Mickey Mouse Caramel Apples

My best friend Sarah and I went to Disneyland last year and we saw these adorable Mickey and Minnie Caramel/Candied Apples in one of the Sweets Shops.  After taking about a bunch pictures of them, we tried to recreate them for a birthday party our friend was throwing for her son. Just wanted to share the idea with anyone out there throwing a Disney themed party, or anyone that thinks these are just too cute not to make as a fun weekend project!

Here are the original Disney Apples we saw during our visit:

For this project you will need:

• Large Apples
• Some type of a stick (if you can find some that are round and thick enough to support the weight of the apple that is ideal, maybe something like a dowel you buy at Michael's or any home improvement store)
• Caramel - DO NOT GET THE CARAMEL YOU USE FOR DIPPING SLICES OF APPLES INTO!!! It will not harden and will be a huge mess....trust me, we learned the hard way!
• Melting Chocolate
• Jumbo Marshmallows
• Jelly beans for the buttons on Mickey's pants
• M&M's for the button on Minnie's Skirt
• Red Sprinkles
• Some type of ribbon for the base of the stick if you plan to make Minnie Mouse Apples (you can use real ribbon or an edible item)
• A Double Boiler to melt the chocolate
• Wax Paper to set the finished product on
• Cookie Sheet
• I also had some ribbon that we used to tie the little flags/bows on the tops of the sticks just for extra decoration

Step-by-Step:

1. Wash Apples and remove stem.

2. Stick the stick into the top of the apple.

3. After melting your caramel in your double boiler, use a tiny bit to secure two marshmallows on their sides for the ears.

4. Dip the apple into the caramel and set on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper (you may also be able to drizzle the caramel over with a ladle or spoon, making sure to coat the entire apple, but we used the dipping method).

5. Let the caramel harden.

6. After melting your chocolate in your double boiler, dip apple into melted chocolate and set on cookie sheet covered in wax paper while chocolate hardens.

7. To create the pants/skirt/bottoms, dip only the bottom half of the apple back into the chocolate and cover with sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet so the sprinkles will stick, set back on cookie sheet covered in wax paper.

8. Take a tiny bit of melted chocolate and use it like glue to stick the jellybeans or M&M's in the place you want them on the pants/skirt/bottoms.

9. Affix bows at base of stick if you are doing the Minnie Mouse Version.

Let it all harden and dry, then add any other decoration you would like...for example, little paper flags on the stick, or bows, name tags, etc.

Here are some pictures of our finished product (Please keep in mind it was our first time doing this, and we did A LOT of of guessing and trial and error, next time they will hopefully be perfect) - Also, we didn't have Jelly Beans for Mickey's buttons so we used white M&M's:

DIY - Canvas Tote Bags

A few weeks ago I made these little canvas tote bags for my mom and sister as a fun project one night when I was bored.

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, my mom is in a cake decorating class and has become very into baking...so hers was a cake theme and I figured she could use it to carry supplies to her baking classes.  My sisters was a Fleur de Lis (something you will probably see a lot on my blog...since I am obsessed with it).  I bought both images as digital downloads off of Etsy.com ---Side note -Etsy is hands down one of the best sites ever created I swear--- okay, back to the bags, I printed them on to iron-on transfers that I bought at WalMart ($9.98 for 6 sheets), and ironed them on to canvas tote bags, which I also bought at WalMart (I think I got a package of three for under $6.00). After I had the images on the bags I used some Jewel-It glue by Alene's to glue rhinestones onto the design. You can also find all of these supplies at Michaels, Joann's and other craft stores, as well as online.

Here are a few tips:

• Make sure you buy transfers specifically for either dark or light fabric, it makes a difference.
• Make sure you print anything with writing as a mirror-image, the option will be in your printer preferences, so that when you iron it on the letters don't turn out backwards.
• Cut away as much unprinted are away from the transfer as possible so that only your design is left.
• The canvas bags I bought were pre-washed and ready to use, but a lot of things you do with fabric will require washing and drying before hand to eliminate any chances of shrinking and distortion of your image later on.
• Don't use steam with the iron, press down and hold the iron firmly in the same place for at least 30 seconds...it only says 20 on the package I had but it definitely needed more time when I did it.

Here are my finished products:

The front of my mom's bag (there are tiny pink rhinestones on some of the dots on the cake)

The back (I found this quote online and just typed it up in Word and then printed it...since it had words on it I had to remember to print it as a mirror image)

My sisters bag (there are black rhinestones on the five circles, they're just hard to see (I need to start using my SLR and not my iPhone for pictures, it's just such a pain when I'm in a hurry though)

This was such an easy, fast and inexpensive gift to make! I think I'm going to make these as part of the gift basket I am going to give my bridesmaids too!

Happy Crafting :)