my crafty Kraft house

I think I first made this about 1981 when I had a house full of little kids.  I remember telling them that they couldn't eat it until Christmas morning. Well - you can imagine how well that worked!  It's snowing outside today, so I decided to make one this year.  Just so I could remember how and give you the directions just in case you get inspired!  It only takes a couple of hours and if you get the kids to help, it will go a whole lot faster!

Cover a 12" square piece of chipboard with freezer wrap.  Then build the house on top.  The sides are 4" tall, 6" long.  The ends are 4" x 5" and cut 3" off each top corner on an angle from the center to the 4" mark.  The roof is 8 1/2" x 10" coded in half.  I used a cool glue gun to glue the pieces together.

It will take almost 5 bags of Kraft caramels.  Unwrap them (let the kids do this!)  DO NOT EAT a single one….oh well, make that 6 bags of caramels!  LOL!!!  Use Marshmallow cream as the "cement" and layer them just like bricks, alternating every row so the center of one brick is in the middle of 2 bricks below it.  You can cut them in half to even out each row. 

There's a hershey's chocolate bar for the door, the ends of candy canes around it, wafer cookies for the window - just use the marshmallow cream like "glue".

Cut marshmallows into 4 pieces and sort of pinch them into petals for the roof.  Use green sprinkles to add color.

Spray can icing for the snow, sprinkles for the path, gumdrops to line the path….just use your imagination and whatever you have in the house!

 Here's a view of the side of the house.  Can't you just see the kids eyes when they start to drool over this?  OK….that include kids age 82!!!

I staked up marshmallows and then sprayed green icing all over it to make a tree.  But you can also just make a paper cone and spray it, or use an ice cream cone.

a gumdrop for the door know.  3 marshmallows for the snowman….

Tiny little confetti for the snowman's face and I cut up a gumdrop for the nose.

My finished craft Kraft house!  Go back a few blogs to see how I did the train cars that will go in front of the house…..the kids and grandkids will just love this!

This is cheaper to make than you think - using the cheapest candy in the store.  I did have to hunt to find gum drops though, so keep that in mind!  

I'm thinning about trying to make one with those big pretzels as logs and wheat chex as shingles on the roof…...

and now, the house is "parked" in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap, waiting for a crafty event to go to.  Hmmm…..I wonder where it will show up this year?

So much to be grateful for…..

It's a day of gratitude.  But it's also a day of memories.  Sitting around the table talking about Thanksgivings past.  Stuffing our faces (still) after all these years.  Laughing, talking, sharing.  Just so much fun.  This year, I'm really thinking back to some of the fun crafts I did with the kids.  Came home and put this together and wanted to share so you can do this with your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews.  I haven't met anyone who doesn't love this…..a candy train!

It probably uses the cheapest candies in the store!  Each piece uses a stick of chewing gum for the base and a roll of Life savers hot-glued to the top of that.  Each piece has 4 cinnamon discs for the "wheels".

For the engine, add 2 caramels  and a kiss:

The coal car has 4 kisses on it:

The oil tanker, just leave alone:

and for the caboose, stack 3 caramels.

Hot glue paper clips to each one for the "connectors".

If you are doing this with kids, use a cool temp glue gun….I think they are $2 at Walmart.

I think I first made this for the kids about 1981.  Then again in the 90s.  And now, I'm making it for the kid that's still in me!!!  LOL!!!

Origami box

Updated to show that I now have this as a video tutorial - just click here

Tis the season to have lots of candy out and about....anyone want to come over Tuedsay? I'll be making Grandma Hazel's home made caramels. Possibly the best caramels on earth!!! And I need cute little boxes to set the candy in. (Like I think it will last long enough to actually go into a box?) LOL!




I'm using the new Colorbox queues and a 12x12 piece of white embossed paper. 1442 Flourish impressions by Doodlebut Design inc. Nice paper!



First, I'm going to just lightly rub the top of the ink pads across the paper. As you can see, the embossed areas will pick up darker color and the debossed (or flat) areas will be lighter. This is one of my most fun things to do...color paper!



And you can use any ink pad, any paper....even emboss your own paper in your diecut system. But this took about 2 minutes!



Next, we're going to fold the paper in half, both directions. When the peaks are up like in this photo, those are "mountains". If you flip this over, you would have "valleys". So to start, you want your peaks or mountains pointing up like this photo.



Next, take the lower right hand corner and bring it up to the upper left hand corner and press down on the diagonal. Notice you now have valleys on the top. That's good! And I often use a bone folder to press the creases down. I like the one Ranger makes.



Now, open that fold up and flip it over, so that the mountains from the diagonal fold are pointing up. You will want to pop the center down and your paper should look just like this:



Have I lost you yet? If so, just go back and start over! The first time I tried this...it took me 27 attempts! LOLOL! Nope, I just don't give up easy! Next, you want to grab the ends of the diagonal fold and bring them up together in the center.



And while you are holding on to the tips, just lay the entire piece down on the side.



You can flatten this out and you have just completed a basic napkin fold!!!

For me, the important part is to keep the bottom of the fold like I am showing here facing you. It's easy to turn this around as you start making folds from this point on, so take a look from time to time and make sure the bottom looks like this...that it's closed, not open.



The next thing to do is to fold the flaps in from the top down. Notice the open edges of the outside of the paper get folded in right along the center line.



You want to do the other side the same way and look! You have a graduation cap! This is actually a cute little embellishment for graduation cards! But no! We're only about half way done at this point!



The next step is to open the bottom of that last fold like this....



flare it out and press it down.



You want to do that to both corners -



And then flip the whole thing over and repeat these steps on the other side. When you are done, it should look like this:



Now, before you look at the next photo, note you have a front and a back that where the folds are out. You also have 2 "insides" and if you flip one tab over, it should look like this:



When you look closely, you can see a fold line from a prior fold:



You want to fold that inwards, on both sides:



And then flip over 2 tabs....



and you will find another "page" that looks like this:



Again, look for the fold lines and fold inwards on both sides:



and now, you should have what I call an "ice cream cone". OK....I did this at the Mr. Ellie Pooh booth summer before last...we made over 2000 boxes....and we had kids as young as age 5 making them with no help! So come on...don't give up! We're almost there!!!



This time, look at the top. Don't worry that it's torn...that happens..it's paper that you fold 27 different times! It won't show, I promise!



Grab one flap and fold it down as far as it will go:



Should look like this:



Then flip a page over and pull down the next flap....







And continue to do this 4 times. The end should look like a little pocket:



You may need to fold one flap back over to get it to be even like this:



Hey! We're just about done! Now, stand the pocket on it's end:



And very gently start working your hand down inside the top, sort of pushing out the sides. It's paper...so go easy, or you will split the corners open (which I simply tape shut!)



As you tap your fingers around inside, a box will start to form. You can press out any creases in the bottom and it should look something like this:



If you want a flat bottom, just pince a crease with your fingers:



But usually the weight of the candy will hold it down flat! - Well, unless you eat it all!



At this point, just take a little tape and tape the flaps under the box, pressing them square. But note, you can tape them together up over the top and make a basket, or curl them up or down....all kinds of fun variations!



When done, you've got a fun box!



Of course, if you want to make one of these out of Mr. Ellie Pooh paper, be sure to give it to a 10 year old boy and then whisper in his ear what's really in the paper! LOLOL!!!

Still have questions on how to make the box? Just post them here in the comments! I'll get back with answers. Now I'm positive you won't eat all the candy...you'll save some to put inside these cute little boxes!