Don’t bother wasting your time and money. The key is to double dip. Use the cupcake liners from your dessert table to also create matching party adornments. All you need are some tea lights, water, and a spray.

Tools

-          Cupcake liners

-          Tea lights

-          A bowl or casserole dish to hold water

-          Polycrylic protective finish

Cupcake liners and tealights are available at arts and craft or party supply stores.

The protective finish can be found in any home improvement store, such as Home Depot.

The spray you need is polycrylic protective finish. It is a water-based clear gloss. It comes in spray or you can paint it on. It is usually used to spray woods and other materials. When it dries, it is nonflammable and water resistant. I discovered that it can coat the paper of the cupcake liners and prevent it from sinking in water.

Take note I selected this spray because it dries nonflammable and water resistant.

Key word is resistant. It protects the liners for hours, however, they won’t last forever. When I tested them in the water they absorbed a little water after a couple of hours but still floated. They were still floating into the night.

Begin by placing cupcake liner upside down on newspaper. Shake your can for two minutes and spray about 6 inches away from cupcake liner. Anytime you stop to re-spray, shake for another 10 seconds.

Cover with a thin layer, as you do not want drippage.

Once it is dry (about 30 minutes), turn over and spray inside. You can flip over immediately and spray outside again, leaving it upside down as before.

Every 30 minutes or so, you want to lightly spray a new coat. I believe I sprayed it with about 7-9 layers.

I suspect if you spray more layers that they will last even longer in the water. Just be aware not to go overboard as the spray could make them too heavy to float. This would probably require an inordinate amount of spray, though.

Allow at least 30 minutes in between each layer to dry. Once you have completed your layers of spray, allow to dry for at least 24 hours.

The best temperature for them to sit until they dry is 70 degrees. The liners may take longer if sitting in a different temperature.

Some liners can drip a loose a little color through the spraying process so the brighter the better. Just keep your coats light and thin to prevent color from dripping off.

Also, some liners lose their shape depending on the type. This is why I let them sit upside down. Feel free to crinkle or squeeze the liners back into shape if necessary.

Place tea lights inside of liners and light.

Pretty, aren’t they?

The best part is you can select the style and color to suit your needs. So much better than running around town or spending hours online looking for what you need.

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Contributed by Jasmin Fine, 1FineCookie.com

A simple solution is to combine the two, by creating a balloon topiary. No need for planting, soiling, or getting covered in soil. It is also a modern twist on the traditional balloon décor and no helium is required.

Tools:

-styrofoam ball

- dowel rod

- paint for the Styrofoam and dowel

- bags of water balloons

- a flower pot

- styrofoam to fit inside of the flower pot

-hot glue gun

You can purchase the styrofoam, dowel, paint, hot glue gun and flower pots at arts and craft stores.

The dowel rod, paint, and flower pot also is available at home improvement stores, such as Home Depot.

I found water balloons and decorated flower pots at a party supply store (iParty).

Begin by painting your styrofoam ball and dowel rod. Spray paint works nicely but if you want to save money and have a little more patience, use some craft paint instead.

You can use toothpicks to hold the styrofoam ball up.

As for the dowel rod, I left one end unpainted and taped that clean end to the edge of a table. It hung on the edge as it dried and prevented contact with any surfaces.

Next, you need water balloons.

Blow them up into small spheres. The smaller, the better.

Do not blow them up too far in advance as they will lose air over time. See if you can double knot them too to further prevent deflation.

Use a hot glue gun to glue the ends of the balloons to the styrofoam ball. Only one of my balloons popped, because the glue was too hot and accidentally touched the rounded part.

As soon as my glue was hot enough to melt the stryofoam, I would unplug it. When the glue was not hot enough for the balloons to stick I would plug it back in to melt again. This prevented the glue from becoming too hot.

Glue the balloons as close to one another as possible.

Tip: Use your dowel rod to puncture a hole into the bottom of your styrofoam ball before you glue the balloons on. Otherwise, it will be difficult to do later without popping a few balloons!

Stick the dowel into a piece of styrofoam that fits well inside of your flower pot. Secure the stryofoam ball on top. If it begins to tip over, pour a few rocks into the flower pot to weigh it down. Then cover with mini balloons, candy, or marbles.

Perfect for indoors as well.

