Why I Oughta...

As I posted yesterday, Easter is a (surprising, at least to me) big deal at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea .  Lots of displays around the parks, but the stores are loaded with Easter-related items.  It wouldn't be a trip to a Disney Park without buying stuff you don't really need, right?  And holiday-related items for my kids?  Couldn't pass some of this stuff up. Here's a look at some of the displays in the stores including "Grand Emporium" at Tokyo Disneyland (which is the big store on their version of MainStreet USA) and the Emporio - the version at DisneySea. They have a big display of towels in different sizes featuring Mickey and Minnie in their Easter best. Pay attention to those outfits.  More on that down below. They also have these pretty awesome eggs in a package.  Inside of each of those are little candies.  You can see the display in the bottom left of the photo. There's a bunch of pins and post-it notes that are all ...

Back in March, I posted a photo of this year's bunny mold .  Fast forward a few weeks and we've birthed four of these guys.  And while I've been trying to get the girls to help out with these over the years, this was the first year that they actually helped!  Like...they mixed up the water putty, filled the cavity and helped me free them from the mold when they were set.  These are decidedly much smaller than any of the other ones we've made over the years. Now they'll go off to get painted and dressed up before Easter.

This cute little bunny mold arrived in the mail recently.  She's wearing a dress and carrying a basket - as Easter Bunnies are wont to do.   The bunny from 2014 also carried a basket, but he was a bit more formal. This one is a bit smaller than we've done in the past, but I think with the girls helping me, the size is going to work to our advantage. Turns out, we didn't make one of the last year.  Instead, we went to Sea Island instead of having Easter around town.  Ahhh...Sea Island. Back to reality with these molds.  I'll work with the girls to stuff the cavitiy with water putty, then once dry, we'll paint them up, then add a topcoat for shine.  Aiming for four of them to spread the Easter joy around a bit. Here's the mold we used in 2015 . Here's the mold we used in 2014 . Here's the mold we used in 2013 . Here's the mold we used in 2012 . Here's the mold we used in 2011 .

This is the fifth edition of the 'faux chocolate' water putty Easter bunny produced in our house.  He has a basket on his back and is pretty tall.  Took almost a half can of Water Putty for each one. I can't seem to find the photo of last year's version (but I did, indeed, produce one).   Guessing it had something to my lack of posting in March and April of 2014.  I did, however post the mold from last year that you can see here .  We made the typical batch of four of these guys and with the help of the girls, we gave them away a week ago on Easter Sunday. Here's the original how-to post from back in 2011 . There have been five, but with 2014 missing, here's the rest: Here's the 2013 edition . Here's the 2012 edition . Here's the 2011 edition .

Easter may have come and gone, but I find time to get around to posting about this year's bunny mold.  The Babe and I produced a few of these just like we've done in year's past. This year's mold was pretty big and used A LOT of water putty.   This marks the 5th year of doing the bunnies and they're all different.  I'll post some photos of the in-progress bunnies and the fully-finished ones that are all glossy with polycrylic. Here's the mold we used in 2014 . Here's the mold we used in 2013 . Here's the mold we used in 2012 . Here's the mold we used in 2011 .

Let's get after it with some egg dying, outdoor egg huts, and potato salad, right?

We're going to get started this weekend with the water putty.  This guy is 'vintage-y' looking, so he'll fit right in with some of the past year's editions. Here's the mold we used in 2013 . Here's the mold we used in 2012 . Here's the mold we used in 2011 .

For the first time, we made some 'white chocloate' faux Easter bunnies.  The mold ( here ) was the smallest one I've worked with of the three years.  In the photo above, the white ones almost look matte, but they have the same shine on them that the chocolate ones do. Here's the 2012 edition . Here's the 2011 edition .

Look at what I spotted at the Cracker Barrel?  A pretty tall faux chocolate bunny.  They've painted his eyeball, which is something I haven't done, but other than that they look a lot like the bunnies I've made in the past .  They wanted $19.99 for the large ones.  I have about $20 in the process to make three of them, so these guys have some healthy margins.  Granted....they're not using water putty to mold them as they're made of lightweight plastic, so they're probably even cheaper to produce. Is the faux chocolate bunny going to become a hot Easter-season item?

Here's the first bunny out of the mold.  After some drying and some Dremel-ing, we'll put a prime coat on this guy, then we'll have some fun painting him in a finish coat.  The Babe helped me make this one, so she wants to paint it her favorite color:  pink!

I picked up a new mold from KHL Molds last week and started to make this year's bunnies.  I received a really sweet note from the owner of KHL Molds - and a special surprise - that I'll cover later this week. I've filled the mold already once with water putty and the cavity is a lot smaller than last year's and only requires one blend of material to fill the whole thing.  That means I can likely make *more* than I have in the past...

After a lot of worrying, swearing, and a big mess, look what popped out of my little mold:  my first chocolate bunny.  I need to take a paring knife and clean up the seams, but I have to say that I'm quite (pleasantly) surprised by how this one turned out. I was very worried about the tempering of the chocolate, but I since Nat bought *nice* chocolate bars to use, there was more room for error?  I didn't use chips nor those Wilton discs. That's the great news.   The bad news?  Each one takes forever.  My goal was 12.  I've gotten just two of them done. The process is such that you temper the chocolate then pour it into the bottom of the mold.  Tap it around and then pour it back out.  Then wait.  And wait.  Until it sets.  All the while keeping the chocolate warm.  Then, you pour in the chocolate again to build up a second layer.  Then pour it out.  And...wait.  Then..repeat a 3rd time.  Soon, y...

