Living Locurto - Free Printables, How To DIY Ideas, Crafts & Party Ideas.» Christmas

Cherry Jello Jigglers – Party Recipe

Amy — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:59:35 +0000

I hope you are having a fantastic Holiday and ready to ring in the New Year! My last-minute Christmas party was a lot of fun. I made the cutest Jello Jiggler treats that would be perfect for any party or an after school treat.

If you are on Pinterest like me, then you might have seen this cool idea with the cherries in jello jigglers.

I love my Wilton Star Silicone Molds and finally got another chance to use them.

For these jello jigglers, I used Knox gelatin and juice. You could use any flavor of Jello.

To keep the treats from sticking to the mold, I lightly sprayed it with cooking spray then rubbed the corners with a paper towel. You can’t taste the spray and it made the jello pop out easy.

The bottom layer is Knox gelatin, pomegranate juice and pineapple juice. I let that layer cool in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes while I made the top layer with white peach cranberry peach juice cocktail and more Knox gelatin.

According to this recipe, I cut the bottom off of the cherries and let them drain. When the bottom layer of the jigglers was cool, I added the cherries and poured the top layer around them.

Add sprinkles before serving and listen to your guests oooh and ahhh over them!

I laughed that pretty much every parent thought they were spiked and for the adults. So if you’re having a New Year’s Eve party, you could make fancy jello shots and serve with some glitter sprinkles!

I think this is one of my new favorite easy treats to serve at parties! Get the entire recipe with detailed directions here.

What is your favorite treat to serve at parties?

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Santa Gift Tags from The North Pole {Free Printables}

Amy — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:41:05 +0000

I just got another great gift from The North Pole, thanks to my Elf on The Shelf, Peter! He’s such a sneaky little elf and is great about giving me the goods.

Can you believe these are the REAL tags that Santa uses for his gifts? I’m so excited to share these with you!!

Only a few more days until the big guy comes to visit all of the good boys and girls of the world. I’m thrilled that Peter snuck out three files from Santa’s computer! One is all red and white, one is red, green and white and the third file is a giant tag that Santa must use for those BIG gifts.

Download the Santa Gift Tags for free and enjoy!

Red & White Santa Tags (1400)

Green & Red Santa Gift Tags (1345)

Giant Red & White Santa Gift Tag (1217)

Please do not use for commercial or resale uses or Santa will put you on the naughty list. Use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the tags.

Don’t miss out on my other free gift tags as well.

Are you done shopping? I think I can finally say a big YES to that. Yay!

The Pioneer Woman Holiday Gift Tags {Free Printable}

Amy — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:06:05 +0000

If you love Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, then you must watch her Food Network Holiday Special tonight (5 pm central) where she cooks a big dinner and makes yummy cinnamon rolls for Holiday gifts. I was excited to be asked to design gift tags for the show!

The Holiday gift packaging turned out so cute with red bandana fabric and my tags. Whether you live on a ranch or the city, I think this is a fun gift idea for anyone.

Of course what’s inside them is even better! Ree makes some awesome homemade cinnamon rolls. Yum!

You can use my tags for all kinds of Holiday gifts. There are a few round ones that would be great for table decor as well, such as cupcake toppers or little signs on a table.

To download these Free Printable Tags and Ree’s Cinnamon Roll recipe, head over to The Pioneer Woman’s site.

Watch the Holiday Special:

Monday, December 19, 6pm/5c
Thursday, December 22, 12pm/11c

I also made Ree some pretty gift cards for her new cookbook that comes out this March.

From the samples I’ve seen, it looks like a fabulous book! You can pre-order her book for gifts and give my cards to your friends to let them know it’s been ordered for them.

Yes, it’s been a busy few weeks around here! A big congrats to Ree for all of her success! Let me know if you spy my tags when you watch the show.

Check back tomorrow for a great giveaway to help with your Holiday shopping!! Yay!

DIY Snowman Photo Ornaments

Amy — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:30:34 +0000

When I saw this adorable snowman ornament idea submitted by Kristen, I knew exactly what I would do with my kid’s photos! This is the perfect craft for kids and great gifts for family members as well.

