This easy, sticky craft project can be immensely satisfying for all ages.  It’s a great way to make personal gifts (putting together custom pet-shaped ornaments can be a sweet idea) and a wonderful excuse to get your hands dirty. I remember loving this as a child, and the semi-nautical scent of the salt dough itself brings back happy memories.

Here’s my mom’s old recipe card for our version of the dough, though I’ve seen it elsewhere with a higher salt-to-flour ratio.  I’ve also seen people recommend adding a bit of vegetable oil to add smoothness, but apparently, this can inhibit the drying of the finished pieces. You might just want to play it by ear.

Candy canes are a great low-stress ornament to pursue. They are quick and easy, and if you color one ball of dough with food coloring beforehand, they do not require painting after they are cooked. Here’s a quick visual how-to demonstration:

I was able to make six candy canes and one small French bulldog from one cup of flour and a half of a cup of salt. The hooks (made from bent and cut paper clips) can be easily inserted into the finished pieces right before they go into the oven.

Happy Baking!

For many Christmases, we made dough ornaments every year.  We haven’t made them in awhile, but every year, we get to relive our dough days.  We giggle about some of our early attempts and tell Margaret some of the stories surrounding them, since she was too little to remember.  For example, the dough ornament to the left is a dough portrait of me made by a fellow art director when we lived and worked in New York City.  (I am holding a giant Design marker.) She arrived at our Christmas party with a bottle of wine and personal dough ornaments for everyone.  We were all very impressed and amused. Recently, Ellen asked me for our bread dough recipe and miraculously, I actually found it.  So soon, Ellen will be sharing her grown-up attempts at the art of bread dough ornament making with all of you.  TIP: Be sure to spray your  artistry with a fixative, or even better, dip it in epoxy, otherwise, while your ornaments are stored for the summer, they might become a tasty dinner for hungry varmints.

Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments

Here’s a little download-able cheer from our studio to yours: quick and easy Christmas gift tags.  (I think I’m going to go with reverse brown paper bag wrapping this year – both due to our abundance of Trader Joe’s sacks and my fondness for brown paper packages tied up with strings.)  However, bland wrapping paper need not result in a bland gift!  Tie it up with re-usable ribbon and some hip Cathy Heck gift tags, which you can download FREE, right here, and you’ve got yourself a lovely little bundle of anticipation.

Can you believe December starts tomorrow! Is everybody ready?

Recently I was filling out a profile for a food blog, and one of the questions was: What is something you’d like to eat or cook?  And my answer was: “I wish I had more time to make my daughter’s advisory snacks on snack days.” (We usually buy the junkiest of snacks the night before, which apparently is perfectly fine with her fellow 16-year olds, but still.)  I kept thinking about my answer, until I finally decided, “I shouldn’t just wish that, I should do that.”  So this week, when her snack day rolled around, I decided to make caramel apples since it’s halloween season.  I know  that’s not exactly health food, but at least it includes an apple. We have also been wanting to include a fun gift for our readers, so I decided to double the fun and design some caramel apple banner toppers that you can make, too.  The artwork link is included below.  If you want to avoid a dental visit, you might use them to decorate some cupcakes, instead.

TaDah! (photo above)  Here is how I did it:  First, I began my quest for the perfect caramel apple recipe, and found this one for Sweet and Salty Caramel Apples, which sounded like it would be appealing to all taste buds.  I added toasted pecans to the bases, because I think toasted pecans make everything better.  Then I put a few grains of sea salt on the tops.  And, I even mastered the art of flinging the chocolate as a final embellishment.
I chose to use dowel rods from the craft store instead of popcycle sticks, because it gave more room for hands to hold without getting sticky.  Then I topped them with our handy dandy toppers and some ribbon and called it a night … a late night.  It ended up taking a lot longer than our usual junk food run, but it was very satisfying.  See photos below, sent to me by Margaret’s advisor, of happy teenagers (and a coach) gobbling down their advisory snacks before returning to class. I thought I might suggest a Halloween-themed Chemistry Lab assignment: Discover a caramel coating that is thick enough to stick to apples, but not so thick as to pull out teeth.  Happy Halloween from all of the goblins at Cathy Heck Studio.

Click here to download our Halloween Toppers artwork .

Click here for easy instructions for making Halloween Toppers.

We’d love to see pictures of your caramel apple successes (and get any tips you might have learned along the way). You can add them as comments to this post below, or email us at friend@cathyhecknurseryart.com.

