Mommy had a little lamb PART 2

For my friend's baby shower, I also made 50 lamb pops using the process from Bakerella's cake pop book and web site. I had never made cake pops with elaborate decorations on them, and there is a definite learning curve with the melting chocolate wafers. She is right when she says it's a timing thing.

You have to have the chocolate hot enough to have enough time to attach everything before it dries, but cool enough that everything doesn't slide right off. These took waaaayyyy longer than I expected, but I think they're adorable!

Also, I wasn't thrilled with the idea of the cake pops being super crunchy so I substituted Kraft Mallow Bits for the sugar pearls. I got them at Target for $1.50 each and it took 4 containers to do 50 pops, with a bit left over. Also, I used junior mints for the faces instead of licorice, just because I think black licorice is nasty (and the bridge mix in the recipe is expensive at Woodman's!) They're still a little crunchy but not as much as I expect the sugar pearls would have been.

I can't take credit for the super cute tins with the grass - one of the shower hostesses put those together, but they look adorable and were a great centerpiece!

Mommy had a little lamb

A friend of mine is having a baby in a few weeks, and I am so, so, so very excited for her. I agreed to make some desserts for her shower.

First, the cakes. I  I put together two 3-layer 8-inch round cakes, one with pink fondant and one with blue. She has a lamb theme going, so I put some lambs on the tops and the sides.

I again used bunnywoman's trusty marshmallow fondant recipe from the Wilton forum site. I halved the large batch recipe (8oz of marshmallows and 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar), which seemed to work well, although I would recommend still using 2 Tbsp. of water. This is another instance where I LOVE the dough hook on my Kitchenaid mixer - making fondant is such a pain without it and a breeze with it! I also recommend adding the coloring (I use Wilton gel in the small jars) to the melted marshmallow before adding the sugar - it saves a ton of kneading time.

And can I just say that when Wilton says their gel coloring is named pink, they really mean freaking bright electric super neon pink. I guess that more accurate description wouldn't fit on the jar. This lovely pastel pink color is called rose petal pink and was a much better choice. The blue is cornflower blue - both colors came in a boxed 4 pack, along with a peach and a sea green.

I've never piped words on to a cake before and I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. I was worried that if I freehanded it that the spacing would be off or I would run out of room. 

So I made a template in Word and printed that off. (I used wordart to create a 6.75" circle of round text). I placed it over the top of the cake and used a toothpick to prick through the paper to create tiny holes underneath. I then used the marks on the cake as a guide to pipe the frosting over the top (using a Wilton #5 tip.)

 For the boards, I took 3 round cake boards, used some packing tape to tape them together and then covered them in aluminum foil. I love how these cakes turn out and the beautiful mama-to-be seemed pleased as well!

Crib Teether Guard

I finally got around to finishing that crib teething guard that I saw on Pinterest. It only took me about four months :) Although now that I think about it, that's really not too bad considering all the holidays and parties in November and December.

E is a late teether, but when they came in it was crazy - six teeth in eight weeks and nobody was getting any sleep! I love the crib that we bought for her and didn't want those new sharp teeth marking it up. I was inspired by a couple teething guards (this one and this one) that I saw on Pinterest.

I had some leftover fabric and decided I could figure this out. I had to piece together a few fabrics and I backed it with the white minky fabric that we used for her quilt. (I use "we" liberally here, seeing as my mom did all the work on the bedding.) I liked the look of the bias tape on one of the pinterest examples, and used this tutorial and a few phone calls to mom to figure out how to put the blue bias tape on the edges. I always thought bias tape was one of those insanely difficult things to master, but it wasn't bad at all.

If I would have thought about it ahead of time, I would have put the ties on before the bias tape, but I guess I'm not as good at foresight as I once was. So I used a seam ripper to make some room between the bias tape and the fabric, shoved the tie in between and restitched. Not the cleanest or easiest way, but it worked. And it was on the back side so it's not really visible.

I have another one in progress that will go down the long end of the crib, but I'm not sure I need it now. The side of the crib is right by the door, so E never really hangs out by that side. We've had it in place for about a week or two now and so far she's only figured out how to pull it off once. I moved the end ties around the corner post and that seemed to help. I am optimistic that it will keep the crib in great shape for any future uses :)

$5 wall art

I bought these unfinished pine mirrors from Ikea a few years ago - a pack of four of them for $3. And I never really had a good sense of what to do with them. It's just the lure of cheap crap from Ikea. I can't resist.

Anyway, last year I painted two of them for E's room, and stuck the other two unfinished on the wall in the downstairs bathroom. I always intended to do something with them, but never got around to it.

