I decided that we needed to leave pears behind us for a day and get back to basics..chocolate (which is what it's really all about - no it's not the hokey poky...trust Lolly).
About a month ago La Fuji Mama (LFM) shared a divine hot cocoa done right recipe with everyone. I have made it several times and it's real real good. I suggest you give it a whirl.
I know that there are about a trillion (maybe even more) hot cocoa-that-you-can-place-into-gift-baggie-tutorials out there....I know. I know. I know. I heart hot cocoa and I just do not care about that! I did not feel comfy about not having a hot cocoa template of my own so I decided that we needed one here on LollyChops.
This one is different. It's totally cute and small and kinda tiny and the template has my favorite colors in it.. teal, green and brown. Did I mention that it's really small...? He's a little bit over 4 inches high and 2 inches wide. Real. Stinking. Cute.
I could not use LFM's recipe cause it has too many good things in it.. so I had to go with something less good. I am just kidding.. it's just got a lot of wet stuff in it that does not play nice with paper.
When I was trying to figure this out I knew one of two things. 1) you needed to be able to make it without buying any fancy schmancy bags and 2) Oh shoot I forgot what two was but that's ok.
If you follow my ever-so-easy-ziploc-bag-with-tape method you will have some nice bags to tuck into your template. Here is a picture tutorial on how I did it.
Start with a sammich sized ziploc baggie. Chop off the top.
Fold the baggie almost in half and tape it down
(get close to the top (where the opening is) but not all the way to the top).
Was that confusing???
Fold over the opening (about an inch) and use a tablespoon to fill it with the hot cocoa mix.
You will want to put about 10 tablespoons of mix in each baggie (a little more if you can fit it in there). Once you have it filled carefully fold the top back over and either fold and tape it closed or use a twist tie to seal it.
I did not use real hot cocoa mix for this demonstration. RonChops and I drank it all before I could get the template made!
You might notice that I took a different approach with this template. I actually included the mix recipe in the PDF. That way all you have to do is download the template and you will have everything you need to make up batches of this stuff. No more hunting and pecking around my site trying to find my scattered instructions, recipes, templates, etc... that was getting too nutty (we just cannot have excess nuttiness here now can we???).
This folds the same way as the chocolate cobbler ONLY you do not have to tape two pieces together. It's an all in one kind of thing. It's one of the benefits to this being small. Score each side of the white part (under the green parts) and then fold them towards each other. You can punch holes in the tops and thread ribbon through to get them to stay together..AND I recommend taping the baggie of mix down to the bottom. This will prevent it from sliding around as much.
I am trying to make this easier for you guys.. I swears!
So whats next? I have gotten about 5 requests to make the pear patterns into paper you can download and print.
This is mainly for all the gals out there who make cards and scrapbook. I have never done this before so I need a few pointers. What file format should I post them in and what sizes? I know some folks have wide format printers..so 12 x 12 paper would be cool (then you could use the paper in your layouts).. and some do not... so maybe 8.5 x 11 for those folks? Will a PDF do or should I just post a .png or a .jpg file? I am just not sure so any advice you guys can offer me would me much appreciated.
You can download the Hot Cocoa Mix recipe AND template --> HERE <--
As always.. email me and let me know if you have any questions, problems, requests, etc... I'll see what I can do.
Hope you are all having a nice week!
Huggles!
