Brown Sugar Molded Chocolate Sharks

I recently saw this post over on the Rise & Shine blog on how to make chocolate molds using brown sugar. I thought it would be fun to try out some chocolate sharks for Shark Week! This is a great way to try out molding your own chocolates because it's really inexpensive (you don't need to buy any molds, only brown sugar!).

To try this at home you will need:

Brown sugar (I used light brown sugar)
a container to hold your sugar
3-D objects to make your mold with (I used plastic sharks)
chocolate (if you want something more colorful, you could test out some colored candy melts)
a microwave safe container to melt your chocolate in

Start by packing your brown sugar evenly into a clean container. Then firmly press your 3-D objects into the sugar, about half way up the object, to create your mold.

Next, chop up your chocolate and put it in your microwave safe dish. Microwave the chocolate at 20 second intervals, stirring between each interval, until the chocolate is melted and smooth (for me this took about 1 minute for a 1/2 cup of chopped chocolate). Once your chocolate is melted, carefully pour it into your mold. I tapped mine on the counter to get rid of air bubbles and make sure the chocolate got down into the "fin" areas of my mold. If you have little helpers, you may want to get small squeeze bottles they can use to get the chocolate into the molds without too much mess.

I was unfortunate in the weather, as it was quite hot the day I did my chocolate molds (room temp was about 90 degrees, ick). As a result, I put my poured chocolates into the freezer to set up and this caused extra brown sugar to stick to the chocolate when I took them out of the mold. If you do this in cooler weather, the chocolate should harden back up on the counter just fine and remove much more cleanly. Either way, this is definitely a fun little craft, I'm thinking about using those alphabet shaped magnets to make some letters for a birthday cake sometime!

Thresher Shark Journal

Welcome back for another sharky craft! This is a simple papercraft that you can do in just a few minutes. All you need is a shark pattern of your choice, a journal (or notebook, card, etc.), some colorful paper (I used some photorealistic scrapbook papers), pencil, a scissors and some glue (optional material: a foam brush to spread the glue thinly and evenly).

Start by tracing your shark onto your scrapbook paper and cutting it out. You can change up the size of shark depending on how large your journal is (or by how many sharks you want on the cover). Next, play around with the layout of your sharks. Once you are satisfied, spread a thin layer of glue onto the back of your decorative shark and press firmly onto your journal. Allow to dry completely before you use your journal to avoid any issues with access glue sticking to anything and dirtying up your final product.

Enjoy! This is a great way to give new life to an old journal or sketchbook that might not be inspiring you to grab it up and use it very often :)

Easy Toy Magnets

This is a quick and easy project that you can do with any kind of small plastic toy (I used sharks for Shark Week). This kind of toy can be found at many dollar stores, and often at yard sales and the like. I think these would be awesome with dinosaurs as well. If you don't like the color of the original toys (I liked that mine had a more natural look) you can always get a can of spray paint and paint the final product any color you like- I think metallics would be pretty great!

To make these sharky plastic magnets you will need:

-Plastic sharks
-small magnets
-E-6000 (or other hobby glue of your choice)
-X-Acto knife or other blade (if your toy has parts that stick out past the magnet on your magnet side)

Start by selecting your toys and making sure they are clean. Your glue and magnet may have trouble adhering to the toy if it hasn't been cleaned off.

Next, if you have chosen a toy like mine with fins or other pieces sticking out, you may need to trim them off with an X-Acto blade. Make sure to go slow and cut away from yourself to avoid any injury. Then, decide where you would like to attach your magnet, apply your glue and attach the magnet. Allow the glue to dry completely before use.

Then sit back and admire your handiwork!

I hope you are all having a great Shark Week!

Shrink Plastic Shark Necklace

Shark Week starts on August 4th, but I couldn't resist sharing this great sharky craft with all of you to get it kicked off early! This necklace uses shrink plastic to create a great shark silhouette pendant that can be enjoyed all year long. Shrink plastic can be found in most craft and hobby stores, as well as at online retailers. Be sure to read the package for the instructions of your specific brand.

