Halloween Rice Krispy Treats Recipe

For my Halloween party, I decided to treat my guests to a childhood favorite. I bought a box of individually wrapped Rice Krispy Treats, and dipped them in chocolate. People love these, and it didn't take me forever to make the batch from scratch and cut perfect shapes. It's a huge time saver if you want the rectangle shape... for other shapes, I buy a huge block of the krispy treats from a cake shop or Target, and use a cookie cutter for my shapes (I think my next attempt will be Christmas trees!).

I started by taking all of the treats out of their packages, and putting them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. I stuck a popsicle stick into each treat, as a handle.

I like using a glass bowl and microwave instead of a double boiler. If you're using a microwave, make sure you change to half power, as to not burn the chocolate. Start with one minute in the microwave, then stir. After that, microwave for 30 seconds at a time and stir until melted all the way through. As soon as the chocolate is done, start dipping the treats into the bowl. I like dipping half way, tapping the treat on the side of the bowl, then scrap the back of the treat. I added sprinkles after each is dipped. Waiting too long will allow the chocolate to harden, then sprinkles won't stick.


I used regular and white chocolate for alternating colors. Meijer was out of stock on the orange chocolate, so I used some food coloring. They made a nice tablescape decoration, as well as a yummy treat! I took the leftovers to work, and everyone loved them. They're my favorite treat. :)

The cupcakes were from the Meijer bakery. They were good too. I usually bake my own, but it saved a lot of time buying them.

For the party favors, I found some cute coffee mugs on a swap site (like Craigslist, but a group on Facebook). I put some shredded paper stuffing into the bottom of each, added a wrapped rice kripy treat, then topped each with some Hershey kisses. Everyone loved this!

Halloween Rice Krispy Treats


Ingredients:
Sheet or individually wrapped rice krispy treats
Popsicle sticks or decorative paper straws
Wilton's melting chocolate (I find that one bag of chocolate will cover about 10 treats)

Supplies:
Wax paper
Glass bowl (or double boiler)
Cellophane treat bags
Twist ties or ribbon
Cookie sheet

Directions:

• Line the cookie sheet with wax paper, so the treats do not stick. 
• Unwrap each treat and place on the wax paper. 
• Insert a popsicle stick or paper straw through the top of the treat.
• Once this is done, empty the melting chocolate in the glass bowl. I prefer using the microwave instead of a double broiler. 
• Set the microwave at half power, and start heating the chocolate for one minute. Stir, then continue at 30 second intervals until melted all the way through. If you heat too much, it will become a chunky mess. 
• Using the stick as a handle, dip the treat about half way into the chocolate (or fully, your preference). Tap on the side of the bowl, scraping the back side if you wish. Place on the wax paper. 
• After dipping each treat, add sprinkles if you would like. This should be done before the chocolate begins to harden.
• After all treats have been dipped, I like to put the cookie sheet of treats in the refrigerator to chill. 
• When the chocolate has harden, put each treat into a plastic bag and seal with a twist tie or ribbon.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Yard Decorations

I finally had a nice day out to decorate my tiny little garden for Halloween. We live in an apartment, but the leasing office was nice enough to let us have a garden outside our dining room window. Now that my green peppers, jalapenos and chili peppers have died off, time to switch gears!

First, I had to make the gravestones. Why buy them when they're so easy to make? Stores do have really creepy designs, but I was going more for whismy. I used some thin, cheap foam that I had leftover from a summer project. Used a sharpie for the outline, cut away and painted it all in. I could have added some dimension by carving into the stones, but the foam was way too thin for that.

I also made a sign for the garden, that I think is adorable. I had an extra piece of molding that I bought from Home Depot (used to frame my bathroom mirror). Bought some flat planks of scrap wood from Michael's, and started painting. After I nailed all the pieces together, I coated the whole sign with a few coats of mod podge. Hoping that will protect from the elements a bit. So far so good!

Voila! My Nightmare Before Christmas graveyard. I bought the plastic fence pieces from the Dollar General... added some mini pumpkins and some spider webs. Since I took the picture, I added another tall pumpkin in the corner.

The Halloween party at my place is this weekend. I hope everyone likes my decorations!

Next week's blog post will show off the rest of my decorations through out the apartment, where to buy them or how to make them!

Have a great weekend!

Wine Glasses, Candles, and Pumpkins, Oh My!

October is my favorite month. There's so much I love about it... cider and donuts... pumpkins and falling leaves... decorating the house and making costumes. Halloween is almost here, so you know what I've been up to. If I can't find it, I make it.

The first decoration I made this year was a set of hand painted wine glasses. Simple, cute. Perfect for a glass of moscato d'asti while I'm reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. My inspiration for this set came from the adorable ribbon I had just bought from Michael's craft store (my favorite store in the world). I recently added these to my Etsy store. So far they've been dubbed a "favorite" but no sales yet. That's okay, I like them and that's all that matters, haha. 

Another little project was a pair of pillar candles that were just collecting dust. Candy corn candles! Aren't they cute? I cleaned them up a bit and took out some paint. I used some painter's tape to make a straight line between colors. If you would like to try this, I would suggest planning out the painter's tape. I painted the bottom 2/3 orange, then applied the painter's tape to create a straight line for the yellow. When I removed the tape, it removed some orange paint. I decided I liked the faded vintage look it gave the orange... I should have done the same to the yellow! I added these to my Etsy store as well, just in case anyone likes them as much as I do. For now, they look nice on my new dining room buffet table with the rest of my decorations. 

Finally, I decided to carve a pumpkin just a little different than the usual. Last year I had about ten pumpkins that I was given from work (cute little gift from management for the fall). The boyfriend and I carved or painted all of them, and left them out on our apartment patio. That was a pain in the butt to clean up after a few weeks of rain. So I limited myself to one or two pumpkins, and this is what I did (pictured right). I decided to create a lovely little carving for the blog! Charming Creations, where fun is the motivation. That needs some work. 

In the picture you can see my fake green apples. Yea, fake. I'm planning on painting one of them to look like the Snow White poison apple. Which my sister corrected me by reminding me that Snow White's apple was red. I like the green better. 

So what are you guys up to for Halloween? Carving pumpkins, bobbing for apples, trick or treating with the little ones? Comment below and share your favorite Halloween activities or traditions. I've love to hear about them!