Cake Time

This poor cake...

It started out with good intentions! The cake elements were looking to be the best cake I had ever made!

I got the frosting to be the perfect color.

Both layers were perfectly flat.

Then my frosting tip kept getting clogged, even though I had the smoothest frosting I have ever made. And my fondant pieces started breaking. (It is blue fondant painted with blue Wilton gel thinned with almond extract.)

 Ok. I can live with how it looks. Let's get to decorating! The plan was to have my three blue birds "flying" by using cake wires. I couldn't get the wires to stay still. They ended up tearing a hole in my cake! So I improvised, and just put the blue bird in the slingshot (which is where the black bird was supposed to go, but the slingshot was too small!)

Cute, right? I was very happy with my changes I had to make...then I looked over and my slingshot melted! It was a wafer cookie covered in tootsie roll. It ended up looking like a mess of nastiness covered in brown, sticky water.

Plus another huge hole in the cake.

Not to fret, Leif did get a birthday cake...just not the spectacular one I had in mind. :) Here's the final bird arrangement we ended up with:

Cakes!

 Leify's birthday was on Wednesday. I of course visited his class with delicious treats! Bomb Bird cupcakes. What else?!?

 

 These were chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate peanut butter frosting. I am the WORST person to get a recipe from because I don't measure, but I'll try...

2 cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon vinegar

I made two batches. Then I mixed together equal parts peanut butter and powdered sugar. (completely eyeballed--maybe 1 cup of each?) I used my largest cookie disher (2 TBsp?) and put that much cupcake batter into each cupcake cup. Then I used my smallest disher (1 tsp?) and put a scoop of the peanut butter mixture into the center of each cup.

I baked at 325 in my convection oven for about 20 minutes until they were firm on top. Some of the cakes had peanut butter still showing at the top, but don't worry. The frosting covered it!

The frosting was, roughly:

1 cup peanut butter
rest of the box of powdered sugar (2 1/2-3 cups probably)
pinch of salt
1/3-1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1-2 tsp vanilla
1/2 can evaporated milk
black wilton food coloring gel (enough to get black color--remember it will darken as it dries)

I mixed this in my stand mixture. I again used my smallest disher and put a scoop on top of each cake. Then I spread it out. This frosting set up quickly, so work fast.

For the faces, I used the wilton eyes you can buy at the regular grocery store. Then I used piping frostings to hand-draw the face details. For the "wick" I wanted to use black licorice, but the birthday boy vetoed that! So, I took mini Tootsie rolls (used 2 for all 24 cakes). I warmed them in my hands for a minute, rolled them flat, and then used a pizza cutter to cut strips. I then put yellow on the tips.

 

I wasn't able to taste my own creation, but they were all gone by the time I left the school that day!

The birthday party cake is still in the works. However, here is a sneak preview! First, I give you my first ever gum paste creations:

 

I got the gum paste and the colors at Walmart in the Wilton aisle. It was really easy to work with. It's like playdough for adults!

Next is the pig side of the cake. I used Keebler fudge-covered wafers and some icing to hold them together (with toothpick supports and toothpicks out the bottom to hold it into the cake.) This is currently sitting in the freezer. I hope it will hold up to Texas heat and humidity!

More Angry Birds...Of Course!

The party is getting closer! Here are a few more things I made for the upcoming bash!

I should've started with this, here is the invitation I made. Leif's favorite bird with the black bomb bird. He wanted the bird to be on the front of the invitation. Relying on my SU! background, I dug out my punches, ribbon, paper, and dimentionals and got to work!

The pieces are pretty easy to figure out. If you need help, just let me know. The eyebrows were free-handed, as was, basically, the "wick." For the font, it was a free download from the internet. I love the variety of fonts you can find!

Another paper project I made was a pinata! No stores had the Angry Birds pinata for sale around here, and I don't like to buy online because I buy too much! So, I made one! Now, don't fret. I didn't start completely from scratch! Let me show you the pinata first, and then I'll tell you how I made it:

This grand king was once a baseball pinata! Just like last year's party (and the year before actually!) I started with a plain, round pinata you can find at any store that sells party goods. Get one on sale that's out of season! It's going to be covered anyway.

Then I used about half a roll of green crepe paper. Yes, the same kind you use for streamers for decorating your house. I cut a strip of that which was big enough to go around the pinata (start at the bottom or you'll have a seam in the middle like I do!) Fold that crepe paper in half "hot dog" style (landscape.) Then, along the folded edge, cut up 3/4 of the way about every 1/8th inch along the length of the paper. If you fold the crepe paper up so it's a few layers thick, you will have to make fewer cuts and it will take less time.