I’ll let Kristen explain exactly how she made these… take it away Kristen…

How to make Snowman Photo Ornaments

One of our holiday traditions is to make ornaments with the kids pictures on them. It is something my sister started 10 years ago when she had her first child and the rest of the family has picked up as we each began having kids. It’s fun to see the different ornaments everyone puts out each year and extra fun to pull out ornaments from years past to see how everyone has grown.

I love bulb ornaments and kept tossing around ideas of how I could make the boys annual ornaments using both a photo and the “design your own” ornaments. My solution – mod podge! I was very pleased with how they came out and hope that you like them too.

Supply list:

Blank Bulb Ornaments (“Design your own” ornaments)
Photos printed on regular paper and cut out (I used a 1″ circle punch)
Mod Podge (I used glossy for these ornaments)
Acrylic Paint and/or Paint Pens (I used white acrylic paint and light blue, black, brown, and white paint pens)
Sponge Paint Brush (I used the circle sponge brushes available at most craft stores)
Ribbon or Ornament Hooks
Miscellaneous accessories (optional, I used light ivory glitter tulle and snowflake buttons)

Note: Mod podge works with photo paper as well but since I was working with a rounded surface I thought that the stiffer photo paper would be less desirable.

Instructions for a Snowman Ornament
1. Mod podge the photo onto the ornament in the appropriate spot and let it dry completely.

2. Using a round sponge brush and white acrylic paint, paint the snowman body below the mod podged photo by dabbing the sponge brush to form two dots on top of each other. Using a sponge paint brush and dabbing instead of rubbing helps give a textured look that resembles snow.

3. Using the same brush and paint, use just the outside edge of the brush to dab around the photos edge completing the head of the snowman with the photo as the face.

4. Using the paint pens, doodle as you see fit. I added the snowman staples of twig arms and coal buttons as well as a hat or scarf, dots for snow, the boys names, and the year.

5. (optional) Accessorize as you see fit. I chose to stuff the inside of the ornaments with tulle by cutting it into strips and stuffing them in one by one until I liked how it looked.

Since the ornaments are transparent this helped add a little something in the middle. I love this step came out! I think pulled cotton balls with a little glitter would probably look equally great. The second accessory I added (and think I could of done without) was snowflake buttons that I attached to the loop on the ornament top.

6. Add ribbon or an ornament hook.
7. Hang ornament and enjoy!

I’m looking forward to making many different versions of these in future years and am even tossing around the idea of incorporating both boys on one ornament next year.

Thanks so much for submitting such a cute craft idea Kristen!

Visit Kristen’s blog Get Some Fun Out of Life for more great craft ideas. Do you have a fun craft idea? Visit the submissions page to find out how to get featured on Living Locurto.

Elf On The Shelf – Fun Idea

Amy — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:26:29 +0000

If you have an Elf on the Shelf, he’s probably a pretty fun little guy! Our elf, Peter, delivered a great present to us a few weeks ago and I wanted to share it with you!

Remember when I told you our elf brought me a disk with Santa’s stationery? This is when he did that, along with some magic seeds!!

This is what his letter said… (You might want to show your elf. Tell him to copy this text and insert it into Santa’s Stationery if he wants to do the same thing!)

Dear____________,

YOUR ELF’s NAME HERE has told me you have been very good! He was so excited to get back to your house that he wanted to bring you a present. Because you have been behaving nicely, I told him he could take you some of his magic elf seeds.

These seeds are very special and you must be EXTRA good for them to grow!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Follow these instructions carefully:

Plant your seeds in a big bowl of sugar. Then sprinkle with salt, a little each day.
Please take note, if you sprinkle too much they will just fade away.

Be extra good and very patient for the magic to work on the seeds.
For if you misbehave, you might break the magic. I hope you will do good deeds.

If you follow these directions and behave just right.
You should get something special in two short nights.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you keep being good, I will bring you both a special present on Christmas Eve.

Love,
Santa

We waited two nights. (Oh, that was HARD!) Then look at what grew that afternoon? WOW! Magic cookies!

This HAD to be magic from the North Pole, because there is no way Mommy could make such beautiful gingerbread cookies!!

I have been looking around the internet and saw someone’s elf do this, so maybe our Peter is friends with their elf?

If you are looking for more fun ideas to show your elf, check out these 25 fun and easy ideas in my free “Elf Posing Guide“.

This includes 25 cute photos sent in by Living Locurto readers.