Happy 50th Cake

What better way to celebrate a 50th birthday than with a cake shaped like a casket!?!  Yep, I made this cake this weekend for a customer friend of mine.  She sent me a photo of a cake she had seen and asked if I could make it.  "Can I make it" I laughed :0)  Of course I can make it! {fake conceit-really terrified inside}

Don't you just love the hand reaching up out of the darkness?

The really creepy thing is the hand I still have sitting on my counter.  I made a first one, but when I held it up to the cake it looked a little too small.  I tossed it aside and made a new one, forgetting all about the first attempt.  Today as I finally faced the disaster in my kitchen, I came across the small dismemberment again.  You don't usually come in to find a fist of fingers lying there on your kitchen counter {grin} 

 Here is a shot of the backside in case you were wondering how I made that lid connection.  I stressed a while about how to do the cake.  I was trying to not make it too  complicated.  I finally went for Scott's idea to create the "illusion" of an open lid.  This is actually a flat cake, totally level {to my best ability :0} with a wedge of black fondant laid on the side wall, then brown trim placed over top to create that "open" look without trying to figure out how to prop things open or have an overhanging lid or anything that could fall apart with transportation.  

My casket was covered in tan fondant and I used watered-down icing color to paint on a slight wood grain and shading around the edges.  

Thanks for the project Ann!  I haven't made a fun cake in a while.  It was just what the Dr. ordered :0)

You guys should have seen the bucket of rocks she made for the birthday boy.  She didn't want to say "50 sucks" so she gave him a bucket of edible rocks that said "50 Rocks"!!!  If we are lucky Ann will comment on where she found her edible rocks.  They were amazing!

I will be back soon with details from Emmalee's Hello Kitty Star's birthday Tea Party {my 3yr old changed her name-Heaven help me!}  It was a blast to put together and even more fun to see how much the kids enjoyed it!  See ya soon!!!

Watermelon Cake Pops

Wednesday I filled an order for 75 bags of cake pops.  My returning customer wanted Oreo Cake Balls again so I thought I would show you a little of how they were made.  

Oreo Cake Balls, or Cookie Balls I should say, are so very simple to make.  Once you get these down, you can substitute just about any cookie for the oreos.  I want to try snickerdoodles :0)

Anyway, chop up one whole bag of oreos and mix the fine crumbs with one whole 8oz. package of cream cheese.  

I rolled the dough out on a piece of wax paper til about 3/4"-1" thick, then cut out with a circle cookie cutter {about 3 1/2-4" wide}

Then I used a knife to cut each circle into 6 pizza-like pieces.  The dough is pretty compact, but I did have to mold the pieces just a little to get that watermelon slice shape.

I dipped the sucker sticks in melted candy melts, then inserted 3/4 of the way into the cake wedge.  The pops were put in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to get firm, then dipped entirely in melted red candy melts.  I told you before that I don't like candy melts because they are so thick. I like the candy coating to be thinner, but it was incredibly FABULOUS to have the candy already colored.

The pops were tossed back into the fridge to set, then dipped in the green candy coating.  Once that set, I used melted almond bark in a piping bag to make the white squiggle, and chocolate almond bark {with black coloring} in a different bag to make the seeds.  Um...about that...it is not easy.  The seeds gave me a great deal of stress.  I had a very hard time getting them to work just right.  The chocolate was drippy when just warmed, and then after a hand full of pops, it would stop flowing because the chocolate cooled too much.  I was running back and forth to the microwave all night trying to mess with the chocolate.  I would have skipped the chocolate all together and just used icing, except these were getting bagged and I worried frosting would be too brittle.

I managed to finish all 75 orders, 150 pops, bagged and ribboned in about 11 hours :0)  Yep, all day, but aren't they cute!!!?!

All it takes is one little bit and you will be hooked!  Then you will find yourself standing for hours in the kitchen making your own watermelon pops :0)  

Down East Shopping Spree

Thanks to a FABULOUS hook-up by Ashley at Cute As A Fox, Madison and I were invited to a night of shopping on Down East Basics of the ArrowHead Mall.  

By accident we were BOTH fitted with $25 gift cards.  When I realized that they gave Maddie girl her own, I swiftly gave it back explaining that she was not a blogger, but my 13yr old daughter.  About 5 minutes later the gift card was re-presented to Madds with a smile.  The darling lady who put on this even wanted Madison to shop and tell us what she thought too :0)  Fine!  We will take the money!  No arm twisting tonight!

