Our Grand Finale!

By Lindsey Riley, Britny Burton, Mallory Jordan, and Mandy Whitaker (The Current Craft Staff)

With the fall semester at Ball State coming to an end, our blog will also be ending. We enjoyed sharing craft ideas and news with you and hope that you found our information useful and entertaining.

For our final post, we got together at Britny's house and made some gifts for our classmates from the sports blog Around the Huddle. We decided to make them decorative sports balls (a football and a few soccer ones). And to make sure all of us got to do one, we made an extra one to give to our professor.

What we did was go to our local Dollar Store and purchased the sports balls. They ranged between $1-3. Afterwards, we went to Hobby Lobby to purchase various sequences, hot glue guns, paint, and other elements to decorate them.

After getting our goods, we went to Britny's and got our crafting on! We decorated them however we wished, making all of them different from each other.

We had a great time together crafting and watching ABC Family's "25 Days of Christmas." Once we finished, we wrapped them up in various wrapping and tissue paper.

Let the gift giving season begin!

Dave + Oprah at Ball State

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas!

By Lindsey Riley (Crafting Challenged Blogger)

Hey everyone!

With Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend ending, it means only one thing: We are less than thirty days away from Christmas Eve!

Now not everyone celebrates Christmas, and that is totally fine. Personally, my favorite part of the holiday and the winter season in general is the Christmas tree my family puts up. I hate going to get the tree (a family tradition that my father never let's me forget), but I do enjoy decorating it and placing gifts at its base.

This year, as a pre-Christmas present, I made my parents some ornaments. I told them to consider it my contribution to the tree this year since I'll be at school when they chop it down and decorate it.

Much to my surprise, making these ornaments was very easy. Here is what I did:

• Went to Hobby Lobby (you can go to any craft store) and bought clear and blank ornaments (two packages of 12 for $7.99)
• Went to JoAnn Fabrics (again, you can go to any craft store) and bought ten different paint colors ($1.25 each)
• Go to your crafting area, lay out some newspaper on a table, and get all your materials ready (paint, ornaments, paper towels, paper plates)
• Mix whatever color combinations you wish inside of the ornaments and with your finger covering the opening, shake them until all sides are covered. When covered, place upside down on a paper plate so paint can drain out. (Repeat for all ornaments)
• Let them dry overnight
• After wiping them down and getting the extra paint out, place the ornament tops and hooks back on
• Package them in whatever way you wish (Personally, I used a gift box and tissue paper)

We're All a Bit "Nuts" Sometimes

By: Mallory Jordan, moderately crafty


Recently, a Canadian mom has been making news. Her (in my opinion) overreactive actions have caused a rift among people with peanut allergies.

According to thestar.com, the Vaughan mother, Donna Giustizia, wants the oak trees near her child's school to be cut down. She believes that fallen acorns from the tree could harm her child or others with peanut allergies if they some how come in contact with the acorns.

The SUN News in Canada's City of Vaughan put their own social media reporter, Gina Phillips, on the line to prove Giustizia is not only wrong, but a little "nuts." Phillips has an extreme peanut allergy and reporter David Menzoid brought her in contact with the nut in question.




Menzoid and Phillips proved that acorns do not harm those with peanut allergies.

“When it comes to nature, that’s super hard to control. I mean there’s gotta be a line somewhere, right," Phillips said.

In my opinion, parents get more and more protective in a negative way each generation. Children need to be outside around trees and nature. It is part of life.

In honor of this "nuts" woman, I thought I'd make a cute mini dessert: Acorns!


You will need:

• Regular donut holes
• Chocolate icing
• Brown or tan chocolate sprinkles
• Small, thin pretzel sticks

This recipe is quite simple. You just use a knife to spread some icing on the top 1/3 of the donut hole. You pour the sprinkles in a small bowl so that the icing-covered acorns are easily dip-able. Then, you dip the icing top of the donut hole in the sprinkles. Finish with a thin pretzel stick in the top for the stem.





Super easy, super delicious and super cute. Also, no peanut allergies should be at risk.

Someone should make these and bring them to Giustizia's next get together. Needless to say, I don't think any oak trees will be chopped down and people with peanut allergies will be safe.

As Menzoid said, he is all for helping those with peanut allergies, but, "When it comes to chopping down beautiful, magnificent oak trees, I'm sorry, that's just nuts."

The Perfect Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Breakfast

By: Mallory Jordan, moderately crafty

If you're like me, Thanksgiving break means sleeping in really late and eating a ton of food. However,  that plan has a major flaw on Thanksgiving Day. If I sleep past noon, I'll miss one of the most important parts of celebrating Thanksgiving: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has a long and important history. As NYC Tourists explains, the first parade was on Christmas 1924. The Macy's employees were originally the entertainment in the parade. The parade got bigger, adding the famous giant balloons in 1927, and more popular thanks to television. Today, about 3.5 million people stand along the 2 1/2 mile route every Thanksgiving Day.

