Christmas tree from recycled material

It seems that I am posting either my crafts or recipes, but it's what we all here for, correct. I had a chance to do some crafts using recycled material and if I can say myself, I did a pretty darn good considering. I never wanted to use this phrase...but in all purposes what it is, toilet paper rolls. That right, I made Christmas trees out of strips of toilet paper or paper towel rolls. After I flattened the rolls, I marked 1/2 inch increments with the pencil to the end of the roll, then cut the strips. Then I sprayed all the strips with green paint (do this part outside) and let them dry. I went row by row and attached each strip to a cardboard cone that I made myself. Each row took about 8 strips and took 10 rows from bottom to the top... so there were 80. Depending on the size of the dimension of the tree. Then I went around with plain (Elmer's) glue and sprinkled faux snow randomly and then put white glitter on some branches. I made a circular base from cardboard and hot glued to the bottom and sprinkled more faux snow to it.

Glittery Angel Onaments and garland

These easy to make cute angels were made out of toilet paper rolls.... believe it or not. I was so busy making these that I regret that I didn't take picture of the the step by step directions. 1. I took a toilet paper roll and marked 1/2 inch increment strips all the way to the end of the roll and cut the strips. 2. The wings are shaped to a triangle shaped, used 2 of the strips for those. 3. Cut 2 strips in half, the bottom will be curved ...its very easy to bend and curl any strip (I used the edge of my kitchen counter and it curled any strip I wanted). The top part of skirt is will pointy so that the wings can be glued to that part. 4. The wings at either end are glued to the pointy end of the skirt with hot glue. 5. The head is cut in half then, cut again and glued to a cirlcle. you can use tacky glue for this part. Let it dry for a bit. The other half of the strip will the halo which will be glued to the wings on either side (all strips will be hot glued). You will see the head is suspended on it's itself because the halo is joined to the wings. 6. I though it will kinda clever to do it that way. Then. I just took plain craft glue and sprinkled different glitter on each angel. I did those two ways: I did the garland where I put string all through going in and out of the wings of each one and continued to the other angel. 7. Then I took off the garland and made them individual ornament and put silver curling ribbon around the head. I can't decide what way I want to go.

No Bake Vanilla Cake Batter Chocolate Truffles

This is my kind of RECIPE....easy to make, few ingredients and people would think you were baking all day.  Who doesn't love cake batter anyway...??


1 c vanilla cake mix
1/4 c sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp agave (optional and you can just use all sweetened condensed milk if you don’t have agave on hand)
1.5 to 2 c chocolate chips

Directions: In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients, except chocolate chips, and stir to combine.

This mixture should be quite solid and not runny, but not so dry that you can’t mold it into balls.  If you find that your mixture is a little too runny, add a touch more cake mix.  If it’s a little too dry, add more sweetened condensed milk/agave.  I ended up using about 1.25 c of cake mix to get the perfect consistency.

After you’ve made the dough, refrigerate or freeze for 15 minutes and then remove and roll into balls.

After the balls have been made, refrigerate or freeze for 15 minutes minutes or until well-chilled, ensuring the melted chocolate will adhere and set up properly.

Melt the chocolate chips, and dip the chilled cake batter balls into melted chocolate.  Using parchment paper is a tip I’d recommend when working with melted chocolate.  Place truffles in freezer or fridge to set up.

Stir all ingredients together except for chocolate chips.  This is what my dough looked like, and then I put it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

I recommend rolling these balls much smaller than you think they should be because once you dip them in chocolate, they almost double in size.  The end result should be a truffle and bite-sized.  You don’t necessarily want to be biting into a golf ball sized truffle.  So start with small balls.

Dip balls into melted chocolate and allow to set up in freezer.