Top 15 Crafts You Can Do With Popsicle/Ice-Cream Sticks

Its summer time beat the heat and keeps your kids busy with Popsicle DIY crafts. Here, I am listing top 15 ideas that make them happy, and they could also use those creations for various purposes. People of all ages could try it out and have a great fun. These crafts not only make them happy, but also a great stress relief buster.

· Photo frame:

This is one of the easiest ways of creating using four to ten sticks to it. Arrange the sticks in Square, Pentagon, or any shape of your choice, and stick the photo back of it. You could decorate with stones, buttons, beads, led light, and clay. There are many variations of photo frames, you could also do some search and gather ideas of making it.

· Pen stand/ Vase:

Pen stand/vase could be done in two ways. First, one is arranging the stick's zigzag or in square shape. Second method is placing cups or magazine rolls as base, and pasting it on them.

· Coasters:

Arrange it straight and wrap duck tape on them, now draw a circle using compass or any shape devices. Paint your coasters with fabric or Acrylic, and apply a final varnish to it.

· Cell Phone Holder:

Arrange four sticks and make it a square, now repeat the steps for five times. Next, you need to paste the sticks on three sides, leaving one side. Now your phone holder is ready.

· Letters Holder:

Creating a card or letter holder is quite easy. You need a base with six to 10. It should look like a slim rectangular box with sticks missing at one end. Don't paste it entirely, it should be partial covered.

· Jewelry:

Making your own jewelry with popsicle sticks is not an easy task. You need to master in cutting it in desire shapes. Sometimes, it might go wrong, so using sharp cutters would help in creating fantastic pieces.

· Home DIY projects:

Most of the kids would have great fun in creating Home and their farm animals, characters, and other additional details to their projects.

· Bookmarks:

Draw your favorite characters on Cardboard or paste stickers at the Popsicle end. Even, you could make bookmarks with your friend's photos, magazine pictures, foam sheets, etc.;

· Lamp shadow:

You need some LED or fancy color changing lights, and make two popsicle baskets. It should be of same size, and stick it together. You could also goggle for various popsicle lamp shadow styles and ideas.

· Chandelier:

It could be prepared around or square chandelier with different layers. Arrange it with circular base with hooks to attach it on the roof. Next, you have to create two or three layers.

· Box:

You could create a simple box or multiple storage boxes for your beads, food spices, jewelry, etc.;

· Puzzle game:

Instead of spending some bucks for buying a puzzle game, you could make one for yourself. You require some photos or if you can paint, paint the sticks.

· Popsicle characters:

You could make your own favorite characters like Disney's cartoon, angry birds, animal faces, smiley, etc.; you could also use it as bookmarks.

· Furniture:

In kid's project, and home decorative, you could make furniture like chair, bed, swing, and baby cradle. Adding some dolls or toys, ornaments make your craft amazing.

· Christmas tree:

Take four green sticks or you could paint them using acrylic color. Place one vertically, and three horizontally with different in size lengths.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7607521

Ice Cream Facts

There are a lot of fun facts about ice cream that you may not even know. For anyone who truly loves the delicious frozen treat, there is often nothing better on a hot summer day than to get that ice cold ice cream cold or sundae, topped with your favorite flavors or wrapped up neatly in a cone; however it is that you like your ice cream treat,
here are some fun facts that you may not know:

Facts on Ice Cream:

o It takes twelve gallons of milk to make one gallon of ice cream
o The United States has an average of 48 pints of ice cream per person, per year
o It takes an average of 50 licks to finish off a single scoop ice cream cone
o The biggest sundae ever was made in Canada and weighed in at over 24 tons
o Portland, Oregon in 2003 bought more ice cream per person that any other city in the United States.
o The invention of the ice cream cone goes back to 1904 in St. Louis at the world fair.
o Vanilla is the number one selling flavor of ice cream
o Chocolate syrup is the favorite topping for ice cream
o The major ingredient in ice cream is air
o July is national ice cream month
o The largest ice cream pyramid was made in 2002 and had over 3000 scoops of ice cream and weighed over 1000 pounds.
o The largest ice cream cake weighed in at 12,096 pounds
o The top five ice cream producing states are California, Indiana, Ohio, Texas and New York
o Children age 2 through 12 and adults over 45 eat the most ice cream
o More ice cream is sold on Sundays than any other day
o The favorite topping is chocolate
o Ice cream is an 11 billion dollar retail industry
o 98 percent of homes in the United States have ice cream in them
o The United States produces 800 million gallons of ice cream every year
o Cherry is the number one popsicle flavor
o The twin popsicles were invented during the depression so that two children could share one treat
o About five percent of people admit sharing ice cream with their pets

Whatever it is that you like about ice cream, it is truly one of the most well known and universal treats around. Whether you like to stick to the traditional flavor of vanilla, add on some chocolate syrup, or get crazy with all of the fun toppings available, ice cream remains as a very fun and tasty treat for people of all ages.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1411527

Fun Summer Wedding Idea: Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Summer weddings are always a great time. People are in the mood to relax and enjoy a great party, and seeing a beautiful wedding just adds to the enjoyment. Make your party even more delightful for your guests by including a special surprise treat at the reception. A very fun summer wedding idea is to have an ice cream sundae bar.

An ice cream sundae bar is easy to set up, and such a great idea that you will wonder why more couples don't do it. It can be a fairly simple DIY affair, or you can hire someone to staff the bar. If you really want to get fancy, bring in specialty gelato flavors as a wonderful treat. Trust me, it won't just be your flower girls in their cute dresses and girls jewelry who swarm the ice cream sundae station; you will find plenty of adults going back for seconds!

