I have four choices this time, including blocks that say JOY, CHRIST, and FAMILY (all in their own unique style and sizes), and some magnets that say whatever you want them to say. Mine say LOVE, LIVE, LAUGH.
Post a comment if you are interested and I'll forward you the details of the activity.
The Race Car Cake is a shaped pan decorated almost entirely with a star tip. You can't see too well in this picture but the tires looked flat. It might have been better just to use Oreo's for the tires. The cupcakes are iced and topped with an Oreo dotted with buttercream to look like tires.
I loved to create the Treasure Chest. I used two loaf pans for the cake shape and decorated one upside down creating the lid of the chest. The base frosting was chocolate buttercream and I ran a fork over it to try to create the wood grain look. The red strips are cut from rolled fondant and the sand is crushed graham crackers. I filled the chest with whatever I could find that looked like treasure and made sure not to place anything too far toward the back of the chest so that the lid could sit in a slightly open position.
The Robot was fun to create from a round cake pan, a square pan, and four glass oven safe prep bowls. I decorated him with Nerds candy, black licorice, and a single Dots candy. I did wish I had a slightly larger cake board at the time for him, as I would have extended his elbows out slightly away from his body. I think he's pretty cute though - don't you?
Kung Fu Panda. It was a delicious cake! Again from my Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes
This one was a basic yellow cake and chocolate frosting. I drizzled some white ganache across the top of the cake before decorating it in a basket weave pattern with a rope border. But I'd have to say that my favorite part was the pile of homemade chocolate dipped truffles on top of the cake. Yummy!
The Raspberry Laced Vanilla Cake was a recipe I had found on the back of the Pillsbury SOFTASILK® Cake Flour box. The batter seamed heavier than I was use to, so I worried about the texture of the cake. But in the end it really had a lovely flavor and texture. And the design was a simple lattice pattern with fresh raspberries and mint leaves.
This oval basket weave cake with the birds was a Wilton Class - Course 2 - final cake. During this course I learned so many new and dramatic techniques to enhance the look of a cake. I learned how to use color flow and royal icing. The birds were made from color flow. And all of the many different flowers I learned to make with royal icing.
The flowers on this cake were also done with royal icing. These little drop flowers are a quick and easy way to decorate a cake.
And these roses and flowers I made for a wedding cake from fondant mixed with a little gum paste. I love how the roses turned out. The gum paste allowed me to roll the petals out thinner for a more realistic look, while the fondant allowed me a little more time to work with the flower before setting up.
Thank you Tip Junkie for hosting such a fun giveaway. And thank you Chic-Covers for the awesome prize.
Chic-Covers hand crafts all of her products tailored to fit and has so many fabulous fabrics to choose from. She will be adding Kitchen Aprons to her product line soon - just in time for Christmas. And as an added bonus, you can currently get 20% off your order.
Told you these Mom-preneurs have some cute stuff!
Today marks Day 1 of her 12 Days of Junkie, to help promote & feature some of the amazing women who have joined the Mom-preneur Shop-a-thon. There will be two winners everyday for the next 12 days. Yea!! I hope I win something, because these Mom-preneurs really have some cute stuff.
Click on over and see what it's all about, and enter yourself in the giveaway too if you want, but just so you know I'm feeling lucky. Hahaha...I can only hope.
Using a bag of red potatoes, I quartered each one and then removed any bad or blemished parts. I would say it was between 4 - 5 lbs in all. I boiled them in a large pot with 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and enough water to cover the potatoes. Boil covered, at a low temperature (otherwise your pot will boil over - I'm really good at this), until the potatoes are tender, about 20 - 25 minutes. As it simmers the potatoes become infused with garlic.
Drain the potatoes and remove the garlic. I placed the potatoes in my standing electric mixer with 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick). The warmth of the potatoes melts the butter nicely and the mixer does a good job of mashing the potatoes while they are still warm. I then added 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/4 cup of sour cream, and 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and blended it all together.
