Fortune Cookie Place Settings

The Project: Large Paper Fortune Cookie Place Settings as well as smaller paper table decoration paper cookies.

The Cost: ~10.00 or maybe less if you already have the paper as we did. We used left over paper from our engagement invites to make these. We got 12x12 black and white paper from Michaels, originally 20.00 with a 50% coupon, got it for the 10$

The Story:
Seeing as how our engagement invites were origiami styled, my fiance and I thought it would be nice to continue that theme and to always create some type of origami something for each event that we do. For the party, I originally wanted to make lotus flower origami and place them on each setting but then when I researched it, it was alot of work! I was looking for something simpler. I then leaned more toward ordering custom fortune cookies from a store when It hit me, DUH! fortune cookies made out of paper! How hard could that be. I went on youtube and looked it up and sure enough, it was so simple! I decided to make them custom on my own by creating individual Love Fortune sayings such as: Live, Love, Laugh...Love is two people looking in the same direction...Love makes the world go round...etc...

First Things First:
1. Decide how you are using them. Place settings? Table Decorations? Both?
2. Decide on your sizes. For place settings, go big! For decoration, vary up your sizes.
3. Pick a color theme or type of paper you would like to use.
4. Be creative! Its your creation so put whatever you want on the fortune itself. It can be a saying, a word, a symbol, a joke, or just their names.
5. Count how many people are coming. If you have 50 guests, youll need 50 settings and 50 sayings if you are not repeating them

What You Will Need:

1. Paper for the cookie
2. Circle cutter or anything circular that you can trace (CD, cup, etc)
3. Krazy Glue! Not any glue will work.
4. Paper for the fortune
5.Computer and Printer
6. Scissors







Step By Step Directions:
1. Start by making your circles. Get as many circles on a paper as possible, so if your largest circle is of CD size and you can fit only 3 big ones but it looks like you could fit 2 smaller circles on it, do that! You can use the other ones as decoration later on.

2. Trace all your circles on all your paper, large medium and small sized then cut them out. (If you have a circle cutter, use that for the smaller decorative ones, its easier than cutting. If you dont want to spend the $ though, just cut away!)

3. Seperate the circles in size order. I did this because it made it easier for me but you can skip this step.

4. Take your circle and begin to fold it evenly onto itself without creasing the middle line. If you crease the middle, it wont fold right.

5. Press your finger into the middle of the bent part to form a slight indent. This will help you when youre folding

6. Place your pointer finger into that fold while at the same time, using your thumb on one side and your middle finger on the other to pull the sides together.

7. The paper will automatcally fold a certain way when you do this, forming the cookie.

8. Sometimes the fold is not perfect and the cookie parts are uneven, if this is the case you can actually tug at the one side and move the paper to where you want it but dont force it if its not working.
9. At this point it probably looks like a pac-man because its not glued yet. Close the cookie to see where the middle touches, this is where you will place the glue.
10. Place the crazy glue onto that area and quickly close the cookie.

11. Press and hold it together for about 10 seconds or until glue adheres. If you let go too soon, itll pop open. This part can take some time.
12. Do this to all your circle, large and small. Place your setting cookies aside though so you know which ones get the fortunes and which do not.

The next part with the fortunes can be done at two seperate points depending on what you want to do. I made my cookies first and then put the fortunes in but you can also choose to put the fortunes in prior to folding the cookie.

*I learned this the hard way, try to pick shorter sayings! If your sayings are too long, they look funny coming out of the cookie*

Fortune cookie sayings

1. Either create your own on the computer or google sayings and copy and paste

2. Either way, put your sayings into a Word Doc., one saying per line! and skip a space for cutting.

3. Change your font and color if you choose. (We did red paper so I had to use black)

4. Load your paper into the printer and print.

5. Cut your sayings out and get ready to put them into the cookies.

6. Slide them into one side of the cookie and then press the ends of the cookie together so it forms kind of a seal that will keep the saying inside.

7. If this doesnt work and the saying keeps slipping out, use some glue on it but not much bc your guests will be taking them out.

8. Sit back and enjoy the coversations that go on over this project and what their sayings actually say. Its funny to see if people think whats written in it applies to their life!

