DIY Network

Make Movie Night Memorable

Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza, cohosts of Creative Juice, explain how to personalize popcorn bowls and make root beer at home.

advertisement

Having your popcorn in your very own personalized popcorn bowl can make movie night very special.

Now that Oscar night is behind us, I intend to catch up on all the films that received nominations this year.

Movie night is one of my favorite nights of the week. I love renting a couple of flicks, popping some popcorn and snuggling into my sofa for a good double feature.

But the real stars of my upcoming movies night are going to be an easily personalized retro popcorn bowl and a frosty mug of delicious homemade root beer. Both projects are so simple you can easily make them in the afternoon and to watch movies that night.

Popcorn Bowl

Materials:

large white ceramic bowl
pencil
enamel paint, Engine Red by Plaid Folk Art
enamel paint, Black by Plaid Folk Art
paintbrushes
rubbing alcohol
oven

Steps:

1. Wash and dry the ceramic bowl. Wipe the bowl down with alcohol.

2. Design the bowl using family names or more generic words like "snacks" and "popcorn." You can use stencils or freehand to create the design. The Internet is a good resource for finding fun fonts and patterns to use. We chose a retro-inspired design with red vertical stripes and the word "popcorn" in vintage-style lettering. Make sure your design is on the outside of the bowl. Don't paint where you will have direct food contact.

3. Use a pencil to lightly mark the letters and/or design on the bowl. Use a piece of tape as a guide if you have trouble keeping your letters straight.

4. Shake the paint well. Paint the bowl along your pencil lines. Clean any mistakes and rub away the pencil marks with a damp cloth.

5. Allow the bowl to air dry for an hour. Place the bowl in a cool oven, set the temperature to 350 degrees, bake for 30 minutes, turn off the oven and allow the bowl to cool in the oven. Wash by hand.

6. You can paint smaller bowls with family names if you want to individualize the bowls.

Homemade Root Beer

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 Tbs. root beer extract
carbonated water

Steps:

1. Add the sugar and water to a saucepan and heat gently on medium. Be careful to not overheat the sugar mixture. Once it has dissolved, remove from heat. This is your simple syrup.

2. To make the soda syrup, add the root-beer extract to the simple syrup.

3. Fill eight-ounce soda glasses with ice and spoon two ounces of the soda syrup over the ice. Top off with carbonated water and stir.

4. Store remaining soda syrup in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Root-beer extract can be purchased online at www.zatarain.com.

(Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza cohost Creative Juice. For more information log on to www.cathiefilian.com.)

Get DIY On Your TV. Just follow the instructions to see if DIY Network is available through your cable or satellite provider.