Springtime Sugar Shapes

How about this pretty, pastel treat for Easter?  Or maybe anytime you want to feel fancy.  This fabulous idea comes from Jessica at Such Pretty Things, which is one of my favorite blogs.  Everything on it is just lovely to look at (so girly & gorgeous I could stare at the pretty pics all day!).  So when I saw her tutorial for shaped sugars I knew I'd have to make some for Easter.  They were so easy, my 4yr old helped me to make these using some mini cookie cutters, sugar, water & food coloring.

Just mix 2 cups of sugar, a few drops of coloring and 4tsp of water so the sugar sticks together like wet sand and then smooth out on waxed paper and use cutters or molds to make your shapes.  To harden them so they don't fall apart, put on a cookie sheet in the oven at 200 degrees for 10min.  These are so pretty for decorating baked treats, with tea or just on a dish.  We may start having tea time around here just so I have an excuse to eat...I mean serve..these more often.  (Note for you über-crafties out there: use an egg shaped mold & some icing and you can make some panoramic Easter eggs)

I also had to post these little guys before Easter came & went.  I made them using scrap fleece and the patterns from  Wild and Wonderful Fleece Animals.  My Valentine's puppy was the first thing I tried from this book, so I'd been waiting for Easter to try these.  The duck literally took about 15min (30min if you count the interruptions from the kiddies) and I love the design.  Definitely would make more of these in a bunch of colors/prints.  The little bunny turned out ok, but I had to ignore several of the steps on some critical parts like the ears.  I redid them 3 times and I'm not a beginner anymore, but they weren't turning out like the completed photo in the book, so I just made up my own.  That's my one big gripe about this otherwise fab plush toymaking book, they only give you ONE single pic of each project and very few drawn illustrations of the steps.  Sometimes you can't even see the part of the animal that has the most complex step so it's hard to be sure what you're doing is working out.  The time spent on the bunny far exceeded the cuteness for me, but the ducky definitely had a better time to cuteness ratio.