It was that easy and really delicious. This recipe makes plenty; enough even for leftovers. And of course you could adjust the amount of butter, milk and/or sour cream to change the creaminess or consistency to your liking.
book for a recipe and found one. I also decided to use the cream cheese frosting associated with the cake in the book. The cake idea came from Wilton.
I doubled the cake recipe and ended up with so much batter that it made plenty of cupcakes too. The cake and frosting combination tasted really good. Yummy. I'd make it again. I'm yet to be disappointed with the recipes from Martha's book. I must be honest and say that the recipes aren't the easiest - they are more time consuming than the basic cake recipe. And as much as I enjoy baking and decorating, it makes me really appreciate the work that goes into a professional bakery.
The consistency of the frosting was perfect for the cupcakes, but not so much for the princess castle. It was just a little too soft, and I struggled a little with the construction. I'm not really sure how I could avoid this in the future. Although in the end, all turned out well. Maybe more than well. You can only imagine the smile and excitement of a little girl at her very own princess castle cake.
The cupcakes were were really easy and lots of fun. The dots design was done with rolled fondant which I colored and cut into 3 different sizes. I thought it was a fun alternative to the traditional birthday cake.
I know that this activity was such short notice, but I had to just had to jump at the opportunity. If you would like to join us next time, be sure to mark your calendars for December 13th.
And anyone who would like to share what they did, please post a link in the comments. I would love to see them.
I have so many ideas but in the interest of time, I need to try to keep it simple. So I was thinking about doing some 3.5 inch blocks spelling out GOBBLE with a turkey shape. And maybe some stacking blocks with two or three thanksgiving related words.
I don't have pictures of any of these ideas as they are crafts that I want to do. But an example of what I have done before with blocks can be seen on a previous post or here.
Another option would be that if you see something else that I've done in the blocks that you like, for example the Autumn BLOCKS, you could do those too as I have saved all my stencils from previous crafts.
Post a comment if you are interested and I'll forward you the details of cost and location of the activity.
This pattern was actually easier than anticipated. It is a Simplicity pattern #3595. There really is not much to say about it because the pattern explains everything quite well. I did however make just a couple of adjustments.
The first being that I changed the design of the bat on the shirt to the more common, and desired, yellow and black symbol. I followed the directions the same on the pattern for the appliqué. And I used a piece of felt I had left from the belt. I didn't have to purchase any extra - the felt is so wide that there is plenty left for the oval shape. And the same goes for the bat cutout. I just used a piece left from cutting out the rest of the costume.
The second adjustment I made was on the gauntlets. I didn't quite understand the concept at first, but knew it had to be an important part of the costume. So after taking a closer look at a batman action figure, I realized that there was actually more to the gauntlets than the pattern was designed. The pattern only makes it a forearm sleeve that pulls up on the arm over the costume. But in my opinion they get lost in the costume, seeing that everything is black. So I cut out some triangles much like the triangles for the ears on the hood, only smaller. I cut 12 out of interfacing and then ironed them on to the fabric before cutting and sewing together. I basically followed the directions for the ears, sewing only two sides and then turning inside out. And then when I went to sew the seams of the gauntlet, I inserted the triangles giving it the detail needed to complete the costume.
I've also used this pattern before to make a red Prince Phillip (Disney's Sleeping Beauty) cape, which has since been used for so many other characters as well. I love to see the joy that comes from a child when he or she is given a gift so delightful to them, and allows their own creativity and imaginations to flow.
Everyday is a new adventure!
Aside from searching for strong, supportive rings, probably the most difficult part for me was choosing the fabric. But that's no surprise I'm sure, especially to those who know me well. I did eventually make a decision, and also found some rings locally, at American Cowboy. Or you can purchase aluminum rings online at Sling Rings.
