Make it Monday: Book Mobile

I feel as though I must begin this Make it Monday post with a sincere apology on Sophie's behalf to my wonderful friend Amy. Amy thoughtfully gave Sophie an awesome collection of books accompanied by an audio reader for Christmas. Sophie LOVES books, but unfortunately for four of these particular books, she found it more fun to rip pages apart one afternoon during nap time. My attempts to repair them were unsuccessful, sorry Amy.  

I couldn't bring myself to toss the books so I opted to create a book mobile after seeing some similar book art on Etsy, which by the way cost upwards of $40 or $50.

What you'll need:

Hard cover book

Hot glue gun with glue

Fishing line (optional)

Ceiling hook (optional)

Directions: (See pictures above for visual directions)

Tear all of the pages out of the book and separate them individually. Be sure to keep the cover and spine intact.

Line up the the spine edge and outside edge of one page and affix the edges together using a hot glue gun. Do not crease the fold.

Repeat the process with all of the pages of the book. If you are using a particularly thick book you can double up the pages. These kids books only had 8 or so pages each.

Open the book cover and begin by gluing one page into the inside spine of the book, continue with the rest of the looped pages gluing them to the sides of previously affixed pages so they begin to teardrop down. 

Glue the sides of looped pages to the cover to help push the cover out so it stays open.

To hang from the ceiling, simply thread fishing line through the spine, tie a loop adjusted to the length you want and hang from a hook in the ceiling.

Voila!

Happy Monday!

Make It Monday: Chocolate Accents

My Mom recently celebrated a birthday for which Sophie and I decided to make a batch of cupcakes. I didn’t want it to be just an ordinary tray of cupcakes so the wheels in my head were turning, but all I could think of was cupcake cake designs that were more suited to folks still celebrating single digit birthdays. You know, flowers, rainbows, butterflies, barnyard animals, etc.

In my attempt at making them look a bit more grown-up I decided to try my hand at making some chocolate accents to garnish the cupcakes. Here’s a tutorial if you’re facing the same dilemma.

What you'll need:

Chocolate - chips, chunks, chopped up bars, whatever you like really

Saucepan

Glass bowl to fit over the saucepan

A second glass bowl

Piping bag or Sandwich bag

Scissors

Cutting board covered in foil

Step 1: Temper the Chocolate

Tempering your chocolate helps ensure that your chocolate accents end up hardening properly and will have a satisfying "snap" when you break them as opposed to being bendy or floppy. There are several sites and videos that explain how to temper chocolate and they all seem to be slightly different so here's what worked for me.

In a saucepan bring a small amount of water to a simmer and rest a glass bowl over top. Add your chocolate and stir constantly as it melts.

Bring the melted chocolate up to a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Remove the bowl from the heat, dry the bottom and transfer the melted chocolate to a clean, cool glass bowl.

Stir the chocolate and allow it to cool to a temperature between 88 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. As you can see in the picture below my thermometer only goes as low as 100 degrees so I had to guesstimate.

There, now your chocolate is tempered. Quickly move on to Step 2 before your chocolate cools too much.

Step 2: Create Chocolate Accents

Fill a piping bag or sandwich bag with your melted chocolate.

Cut the tip. Cut a small amount off first and test the size, you can always cut further up if the hole isn't big enough.

Now for the fun part, get creative and pipe whatever designs you want onto a foil covered cutting board.

Once you're finished, put the cutting board in the fridge to allow the chocolate accents to harden, about an hour or so. 

Gently lift the chocolate accents off of the cutting board and voila, you're finished.

Now you can add them to cakes or cupcakes, or whatever suits your fancy. If you're not going to use them right away simply store them in a resealable container in your fridge until you're ready to use them.

Yum-O!

Happy Monday!