Simply then take white glue, put glue on the pinata (I tried putting it on the paper...things got sticky very quickly!) Push the crepe paper so it lies flat. If you don't like the look of it, simply cover it up with another layer.

Layer after layer, building up the pinata, you will soon have a bright green ball! Go to my very useful resource here, print off only the king pig, and viola! You have a pinata perfect for smashing! Oh, I used a pizza box from our recycling bin to glue the ears and crown on to make them stick up.

We don't have a strong tree in our yard that will hold a pinata, so I made this a pull string pinata. You can find a lot of blogs out there which explain how to do this. Since I didn't take step-by-step pictures, it would probably be easiest if you looked it up how to do it. Enjoy!

Getting Back Into Things...

Wow. I miss blogging! I miss creating! So much has changed in my life since I was blogging every day with my crafty creations.

I started working as a substitute teacher, I became ill and had to go to many different doctors, we moved back to the US, and I started volunteering like a mad woman!

Unfortunately, my latex allergy has increased to the point where I can no longer use Stampin' Up! stamps. It was a very sad day for me indeed when I went to build my pretty new stamps and couldn't get past opening the box without itching like crazy and having problems breathing. I sorted through my stamps and kept a precious few for my daughter to enjoy, but I had to sell/give away the rest. I hope that the new recipients are enjoying them and are finding their own joy in their creativity!

People have been saying I should show off what I have been doing, so here I go again. I hope you enjoy!

My son turned 6 today! I will start off this blog with showing you all the things I have prepped for his party this weekend.

Leify is obsessed with Angry Birds. He takes my phone and Kindle at any chance I let him, and he will play until the battery dies! What better thing to play on his birthday?!?

There are loads of sites out there, but this one was the BEST! I used the templates found on the site a couple times. Just be sure to keep good track of which bird is which when you are cutting them out! The first project I used them on were for these balls:

These will turn into a game for the party! I'm going to build a contraption out of boxes and the three pig balls will be on the boxes. The party guests will throw the bird balls at the pigs, trying to knock them down. The balls were found at Walmart in the ball section. They were 97 cents I believe. I used double-sided sticky tape to adhere the faces on. Simple, and so cute!

The next project I free-handed. I used posterboard I bought at the dollar store in various colors and a permanent marker to draw the birds and pigs. These will be used as wall decorations around the house. The middle pig is a bit wonky, but I think the rest turned out so cute! (Sorry for the poor picture quality. I used my phone.)

I hope you enjoyed my venture back into blogging. I will try to remember to do this more often. I can't make any promises though. :)

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

My mom-in-law saw the hat I made my daughter, and asked for one herself, in her favorite team's colors. She is a HUGE OSU Beaver fan (maybe HUGE isn't a big enough word!!) Lucky for me, she asked for this hat right around Halloween, so I was able to get orange yarn at a really good price!

The hat directions can be found through my previous blog post (link above). The scarf pattern can be found here. I used a smaller hook and yarn, so my scarf is rather small. However, mom-in-law runs VERY warm, so the scarf is for decoration and team support rather than warmth. :)

Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Rose!

Unique Tree

The holidays this year are going to be a little odd for our family! We have put in a special call to Santa, and he is going to come to our house on the night of the 4th! The dates ran up on me a bit, what with convention and the craft fair, and I didn't realize that I should have already started the advent calendar and things!


So, our family made our Christmas tree this weekend! We took four shades of green Stampin' Up! cardstock and traced our hands and then cut them out. The kids then drew scenes on some of the hands and decorated with snowflake stickers I had in my stash.

We then put all the hands up onto this post that's in the middle of our main room in the house.

From the top of the post, I then wrapped the string from the Stampin' Up! advent calendar (only on sale through the end of the month...contact me to buy before they are gone!) Then I hung the boxes down.

I love how it turned out! I can't believe how fast time is coming!

Craft Fair...A Success!!!

Kelly and I finally had our craft fair! I think it was just in time! Our tables were so full, it looked like they might have collapsed from the weight of our products! We earned enough to cover our fun-time expenses from London last week--which was our goal! Thank you to all of you who came out! It was so much fun to create, share, and talk!

Check out the Before...

& After pictures!

For those of you thinking of putting on your own craft fair, here's a small list of the things that sold and didn't.

Best sellers:

skinny bags filled with M&Ms and a seasonal topper
bottlecap necklaces
Snowman/Reindeer Poop
Reindeer Food
Flip-flop scrapbooks
Tag Scrapbooks
Camera Scrapbooks
candy canes with cute punch characters on them
set of 10 Christmas cards with envelopes
"Homemade" fudge
Post-it note holders
gift bags
Christmas Ornaments

What didn't sell that we thought would:

Snowman soup
Other covered chocolate bars
DSP covered notebooks
Button bracelets
Stamped candles
Luminaries