My Yearly Valentine – DIY Cards

You are in luck – we have a new fabulous contributor today, Helena. She is sharing her crafty knowledge with us for Valentine’s Day Cards. Since Valentine’s Day is only five days away it is time to get your valentines-ducks in a row. Helena’s post will help you spread some love to your nearest and dearest this holiday.

Get your craft on! XO – Olivia

My Yearly Valentine – DIY Cards

I am a strong believer in letting those you love know it, so I say “I love you” to my friends and siblings every time we talk. Life is precious and I don’t want to ever regret not saying it. Every January since 2003 I have sent handmade Valentine’s Day cards to my closest friends and family to make sure they know I care.

Each year, I am inspired by a new theme – sailing, woodland animals, treasure hunts, and the list goes on. I typically send 15-20 cards yearly. This year, I came across acorn garland (that could be deconstructed and used as individual acorns) at Paper Source and found a catchy quote online that resonated with me – “The tallest oak in the forest was once just a nut that held its ground.”  For the personal touch, I added a note about our friendships being grounded in strong roots.  To finish it off, I stamped a cute heart to the front of the acorn. Voila- 12 cards complete in less than 4 hours! 

This year, to share in the fun I invited a few others over for a V-Day craft day. Coming across the pre-cut cards made hosting a party easy.  Fast assembly allowed me time to socialize and get my cards done. The guests brought some of their own materials for cards with them and I provided tools, glitter, papers, stamps, and scissors. I kept the food simple, a gourmet cheese plate with fresh bread, grapes and gluten free crackers allowed guests to help themselves.  For drinks, I served coffee and wine for the early afternoon event.

Everyone had a great time! Each expressing their own individuality through their cards to share with the ones they love this Valentine’s Day.

   

I hope this post inspires you to spend this dreary weather crafting!

Helena

Homemade Butter

Rachel with her husband-to-be Matt on one of their globe trotting journeys.

We have a fun project in store for you today. Our newest, and totally tremendous, contributor to Hammer Sparkle Chalk, Rachel, is sharing her technique for making butter. Yep, you heard correctly, we are making butter! Just in time for those holiday parties, you can infuse your butter with herbs or leave it plain. It will boost you up to “awesome gift giver” status this holiday season.

Enjoy – XO Olivia

Making Homemade Butter

Today we’re going to make our own butter! It sounds ridiculous, but making your own butter is really easy and fun – and while it may not be practical for your everyday butter usage, it’s definitely a show-stopping treat to impress your guests. The other great thing about it is that you can control the quality of the cream you use, and you can customize it at the end.

You’ll only need a couple of items to make your own butter:

• Heavy cream or whipping cream
• ice water
• mixing bowl
• hand mixer (or stand mixer if you have one)
• spatula.

Step One: Start by pouring your heavy cream into your mixing bowl. There’s no exact amount of cream that you need to use, but the amount of butter that you end up with will be about half the amount of the cream that you start with. Today I used 2 cups of cream and ended up with about a cup of butter. TIP: You’ll save yourself some clean up if you use a generously sized mixing bowl.

With your mixer on a medium-high speed, start mixing your cream. After a few minutes, you’ll notice your cream start to thicken and form peaks. If you stopped at this point you’d have whipped cream – it’s tempting to stop here and make yourself a delicious wintry drink (Hot Chocolate Covered Cherry Holiday Drink anyone?) but I promise it’s worth it to keep going!

Step Two: Keep mixing, and mixing, and mixing. At some point during this process you’re going to think I’m lying to you. You will notice some changes in your cream – it’s going to break down a bit and start to form small blobs, the color is going to turn from white to yellow, and eventually it’s going to separate into clumps of butter and a watery liquid that settles in the bottom of the bowl. It takes about ten minutes from start to finish. This liquid is called buttermilk – it’s not going to look like the buttermilk that you buy in the store, but you can save it for other uses if you like. It will last up to a week in a sealed container in your fridge. You’ll have quite a bit of buttermilk in the bottom of the bowl – remember that you’re going to end up with about half as much butter as cream. At this point, stop mixing and pour off the buttermilk.

Step Three: Wash the butter. To wash your butter, you’ll need ice water and a spatula. Pour about ½ cup of the ice water over the butter in your mixing bowl, and using your spatula press your butter together into one ball, and then around in the water to squeeze out as much of the liquid that’s left in the butter as possible. I usually do this two or three times, pouring off the water each time, until it’s mostly clear rather than cloudy. You really want to knead the butter with your spatula to press out as much liquid as you can.

Step Four: You did it! Now that you’ve got your butter, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to a week. You can add salt if you want salted butter or you can get even fancier and make a compound butter by adding fresh herbs and spices.