This is the second year I've made Faux Chocolate Bunnies out of Water Putty and reproductions of vintage chocolate molds.  The picture above was shot last night after applying the first coat of chocolate-colored brown paint.  A few more coats plus one or two coats of a clear acrylic spray to give 'em a little bit of shine and they'll be ready to go. These are decidedly more vintage that last year's version and I think because of that I like them a little bit better.  The mold was a lot more complex with little nooks/crannies that I couldn't always get the bubbles out from, so there are a few tiny voids, but for the most part you wouldn't notice them unless I pointed them out. I also made a decision to leave a good bit of the 'seam' in the middle of the bunny on purpose.  I took out my Dremel and ground it down to a very slight ridge, but since these things are supposed to replicate chocolate bunnies (which have the seam), I wasn't that worried...

At least that's my goal:  going to try my hand at tempering chocolate , pouring it into this mold (which is about 4 inches tall), letting the mold get coated, pouring the chocolate out, letting the mold set then repeat two or three more times.  Followed by filling the interior of the mold with a peanut butter/powdered sugar combo then sealing off the bottom with even more chocolate. I'd like to make a dozen or so of them.  Ambitious, that's for sure.

Work on the second in a series of collectible Faux Chocolate Easter Bunnies is underway in the Parrillo household.    This year, instead of hugging/holding a big egg, he/she's carrying it on their back .  I made a mold last night and I'm NOT thrilled with the alignment of the two pieces.  As you can see in the photo above, the noses don't quite line up.  That leads to a bunch of seam problems.  I can either choose to align the noses and mis-align a significant portion of the body or align the body and have a 2-faced bunny.  Decisions, decisions. There's also the question of volume.  Exactly how many bunnies is enough to make?

The mold for my Easter Bunny Faux Chocolate craft project arrived via the USPS a few days ago.  He's about 11" tall which is about the same as the ones I made last year.  Here's last year's version of the Faux Chocolate Bunny craft project . I made four of them last year with Durham's Water Putty and gave three of them away.  Hopefully, I'll find time to make at least four of them again this year to start what I'll call a 'collection'. Now that I have the mold, it is just a matter of buying enough Water Putty and paint!

For Easter, I decided to take on a craft project from Martha Stewart that seemed kind of manly.  I chose to make these Faux Chocolate Easter Bunnies .  I ended up making four of them: three as gifts and one to keep for ourselves.  I believe Ms. Martha herself makes different chocolate bunnies each year, so perhaps this will become a tradition.  I suppose I'm only limited by the number of molds I can find. Martha Stewart's Faux-Chocolate Bunnies Tools Required: Easter bunny chocolate molds Binder clips Clothespins Scissors Bucket Bamboo skewer or other long, slender stick File, sandpaper, and/or Dremel tool with a sanding attachment Durham's water putty Drill with paint mixer attachment, or paint mixing stick White primer paint Brown paint (Martha used liquid acrylic -- a mix of burnt sienna, burnt umber, and white) Clear satin topcoat Paint in a variety of colors for details Ribbon and flowers for embellishing This year, I bought a mold at KHL Mol...

Over on Martha Stewart's site, you can see her instructions and how-to, but I made a few modifications to the products and tools so I'll walk you through this easy project.  This could be something fun to do with kids, but it isn't a one-day project because of the painting and the multiple colors involved. Things you'll need for the Easter Egg Garland: 5 dozen (more or less if you want) paper mache eggs spring color paint (I chose 5 different pastel colors) paint brush (I used a foam brush) 5 or 6 feet of ribbon - pretty thin ribbon A drill and a 11/16th inch bit (you can use any size bit that will allow your ribbon to pass through wooden skewer (or beading needle) to push ribbon through holes Martha calls for real eggs.  Yup.  Like blown out eggs that you would have on hand around Easter-time.  In fact, she calls for you to dye the eggs just like you would normally.  I figured there had to be a better way not just due to the fact that blowing out eggs, wel...

Progress has been made on my Easter  egg garland - I've begun painting the eggs various colors.  When they're done, there will be five different colors of six sets of eggs - for a total of 30 eggs.    I'm thinking that I should have primed these eggs and I likely should have used spray paint, but experiment and learn, right? Hopefully I'll find some time this week to put the remaining coats on the eggs and string them up.  Easter is less than 2 weeks away!

After seeing this charming can in the hardware store for many years, this week was the first time that I actually went and bought Durham's Water Putty.  Look at that strongman on the can:  he's pretty trustworthy, isn't he?  I sure hope so because I've begun to work with this stuff on my second Easter craft project.  This one is a bit more secretive and I won't be sharing what exactly I'm doing because I'm (hopefully) going to be gifting this craft project for an Easter present.   I can, however, say that after working with this water putty for a bit today, it sure has a lot of uses I can foresee and does become "rock hard" as the can implies.    I'll show you the results closer to Easter and perhaps even share the how-to in the project.