Wine Cork Magnets

I love poking around Pinterest and finding links to overly priced items on Etsy. Seriously, would you pay $9 + $2.50 in shipping for cork magnets?!

Of course not! Why buy the milk when you can get the drunk cow for free, ammiright? These are incredibly easy to make for the lush... I mean, wine "appreciator" in your life and would make a nice housewarming gift, birthday gift, or, "Your fridge is boring and I like merlot!" gift -




So grab those corks from your empty wine bottles as well as:


* Magnet tape
* E6000 glue (not pictured here but highly recommended)
* An x-acto knife or box cutters
* A vice or really heavy books



Carefully cut your cork in half with your x-acto knife but make sure you don't cut through whatever words or design you want to feature on your fridge. I don't recommend this if you just topped off your bottle, as sharp objects + alcohol = a stupid combination.

Grab your magnet tape and cut to the width and length of your cork. If you want to make sure the magnet doesn't peel off, use your smelly E6000 glue. It might stink but it'll do the job!

Place your cork magnets in a vice or under really heavy books for at least a half hour, to ensure the magnet isn't going anywhere. To be safe, I kept them in the vice overnight (it's not like I'm going to be staring at my fridge at 3am).

And there you have it kids! Now aren't you glad you spent your money on another bottle of wine rather than shipping and handling?

TOTAL COSTS: $4.99
$4.99 for magnet tape from Michael's
Corks for free... ::hiccup::...

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 10 minutes/cork + overnight

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy-5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
This is such an easy project, you just cut and glue. I mean, it might be a little difficult to cut through the cork but I wouldn't say it's hard or impossible. Heck, you could open up your own Etsy store with these and charge only $8 if you want!

How to Make a Volcano Cake

My friend Laurie was having a Hawaiian-themed birthday and needed an appropriately themed cake. I wracked my brain trying to come up with something that would be easy but would still be impressive (I love the "wow" factor when it comes to cakes). A hula girl in the shape of a cake? No. Desert island? Maybe. Desert island with a volcano that has smoke coming out of it? Heck yeah!

Here's what you'll need to make a volcano cake (inspiration taken from this post by The Bake-Off Flunkie):

1. A cake (obviously). I went with two 9" round cakes on top of each other but a 9"x13" cake would give you more room to play.
2. Rice Krispies (I just followed the instructions on the box regarding how to make the treats with marshmallows, butter, etc.)
3. Frosting (I used both buttercream and chocolate buttercream - recipe below)
4. Brown sugar (for sand)
5. Food coloring (green for grass, blue for water, brown and orange for under the sand)
6. Candy (I used chocolate rocks, gummy sharks, and sour starfish)
7. Tongs/gloves and dry ice (make sure you bring an ice chest with you if the store won't supply it for you!)

Step #1 - Make the volcano
I recommend making the Rice Krispies first so you can build your volcano. Once they've cooled and hardened (usually after an hour), use a water bottle, a soup can, or something similar (I used an old Republic of Tea tea bag canister) as the center of the volcano. Start to mold the Rice Krispies around the can to form your volcano. I recommend going with something smaller than what's pictured here because:

Mistake #1 - The taller the bottle/can/etc., the more likely the Rice Krispies and gravity will have it melt off. And don't try to wrap your canister in plastic wrap - that'll only make things worse!

Once your volcano has been formed, stick it in the fridge to harden. I left it in the fridge overnight, just to be safe!

Step #2 - Make the cake
As I said, I made two 9" round cakes but you're free to make the cake however you want!

Step #3 - Make the buttercreams
To make the chocolate buttercream from scratch, you'll need:

* A bar of Ghirardelli unsweetened chocolate (4 oz.)
* 1/2 cup of softened butter
* 1/3 cup of vegetable shortening
* 1 teaspoon of vanilla
* 4 cups of powdered sugar
* A couple tablespoons of milk, depending on the consistency you prefer

(To make the buttercream for the grass, water, etc., it's the same ingredients and process, minus the chocolate.)

To make the chocolate buttercream, melt the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds and then 10 seconds spurts after that, as you don't want to burn the chocolate. Let the chocolate cool completely before adding to the creamed butter and shortening. Add the vanilla, then slowly add the powdered sugar until combined. I only used 1 Tablespoon of milk before I got the consistency I preferred but you can use up to 4-5 Tablespoons.

Step #4 - Frost the cake
The chocolate buttercream will cover the volcano but will also go in between your layers of cake and also around the sides (you can see that if you don't melt the chocolate completely, you'll have little pieces of chocolate showing but eh, it kinda looked like dirt!)

I sculpted one side of the cake to slope down so the water would have a place to crash on the beach. Just cut off a piece off the top cake on a diagonal.

As for the non-chocolate buttercream, divide it into three bowls - a little bit for the green grass, and then half-and-half blue water and tan sand. In order to get this sand color, I mixed brown and orange Wilton gel food coloring. Frost the top of the cake and the slope you carved out.

