Happy National S'mores Day!

As I write this post it is National S'mores Day!  I love a good S'more and when I found out this date was approaching, I realized that not only would it be a great activity for the day, but also an answer to my late summer/early fall decor dilemma on my sunporch.  While some of my fellow bloggers and social media  influencers have already moved on to Halloween, I am not ready to give up on summer! This idea seemed to be a great balance between the two seasons.

Y'all know that I love a good tiered tray. They are a great way to put a lot of decor impact into a small space. So I decided that I would put together a tiered tray that celebrated one of my family's favorite year-round treats, the s'more.  

As usual I got out my trusty Cricut and went to work. Perhaps the most fun part to create was the chocolate bar. Of course this is my favorite part of the S'more anyway. As much as I love the treat, once I get past the initial fun of the roasting one or two marshmallows, I'm pretty much finished with the concept of the s'more as a whole but the chocolate I can never get enough of.  And we couldn't put a real Hershey bar out to melt! 

I cut the chocolate bar out of chip board. I will not name the brand or the seller because I cannot recommend this particular board. It is slightly more dense than cardboard but is difficult to cut and does not cut smoothly. I would recommend spending a little extra for the Cricut material.  At any rate, I measured a  full-sized chocolate bar and cut out a simple rectangle that size. Then I cut out another one for the wrapper. For the chocolate bar itself, I knew that we had to do those little individual segments. I found a font similar to the Hershey's logo, cut it out of vinyl and put the label on the painted "wrapper" as well as each of the individual chocolate segments. I think it looks pretty good for a wooden chocolate bar!

 

I love this little saying "Warm Wishes and Marshmallow Kisses”.   I think I'm probably going to going to end up using this for little fall greeting cards as well. Wouldn't it be cute for treat bag tags for gifts over the Halloween season? I used the top of a little wooden box from the dollar store for the "frame" and cut the motto from a Cricut file out of vinyl.  

Does Your Desk Look this Messy?  (A little "Behind the Scenes" shot)

Of course, there had to be marshmallows. As hard as I tried I could not find any wooden dowels that were about the size of the marshmallows that I was looking for. I found these blocks at the dollar store and rounded out the edges to approximate the super large marshmallows that we have been using for our s'mores fires lately.  

The "fire" is also made with my Cricut.  I think this cut actually comes from the old Doodle Charms cartridge that I got with my first Cricut years ago. I used the contour setting to remove the smiley face and cut the background from wood. I then applied the colors with various layers of vinyl. It probably would have been a neat touch to paint each of the different layers, but at this point I don't have the patience to do that! 

Also hidden behind the chocolate bar are some "graham crackers". Those are kind of difficult to approximate but I cut those out of that chip board as well, sanded down the edges, and added some lines and some dots to mimic what a Graham cracker looks like.  

I added some brown shreds for some depth and texture.  I popped in some sunflowers to soften the effect and because they reflected the colors of the fire. I was torn between adding the little dowel camp fire stick to the tray and I'm still not sure it's right, but I felt like there needed to be a little stick for the marshmallows to be toasted on.  

Around here the temperature is now in the upper 80s even as the evening comes and it's just a little bit too warm for the firepit. I look forward to those times when we can all sit together around the fire to roast a marshmallow or two and the most controversial topic of debate is whether to gently toast the marshmallow or to set it on fire and burn it to a crisp!  I think tonight I will stay cool and melt the marshmallow in the microwave.  I will raise an indoor toast to this family favorite and look forward to cooler days and nights ahead (but not too soon!). 

I believe that this post might go with another "Bitten by the Bug 2" Challenge,  "The Great Outdoors".  I will be linking up with them and I hope that you will stop by to see what the talented crafters have done with this theme! 

Thanks for stopping by today!  

~Cynthia