Friday, July 14, 2017

Santa Starfish on the Beach~Christmas in July!

Two of my most favoritest things!

Christmas and the Beach.

I have several friends that are enjoying those wonderful sea breezes and oceans waves as we speak..err..read. As for myself, I am preparing this post with the holiday movie, "A Dream of Christmas" 
playing in the background with dreams of our own beach trip next month!

Thinking to myself..toes in sand..toes in sand..

Anyways, several years ago, my sister-in-law brought me back a Santa starfish Christmas ornament from her trip to the Caribbean. I thought it was thoroughly adorable and have thought many times to make it into a craft.

I have also recently seen the cutest Santa starfish images on google and since it is "Christmas in July", now is the time!  
 Here are the items I used to make my starfish treats.
Graham crackers, Bugels, black and white fondant and white petal dust. Also, red, blue and peanut butter flavored candy melts.
 The list of tools I used are: fondant roller, sharp knife, food use only paintbrush, Wilton sea life fondant mold, starfish candy mold (not pictured here) and a tiny little sunglasses cutter.

I have not been able to find a link to the set of cutters my sunglasses came with, but there is a photo of the package they came in from an earlier post if you click on this link. 
A couple of years ago, I made my first Santa hats using Bugels and Sixlets for my Grinch Candy Spoons.

Today, I'm using white fondant rolled into tiny balls for the hat topper as I didn't realize I was out of Sixlets. I mean, how does that happen? 😜

Dip Bugels into melted red candy melts and attach fondant toppers. Let candy set. Then attach cut strips of white fondant for the hat cuff.
Are you feeling jolly yet?
Ho! Ho! Ho! Hats off to Christmas!
I must say, I'm really happy with how these starfish turned out. The peanut butter candy melts are the perfect color for these sweet sea creatures. I think the salted caramel melts would work great as well.

Melt candy in 30 second intervals at 50% power, stirring each time till melted smooth.

Fill each well and gently tap mold on counter.
Place into freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Turn mold upside down and gently pop out finished candies.
I'm outfitting my Santas with sunglasses. If you don't have the cutter, I think your craft will be cute even without them.
But if you do, just roll out the black fondant and press cutter through.
Now here is my all-time favorite mold. The Wilton fondant sea life mold.

To make the seashells, roll white fondant into a ball, press into mold, then gently pull back on mold and lift the shell out.
I applied dry white petal dust with a dry brush to give my shells a pretty sheen.
For the beach background, I covered the graham crackers in blue candy melts and dipped the bottoms into crushed grahams.

I can almost smell the salty air!

If you are reading this and you live by the sea, you are Blessed! Living the dream! 🌊🌊
Let's get these guys dressed!
Using melted candy, place hats onto starfish and attach fondant pieces and let candy set to dry.
If you want another Christmas in July treat, click here for my Snowcapped Lollipops.

We wish you a Merry Christmas in July!🎜🎜🎝

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Have a sweet day, Karen