Decoupaged Egg Ornaments

Here's my latest handmade ornament. And one of the best parts about these is that the materials were 100% free... so nothing came out of my $20 budget.

I started with a coupon for a free dozen eggs. And blew them all out so I was left with just the empty shells.

Then I colored them using some leftover dye tablets I kept from an easter egg kit.

I often buy more than one easter egg kit to get the perfect combo of colors. I keep the leftovers because you never know when you might need something to dye eggs with - case in point Christmas ornaments. I had three tablets leftover- emerald green, dark blue (almost navy), and pink. I really wanted a nice teal blue so I played around with mixing different amounts of blue and green until I got the right shade.

Since the eggs were blown out I needed to weigh them down with a small glass while dyeing them.

Once the eggs were dry I punched snowflakes out of scrap paper, glittery holiday cards, and tin foil. Then decoupaged the flakes onto the eggs.

Last but not least I glued some loops of scrap yarn into the eggs for hangers.

And since these ornaments were 100% free (yippee) they took $0 from my budget and I still have $10.27.

Heat Miser and Snow Miser Cake Pops

Each year when the classic animated Christmas shows come on television, I look forward to the Heat Miser and Snow Miser. They are my all time favorite characters from these holiday specials!

So when I thought about a sweet treat for December I just knew I HAD to try making the Misers into cake pops.

The process wasn't nearly as bad as the last time I tried to make cake pops. It still wasn't easy- but overall I'd say it went much smoother. (Although I really don't know how Bakerella does it, she must have super powers!)

Here's what I did.

Shaped the cake balls.

I used spice cake for both. It feels/tastes like the holidays to me. Plus I thought it was a good flavor to represent heat miser. If you're feeling brave/not lazy like me, and want to use two different flavors I think chocolate and mint would be perfect for Snow Miser.

Dip the pops

Dip Snow Miser's nose again to get the icicles on his nose. You can also use a toothpick to add a few more.

Heat Miser has a cinnamon drop for a nose (nice and spicy)

Snow Miser gets a dip into white chocolate for his hair. I also used white chocolate to make the eyes and teeth for both misers.

Heat Miser gets red ears. Once they were set I used a toothpick to make his crazy hair out of layers and layers of chocolate all built up. I also used a toothpick to give him his angry eyebrows.

I painted the details around the mouths and eyes (black for Snow Miser and orange for Heat Miser) using a liner brush and some chocolate coloring.

If you're thinking about making these- there is a warning I should pass on!

Creating these guys results in having their catchy song in your head for at least two days. You'll be singing it to yourself and others, humming it, and even dancing a bit while making them.

Cue the trombones... because the song is still stuck in my head!