Most ice cream sundaes are really about the toppings, so you don't necessarily need to have a huge variety of ice cream flavors on hand. You would do just fine to have only chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and coffee ice cream at the station. The flavors could either be presented in large bowls with scoops, or you might find it neater to have pre-scooped dishes set out from which guests can choose. Just be sure that you keep the ice cream nice and cold so that it does not get soupy before everyone gets a chance to get their dessert.

The toppings are where you should really go overboard and wow your guests. Certainly you will need the basics like hot fudge, whipped cream, and cherries. From there, indulge your own sweet tooth fantasies! Chunks of Oreos and chocolate chip cookies make tasty toppings, as do chunks of brownies. There are many delicious candies which are just perfect for including in your sundae bar, such as M&Ms (maybe in your wedding colors), sprinkles (or "jimmies", depending on where you live), Reeses Pieces, Heath bar crumbles, and peanut butter cup pieces.

Don't stop there! You can also have other syrups like caramel and strawberry. Set out a nice selection of sliced fruit for guests who want to pretend they are eating something healthy. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and pineapple are all excellent choices. And of course you will need some bananas for those who want to make banana splits. You can even put out broken pieces of waffle cones for guests to mix in with their sundaes. Nuts are typically included in ice cream sundae stations too, but be sensitive to possible allergies. Keep the nuts at the far end of the line, and give every bowl of toppings its own scoop so there is no cross-contamination. The last thing you want is to learn that your favorite niece had to go straight from your reception to the nearest hospital for an allergic reaction, all dressed up in her special dress and girls jewelry!

Decorate your ice cream sundae bar to coordinate with the rest of your wedding reception decor. If you are having a country style wedding, set up the station on an old wooden table decorated with handmade fabric bunting flags. For a more formal wedding, use elegant crystal bowls to hold toppings. If your style is retro chic, create an ice cream sundae bar with the vibe of a 1950's soda fountain, complete with a server dressed like a soda jerk. For a tropical theme wedding, make your station resemble a tiki hut with a thatched roof. There are so many ways that you can decorate a wedding ice cream sundae bar, and since it will be a fairly small area, you can do a lot without spending a lot on the decorations. Your ice cream sundae bar will be a feast for the eyes as well as the palette - your guests will be sure to love it!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6325037

Blue Bunny® All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream Baked Alaska

Chef Joe Ciminera tantalizes the taste buds using Blue Bunny® Premium All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream in a baked alaska recipe.

What Are the Most Popular Ice Cream Flavors?

Mmmm, ice cream - everyone's favorite frozen treat! If you are considering opening up an ice cream business, there are literally hundreds of flavors that you can provide for your customers. Anything from the exotic (a scoop of seaweed, anyone?) to the classic vanilla can be served on a cone. Knowing which flavors are the most popular will help your new business succeed.

Unless you plan to have a specialty frozen dessert shop that serves only the weird and wonderful, you will probably want to stay away from garlic, bacon, or sauerkraut flavored. (Yes, these flavors really do exist!) Most people want to go to their local ice cream shop to get their favorite flavors they remember from child hood.

The Top 10 Most Popular Ice Cream Flavors

1. Vanilla - A recent poll found that this all-time classic flavor is still number one by 29%. Perhaps it is because of the simplicity of it or how good it tastes with toppings, but whatever the reason, vanilla is clearly the most popular frozen dessert flavor.

2. Chocolate - No big surprise here. Chocolate is still the go-to choice of most frozen treat business customers.

3. Strawberry - Once the number 3 most popular flavor, strawberry ice cream now has to share that spot with butter pecan as both flavors are the most popular flavors of about 5% of customers.

4. Butter Pecan - Who knew? Vanilla flavoring with a sweet and crunchy twist.

5. Neapolitan - This is what you get when you mix our top 3 favorite flavors in to one. When you can't decide between strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate this is the perfect choice.

6. Chocolate Chip - This is a must have flavor for your frozen dessert business. You can't go wrong with the classic flavor of vanilla combined with tasty chocolate chips.

7. Chocolate Mint Chip - Add an extra layer of cool to an already frozen dessert with mint chips in either chocolate or vanilla ice cream.

8. Cookie Dough - Everyone loves to eat the cookie dough before it gets baked and in this flavor you not only get tasty vanilla but the added bonus of little balls of cookie dough.

9. Coffee - The perfect pick-me-up on a hot summer day.

10. Rocky Road - Chocolate ice cream, tiny marshmallows, and crunchy walnuts combine to make this flavor the last on the top 10 most popular flavors.

There are many more flavors you could offer at your frozen dessert business and knowing which ones will actually sell is part of being a savvy business owner. Which flavors are most popular in your area is just one of the bits of research that should go into your business plan before you invest in your new venture. An ice cream business plan template will do the necessary research for you and give you the tools you need to help your new business succeed.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7108291

How to make cupcakes in ice cream cones

These cupcake cones might be the most delicious optical illusion you'll ever taste. Professional baker and author Liv Hansen for Betty Crocker shows how to make these clever cupcake ice cream cones.

Make Creepy Critter Cupcakes with Alan Richardson!

Alan Richardson, co-creator of the best-selling "Hello, Cupcake!" and "What's New, Cupcake?" books, makes spooky and tasty, Creepy Critter cupcakes using a variety of treats from Jelly Belly. Follow along and make your own!