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Articles tagged as 4th of July (view all)
Olympic Fever Free USA Printable
The winter Olympics are upon us. Do you have Olympic Fever? I enjoy watching the winter Olympics more than the summer. My favorite winter sport to watch is curling, yes curling, followed by the various skiing events. I'm not sure why I'm drawn to curling. I guess I just find it fascinating that you throw a rock down the ice and people use brooms to keep it going and going straight. FYI, I know I'm not using the correct terms, I have to relearn them every 4 years! ; ) What's your favorite Olympic sport to watch? I've made a Free 8x10 USA Olympic printable to download if you have the Olympic spirit going on in your house. Click here to download the file. 
Go USA!!
Free Military Welcome Home Printables
I designed these Military Welcome Home Printables awhile ago and I'm finally getting them up on my blog. If you have family and/or friends that have been away serving our country for awhile throw them a little party to welcome them back home! I've made a "Welcome Home" banner and a variety of square or circle tags (if you use a circle punch) to use as cupcake toppers or for other decorations!
It's kind of hard to take a photo of the actual banner all made and put together so below is a little visual of what the banner says and looks like once it's printed and cut out.
I had to split the banner into 2 files in order to upload it to the blog so click here for the word "Welcome" and click here for the word "Home". Once printed and cut out the individual triangles measure approx. 5 1/2" W x 6 1/2" H".
To download the tags that you see below click here.
If you use these printable for a party please share some photos with me! Thank you to all of those that serve our country!! *Terms of use for free digital files/downloads: All digital .pdf files/designs are to be used for PERSONAL USE ONLY! Commercial use, re-selling, making a profit from, forwarding and sharing these files/designs is strictly prohibited. You may NOT sell the finished (printed & cut) designs. All designs are original creations and are copyright of ©Amy Miller Designs. All rights reserved. By downloading these files/designs you agree to these terms. All of my downloadable files are password protected, which means you cannot bring them into a design program and alter them.
Linked up at: Link Party Tuesdays with A to Zebra Celebrations
4th of July Dipped Ice Cream Cone Fun!
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!! I don't know about you but my favorite treat anytime of the year is ice cream! While sketching up some new 4th of July paper product designs I came up with an idea for red, white and blue dipped ice cream cones. Instead of just keeping them on paper I decided to bring them to life! Here's the happy dipped cone family: mom, dad and baby! ; )
If you are planning to serve ice cream on the 4th of July you could make a little ice cream bar like this one! When I was little we usually made homemade ice cream around the 4th. We made it with the older machines that you had to keep adding ice and salt around the container. I'm not sure why we only made it once a year, but that was usually the tradition. Did you make homemade ice cream growing up?
Here's the supplies you'll need, they're probably pretty obvious but I'll list them anyways: ice cream cones, vanilla candy melts in red, white and blue and sprinkles! Tip: Navy blue candy melts are kind of hard to find. I found mine at Hobby Lobby. You can also use white candy melts and blue candy coloring to make navy too if you can't find navy ones available.
How to make them. Again it's probably kind of obvious but I'll let you know the steps I took. I used coffee mugs to melt the candy melts. I microwave the melts in about 15-20 second intervals, stirring between each time till smooth and melted. You want to microwave chocolate in small time frames because it can scorch/burn very quickly. Now you are ready to dip! If you've ever dipped things in chocolate before you know the first few things you dip usually come out looking bad until you get a little rhythm and system to your dipping. I thought I'd be able to just dip them the whole way to the line on the cone but that ended up to be too much chocolate. When I added sprinkles to the chocolate and placed them on wax paper to dry all the chocolate and sprinkles started heading south and began to pool on the wax paper. So I had to change my method of dipping. I dipped the cone about half way between the top edge and the line where I wanted to stop then used a teaspoon to apply the rest around the sides while holding it over the mug for whatever dripped off. In general you just want to cover the cone lightly with chocolate so it's not too heavy, add the sprinkles to it while it's still wet and lay it on wax paper top side down to harden. Tip: Half of the reg. size cones I bought were broken on top so you might want to buy an extra box if you want them to look really nice and not look like a bite was taken out of them! ; ) Use those broken ones as your "test" cones to dip first and get your own system down then move on to the better ones. You could make these cones a few weeks ahead of time and store in an air tight container in a cool dry place till you are ready to use them.