* The ones that will not have sayings in them, you create just the same, just dont put the sayings in them*

Hope you enjoyed this project! It was fun to do and a pleasure to see everyones responses. Let me know how yours come out!

Happy Crafting! Check out my next post for some fun Thank You cards!

Sushi Cupcakes!

The Project: Sushi Cupcakes...and they are oh so good!

The Cost: ~ 30.00$ (Boxes of cake mix at shoprite 2 for 5$, Icing 2/5$, Fruit by the foot from Costco 8-10$, gummy candies of all kinds ~3$)

The Story:
Seeing as I am a DIY bride, I thought it was only suiting to do the cake myself as well! I originally was going to make a cake but since they were favors, I thought cupcakes would be cute. I googled "asian style cake" and scrolled through all the images when I came across a cupcake that looked like a sushi roll. I immediately knew I had to do it. I youtubed how to make one and to my surprise there are alot of videos on this. I got my ideas and headed off to the food store to do a trial bake. My MOH came to help me and we were on our way to our first batch of sushi cakes. Needless to say, it was a good thing we did a trial run because we did not do so well! I was so upset that they came out so badly but I calculated my mistakes, thought of a new plan, got some new materials and I knew I could do a better job on the final run, which I did. Loved these! They were a hit!!

First Things First:
1. Decide on a size you want the cupcake to be and how many you need. Depending on how many you need to make will depend on how many boxes you use. I used 4 boxes and got 48 cupcakes out of it. Too big of a cupcake and it looks not so realistic but too small and it becomes difficult to get all the candy in. I used a 3-3.5" circle cutter.
2. Get a cutter!- I had one, lost it, and thought using a cup would be good but it wasnt! The cake got stuck inside and it made a mess. I had to go and get a new cutter and it made all the difference (I found the other cutter the next day, figures! lol)

What You'll Need:

1. Cake mix, preferabally something not dark so no chocolate or red velvet, just vanilla is good.
2. Icing, make sure its white
3. Fruit by the foot *Dont get the ones with the cut designs in them, they fall apart. It must be solid!*
4. Gummy candies red, pink, white, yellow or anything that can be sushi colored like red would be the "salmon" etc..
5. Cupcake caddy
6. Smaller circle cutter for inside of the cupcake. This makes it easier to apply the center candy. If you dont use one, when you press in the candy you risk ruining the cupcake itself because of all the pressure you add.
7. Wax paper
8. White sprinkles (ordered them off amazon) or coconut but I didnt like the coconut.
9. Scissors and Knife
10. Circle cutter

Step by Step Directions:
1. Make your cake mix by following the recipe on the back. Do this as many times as you need depending on how many cupcakes you make and what size. We used 4 boxes. We also did 2 boxes at a time just in case as to not waste any cake if we really didnt need it.

*Fill the pan only half way through! The cake should not be larger than the fruit rollup which is really not that thick* This is important!

2. When cake is done and taken out of the over, let it cool fully.
*This may not seem important but I got too excited once and tried to pull the cake out before it was cooled and it literally crumpled in my hands...sooo mad*
3. Lay wax paper on the table to help the cake not stick.
4. Flip cake over onto the wax paper.
5. Take your cutter and start at the very edge of the cake as to not waste any and get as many cuts as you can. Start cutting away!
6. Place cakes to the side as you poke them out.

7. When you made all you need, take the middle cutter and cut out part of the cupcake. This is where your candy will go.

8. Take your icing and ice only the tops of the cakes, including the center hole so candies stick and stay. Do this as many times as you need

9. Place iced tops into a plate of white sprinkles.

10. Place candies in the centers in any way you want and any colors.

11. Once completed, take your fruit by the foot and before taking it off the paper, wrap it around a cupcake to see how big you need it.

11. Leave a little overlap so you can stick the candy to itself to stay better.
12. Cut your candy strip

*Do this each and every time to every cupcake. I know it sounds dumb but you have to because each cut is alittle different in size and if you cut first you may have cut wrong*
13. Before taking the fruit by the foot off its paper, lay it down with the fruit side facing up.
14. Take a knife and ice the whole strip.

15. Take the strip off the paper.
16. Wrap the strip around the cupcake. Make sure its up pretty high because you dont want it sticking out the top. Everything is suppose to look flush. Sometimes its impossible but try.