To make this shrink plastic shark necklace you will need:

- Shrink plastic (feel free to look for trendy neon plastic to make this accessory really pop!)
- A shark silhouette to trace (google images is a great resource, but so are nature magazines, etc. If you have a cricut to die cut this out, even better)
- Scissors
- 3 jump rings
- a hole punch (standard size)
- jewelry chain (your choice of length)
- necklace clasp
- small needle nose or jeweler's pliers
- permanent marker (for tracing)
- rubbing alcohol (to wipe off excess marker lines)

Start by tracing your image onto your shrink plastic. I cut out my image from paper and then used a permanent marker to trace around the shape directly onto my plastic. I then used a scissors to cut out the shape, and used rubbing alcohol to get off the extra marker lines before baking. If you have never used shrink plastic before, it can be difficult to cut without tearing, so you may want to limit the details on your silhouette. Use your hole punch to make a hole where you want to attach the necklace chain, not too close to the edges.

During shrinking, any small tears will become barely noticeable, so don't get too discouraged! The silhouette will distort a little bit, I found that by using a cooler baking temp and baking longer it limited the distortion and curling of my final piece. My plastic recommended a temp of 300-350 degrees for approx 3 minutes. My best results were baking at a temp of between 200-250 for 5-8 minutes. Don't be afraid to experiment a little or try a test piece of plastic.

The plastic shrinks to become about 1/2 to 1/3 of its original size, above you can see my final shrunk piece next to the hole I originally punched out for the jump ring attachment. Once cool, you can use fine grit sandpaper or a nail file to get rid of any sharp edges if necessary.

Finally, assemble your necklace and add on your pendent to the chain with a jump ring. I cut my desired length of chain, attached my closure to each end with jump rings and then found the center of my chain to attach the pendent. I used my pliers to open and re-close each jump ring. Voila! A great new piece of costume jewelry for Shark Week.

Don't forget to follow me via facebook, twitter, or your favorite blog reader to keep up with all the great Shark Week crafts to come!

Shark Week 2013 is coming!

Hey all! If you were reading the blog around this time last year, then you already know that I kind of LOVE Shark Week (a weeklong extravaganza on Discovery Channel). Shark Week 2013 is coming soon (begins Aug. 4th), and I will again have a bunch of sharky crafts to share with you, so stay tuned for the undersea adventures in sharkiness!

Pictured above: DIY Shark cupcake toppers

Shark Cupcake Toppers

Here is a great, quick paper craft to start off your Shark Week right! The best part is this template can be used not only to make the shark cupcake toppers shown above, but to make cute little shark cutouts for scrapbooking and other collage and art projects. You could also print out a larger template if you want to top a full sized cake!

To make these cupcake toppers you will need:

Shark template (found at bottom of this post)
decorative papers or cardstock
toothpicks (or larger skewers if topping a full sized cake with larger shark cutout)
scissors
glue

Begin by printing out your template (found at the bottom of this post). I recommend using a thicker cardstock to make tracing easier. Cut out your template and trace onto the paper of your choice. Scrapbooking papers are great, but you can also use colored printer paper, construction paper, old magazines, etc.

For a double sided cupcake topper, make sure to cut out two sharks of the same paper, one facing each direction, so that when glued together they match up with your design on the outside, as shown above.

Spread glue evenly onto the back side of one of your sharks. Place your toothpick in the desired location, and sandwich your other shark cutout on top, smoothing together evenly. Allow to dry before storing or using.

You don't have to limit yourself to using these as cupcake toppers. These would easily make a fun sandwich toothpick as well. Have fun and enjoy!

Shark Week, It's Here!

It is once again Shark Week! In fact, it is the Discovery Channel's 25th Shark Week anniversary this year, so feel free to check out all of their extra Sharky programming this week to get some inspiration! I'll be having some Shark and Under the Sea themed crafts on the page this week, possibly including food crafts! Before I get started on all the new posts, here is a recap of some of my old Shark and underwater crafts to get you started!