Seeing stars! I bought this green rubber star mold last year from the $1.00 section at Target. It was actually labeled as an ice cube tray but I thought maybe I could use it for a chocolate mold. I used some of my left over melted chocolate to make stars to match my cones. I used a teaspoon to plop some chocolate in the molds, tapped the mold on the table so the chocolate would level out then added sprinkles while the chocolate was still wet. I put the mold in the freezer for about 3-5 minutes to speed up the drying time. The chocolates were a little hard to get out of the mold and took a little coaxing to get out. A real candy mold would have worked better but this ice cube tray worked for my needs.
Another shot of the happy little family!
Dipped cones ready and at attention to hold ice cream!
Baby ice cream cones! Could they be any cuter? I've had these in my pantry for awhile and finally got them out to play with! Great for portion control, unless you eat about 6 of them! ; )
Sprinkles...they just make you smile!
So what's your favorite ice cream flavor? I'm not sure if I can pick just one but peanut butter and cookie dough are typically my favorites! Although I'd probably eat almost any flavor you put in front of me! Looking for more red, white and blue fun? Come follow my 4th of July Pinterest Board! Linked Up At: SNAP, Tatertots & Jello, Whipperberry What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking! I’ve loved to bake since I was little! Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow. To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!
Navy candy melts and 4th of July Sprinkles
Earlier this week I set out to find some 4th of July candy making supplies and had a little trouble finding what I wanted. So I thought I'd pass along what I found and where I found it if you might be looking for the same things and save you a little time driving everywhere.
1. Navy Blue Candy Melts - Navy blue candy melts are a little hard to find. I found these at Hobby Lobby with their candy and cake making supplies. I've never used the Make 'n Mold brand before. The color was great but there wasn't much vanilla taste to them. They worked fine for what I needed them for though. You can also custom make your own navy blue by using white candy melts and candy coloring. You have to use coloring specifically for candy not the same coloring you use for say cake frosting. Candy coloring is oil based and will blend well with the candy melts. If you use regular frosting coloring your candy coating might harden up because there is a little water in the regular coloring. Candy coating/chocolate and water are enemies, they don't play well together and if you add water to the candy coating it can harden up and become unusable. I've heard of people using just a very small amount of reg. coloring to get a pastel color but if you go one drop too many it will turn into a disaster. There is also a product called AmeriColor Flo-Coat Oil Candy Color that you can use with AmeriColor's Gel Pastes (the kind of coloring to use for reg. baking) that will allow you to use the reg. coloring for candy melts. I've never used this before but my 2 cents would be to just get the specific candy coloring to make custom candy melt colors. Hope I didn't loose you through all of that! ; ) ha ha 2. Red, White and Blue Jimmies - These are Betty Crocker brand and I found them at my local grocery store (Fry's Food Stores) with the regular cake decorating supplies right by the cake mixes. I would think you could find these at your local bigger grocery stores too in the same area or a special 4th of July section. 3. Red, White and Blue Nonpareils (aka little tiny balls that you will find on your floor for 6 months after you use them!) - I found these at Hobby Lobby. One would think they would be in a special 4th of July section, right...NO I found these in the themed party supply section with basic red, white and blue patriotic items they carry all year long. I know I could have purchased all these items online but I needed to start on my project that same day and didn't have time to wait for them to be shipped to me. Check back later this week when I show you what I did with these supplies! Here's what I made with these fun supplies! Happy making and baking! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking! I’ve loved to bake since I was little! Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow. To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!
