Easter Bunny Chalkboard Place Cards

Hey guys, I am SO excited to be one of the newest members of the Sizzix design team!  My first tutorial is live on the Sizzix blog, and I'd love for you to go take a look…

I'm showing how easy it is to make wood chalkboard bunny place cards for Easter.  They are a great way to personalize your Easter table!  You can check out the full tutorial here.

xo, Laura

Orange Grapefruit Ginger Ale Drink

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #TENways  http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Today in San Diego I was shocked when the temperature hit the early 90's… in April!  The heat made me think about summer, which made me think of bathing suits, which made me think of trying on bathing suits… ugh!  Now is definitely time to stop procrastinating, and time to be getting ready for bathing suit season.  I am not a dieter, but I do like to make subtle healthy changes, and swap out some of my food choices for better, lower calorie options.

One of my favorite recent changes has been drinking this delicious orange grapefruit grenadine ginger ale drink.  It is SO refreshingly delicious!  I used Canada Dry TEN that I found at Walmart, which only has ten calories for 12 ounces of soda.  I'm not sure how they packed in all that flavor with only ten calories, but this soda tastes just like the full calorie version.  

To add some fruity flavor to the ginger ale, I added freshly squeezed orange juice, grapefruit juice, and a little bit of grenadine.  The result is a refreshing, cool drink that will make you forget all about your favorite full calorie soda!  

Orange Grapefruit Ginger Ale:

• Canada Dry TEN
• One grapefruit
• One orange
• Grenadine
• Ice

1.  Fill your ice with glass, then fill almost to the top with Canada Dry TEN.

2.  Cut the grapefruit and orange into quarters, and squeeze one quarter of each fruit into your drink.  Add a splash of grenadine syrup, and stir.

Enjoy!  You'll forget all about the fact that your drink is low in calories, and you'll be on your way to buying that bathing suit in no time!

There are Four Ten Calorie DPSG products, including 7up, Sunkist, A&W, and Canada Dry.  Although these drinks have less calories, the full flavor means that you aren't sacrificing taste for calories.  Be sure to follow along on Facebook and Twitter to hear the latest with these delicious drinks.

Now through April 17th,  you can get a coupon for .$0.50 off of the purchase of TWO 2 Liter bottles or TWO 4-pack cans of 7UP TEN, A&W TEN, Canada Dry TEN, RC TEN or Sunkist TEN soda at Walmart. If you share that digital coupon via email, FB, or Twitter, you will get a $1.50 off coupon instead, which makes for a great deal. Offer is available through April 17th while supplies last. Click here for the coupon.

xo, Laura

Key Lime Fresh Fruit Tart and Easter Brunch Ideas

I am a member of the World Market Trendsetter Tribe.  This Easter Brunch is brought to you by World Market as part of their Hop it Forward Sweepstakes. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.  #HopItForward

Can you believe that Easter is just two short weeks away?  I've been doing a lot of prepping and planning for Easter, and have come up with some great ideas to get you ready for the big day.

An Easter brunch is a wonderful way to celebrate and spend time with family.  I'll be showing you how to make your table look amazing, as well as show you how to make a delicious key lime fresh fruit tart that is sure to wow everyone!

I recently did some shopping at World Market (which I do pretty much weekly), and scored some great Easter finds for my brunch.  The fresh white tablecloth I bought was the perfect backdrop and blank canvas for my tableware and food.  I love the pretty pastel Easter plates, and couldn't resist buying the matching pastel egg cups.  

Inside the egg cups are my gold leaf Easter eggs that I made last week, and just can't get enough of.  I used the same champagne flutes I used for my Oscar's party, except this time I filled them with my favorite Italian soda- orange mango passion fruit flavor… so delicious!

Because eggs are a huge part of Easter, I thought the egg plate would be a great way to serve deviled eggs for my brunch.  There were 12 round openings for me to place my eggs in, and the actual dish is shaped like an egg… brilliant!  

One of my favorite table decorations are the gorgeous purple and white flowers.  My kids asked me who the flowers were for when they first saw them in their vases, because they thought they were real.  They bring a fresh, colorful look to the table, and for less than the cost of fresh flowers, I can use them year round!

When I find something that I love, I buy it in multiples, which explains why I bought three of these bunny egg holders, as well as three of these bunny jars with turquoise lids.  Because my kids aren't Jordan almond fans, and I am, I made sure to buy those to fill up these jars ;)  I want them to last more than a day, you know!  I separated the candy by color, and then layered two different colors in each jar.  

I made some tasty carrot spice scones, and shaped them to look like carrots, complete with a green top! You would never believe that these scones came from a mix… they are SO good.  You can actually see the little orange bits of real carrots in the mix, as well as the warm flavor of the cinnamon and nutmeg.

Fresh juicy strawberries are in season right now, so I decided to dress them up a bit by making a key lime tart with fresh fruit on top.  I even whipped up a quick key lime glaze to coat the fruit top that gave it a little tart kick that was delicious!  I'll let you in on a little secret, too… it was very quick and easy to make!

