Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // Rice Krispies treats with Hershey Candy Cane Kisses, Christmas, ornament, gift tag, DIY, quick, easy, hostess gift

Holiday Treat and Tag {Feeling Crafty}

December 22, 2014December 22, 20148 Comments

Welcome to another Make It Monday! I have a major sweet tooth and love having treats year round. But when the holidays roll around, there are wonderful seasonal flavors that make the indulgence that much sweeter!

Have you tried Hersheys Candy Cane Kisses? They are amazing! Because of my sweet tooth, I have a hard time passing up seasonal candies, but truth be told, sometimes seasonal candies are better in concept than they actually taste in my mouth! So when I tried these, I was so delighted with how yummy they were!

Friends invited us over for outdoor movie night (yes, a southern California luxury in the middle of winter!) and I had decided to bring over some Rice Krispies treats. As I started making them, I decided I would chop up some of the Candy Cane Kisses to add to the treats. WOW! I seriously can’t even tell you how yummy they came out! If you are even a tiny bit into either of these treats (Rice Krispies and candy canes), then you MUST give this recipe a try!

Ingredients

5 Tbsp butter
one 10 oz bag (~6 cups) Jet-Puffed miniature marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies
20 to 24 Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses, unwrapped

DIRECTIONS

Chop up kisses into tiny pieces, set aside.
Melt butter in large microwave safe bowl, approx 1 minute.
Add marshmallows to butter. Toss to coat. Melt marshmallows in microwave (approximately 1-1/2 minutes), stirring every 45 seconds.
Add Rice Krispies (2 cups at a time) to melted marshmallow mixture and stir well.
Once all Rice Krispies are incorporated, mix in half of the chopped Candy Cane Kisses. Stir well. Incorporate remaining chopped Candy Cane Kisses.
Place mixture into greased 13×9 baking dish. Press down and into place, filling in corners and evening out – using parchment paper and back of measuring cup helps to press down!
Set aside and let set for a couple hours or place in refrigerator to speed up setting time.
Cut up into one to two inch squares or use candy cane cookie cutters for shaped treats. Enjoy! Or share by place cut pieces into cupcake liners and stack in treat bag for your loved ones to enjoy, too!

What else could one need besides these delish treats? How about a gift tag to place on said treats to share with loved ones?! Here’s a quick video showing how I made a super fast (in just a few minutes!) ornament shaped gift tag using just a couple non-Christmas crafty supplies! Watch the video to see how you can easily make your tags!

Did you get here from Karen at Photos Kept Alive? She always has such great insights and tips on making the most of our photos! Don’t forget to continue the Make It Monday Circle and head on over to my crafty and generous friend Jen at Jen Wright Design. She has a freebie for you as she counts down to Christmas!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day! Happy holidays!

Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

PS. Are you in Southern California and looking to capture beautiful images of your family? Head on over to my Styling and Investment page to find out more and get in touch to schedule your 2015 session!

E Q U I P M E N T U S E D (Affiliate Links)
Canon 60D
Canon 50mm f/1.4
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8
Photo edits in Lightroom and Photoshop
Check out all my camera bag goodies here!

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // Beach inspired tag, blending, embossing, stencils, templates, texture, modeling paste, stamping, punching, distressing and more!

Make It Monday // Beachy Tag {Feeling Crafty}

September 22, 2014September 23, 201426 Comments

I’m so excited to kick-off a new creative blog hop with a few crafty and creative friends from all corners of the world!

We’re a pretty crafty bunch, with everything from Scrapbooking to Art, Embroidery to Photo Management, paper to digital – really, a little bit of everything! Initially, I met many of these gals through a Layoutaday, and then more through a crafty Facebook group. Either way, we all share a passion of crafting and sharing, so the idea hit me that as much as I enjoy checking out their blogs and sites, you might like the same!

Every Monday, a few of us will be sharing our creations with each other and you, our fabulous friends and readers! I hope you’ll pop on over and check out what everyone is up to, creatively speaking of course. It always amazes me where we’re able to find inspiration, especially in those unexpected and unfamiliar to us gems!