Madison will tell her opinion by the expression on her face.  She loved every minute!  I must say that the store was very pleasant to shop at.  The ladies that worked there were super friendly, the store was clean, and the clothes are incredibly adorable.

Please, nobody tell Down East that we already love to shop there and they didn't need to pay us to say that :0)  When we are up in St. George, Utah visiting grandma, we secretly wait until she falls asleep and then run for the car keys.  The Down East outlet is usually first on our list.  Madison's personal favorite are the cozy undershirts they sell there.  

Me, I love the lace...and the ruffles!  Man do they know how to do lace and ruffles!

If you are into the vintage feel, you have to check them out!!!

These two need to come home with me.  They were so fabulous I kept just walking by and gawking.  Every once in a while I would stop to caress the soft fabric, running my finger along the stitching.  So adorable!

Did I mention that they sell accesories too!?!

Check out this wall-o-fabulous!

It is full of necklaces, hair bows and wraps, bracelets and everything else you never knew you NEEDed.

They also sell accessories for little girls.  Darling bracelets, necklaces, hair things and such.

Down East has recently started carrying little girl clothes too.  This ruffly jacket is on Emmalee's list.

Have I mentioned that you can shop online?  You can check them out at www.downeastbasics.com.  Many of the tops you will find are even under $20.   

How cute is that?  A ruffle heart.  Down East, you ruffle my heart :0)

This clutch purse was calling my name all night.  I ended up letting Madison spend BOTH of our cards, but I may need to go back for this little lady.  She was DARLING! 

So, if you are in the mood for a little wardrobe infussion, check out Down East Basics either in store or online.  The clothes are gorgeous, from fit to color, and they are good quality at a great price.

Thanks again Down East for the shopping trip!

Luscious Floral Headband

I finally made a few things for fun this weekend.  I finished a few skirts and made the huge pile of fabric in my sewing area a little smaller this weekend.  This headband was one product of my efforts.  

Let me show you how I made it...

I cut a series of circles {if you want to call them that :0} and stacked them together  

The sizes of the circle-ish pieces were as follows:

2 that were about 2 1/2"

2 that were about 3 1/4"

and 3 that were about 4" in diameter.

I cut small slits in the circles, 8 in each layer.

Next, I melted each section with a lighter {Pyro} It takes a while, but really, did you see the flower?  It is totally worth it.  

I stacked all the pieces on top of each other stitched them together with a needle and thread.  You can also hot glue it, but I like the extra stability of the thread.  I hot glued the gem in the middle, and used the glue to secure the flower to the headband.  

The headband was actually made out of left over fabric from the shirt I made, shown below.  I used the leftover bias tape {about 1" wide} from the shirt straps, measured it on Emmalee's head, then added enough 1/2" elastic to the length to make the headband big enough to fit once around her head.  This was the first time I have made a fabric headband like that, but it turned out so cute and was so easy to make I plan to make TONS more!! 

Emmalee was a little too proud of herself with her new top and headband.  She stopped people in the halls at church today inviting them to see how pretty she was and how "bootiful" her hair was :0)

Made my heart smile. 

The top was a shirt made in pillowcase dress fashion.  I don't like how boxy the traditional, straight cut pillowcase dresses are, so I taper mine a little as you get closer to the arm holes.  This whole outfit came about by finding a 1/2 yd remnant of soft purple eyelet fabric one weekend at SAS a while back.   

Here is a close-up of the broach I made to coordinate.  It really spiced the whole outfit, giving a little color to my girl and a touch of vintage feel.   

Whew!  I needed a quick and easy project that was totally just for fun.  Now I am tempted to dig a little deeper in the towering fabric pile to see what else I can create.  It may have to wait.  I have more clippies to do, cakes to make, overdue infant car seat covers, and Emmalee's Birthday Tea Party to plan, plus it is my last week with my big kids before school starts.  Wish me luck!  I will be back with more crazy ramblings shortly :0)

Clippies Return

I have had my head buried in clippies for the last three weeks.  It started with a desire to get caught up on the international orders placed months ago, but ended with this uncontrollable obsession to get these clips completed.  The last three days I have been able to do little else but clippie madness.  Here are a couple of the handmade clips I constructed.  The clipboard above was made from 1/8" wood, painted and modge podged label, holes drilled, and wire run around the pencil and through all the holes.  Whew!  Glad to have that one over with!

This computer was not my most exciting, but many little steps to get it completed.  Again, 1/8" wood pieces, painted and lined.  The glossy stuff is 

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Glossy Accents by Inkssentials.

