I've seen so many of these 'box kits' in blogland and I think they make a great gift for kids. Even as an adult I would love to receive one of these!
This year I decided to stray from the usual clothing and/or toy purchasing for my friends kids and think of something that would be great for the family to enjoy together. I put a little spin on the traditional ice cream kit and made a new theme. And since Frozen was such a hit this year, I thought the girls would enjoy building their own edible Olaf.
This gift came together quickly, and I was able to use some craft items I already had (many of which were leftover from our wedding). The box is from our invitations, the mason jars leftover from making our wine jelly, bakers twine (because I always have bakers twine), and the treat bags and doily's are extras that I had in my candy making box. I buy tags from Michael's when I find them in the dollar bin because they always come in handy when needing labels and gift tags.
All that I had to do was buy the goodies to fill the bags.
The toppings were chosen based on what any ol' snowman needs.
Candy corn for his nose, chocolate chips for his eyes, M&Ms for his buttons and pretzel sticks for his arms. No snowman is complete with out SNOW - so I cut up mini marshmallows (which I made from scratch using a corn syrup-free marshmallow recipe) and loaded them into a treat bag.
What's a snowman with out his magical hat? Okay, Olaf didn't have one, but Frosty certainly did.
Then I poured my homemade sauce (caramel sauce and salted hot fudge) in little mason jars. I couldn't think of a way to incorporate sauce into building a snowman, but the kit didn't feel complete with out it. BTW, caramel sauce and hot fudge is super easy to make - like it takes less than 10 minutes. You should never buy it from the store again! My favorite recipes are here and here. (I prefer cooking without corn syrup - so both of these are good recipes that are CS-free. And I add a bit more salt to the fudge).
If mom and dad aren't in the mood for ice cream, both the salted fudge and caramel sauce work great as a fruit dip!
I used little treat bags to seal the candy and wrapped the bag with a paper doily. The doily is stapled to the bag to seal them and then I tied the string to the staple. It's not the prettiest way to seal it, but the tag does a good job of covering up the staple.
I found the bowls at Target in the bake ware aisle. They're actually bowls meant to hold baked goods. I just thought they would work perfect to build Olaf (or Frosty) on a flat surface..
The kit wouldn't be complete with out a cute little tag. I made this in Photoshop and adhered it with a glue stick and washi tape. If you wanted to make your own kit please feel free to right click on the JPG below and save to your computer. If you use it on your blog, please make sure to link back to me as the source.
And here's the JPG for the inside of the box.
Tie the box with a little bit of string, add a tag and surprise a friend with a cold treat on
a snowy night. Oh yeah, remind them to add the ice cream!
I have so many great childhood memories of my mom doing things like this for us. Making hot dog men and writing our names in pancake batter - it makes mealtime so much more fun!
I hope the recipients of our kits enjoyed making a great memory with the family!
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This is adorable and we are going to make them for our upcoming Disney Cruise to give as gifts. You provided the super cute sign for the outside of the box, Is there anyway I can get the one you used inside the box as well?
ReplyDeleteHi!! I updated my post to include both JPEG images. I hope your group enjoys them!
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