I like to make food from scratch, but I've found some great shortcuts that helped me make this key lime fruit tart in almost no time!  First, I used a pre-made frozen crust.  I am not a crust girl, I am a filling girl, so this shortcut was just fine for me, plus it saved me hours of trying to make the perfect pastry dough in the kitchen.  If you can't live without a fresh pastry crust, then go for it!  Either way will work great.

My next time saver was to use this key lime fruit tart filling I picked up at World Market.  It comes already made in a jar.  You simply scoop it out of the jar straight into your cooked crust.  The filling has a nice strong key lime flavor that is irresistible.  

Key Lime Fresh Fruit Tart

Ingredients:

• Pre-made frozen pie crust OR homemade pastry dough 
• Key lime fruit tart filling
• Fresh fruit: strawberries, kiwi, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries are all great options!

For the glaze:  (optional)

• 1/4 cup lime juice (you could use less for a more subtle flavor)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1.  Follow the directions to bake your specified crust, or make your own pastry dough.  Make sure to poke holes throughout the crust to allow the air to escape and avoid air bubbles.  Bake, remove from oven, and let cool.

2.  Add the lime filling to the inside of the crust, and smooth out the top to form a flat surface.  Slice the fruit into thin, even slices.  Try to choose fruit that is a similar size, like using all medium sized strawberries, so that the top has a uniform look.  Add the fruit to the top of the tart.  Refrigerate.

3.  You could stop here, but I wanted my tart to have a little bit of a tangy lime kick to it, so I made a simple lime glaze.  I found a bottle of key lime juice at World Market that was perfect!  Combine the lime juice, sugar, and cornstarch together in a small saucepan.  Cook on medium heat until the sauce thickens, which will be about 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.  

Use a pastry brush to add the glaze to the fruit on top of the tart.

4.  Refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve.  I refrigerated my tart until, but when I cut into the first piece, it was bit thinner than I preferred.  I simply placed it in the freezer for a couple hours, and it came out perfect!  

World Market has a new sweepstakes going on right now through Friday, April 18th.  All you have to do is spread Random Acts of Hoppiness, and then enter for a chance to win a $2,000 World Market gift card and a year's supply of Divine Chocolate.  Three runner up prizes will win a $500 World Market gift card and Divine Chocolate.  

Be sure to check here every day and World Market will share new Random Acts of Hoppiness with you!  You might even see my random act, which was to pay for the person behind me at Starbucks.  Help World Market meet their goal of 5,000,000 hops, and they'll Hop it Forward by donating 50,000 meals to regional food banks!  Very cool.  You can also earn bonus hops by sharing your Random Acts of Hoppiness.  Be sure to enter the contest here!

xo, Laura

Gold Leaf Marbled Easter Eggs and DIY Bird Nest

I had an idea in my head of what these gold leaf marbled Easter eggs would look like, but I had no idea how gorgeous the finished product would be, and how much I would LOVE them!

These pretty little eggs look much harder to make than they really are.  I made a natural looking bird nest for them to go in that is super easy too…  Together they make a perfect pair, and I'm sharing the directions for how to make both the gold leaf Easter eggs and the bird nest on the Darice blog today.  I'd love for you to stop by and say hi!

xo, Laura

Tissue Paper Cupcake Toppers

This past weekend my darling daughter turned twelve (I'm till not sure how she grew so fast), and to celebrate, we had a beach bonfire birthday complete with dinner, s'mores, and tasty cupcakes.  I wanted the cupcakes to be extra special for her birthday, so I came up with some fun cupcake toppers made from tissue paper that I just love!

The idea for these came after I finished a chalkboard and tissue paper tassel garland for the party, and realized that I had tons of tissue paper left over, and a lot of colorful cupcakes that needed a little something more on top.

I just love the way these little beauties look they are exploding at the top of each cupcake… almost like a candle, or better yet, fireworks, on top of each one!

They are fun and quick to make, but are impressive to all your cupcake eaters.

Supplies:

• Tissue paper (I used five sheets in five different colors)
• Scissors
• Martha Stewart fringe scissors
• Glue gun
• Sucker sticks or toothpicks

Directions:

1.  Stack the tissue paper all in a nice neat pile, and cut a rectangle out that measures about 3.5" high and as long as you can make it.  Fold the rectangle in half horizontally.

2.  Place the folded side up.  Using the fringe scissors (which I believe are one of THE coolest inventions ever created), cut starting from the side opposite the folded edge, up to about an inch away from the fold.  

Use your scissors to cut that little section of fringed tissue paper off.

3.  Apply a thin line of hot glue to the folded end of the tissue paper.  Place sucker stick or toothpick carefully onto the hot glue, and press down while twirling the stick in your fingers so that the tissue paper is wrapped all the way around the stick or toothpick.  Be careful because that glue is hot.  Twirl the stick from the bottom to fluff out the tissue paper fringes, and be proud of your cute little cupcake toppers!

These are so easy to customize in any party or team colors, and are just too darn cute not to make.  I put the cupcakes inside these cute paper cupcake wrappers from Wholeport.

Here they are on the beach this past weekend at the party… you might recognize this photo if you follow me on Instagram.  If you don't already, I'd love for you to follow along!

xo, Laura