Fabulous stuff.  I buy mine at Joanns for around $7 a bottle-but I use a coupon ad never pay that much :0)

This stuff goes a long way too.  I use HUGE amounts of it at a time.  In all the clips I have done recently, over 200 at least, I have only used just over half a bottle.  A little bit goes a long way!

Here is another clip I used it on...

I love nerds notebook.  I shrunk down my notebook labels, modge podged them on little rectangles I cut out, drilled holes, ran wire, and applied the glossy accents.  So cute.

Dito

OK, this is where I throw in my weirdness clause.  I make what makes the customer happy.  This seems a little weird to me, but they ate it up.  They are looking for school/office supplies, some sports, some music.  This guy was cut out of 1/2" wood, drilled hole for pencil, chopped pencils to desired length.  I took some pencil sharpeners I bought at the dollar store and took the metal part off.  I was worried the metal could possibly hurt someone, so I glued the metal to felt first, then applied it to the clip.  I made a shaving out of wired ribbon. I dipped one side in black paint to look like the carbon of the pencil, then gathered it with needle and thread after it was dry.  The wire in the other side helps the shaving to curl where I want it.

So cute!  This clip was so fun to make.  I had made the sample without a label, with colored pencil stubs in the hand-made box.  Well, not thinking, I made a crayon label.  As I gathered supplies for the clip, I realized that I could not use the colored pencils for the boxes, it says CRAYONS!  With nothing else to do, I set about making crayons :0)  I cut a 1/4" dowel into 1 1/2" lengths {8 clips times 5 crayons= 40 tiny crayons to hand make!!!} then shaped the crayon tips on my disc sander.  They are not all the same, but I am guessing the crayons in your crayon box are not all used to the same lengths either...unless you are Monk :0)  I was really going to take pictures of these cute little boxes all set up and fabulously displayed, but that whole obsessed completion thing took over and I had them lined with felt and mounted on clips before I realized.  Oh well, you get the idea.

Felt Paint Pallet.  Sewn around on my sewing machine, paint blobs are puff paint, the paintbrush hand made from toothpicks.

The flute on this clip I made from clay I had worked around a toothpick.  The teeny tiny keys were not fun to make...I'm just sayen'.

Mini tray of chocolates.  The tray is about 1" tall, 1 1/2" wide.  Yep, I made the chocolates by hand too :0)

This pencil cup was made by cutting wooden pots in half, then filled with pencils and such.  I bought some from the miniature section at Hobby Lobby, the rest I made from toothpicks while watching 8 Seconds.  Watching that movie was quite a trip.  My roommates in College were Idaho Cowgirls and made me watch that show over and over again.  I am sure you were wondering what I did to pass the many hours of mind-numbing time whilst working my fingers raw....Netflix, and lots of it!

The paper I sewed on the sewing machine, gluing the crayons buttons on and the blop is puff paint again.

The tape dispenser is one of my favorites!  So cute, so mini :0)  I made sure to include a small strip of plastic {you can't see in the photo} to act like the tape stretching from the roll to the cut location.

And last but not least, the candy box.  This little darling was made by taking two rectangles of 1/8" wood.  I wrapped navy ribbon around the outside edge of the bottom to act as the side.  I made the chocolates from tiny balls of clay, baked them, and glued them to tiny circles of tissue paper.  Each loaded tissue was then glued into the box.  The lid was lined with navy velvet.  I made the tiny bow using these instructions I came across on Pinterest...

{source}

It really works!!!  Go grab some ribbon and give it a try :0)

Here are some of the sets I completed...some.  Whew!  Am I glad to be done, for today anyway.

I have to tell you though, that I did not do all this work by myself.  I finally let go of my obsessiveness and let Madison glue some of the already white-felt-lined clips to the black/navy felt for me while I did a few dishes.  She accidentally dropped a freshly glued clip, one renegade string of hot glue running down her finger.  She quickly grabbed the clip with her other hand, burning that hand too, then flung the clip across the room to land hot-glue-side-down on the carpet and ran for the sink.  Here is what she was left with *Poor Girl*

Talk about *BLISTER*

We swiftly applied the mineral essence I told you about a long time ago, and by the next morning she didn't have any pain, just this lovely worm-like blister on her finger.  

Now that she may never glue again, we have apprehended the perpetrator...

and in the words of Candice, "He's Busted!"  This glue gun will never burn again...OK, maybe it will, but not Madison.  She swore never to use this bad boy again!