If you've missed the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade due to sleeping in, or have trouble waking up loved ones for it, I have a solution. Whip up some 1950's housewife skills and get up a little earlier than normal to make the perfect parade breakfast. Hint: It doesn't taste like turkey, but it sure looks like one.

You will need:

• Pancake mix
• Waffles (I prefer cinnamon)
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Strawberries
• A couple chocolate chips (and whipped cream if you desire)
• Syrup (optional)

First, cook up 5 pieces of bacon per serving and 3 sausages per serving. 

Then, prepare the pancake mix and make 1 pancake at a time so it is larger than the waffle and perfectly round.

Thirdly, slice a strawberry in half, then in half again for the beak. Chop up a few more strawberries to add to the "feathers."

The pancake will go on the plate first with the waffle on top. Make sure the waffle is positioned on the bottom so that the pancake peaks out above. The pancake will be the body of the turkey, and the waffle will be the head.

Alternate 4 of the bacon strips and 3 sausage links above the waffle on the top of the pancake. Put some strawberries along the top edge of the waffle or at the base of the "feathers" to add some color. On the waffle, put 2 chocolate chips on for eyes. Place the first sliced strawberry cut on the waffle for the beak. Take the last piece of bacon an put it to the side of the strawberry beak for the turkey's gobble.

Now, you have the perfect Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade breakfast that will be sure to wake you or any of your loved ones up to watch the parade.

Bye Bye Twinkies!

In case you haven't heard already, Hostess is closing its doors. Why would it do that after producing such popular snacks like Twinkies? According to an article from ABC News:

"Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of the spongy snack with a mysterious cream filling, said Friday it would shutter after years of struggling with management turmoil, rising labor costs and the ever-changing tastes of Americans even as its pantry of sugary cakes seemed suspended in time.
Some of Hostess beloved brands such as Ding Dongs and Ho Ho's likely will be snapped up by buyers and find a second life, but for now the company says its snack cakes should be on shelves for another week or so. The news stoked an outpouring of nostalgia around kitchen tables, water coolers and online as people relived childhood memories of their favorite Hostess goodies."

Unfortunately, Twinkies and all those delectable treats will never be the same again. And if you want an original, be prepared to pay tons of money for it. They are selling on eBay for as much as $8,000!!!!

If you manage to snatch a few of the last Hostess treats before the business closes, here are a great ways you can enjoy them:

FRY THEM!!

• 6 Hostess Twinkies
• 6 wooden popsicle sticks
• vegetable oil, enough to cover twinkies
• flour

• BATTER
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 cup flour (mix to consistency)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• Directions:

1. Freeze the twinkies for at least 2 hours.
2. can freeze overnight.
3. Heat your oil in fryer to 375 degrees.
4. Mix your batter as such: milk, vinegar,oil.
5. In another bowl blend flour, baking powder and salt.
6. whisk wet ingredients into dry, mix until smooth.
7. refrigerate until oil reaches temperature.
8. insert sticks into twinkies, leaving enough of a end to hold.
9. dust with flour and dip into batter be sure batter covers the entire twinkie place twinkie in hot oil with utensil being sure the twinkie browns evenly (the twinkie will float) about 3- 4 minutes.
10. Remove to paper towel- cool 5 minutes.

Option 2: Simply unwrap the package and enjoy!

A Charlie Brown kind of Thanksgiving

Britny Burton [self-proclaimed craft freak]

Jelly beans, popcorn, toast, pretzel sticks, need I say more?

Usually for Thanksgiving my mom pulls out A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and makes us watch it. This year I won't be home for Thanksgiving, but that's no reason to not be in the Charlie Brown spirit. I thought it would be fun to make a replica of his Thanksgiving. This would be a great idea for an afternoon with little kids or even for big kids like my roommate and myself!

If you're doing this with kids it's easiest to have them watch the movie while you set everything up. Not only are the cartoon characters able to keep children engaged, the movie also teaches about sharing and some traditions of Thanksgiving. 

Grocery List

• bread
• butter
• popcorn
• large brown paper bag OR
• smaller brown lunch bags
• yarn or ribbon
• jelly beans
• small pretzel sticks

Honestly, most of the food for this I already had in my kitchen, so it's really a quick project.

1. Pop the popcorn. You can pop kernels on the oven, a popcorn popper, a microwave bag, etc. It doesn't really matter. I would suggest a little to no butter kind so it doesn't leave grease spots on the bag.
2. Pour all of the popcorn into the brown paper bag. If you use small lunch bags then each person will have their own turkey to open or else you can put it all in a big brown grocery bag and they can share one turkey. Below is what it looks like once the kids dig into the bag!

3. Toast the bread. If you want to jazz it up you can even put some toast toppings out such as cinnamon, jelly, honey, etc.
4. Place the jelly beans and pretzel sticks in containers. [This is so everyone has to pass the containers around and share!]

And ta-da your Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is a success!

**Does your family have any Thanksgiving traditions like watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving together? Let me know in the comments section below!