To start off our tour, I’m sharing a fun tag I made for a tag swap last month when I went to Arizona for a creative retreat. I was actually lucky to meet some of these fabulous gals in person, and now you’ll be meeting them in our Make It Monday posts – talk about a fantastic treat all around!

Part of the fun in meeting up with a couple dozen friends from all over North America at our retreat was a fun game we played, guessing who made which tag, based on a few clues within the tag and how it represented each creative mastermind behind it 🙂 Being from San Diego, I couldn’t help but incorporate the beach into my tag. Not too subtle!

I had a blast making this tag! One of my favorite parts was adding texture to the Starfish (or is it called a Sea Star?!). Can you guess what I used to add texture? Check out this short video clip to find out…

If you’d like to learn how to make this tag from start to finish, stay tuned as I’ll be posting my downloadable class on the Clicky Chick Creates Etsy shop!

Now head on over to check out more crafty goodness… You may have come from my friend Karen at Photos Kept Alive – she has great tips – for both digital and paper crafters! Even if you didn’t come from her site, be sure to head back to check out her post! But first, check out my friend Margareta at Use Your Stash and be ready for a visual and creative feast! Margareta is one of those incredibly creative types who makes it all look fun, has great tips, and definitely empowers us to use what we have! Head on over and let her know I sent you! I hope you enjoy our inaugural Make It Monday blog hop!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day! Make sure not to miss any future posts by signing up for the Clicky Chick Creates email list here! You’ll get a great little freebie download as my thank you!

Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

PS. Linking up at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Stencils and Stamps as well as SSS Wednesday Challenge: Tag It!

P R O D U C T S U S E D (Affiliate Links)

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // Happy Spring Tag using The Crafter's Workshop and Heidi Swapp stencils, embossing, Distress Inks, ombre effect, old stash, bling, Sweet Stamp Shop alpha tabs stamps

Happy Spring Tags {Feeling Crafty}

April 14, 2014July 19, 201413 Comments

Of course when I heard our ScrapHappy family was having another tag swap, I signed up to play along and make a spring tag!

I’m totally going to out myself right now… I watch The Bachelor (oh, the horror, I know!!), but during one of the last episodes earlier this year, I noticed how pretty one of the contestants looked wearing a lavender dress with a wall of greenery behind her… That color combo clearly stuck with me and completely popped in my mind when coming up with the concept for this tag! And as I fleshed out my concept, I grabbed my chevron stencil for the background and noticed the pattern in one of the hearts in The Crafter’s Workshop Mix & Match Hearts stencil – I thought it would make a great pattern on the egg, kinda made me think of Dinosaur eggs. Yeah, I don’t know why either, but I seriously LOVE it 🙂

I created this video showing how I made it… there’s gesso, stencils, inks, embossing, stamping… a little bit of everything!

If crafting makes your heart sing, don’t forget to check out Layout-A-Day (LOAD514) coming up next month… The month long challenge to create a scrapbook page everyday with daily prompts and inspiration pieces will be here in just a couple weeks! And I have a secret to share… I’m one of the featured designers for the month! I created several layouts that will be showcased! I am beyond excited : )

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

P R O D U C T S U S E D (Affiliate Links)

The Crafter’s Workshop, Mix & Match Hearts
Heidi Swapp Chevron Stencil
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn
Martha Stewart Brights Ink Pad
Fiskars SureCut Personal 12″ Paper Trimmer
Sew Easy Bakers Twine, Secondary
Slice Dilly Dally Design Card (egg)
Slice Elite Digital Cutting Machine
Slice Hands Free 12×12 board
Versamark Watermark Ink Pad
Embossing Powder in purple
Martha Stewart Heat Tool
Scotch Quick Dry Glue
EK Success Punch Set, Mini, Retro Flower
EK Success Craft Tweezers
Therm-o-web Zots 3-D adhesive

PS. This Happy Spring Tag is being added to the following challenges! Join in the fun : )

Keep It Simple

A Blog Named Hero

Simon Says Stamp

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // light banner, sunset, silhouette, baby hands, little helper, #OLW, #CY365

Encouraging Word // Light & Blessed (CY365 & OLW)

January 14, 2014July 19, 201410 Comments

The prompt yesterday at Capture Your 365 was to “photograph an encouraging word”, and Katrina Kennedy encouraged us to incorporate our One Little Word if we had a word for the year. I’m so glad she suggested just that!