I wanted to make this sling reversible. Because of this, I thought that pleats at the top of the sling would be best, so no matter which way it is used, it will look pretty and neatly finished. I was sure to zig zag stitch over the pleats a couple a times and sewed two rows of straight stitch through all the layers of fabric to secure the support near the rings. I also top stitched around the edges after sewing the two fabrics together to reinforce the seams.
For an extra touch I folded over about 3 to 4 inches of the pink fabric at the end of the sling so that it would coordinate with the top where the pleats were folded through the rings.
This sling was a gift, so I borrowed a fabulous idea from a favorite blog of mine, and wrapped the sling in itself and then took a scrap of coordinating fabric to tie a bow around it.
I came across a pattern for an adorable crochet hat at my sister's house last week. Once I got started I just couldn't seem to stop and made another, then another, and yet another. Each time trying to perfect it or personalize the pattern. After making three, I realized that it seemed that I was favoring girls and thought I'd make one blue for a boy. However, no matter what I did with the pattern or any embellishment, the hat still screamed girl. In the end I gave in and let it be. I concluded that it was the pattern, with it's lacy appearance, that makes it very much a girls beanie. These were so fun and easy to make, especially when it came to adding the embellishments. The only thing now is that I feel challenged to create a crochet hat that's all boy - and when I do, I'll be sure to share.
You can find the pattern at www.ottobredesign.com.
This week, my sister and I attended a beading class in my neighborhood. We can make whatever project we choose and there are so many beads to choose from. This is probably the hardest part for me...making up my mind. But this time I made it easy for myself and made some earrings to match a bracelet that I had previously created using turquoise and smokey quartz beads. Bianca made a gorgeous matching bracelet and necklace. Check out my sister's blog to see what she made and you'll see that she is super talented herself in so many ways. She inspires me!
Then if that wasn't enough for one week (there's never enough, especially time to do all that I'd love to)...we sat down last night and put some more fabric covered buttons together for hair clips. I just love the simplicity and beauty of these.
Ever since our return from San Diego, we’ve been jumping through all sorts of hoops trying to be in compliance with all of the required policies, relating to auctioning for a charity. However, we are very excited to let you know that the sketchbook auction is finally under way and wanted to share it with you.
We would also ask you to share this with everyone you know who may be interested. It is for a great cause, and it is an amazing sketchbook.
Here are the links to the auction and the story behind the sketchbook.
With just a little bit of ribbon, scraps of fabric and some clips, the variety of little girls’ accessories are limitless. I used the snap clips here but have often used the single prong salon clips too. Some I covered with ribbon and others I covered buttons with scraps of fabric and secured them to the clip. The clips I covered with ribbon I accessorized with any embellishments on hand, buttons, flowers and more ribbon.
They are so easy and fun to make! I think they look so cute and would make charming gifts too. Now if only I could learn to make shoes like I can make hair accessories, then my wardrobe would be complete, right?
But now I am eager to work on something new. Don't you think it's about time?
book that I have tried several recipes from now, and have really enjoyed.
It is a Coconut Cake with a Coconut Buttercream filling and covered in Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I love this buttercream for its silky smooth texture. I made the daisies with royal icing and used Wilton Cake Sparkles to give the yellow centers their texture. The cake was served on top some spooned Coconut Creme Anglaise. The Anglaise was so delicious and added so much to the taste, texture, and presentation of the serving.
There is some sort of accomplishment being able to create a cake like this from scratch. But the best part is that it was so much fun to do and then share with everyone.
Please leave lots of comments and suggestions, as I most certainly will need and appreciate them, and would also love to hear how you are doing.
This blog will serve as a place for me to share all the creative things that I am involved with. Perhaps I will even inspire you, or better yet we could plan a time when we could do some together.
This summer has been extremely busy, but not without tons of fun and even exercising some creativity. Most recently I've done several baby bracelets and hair accessories, a wood sign, and a few cakes. Here is a cake that I just did for my aunt and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary celebration. (It was a replica of their original wedding cake - with a little creative license).
