Ice cream crafts!

Try as I might, I can't be curmudgeonly forever. Maybe I'm a bit giddy about a little vacation time, so today is a summery post I picked just because it's got the craft project vibe that I sometimes love. If you want a cool dessert and a craft that uses candy bits in place of glitter glue, this post from The Family Circle Dessert and Fruit Book (1954) is for you.

Today, we're looking at "Party Sundaes." To make it all summer-appropriate, let's start with a cart full of flowers:

If you are not charmed by lollipop "flowers" in ice cream cone flowerpots, I'm not sure we can be friends. The instructions are pretty easy, too:

Just put chocolate ice cream into the cones, jam in a lollipop and some gumdrop leaves, and you're good to go!

Of course, my geeky side prefers this little guy:

In case you didn't figure out what this inside-out ice cream sandwich is supposed to be (besides difficult to eat gracefully, I'm guessing, but that's not really any concern of the 10-year-olds who'd be eating it), it's a "Space Planet." (I'm not sure why the editors thought they needed to add "space" to the name. Where else are there planets? But food, not astronomy, is their forte, so I guess I can let it slide.)

This too has the advantage of being pretty easy to whip up:

Plus it's made with pistachio ice cream! Sign me up-- especially if I can give mine a chocolate cookie "ring" and eat it with people who won't judge me.

(And how sweet is it to have a recipe that ends with "Place planets on chilled serving dishes"?!)

For the more conventionally kid-friendly themes, there's a cute circus theme:

The "Tom Thumb Circus Wagon" is significantly more complicated to make, though.

It involves chopping a big block of ice cream into little bricks, adding candy wheels and animal crackers to the sides, and more candy and animal crackers for the horses to pull the cart. (I think the "horses" look more like sheep, but animal crackers are not usually very zoologically correct.)

For something slightly easier (and more likely to horrify the kiddies), your best bet is "Perky Pete."

"Hey Kids! I hide under your bed when you're asleep!"

To traumatize your offspring forever, just put a scoop of ice cream on a packaged dessert shell, add a gumdrop hat, big red eyes, and a green mouth (or is it a nose?) over a scraggly whipped cream beard. Play some circus music when you bring these puppies out.

Then when the kids are snuggling down for the night, cup your ear and whisper, "What? Do I hear circus music? Maybe Perky Pete will stop by for a visit!" Then laugh, softly. The kiddos will be staring sleeplessly at the ceiling for hours.

Okay, maybe I can't stop being curmudgeonly for even a whole post... but I still hope you'll like these ice cream projects.

Have a crafty and cool weekend!