Santa Hat Pretzels

I made these for a secret santa party and thought they were cute enough to share!

Supplies:
1 bag of mini pretzel twists
1 bag of mini marshmallows
Red sugar
white almond bark chocolate

1.  Melt the white almond barkchocolate either in a chocolate melter or however the directions on the package say to
2.  Dip the pretzel halfway into the melted chocolate
3.  Dip the pretzel into the red sugar crystals, leaving a little of the white showing to look like a santa hat.  Put the pretzel on wax paper.
4.  Cut the mini marshmallows in half, I used kitchen scissors.  Dip the stirring spoon into the chocolate and take the marshmallow half and place on back of spoon to get some of the chocolate onto it in a less messy way.  Then adhere the marshmallow on the side of the pretzel.  Allow the chocolate to set before removing from the wax paper.

String Art Tutorial (yayyy!)

Hey ya’ll! 

So I’m sure all of you out there are just as much addicted to Pinterest as I am, and may have seen the artwork that has inspired my tutorial today!  Now, if you don’t know what I’m referring to, here’s the link to person selling their work on etsy. (making your own will cost you about $10 or so.. just saying!)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/82924417/louisiana-state-university-love

Don't mind the white string and spray paint, along with the pink paint... I used this for a different project I was doing.. but the supplies still stay the same

Supplies needed:
1 12 inch by 12 inch piece of wood
1 ruler
white spray paint (optional)
some type of painters tape (I used Scotch)
acrylic paint to paint the board
1 paintbrush
a pair of scissors
a pair of needle nose pliers
a hammer
nails
a pencil or marker
some notebook paper
sandpaper
string
Here’s the thread I bought from Hobby Lobby
http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/lizbeth-thread-261107/




I got the wood from Lowes for about $5 for 4 of them.. just go to the wood section and ask them to show you the 2 x 2 wooden boards and have them to cut it into 4, 1 x 1 boards

So go ahead and sand the wood...preferably outside or something.. but this sandpaper block made it so much easier and faster to sand with

Then I painted my board black with acrylic paint as a base coat.. let it dry, then took the board outside and propped it on an old flower pot and spray painted it black (I painted the other side as well)

So for the South Carolina state outline, I Google imaged “South Carolina state outline” and I picked this one to use for the outline:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/south_carolina.gif

& then clicked this one to see where exactly Columbia was in Richland county

http://www.weichert.com/images/states/SC.gif

THIS link below is PERFECT for the outlines (I found this after I found the original one I used)!  Once you click on the state, you can play with the magnification when it brings it up to print!
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/states.html

Now, I didn't print the outline because it does not print out to the size I need to fit the 1 x 1 wooden board I used, so I like to use notebook paper because it's not as thick as computer paper to trace with.  I place the paper in the top left hand corner to make sure that the image is traced straight and I also use the lines on the paper to help with measurements.

As you can see, the paper isn't wide enough, so I had to add to it to fit the entire state

I then taped the papers together and added a piece of paper (it was scrap from cutting the other paper earlier) to the top right so the paper will be wider to fit the state

This is the heart I used
http://www.freeclipartnow.com/d/25689-1/heart.jpg

Then I just drew a line to cut off the excess paper

Instead of hammering in the small nails first, I used the longer nail to make a hole, then I pulled it out and oput the shorter one in.  The longer nail can be found beside the nails I used in Wal-Mart in a different pack

When a nail is hammered in crooked, I used the longer nail to bend it back by pressing the side of it and pushing it straight using both hands (couldn't get a picture using both hands because I had to use one to take the picture)

Note: Do not hammer your nails as close together as mine are here.. try about the space between each line on the paper between each nail, but a little less..

I used the pliers to pull the nail out instead of the back of the hammer because sometimes it gets too cramped

finished! now start tearing off the paper...

My dog, Leila, watching all the action

tie the string in a knot, like so.

Here’s the thread I bought from Hobby Lobby
http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/lizbeth-thread-261107/

pull taut and to the right of the nail..

when you're ready to switch to another nail in the heart.. follow this step and the next

keep doing this until you work your way back around to the starting point

at the end, you overlap the beginning nail like so

then take the string and wrap it around the nail a few times

then use the beginning string to tie a knot on the ending string..knot a few times.. then cut off

To hide the knot, I took some clear nail polish and stuck it to the nail under the group of string.. I'm sure there are other ways you might find that are easier

YAY DONE!!!!!!