I had originally put this little still life together with one of my favorite tags and my cherished bible charm on my Pandora bracelet, thinking I wouldn’t have time to put something together with “light” (my one little word/OLW). After school, after running errands, my girls and I were headed home, when my 7-yr old commented on the lovely light, and that I should get a photo. Right then and there I decided to run back home to grab my DSLR and the “light” banner I had made. So glad we did! My 7-yr old really is getting the photography-bug and I love it! Those are her little arms in the shot. Absolute love!

Are you taking Ali Edwards’ One Little Word class? I’m looking forward to catching up on the class materials, but that certainly isn’t stopping me from jumping in where and when I can! What’s your word for the year? I’d love to hear!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // Penguin gift tags, handmade, paper crafting, google eyes, goodie treat bags

Penguin Tags {Feeling Crafty}

November 26, 2013July 19, 201415 Comments

My 1st graders school mascot is the penguin, so when I saw these penguin tags over at Huh. So this is a blog, I knew I had to make them too!

The penguin tags were perfect to put on goodie bags filled with the pumpkin muffins we had made the day before, and special treats we were able to deliver to teachers and administration at my daughter’s elementary school. Go Penguins!!

What in the world did we do before blogs and Pinterest? Oh yeah, flip through magazines for inspiration : ) Oh, this is so much easier though! Thanks for the inspiration JanR!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

Connie Hanks // ClickyChickCreates.com // Advent calendar banner and mini book with unique family experiences and activities

Layers // Advent Banner {Feeling Crafty/Photo Challenge}

November 18, 2013July 19, 201433 Comments

Can you believe Thanksgiving is just 10 days away? And that means Christmas season is only 11 days away!

I created this Advent calendar banner and mini book for a class I’m teaching at my local scrapbook store (LSS) – Cool Scrapbook Stuff. I wanted to create a unique piece that was quite festive, would add holiday cheer, and give my family and I a great way to experience the holidays. Instead of a treat, candy or toy in each pocket of the countdown for Christmas, I decided to pull together a list of fun activities for us – everything from “wear new jammies to bed” to “French Toast and hot cocoa for dinner” to “make a Christmas card for your teacher” to “make a Jesus Birthday box” to “sleepover under the tree” – lots of things to make the holidays that much more memorable!

And once the holidays are over, the banner can be placed on a book ring binder and turned into a mini book. There’s even room on the back of the tags for a small photo (2×2 or 2×3) to be added, documenting the holiday season, or specific daily activity.

What kinds of Christmas crafts are you preparing? Can you believe how close we are to the holidays? I LOVE it!!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

PS. This has been submitted to the The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers – how many layers do you think there are per tag? I’ll give you a clue: look at the layers of stamps and papers, inks and distressing; and don’t forget each tag is double sided! The first sample I made took over 16 hours!

A F F I L I A T E L I N K S // P R O D U C T S U S E D
Ranger Kraft Tag #5
Hero Arts Cling Stamp, Magical Background
Hero Arts Rubber Wood Mount Stamp, Stunning Snowflakes
Hero Arts Rubber Wood Mount Stamp, Flower and Dot (no longer available)
ColorBox Pigment Ink in Frost White (background stamping)
My Minds Eye, Vintage Christmas paper collection
EK Success Slim Christmas Tree punch
Fiskars Scalloped Squeeze Punch, XLarge, Seal of Approval
Fiskars Circle Squeeze Punch, Large, Round n’ Round
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Black Soot
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Festive Berries