Pictured above is my super easy Felt Shark stuffie. For full tutorial go here. Why not go get started on your very own with the basic felt tutorial (multiples can be made in any color for a great mobile!).

Also, in honor of Shark Week, I have started a new Pinterest board featuring great Shark themed foods, crafts, gifts, decor, nail art and much much more. I will be adding many new items to the board every day this week!

Sharks too scary for your little undersea explorers? Give them a fun lunch with Hotdogtopus, the hot dog octopus! There will also be some more fun lunch buddies visiting us this week from the depths, so check back often!

Happy Shark Week!!

Shark Week!

Shark Week is fast approaching, and for those of you who don't read my newsletter you may be unaware that I have a bunch of sharky plans coming up in honor of Shark Week!

I decided to spice up my Spoonflower "Hammerhead" fabric design with my new favorite color combo: yellow, gray, black and white, so feel free to go check it out and purchase some for your own shark themed crafts. I will also be giving away some swatches of my sharky fabrics during shark week, so check back for your chance to win!

Spoonflower Shark fabric contest!

What better way to celebrate Shark Week than a fabric design contest? Spoonflower is having a contest here and you can vote on your favorites including my hammerhead design. To see what mine looks like all printed out and ready to use, check out this post from earlier this week. I think this may be my favorite fabric design yet. Once again, the competition is tough, but you guys sure do show me some love and one of these days I think I'll make top 10. :D

Also, today is my wedding anniversary, so I hate to say it, but my Shark food craft may be taking a backseat this week to some yummy frosting I made for an anniversary cake. Maybe I'll shark it up food style for you guys next week, as I really did have a cute shark themed idea! It would be great for kids of all ages (even almost 30 year olds like me!).

Shark Plush

Here is a cute little felt shark project for you all. There is a template at the bottom of this post, you can resize it in your favorite image software to make a plush shark that is as large or small as you like! Also, upon looking at the pattern, I would say that if you make 2 of the top (main body) pieces large enough for a dog, you could easily turn this into the pug costume I showed yesterday with only a couple tweaks. What on earth would I use a felt shark for, you ask? Well, you could make several of these and turn it into a shark mobile, attach a magnet or pin back to a smaller version and you have those options as well. Or just give your sewing area or desk its own little shark invasion. Go nuts!

To make this shark you will need to cut out 2 of the main body pieces and one of the bottom pieces (the ones without the tail). As you can see from my picture, any color will do. I happened to fancy a green and magenta shark, you could certainly be more realistic. Add button eyes if you want, you could also embroider on some eyes, gills, etc. Add a mouth and teeth if you are so inclined. The pattern is simple, so lends itself to any embellishments you want to add yourself!

Pug Attack!

I am working on some shark themed crafts, they will be on here tomorrow and Friday (I swear!) maybe even tonight if I get my butt in gear. I ran across these little shark outfits for dogs in an online search though, and I can't just not let you all see them. If I had a Pug it would be wearing one of these every day! The regular shark can be found here. I'm sure you could make something similar if you wanted to, but I do not have a dog so the whole measurement/pattern making aspect is lost on this for me. So sad.

My favorite of all sharks though is the Hammerhead. They just look so awesome. I mean, it has a hammer for a head! Totally sweet, right? I found this picture on Animal Planet, but could not for the life of me find where you can get one. If anyone should happen to stumble on to it, let me know and I'll pass the info on.

Shark Week!

It is Shark Week! I don't even have cable TV, but I think sharks are pretty great, so this week I plan on having a couple of Shark related crafts for all of you to enjoy (Shark food craft? yes, please!). Tune in for more sharky action as the week progresses, let me know some of your favorite sharky wares or crafts and enjoy the wonder that only comes one week a year.

I found this treasury on etsy to get your creative sharky juices flowing. Also, I made the Hammerhead shark fabric you see at the top of the post. Once again, I'm not sure what it is going to become but I absolutely love how it turned out. You can order some here or go to Spoonflower, upload an image and make your own!