17. Do this as many times as you need to and store in the caddy in the refrigerator.

If you are doing this for fun, than def. just roll with it and have a good time but if you are making these for an event or a party, definitely do a trial run. Itll be well worth it in the end. Also, give yourself enough time. When all is said and done, it takes several hours to do these (Well it did for us because we did 48 of them letting them sit in the refrigerator for half hours at a time to keep icing from melting)

Hope you enjoyed this cupcake. It was alot of work but like I said, it was well receieved and well worth it!

Because these were our favors, we then added these to our lined takeout boxes. See the post before this for project ideas. Heres a pic of the open boxes and the doily inside as well as some pics from our first trial run!

Favors-Take out boxes

The Project: Take Out Box Favors (See my other post to learn how to make a sushi cupcake to give as favors)

**These set of directions are pretty much the same as the centerpiece directions so if you read that one, this post is only slightly different**

The Cost: ~30.00-40.00 **Price depends on how many boxes you are making and what you make to decorate it** This project price is based on over 50 boxes with 2 types of ribbon and tissue paper flowers. This price also includes this project as well as the centerpiece project.

The Story:
As soon as we had our placed picked out, I knew that I wanted to use take-out boxes. I already knew I wanted to use them for the centerpieces and then I thought about using them as favors with a cupcake inside. I thought it would be cute to use them and then place a pair of chopsticks somewhere on the box to make it look like you had just come from the restaurant. I ran out to my nearest asian food market and picked up a bag of 100 chopsticks for 2$. I still have many extra left over and Ill use them for something else somewhere along the line.

First Things First:
1. Decide whether or not you want to give favors out per couple or per person. If you do per couple, youll do less work but if you plan on only doing one cupcake in each box you may want to think about doing it per person or adding 2 cupcakes per favor box. We did per person so we made 50 boxes. Alot of work but well worth it!

What you'll need: **This is also a picture for the favors so some of the things in this picture won't be needed for this project but I didnt have 2 pictures. Follow the list.***

1. Chinese take out boxes (You can get these in a range of colors but itll cost you more so go with the plain white and decorate them yourself) I ordered 100 of these because I planned on using so many of them but you can order them in 25's I believe. (Papermart.com)
2. Tissue paper from the dollar store in your choice of color, buy more packs than youll need. Its easier than stopping a project to go get more materials.
3. Ribbon (1 or 2 styles, colors, and sizes) We chose two. (Michaels sometimes has 2 rolls for 5$, try to go when they have this or print a few coupons out, go with some friends and buy each roll seperately to save $)
4. Glue Runner (I already have one so I just needed refill packs...3 for 10.00, with 40% was 6$)
5. Hot glue gun and glue sticks (dollar store)



Step by Step Directions:
1. Order your materials! and pick up the other materials from the stores
2. Pick a base ribbon and lay it flat on a table.
3. Place your takeout box onto the ribbon and wrap the ribbon all the way around to see how long you will need each piece to be.

4. Cut (longer is better, you can always take away but you cant add!)
5. Take the remainder ribbon and use the cut piece as your marker. Cut as many as needed.

6. Take your top ribbon and lay it on a table.
7. Place the box , with a base ribbon (doesnt have to be attached but hold it on there just to get an idea),onto the top ribbon.

8. Wrap that ribbon around the box and cut where desired.

9. Cut the remaining ribbon as you did above.

10. Open up the takeout box (I found this to be a better way to make a seamless, less noticeable closure point)
11. Take your base ribbon and lay it upside down on the table so you can put glue on the back.
12. Use glue runner all along the ribbon and attach to base ribbon.

13. Place box directly in the center of the ribbon and slowly pick up one side at a time, pressing it onto the box.

14. When you get to the top, push the one side of the ribbon as close to the closure as you can without covering the part that will slip into the other side to keep it closed.

15. Do the same on the other side.

**The tops dont have to be perfect because they will be covered with the tissue paper flower. **

16. Leave boxes in the open position so you can place the cupcake inside.

**I suggest lining the bottoms with some type of paper or doily, I go 50 for 1$ at the dollar store**
***Flowers cant be glued on until after cupcakes are in the box and boxes are sealed up***

All done!

Hope you enjoyed this project. For directions on how to make a sushi cupcake, please see my next post!

Thanks for reading!