To give it a 3-D effect, cover the top with brown sugar or Sugar In The Raw to have it look like sand.

To make the water, I used sky blue Wilton gel food coloring and Wilton piping tip #108. Using a toothpick, I flicked the blue frosting in different directions so it would look more like waves.

Mistake #2: The blue frosting was too warm so it started sliding off the sides of the cake! Make sure the frosting is a bit on the cold side so it doesn't melt off.

Stick the cake in the fridge so the frosting can harden. However, if you wait too long...

Mistake #3: ...you'll end up staining your cake board because of all the butter and shortening in your frosting. So don't put the cake on your cake board until you're absolutely ready to assemble the rest of the cake!

Step #4 - Assemble the cake
Once you're ready to present the cake, carefully place your volcano on top and using Wilton tip #233, pipe the green grass around the volcano, on the volcano, wherever you like! I found it was very helpful in covering up mistakes!

Gummy sharks, chocolate rocks, you could even add palm trees to help this desert island cake feel a little more realistic!

Now in order to make the smoke come out of the volcano, fill up half of the canister with hot water. Very carefully drop in your dry ice (either with gloves or tongs) and note that if you have birthday candles below where the smoke is pouring out from, the candles will be extinguished!

And that, my friends, is how you make a volcano cake. Anybody want a slice??

TOTAL COSTS: About $36
$10 for 10lbs. of dry ice from Tym's
$8 for gummy sharks, starfish, and chocolate rocks from Sweet! Hollywood
$3 for two boxes of cake mix (that's right, I didn't make the cake from scratch!)
$1.99 for Rice Krispies
$1.50 for marshmallows (for the Rice Krispies)
$3.99 for Ghirardelli unsweetened chocolate
$.99 for butter
$4.39 vegetable shortening
$2.49 powdered sugar (I used an entire 2lb. bag!)
Vanilla and brown sugar made from scratch, milk and food coloring already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 2 1/2 hours + overnight
15 minutes to mold the volcano + overnight to harden
1 hour to make the vanilla and chocolate buttercreams
1 hour to decorate the volcano, dirt, sand, and water
15 minutes to assemble the volcano, candy, and grass

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 4 out of 5
Warm weather will not be your friend when making this cake, as the frosting will want to melt off the cake. As long as you keep the cake cold until it's ready to be eaten, you'll be fine. It's easiest to break it into sections so it doesn't seem as daunting: make the volcano, make the cake, make the frosting, assemble. And be careful with the dry ice - do NOT touch it with your bare hands or you'll burn your skin!

Book Cupcakes

My little niece has become an avid fan of any and all books, though her mother is a children's book librarian and author, so it should come as no surprise. So when she had a birthday coming up, I wanted to incorporate her love of books with the birthday treats. The result? Little books on cupcakes! These are a very easy and unique way to incorporate books for any party, whether it be for your library, your birthday, or even your book club!

I started by collecting .jpegs of different book covers from Google searches. Just look under "Images" of the book you want and save the photo to your desktop.

Once you've collected all the photos, I found it was easiest to work in Microsoft Word. Paste the photo to the Word document, format the picture so it's "Behind Text", change the size (all of mine were 1.5" in width), and draw a white square of the same size next to the photo. That way, when you cut them all out, the white square will serve as the back cover.

Once they're all ready, print and cut them out.

Fold them along the edge so they form little books and tape a toothpick to the inside of the book.

All that's left is decorating the cupcakes! I used a #22 Wilton tip and starting in the middle, squeezed the frosting around and around until I hit the edges. But you can decorate however you like, of course.

Stick the toothpicks in the center and voila! It doesn't get much easier than that, folks. All the kids in my niece's daycare gobbled them up and she was happy to see all of her favorite books on her cupcakes, pointing out which were her favorites to her classmates.

TOTAL COSTS: Free!
However, I had a printer, white card stock paper, and toothpicks readily available

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour, 25 minutes
45 minutes to pick out book covers and resize
25 minutes to cut out 20 books
15 minutes to tape toothpicks inside 20 books

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
Just be careful that you don't cut off the white square. I was cutting these out while watching TV and had to tape the back and front covers together for a few because I didn't pay attention!

How to Send a Message in an Egg

In the spirit of springtime, I thought this project would be apropos. Everyone puts up posts about how to decorate an egg but this post, originally found here on TechLoveDesign, is about how to decorate in order to destroy it.... well... crack it open. This would be great not only for springtime but for a birthday card or a baby shower note!

Here's what you'll need:

1. An egg
2. A container/jar to put the contents of egg in
3. A safety pin
4. Paint
5. A piece of paper with your message written on it

First, stick a safety pin at the top and bottom of your egg. Have one of the holes be bigger than the other, since you'll be putting your rolled up message at that end.

Put your mouth at the small hole end and blow! The egg contents should drip out into your container.

Next comes the painting. I decided to try and paint it similar to the original so I made it light blue, let it dry, and went over with a second coat.

