Homemade Easter Candy and Paper Craft Download Crazy

Yeah, I'm not sure what really possessed me. I mean, why did I feel suddenly compelled to attempt to make all of our easter candy this year? It seemed somehow healthier(?) because I could see the ingredients going into each item...and it seemed like it would be novel and something Beeper would like to help with. So, we did it (or at least this is what we managed to complete before I threw in the chocolate covered dish towel--the marshmallow eggs never did come to fruition)--and this is the result...Chocolate and white chocolate covered coconut birds nests, little chocolates made in molds from Bake It Pretty, more little easter animal shapes made from candy coating in ghastly unnatural colors (sure to delight small children), and those peanut butter eggs above. And really, it was not all that hard to make, but working with all that melted chocolate is messy. Probably would be better if I had spread this out over several days instead of gunning to do it all on the day before Easter. BUT, the peanut butter eggs were lovely, and the nests were a cinch--and Beeper really did like helping (sugar? melted chocolate? candy? From a child's persepctive, what's the problem?). So, that was craziness number one that seized me. Then there was this:You see, now that I had all this homemade candy, I decided that I also needed to make some little easter baskets to give to all the kiddies in our life...and then I really wanted to make some little something that was not sugar-based to include in their baskets--something that would be "simple" for me to make and include...so I was off on this quest for paper craft toys that I could find for download...and holy crap if there is not A LOT out there. So much, that I was up until 2am one night checking out site after site, paper craft project after paper craft project. And what I ended up with were these (free, all FREE!):

• paperdolls from Wee Wonderfuls
• animal stickers from Lotta Bruhn
• Cut and Fold Animals from Marilyn Scott Waters (loads more downloadables on her site too--you gotta check this one out):
• and these sweet little tags from Doe C Doe:
• And then I threw in these coloring cards from Little Brown Pen that were actually not free but that I had purchased earlier for Valentine's Day (read about that here) and thought I would re-purpose... And so, I assembled the little baskets (the strawberry crates from Bake It Pretty) in a flurry during Beeper's afternoon nap...and this was the end result...A fair bit of craziness did drive it...but it made some little people very happy, I think.