You can make smaller versions as centerpieces. Either way, they make for pretty “plants.”

These balloon topiaries can be customized for Memorial Day, graduations, weddings, 4th of July, baby or bridal showers and birthday parties.

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Contributed by Jasmin Fine, 1FineCookie.com

Rotel Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 10-ounce can of Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
• 10 ounces of plain Greek yogurt

Directions:

1. Drain juices from Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies.
2. Combine Rotel with Greek yogurt until fully blended.
3. Serve with Jalapeno Jack Pretzel Crisps.
4. To thicken Rotel Dip, refrigerate for 2-3 hours

Pretzel Crisps® made an appearance on the E! network reality TV show, “Khloe & Lamar.”  On Sunday, April 29th, Khloe is shown taking a bag of Original Pretzel Crisps out of the pantry and handing them to Lamar, who’s lounging on the couch at their home.  Pretzel Crisps®, the must-have hang out snack of reality TV stars!

Felice Bogus, “Sausage Fondue Nachos”

 Cathi Lannone, “Sicilian Cannoli Crisps”

 Linda Cifuentes, “Naked Eggrolls”

 Miho Okada-Nishino, “Pretzel Crisp Crab Rangoon with Sweet Chili Sauce”

 Cheryl Lundquist, “Pretzel Pizzas”

 Jeremy Crow, “Bacon Blue Cheese Dip with Bourbon Soaked Figs”

Pretzel Crisps® “Got An App For That?” Contest

PRINCETON, NJ – April 26, 2012 – The votes are in and America has chosen the very best appetizers from the “Got An App For That?” Pretzel Crisps® Appetizer Contest.  On March 19th, the snack brand began its search for the tastiest pairings from its ever growing community of 235,000 plus Facebook fans and today, on National Pretzel Day, Pretzel Crisps is happy to announce the six winners!

For three weeks, participants were able to submit recipes and photos to the Pretzel Crisps Facebook page in the following categories: sweet, spicy, meat, veggie, cheese and bacon.  Following the submission period, an internal panel of judges chose ten finalists per category to move onto the final voting stage.  Then from April 12^th through the 23rd, Pretzel Crisps Facebook fans voted online for their favorite pairings.  Those six category winners, which have been determined 100% by fan votes, will walk away with a year’s supply of Pretzel Crisps, the “Got An App For That?” recipe book featuring their creation and $1,000.  So without further ado, the winners of the “Got An App For That?” Pretzel Crisps® Appetizer Contest are: Felice Bogus (Raleigh, NC), Linda Cifuentes (Mahomet, IL), Jeremy Crow (Knoxville, TN), Cathi Lannone (Thornton, CO), Cheryl Lundquist (Wake Forest, NC) and Miho Okada-Nishino (Palatine, IL)!

“We received an incredible number of exceptional recipes,” said Jason Harty, Director of Interactive & Field Marketing for Pretzel Crisps.  “We knew the contest would be a success, but as always, our fans far exceeded our expectations.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the Got An App For That? contest and congratulations to all the winners!”

As part of the brand’s National Pretzel Day celebrations, “Carl, the Pretzel Crisp” is making its official debut.  Ever wonder what the life of Pretzel Crisps is like?  In an effort to add some color to the imaginations of Pretzel Crisps fans around the web, the brand took an experimental leap into the world of online branded video content and developed “Carl, the Pretzel Crisp.”  The adorably addicting online video was created and produced by Tongal, a creative social platform for sourcing original video content.  You can watch “Carl, the Pretzel Crisp” in his entirety or peruse through the shortened video vignettes on the Pretzel Crisps YouTube page.

To view the winning “Got An App For That?” Pretzel Crisps® Appetizer Contest recipes and to download a National Pretzel Day “buy one, get one” free coupon (quantities limited), friend us on Facebook or visit us at www.pretzelcrisps.com.  

About Snack Factory

Based in Princeton, New Jersey, Snack Factory was founded by snack food pioneers Sara and Warren Wilson.  From their humble start selling funnel cakes at county fairs, the couple went on to create New York Style Bagel Chips and Pita Chips (sold to RJR Nabisco in 1992).  Today, Snack Factory is reinventing the pretzel category with the world’s first spreadable pretzel cracker, Pretzel Crisps^®.  Rethink Your Pretzel!