Now you could use white stickers or you could paint white dots, however you choose to decorate your egg.

Once the paint is dry, roll up your message as tight as you can and stick it through the bigger hole you made earlier. Note that if your paper is bigger than the hole, you will slightly crack the shell.

Put it in a box that says "Crack Me" and watch them smile at your creative gift! If you want to make a felt box, see my DIY post here.

TOTAL COSTS: Free!
Note that I already had a safety pin (from the dry cleaners), paint, paper, and an egg

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Overnight + about 3 hours
5 minutes to blow out egg yolk and whites
Let the inside dry overnight but it was still sticky inside after 24 hours. I'd suggest giving it 2+ days to let the inside dry completely before painting
1 hour for first coat to dry
1 hour for second coat to dry
1 hour for dots to dry
5 minutes to roll up the message and stick inside the egg

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
If you don't like blowing up balloons, you won't like blowing out the egg yolk and whites. Other than that, it's not difficult at all to paint an egg shell and stick a message inside!

Cake Postcard

With spring comes birthdays and with birthdays come cake. So what do you do if you can't be there to see your friend or family member blow out the candles? Why not send them a piece of cake through the mail! It may not be edible but it's the thought that counts, no? I saw this DIY cake postcard on SheKnows and just had to see if it was as easy (and yummy!) as it looked.

Head to your hardware store to pick up these supplies:

* 1 large sponge (they sell 2-packs at Home Depot if you want to make two at the same time!)
* A serrated knife
* An x-acto knife
* Spray paint (I opted for brown so it would be a chocolate cake)
* Acrylic latex caulk (again, I went with brown because chocolate cake must have chocolate frosting!)
* Spray adhesive
* Paper for the "postcard" (I used an old manila folder)


First, take a sponge and using your knife, cut it at a diagonal as centered as possible. You would think it's easy to cut through... it's not. So go slowly and as evenly as possible.

If you don't cut evenly and slowly, it may come out like this. Whoops.

I also opted to cut off the end so it didn't have rounded corners.

Next, use your x-acto knife and make a shallow rectangular cut in the middle of the sponge, so as to emulate two layers and "frosting" will go in the middle.

Spray paint your sponge in a well ventilated area (i.e. - outside) and from every angle (and I mean every angle!). I missed some areas around the bottom so the yellow sponge was visible but I ended up covering most areas with caulk later. Wait for it to completely dry before doing anything else.

Once the sponge is dry, measure out how big the paper "postcard" should be. You can use card stock, a folder, scrapbook paper, whatever you like.

Cut out the card and using your spray adhesive, glue it to the unpainted side of the cake.

Now I have zero experience with caulk but by a wonderful mistake, I found a fast and easy way to apply the caulk. First, make a diagonal cut at the top.

Next, put the caulk gun in a big plastic bag and using your foot, slowly apply pressure. What will happen is the end of the caulk gun will pop off and all the caulk will come out the back, instead of through that little slit you made. Now you can just squeeze it out with your hands into the plastic bag! Neat, huh?

Do NOT try this on carpet. I was extremely lucky and didn't get any caulk on the carpet but you might not be so lucky. So again, do this activity outside or on newspapers to protect your floors.

Once the caulk is in the bag, cut a small corner off and squirt out the caulk into the shallow sections you created earlier, to resemble the "frosting" between layers of cake.

And this is the fun party - apply caulk to two sides of the sponge and swirl it around to make it look as realistic as possible. You can use the plastic bag, a paintbrush, or a toothpick to make the desired effect.

Now comes the waiting game. Put your "cake" in a safe location and let it dry for 3-5 days (mine took 4 days, though I played it safe). If you don't move the piece around on whatever you've set it on, the caulk might attach itself to it. For example, I put mine on a piece of cardboard and didn't move it at all... so... cardboard was attached to the "frosting":

If this happens to you, get off as much as you can and using a damp paper towel, you can rub off the rest.

Add a cute message (I wrote, "Hope this year turns out to be a 'piece of cake'"), run to the post office, and get your stamps (mine cost $2.70... did you know you can't take pictures inside of a post office? Random fact of the day).


Once it's addressed, put your cake in the mailbox and voila! Your cake postcard is ready to be devoured... by the United States Postal Service.

TOTAL COSTS: About $25 to make 4 (supplies from Home Depot)
$3.89 for a 2-pack of sponges
$9.99 for 3M 77 Super Multipurpose Spray Adhesive
$3.76 for spray paint
$4.33 for caulk
$2.70 for stamps to mail the postcard
Serrated knife, x-acto knife, and manilla folder already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 3-5 days to dry + an hour and a half of prep work
10 minutes to cut the sponge
5 minutes to cut the center line
1 hour to let sponge dry after spray painting
10 minutes to add caulk
3-5 days to let dry

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
This was surprisingly easy, especially considering I had never used caulk before, but the plastic bag really did help with applying. Be very careful not to get caulk, glue, or anything else on your workspace because this can get messy very quickly!