Cotton Candy

The art of making cotton candy

Watermelon and blue raspberry cotton candy

Today I found out that making cotton candy isn't as easy as it looks. After a few tries ( ok, quite a few tries) I finally came up with what cotton candy should look like. The trick is not to place the paper cone down to close to the heating element. Its more of a grab, roll and pull motion above the bowl that works. With my first attempt the machine wasn't hot enough and it had to many crystals in it. The second and third times were better because it was hotter. I finally figured out that I need to pull the sugar "web" way out of the bowl instead of keeping the cone inside the bowl and than twirl and spin  the sugar "web". This made it more light and fluffy instead of pressed together.  We bought a small cotton candy machine today with the birthday party in mind, but we now have lots of plans for it. It takes 2 hard candies to spin a decent size cotton candy. This time I used Jolly Rancher hard candy. The cotton candy tasted just like the flavor of the candy. My favorite was the grape. Any hard candy can be used, even in different combinations. Sugar free candy is a good option also. I plan trying a root beer flavor and a cream flavor candy to see if it taste like root beer float (lol).  I really think the kids will get a kick out of this.

Mini Top Hats

Hi everyone,

I decided that I would share some of the mini top hats that I made for my daughters birthday party a little early. I really like the way they turned out. I was looking for ideas on making a "Mad Hatter" hat for the Alice in Wonderland birthday party when I ran across  mini top hats on the internet. Right away all kinds of idea popped in my head and I thought how perfect this would be for the girls to wear at the party. Again I used most of the stuff I had on hand to make them. I plan on placing them at each girls place setting  at the tea party "Mad Hatter Tea Party" so they can wear it during the tea. For the boys they will wear a mad hatter hat. I used fabric, flowers, feather, ribbons and two clips each for attaching to hair to the side of the head (I will be posting pictures of the girls actually wearing it during the party).

Pop Top Tab Bracelet

Welcome back. I want to share the fun project that I did today. As you can see on the picture it is a bracelet. It is made out of pop tabs of all things. My niece asked me if I knew how to make pop top tab bracelets. I had to say "hummm, what are you talking about?". After using google I found out what she was talking about. There are a lot of different designs and ways to make them, some are really cute and some not so much. Since I never made one before I wanted to make a pattern that looked fairly easy. I think it turned out rather cute. I used the supplies I had on hand so this one was made out of ribbon. I am now making another one with a criss- cross pattern. I am going to experiment with other claps to see which one I like best. This one I left the ribbons long and tied it into a bow around her wrist. 
I am going to try one that is crocheted around with different colored crochet thread. I was surprised how many different items can be made with these tabs. Belts, jewelry, purses, coasters and even vests. I think that I will stick with bracelets.