I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in a few years, but I felt like we were very efficient this time.  It must be the new tools they’re selling – especially a little plastic rasp that comes in one of the kits from Target.  I remember emptying out the gunk with big salad spoons in the past, but this thing is shaped a bit like a spatula with a short handle and a serrated edge.  Very effective.

Here’s a little montage from the  event:

In the end, we decided that each pumpkin resembled his carver.  (I silhouetted all of their facial expressions in a row at the top.) Mine is the one with the big smile, and my husband is the one who looks a bit concerned.  :)  We also had a Dr. Jekyll who rotated into Mr. Hyde, and first-time Czech carver who seemed uninhibited – or at least not inclined to use the traditional symbols on the Jack-O-Lantern’s face.

We’ll see if these semi-solid sculptures can make it through a week of wet Berkeley October…

The last time Julianna and I used sidewalk chalk was at least a decade ago, but as you might guess, the art form hasn’t changed all that much…

I was lucky enough to be able to visit my sister Jules in Virginia this past weekend, and we had a blast.  It was a good old-fashioned vacation for me: the beach, the bay, more McDonald’s than usual – AND a sidewalk chalk contest in Gloucester, VA.

Jules and I saw the sign for “Chalk Fest ’09″ in the Old Dominion art department as she was giving me a tour and we thought, “What the heck!” (By the way, they have some amazingly cool letterpressed posters all over the place in there – one of their professors apparently just letterpresses announcements all the time…how fine is that!)

We woke up bright and early on Saturday and headed out to Gloucester, which appears to be everything you could want from small town America. (The festival took place on Main Street, of course.)  Julianna had had the foresight to drive us to the Dollar Tree the night before to pick up some sponges for grinding color in between the cracks in the cement – and since Chalk Fest happened to be held on asphalt, this was extremely helpful!  We set to work on this year’s theme “A Village View” at about 10 and didn’t stop – but for a boyscout-cooked hot-dog break – until 3, when all chalks had to be dropped.  Then we wandered Main Street for an hour sipping particularly saturated Italian sodas from the local cafe until the judge’s votes were in.  And we won first!  It was a bit surreal.  And very fun.  And very – well, sisterly.

So, if you’re feeling inspired, just go dig out that old bucket of chalk that I know is hiding somewhere between a dusty hose and Christmas decorations in the garage. Remedy the taupe-ness of the driveway!

Here is an easy gift, which is really fun to make, and you probably have most of the supplies in your cupboard! Fill a mason jar with the dry ingredients for your favorite cupcake, muffin or cookie recipe. Top with colorful paper or cloth and tie with a matching ribbon. Add the directions for the remainder of the ingredients to a label affixed to the back of the jar. Add your greeting card and voila (!) … a gift fit for any king with a sweet tooth. If you would like to make it even easier, take a look at the stickers and labels that are part of the Our Special Recipes group, created by Cathy and Ellen for C.R. Gibson.

You may never need to buy another Hallmark card again – unless, maybe, it’s one of those funny ones… Any last-minute decorative gift/thank you card has the potential of being made quite quickly from the contents of your paper recycling bin. Anything from old Anthropologie catalogues, to calendars from 2008, to cereal boxes could potentially be excellent card-fodder. Simply find the best-looking corner and cut a card-sized rectangle so that the image appears on the front when it is folded, and voila!

(Here is a piece of a failed woodcut that I would otherwise have discarded. Pretty cute, huh!)

While we were looking for some fun wedding pictures to share with you, we came across this invitation for a wedding shower that we thought you might enjoy. Ellen and Andrius are both voracious readers, so what better way to celebrate their upcoming union than a Book Shower! Here is the book-themed invitation, and you are welcome to copy it straight away! We scanned a piece of marbleized paper and added hints of sewn leather. The copy was reminiscent of a fairy tale. The invitation encouraged guests to share their favorite must-reads with the newlyweds and included a book plate that matched their wedding invitation. Ellen and Andrius loved opening each new book to start their library, AND I think all the guests had just as much fun choosing their recommendations for the new couple. Interestingly, there wasn’t a single duplication, and the books ranged from fiction to biographies, art books to cook books! If you have an appetite for books, this is the party for you … and don’t wait for a wedding, it’s a great theme for birthday parties and baby showers, too!

If you would like to add a personal touch to any party, have fun creating easy-to-make photo flowers. They are especially nice if they feature old photographs of the honoree. Not only do they look great, but guests love looking at them and teasing the guest of honor. Always a good ice breaker!

Click here for easy instructions.