together to make it a bit bigger than the tube. This will be the cap to your holder. I forgot to di this step before wrapping it, so that's why mine looked weird. Then I covered it with paper so the tape didn't show.

This is how it looks so far:

Next, take your caps and wrap them with the decorative paper. Using the hot glue gun, glue the caps to the top of your holder lid, and the bottom of your holder.

Put your matches in, and you're done! This is how mine looks:

This DIY was so easy, and pretty fun to make. Sorry if my instructions weren't clear, this was kind of hard to explain, but I hope the pictures were clear enough. This is a great idea, and I love how you can customize it with any kind of paper, and upcycle something so simple as a paper towel roll and make it into something useful! I hope you try this one!

Until next week,

-Vasti

DIY Gummies

Hello!

Today I'm going to show you how to make your own fruit gummies.

You will need:

• 1 cup fruit juice- I used pineapple juice
• 2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin- you can use a gelatin substitute if you're vegetarian
• Silicone molds

First, put your juice into a saucepan.

Then, add the gelatin and wait for the juice to absorb.

Turn the stove on medium-low heat. Stir the mixture until the gelatin is dissolved and you can't see it anymore. This should take 5 minutes.

Pour the mixture back into a cup, and fill your molds.

Lastly, put the molds into the freezer for at least an hour. And that's it! This is how mine looks:

This DIY was super easy and fun to make. I like how you can customize them to make any flavor you want. These are great gifts for younger kids, or anyone! Enjoy!

Until next week, 

-Vasti

DIY Gift Bags

Hey! Since we're in the holiday season, I thought we would kick it off with DIY gift bags.

You will need:

• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Any piece of paper (wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, newspaper)
• String or ribbon

 First, fold your piece of paper an inch down from the top.

Then glue it. This will be the top of your bag.

On that same side, fold your paper into thirds, leaving a bit of an overlap. Then glue the edges together.

Then,  on that same side, fold the "bottom" of the paper. This will be the depth of your bag. If you fold more, then the bag will be wider.

Open the folded part, and fold both sides in to look like this:

Fold the corners down, and glue it together.

Fold the bag to look like this. These will be the sides.

Open it back up, and unfold it. Optional: Add string to the sides to make handles. You're done! Here's how mine looks:

This DIY was so easy, and fun!I love that you can make these really quickly as a last-minute bag.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next week, 

-Vasti

DIY French Macarons

Welcome back! Today we're making French macarons, not to be confused with coconut macaroons. You will need:

Macaron shells:

• 3 egg whites

• ¼ cup white sugar 

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• 1 cup almond flour

• pinch of salt

• ¼ tsp cream of tartar 

• Food coloring

Macaron filling:

3 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces

First, with a sieve, sift your powdered sugar and almonds together in a bowl. Then you will be left with some small pieces of almond that didn't go through the sieve. You can put those aside to eat later, or just throw them out.

Then in another large bowl, separate your egg whites, add the granulated sugar, salt, and cream or tartar.

With a hand or stand mixer, mix the ingredients together until stiff peaks form, and you can flip the bowl completely upside down without spilling the mixture.

Now add the food coloring. You're going to want to add about a shade or two darker than you want the mixture, because macarons tend to lose their color in the baking process.

After that, fold in the almond sugar mix with a spatula. Be really careful doing this step because it is very easy to mess up the macarons if you over mix or under mix. If you under mix, your macaroons will be lumpy and cracked. If you over mix, they will be flat and won’t have ridges at the bottom. 65-75 turns of your spatula when folding is about the right amount of time, but it also depends on how strong you are!

Then, put your mixture into a piping bag. I didn't have one, so I put the mixture into a ziplock bag and cut a small hole at the tip. It works just as well as a normal piping bag.

Get a cookie sheet out, and line it with parchment paper. Pipe out little circles with your piping bag, and make sure they're not too close to each other like mine were. Now would be a great time to preheat your oven to 300° F.

After piping, tap your baking sheet a few times against a hard surface to get all the air bubbles out and prevent them from cracking. Leave them there for at least 30 minutes, or until you can touch the surface and it won't stick to your fingertips. Once your oven is preheated, stick them in the oven for 20 minutes. Make sure you don't under bake, or they will stick to the tray.

While the macarons were baking, I made my filling. There are many types of filling you can put in your macarons, but I made a basic vanilla buttercream. I used this recipe:

http://www.marthastewart.com/314898/macaroon-filling

When the macarons are done baking, take them out of the oven and let them cool off. When they're at room temperature, carefully take them off of the baking sheet and and put pipe the filling on to them.

Finally, you're done! These are how mine turned out:

Okay guys, to be honest, this DIY wasn't easy. It took trial and failure to make them right, but when I  made them the right way, I felt really accomplished! It takes patience to make them, but all the work paid off. Overall, these were pretty fun to make, and taste great too! You should really try this one out.

Until next week,

-Vasti

DIY Lotion Bars

Welcome back! Today we're making lotion bars. This is very simple to make and is perfect for the winter.

You will need:

• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons beeswax
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Essential oil or perfume
• Silicone molds

The first thing to do is melt all of the ingredients together in the microwave. Then, put it in the silicone molds, and in the refrigerator for at least 25 minutes. 

When they're cool, pop them out of the molds, and there you have it! Your own lotion bars. Here's how one of mine looks:

This DIY is so simple, yet really useful. It's really moisturizing, and a fun project overall! You should try it out sometime.

Until next week,

-Vasti

DIY Drawstring Bag

Hey! Today we're making DIY drawstring bags. You will need:

• 2 15" x 15" pieces of fabric
• 2 15" x 5" pieces of fabric
• Sewing machine
• 4 yards of cording or yarn, but I strongly recommend cording as yarn won't hold very much weight
• Scissors 
• Ruler
• Pins
• Safety Pin

 First, cut your fabric.

 Then, pin the smaller sized fabric onto the bigger sized fabric right-sides together.

After that, sew your two pieces of fabric together, and repeat for the other 2 pieces of fabric.

Then, fold the fabric an inch down from the top to create the loops for the drawstring. Do the same for the other piece of fabric.

Now, tie your cording or yarn to a safety pin and pin all sides of the fabric except the top.

Feed it through the top loop starting on the right side.

Then, feed it through the bottom loop, and back up into the first loop so now you have string coming out from both sides.

 Tuck your string inside of the bag and make it stick out the bottom. Then sew along all the edges of your fabric except for the top. This joins your fabric and makes it a bag.

Lastly, turn the fabric inside out and you're done! This is a bad photo, but this is how mine looks:

 This DIY was so fun to make. I love how you can use different fabrics and it still looks cute! This project is a little time consuming, but it's worth it. Also, if you don't have a sewing machine, you could always hand sew it or use glue. You should definitely give this one a shot!

Until next week,

-Vasti