Now that you have mastered the art of the electric mixer, are you looking for some calorie burning, kid entertaining butter? Look no further – 

If you’re looking to burn some extra calories while making your butter or want to make this a fun activity for kids – make your butter in a mason jar! Pour your cream into a mason jar (don’t fill it more than halfway full), screw the lid on tightly and start shaking. This method will take you about 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how much cream your use, how big your jar is, and how vigorously you can shake the jar. Once your butter and buttermilk have separated, follow the same instructions for washing the butter. I’ve done it this way in the past – it’s fun and while it’s not as easy as using a mixer, it really makes you appreciate your butter!

Rachel

Hot Chocolate Covered Cherry Holiday Drink

Tis the season for holiday parties and the chance to entertain with style. Today you are in for a treat (literally) since Danielle is sharing a drink version of her favorite Christmas candy – chocolate covered cherries. Yum! As I was reading this post I was salivating and wishing I had a cocktail with me right then. Never fear –this cocktail is the feature drink for Christmas Craft Day this weekend! XO – Olivia

There’s nothing like a classic mug of hot chocolate, especially during the holiday season. Really, what could be better? (If you responded, “Nothing!” I have to tell you, this was a test and you just failed.) The answer is boozy hot chocolate topped with spiked homemade whipped cream!

With today’s trend in flavored vodkas and so many delicious liqueurs to choose from, flavor options for a good adults-only hot chocolate are practically limitless. I really had to reign myself in and narrow it down to create only one recipe for this post. Let me tell you, it was a tough decision. Caramel, mint, orange, cinnamon, raspberry, marshmallow, coffee, coconut, and vanilla are some of the contenders that didn’t make the cut. The winner? Cherry hot chocolate to be served with an amaretto flavored whipped cream. Yum, right?! I thought so.

Growing up, my favorite holiday candy was chocolate covered cherries. To this day, it remains a treat I look forward to, and sometimes even still get, in my stocking from Santa (if I manage to stay off the naughty list)!

This holiday season I wanted to capture my favorite childhood Christmas candy in a beverage that adults can enjoy on Christmas morning (whether they were naughty or nice). So today, I give you my take on a chocolate covered cherry in beverage form. Simple, delicious, and elevated with a light topping of amaretto whipped cream and sprinkled with cherry-almond dark chocolate. On an average day, who doesn’t love a good cherry almond, or chocolate almond flavor combo, but Chocolate, cherry and almond?! Get in my belly.

Adults Only Chocolate Covered Cherry Hot Chocolate

Makes: 2 drinks

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Part One: Amaretto Whipped Cream

I would recommend making the whipped cream first so it’s ready to go once your hot chocolate is warmed to the perfect temperature and ready to serve.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup amaretto liqueur

Step One: Whip the cream with the whisk attachment of a stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer until soft peaks form. TIP: If you place the bowl and whisk in the freezer for 5 minutes before whipping the cream, it helps speed up the process.

Step Two: Add amaretto to the soft peaks and whip for another 10-15 seconds, until combined.

Step Three: Cover and place the bowl of whipped cream in the refrigerator until you are ready to top your hot chocolate.

Part Two: Chocolate Covered Cherry Hot Chocolate

Now for the mainstay, the hot chocolate. This recipe call for less sugar than you would normally use in a good old-fashioned hot chocolate. Since the liqueurs each add their own sweetness, it’s important to hold back on the initial sugar so that you don’t over-sweeten your drink.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups milk
• 1 scant tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons cherry flavored vodka
• 4 tablespoons Baileys Chocolate Cherry liqueur
• Chocolate for garnish (I used a Theo Cherry and Almond Dark Chocolatebar)

Step One: In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the milk, sugar, and cocoa powder. Whisk the mixture constantly until the cocoa is dissolved in the milk, and the mixture is steaming (about 5-6 minutes). TIP: Be carful not to burn the milk by using too high a heat or not stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Step Two: Divide the vodka and Baileys into two mugs – 1 tablespoon of vodka and 2 tablespoons of Baileys in each mug.

Step Three: Pour hot chocolate into the mugs until there is about an inch left at the top (careful not to overfill).

Step Four: Top each mug with whipped cream and chocolate chunks for garnish. TIP: I took a rolling pin to my Theo chocolate bar to crush it into small pieces (place the chocolate bar in a zip-lock bag and roll away), but if you’re feeling fancy, chocolate shavings would work beautifully as well!

Step Five: Enjoy your Adults Only Chocolate Covered Cherry Hot Chocolate!

For this recipe, I chose my favorite flavors because, hey, I’m writing this post so I do what I want. Would you like suggestions for your own boozy hot chocolate recipe that includes your favorite flavors? Write me via the comments link above and I’ll help come up with your perfect holiday spiked hot chocolate recipe! You guys, I have so many ideas!

Cheers! – Danielle