Well today after a tea party with the girls, we visited this crazy fun shop in Antioch called Hannah's where I found some very cute scrapbook paper. When I'm out with the girls I have this horrible habit of buying lots of scrapbook paper and then never using it. I have a lot of very cute paper just sitting around waiting for inspiration and free time to coincide. Alas.

So, I was determined to do something with the paper I got today. After E went to sleep, I got out my cutting mat and some mod podge and put the paper on the mirror. Easy peasy and I think they look great - and lots better than the unfinished wood! And cheap too - $5 total!

A Few Party Ideas...

A friend of mine recently asked for some help with a few decorations for a gathering she was having with some friends. I pulled together a few ideas and we decided to try a few things we found on Pinterest (where else?)

First, we bought18 wine glasses from the dollar store and dipped the bases in chalkboard paint. My friend already had the paint, so the total for this project was only $18!

This was a pretty simple project. I dumped some paint into an old Ziploc brand container and then dipped the glasses into the paint. (The dollar store glasses are the tiniest bit too big to dip straight into the paint quart.)  The hardest part was figuring out how to let them air dry.

I used a quart of rustoleum chalkboard paint, but I think it would be easier to use chalkboard spray paint, simply because instead of dipping the bases in paint you just spray the bases and don't have to deal with all the drips. Anyway, I held them over the paint bowl until all the major drips ran off, then propped them up on a couple Ziploc brand containers and rotated them every few minutes until they were dry enough to stand upside down without dripping. I also wrapped painters tape around the base of each stem to stop any drips. This also helped keep the glasses from rolling off the containers. If I thought more about this step ahead of time, I probably would have tried slicing up an old foam pool noodle and placing each stem in a slit to dry.

Within an hour or so, they dried to a nice smooth chalkboard finish and will be a fun way for guests to mark their glasses. You could do this with anything and I am already thinking of other ways to use chalkboard paint - hot cocoa mugs perhaps? 

Next, we took some inspiration from Martha Stewart and put together some labels for the buffet table. I simply cut out an oval shape, used a hole punch on each end, and fed a ribbon through. (I'd suggest writing on them before feeding the ribbon through, if you can.) These were simple to make and look elegant on a table. You could also use these as table place cards - I made 20 for less than $4.

The final project was a bit more ambitious because I had never spray painted before and have always been intimidated by it. It was easy! We collected a few empty wine bottles (it helped that this was the week after New Year's!) I spray painted them a nickel color (Krylon has a line of metallic colors.) Then, after they dried, I used Elmer's craft spray adhesive to coat the outside and then rolled them in Epsom salt. The salt makes the bottles look like they were coated in snow. You can get the Epsom salt at any drugstore for a few bucks - I got this carton in the first aid section at Target. (The paint came from Hobby Lobby and the glue from Michael's.)

To give a little added dimension, I put some rubber bands on one of the bottles before painting. After rolling in the salt, I removed the bands to expose the clear glass. It's difficult to see here but it gave it a neat look with a stark contrast between the snowy white and the clear glass. It would be really cool to drop in a thin candle or an led light to twinkle through the glass.

I placed the bottles on a silver tray from the dollar store, then filled them with some metallic floral stems from the after-Christmas clearance at Michael's. I added some more salt to the tray to look like snow and then arranged some ornaments, metallic balls and tea lights around the base of the tray.

One note about the spray adhesive - when using it, be sure to pay attention to overspray. I placed paper around the bottles before spraying, but still managed to get glue all over my dining room table, my scissors and my hands. It definitely gets everywhere and leaves a sticky residue. Fortunately I had some Goo Gone on hand to clean everything up.

These were fun projects for me and I was able to try a few new things - like spray paint and chalkboard paint - that I had been looking to try.

Handmade by Holly

My sister-in-law Holly put together this really great photo puzzle for my daughter for Christmas. She started with a basic Melissa & Doug shapes puzzle, but you could begin with anything. First, she updated the front of the pieces with some adorable coordinating scrapbook paper. Then, underneath all of the pegs, she mod-podged photos of family members. My daughter loves pulling off the pieces to see who is underneath! Thanks Aunt Holly!

Tutu Cute

After all the commotion around here with E's 1st birthday a few weeks ago and Christmas this weekend, you'd think I'd take it easy. Or at least finish that crib teether guard that I've been working on since OCTOBER. More on that later.

But, alas, the elves have been hard at work putting together a little something for my adorable niece. She's a big fan of the Disney princesses and Minnie Mouse, so I wanted to make her a couple tutus for Christmas.

First up is a Beauty and the Beast Belle tutu. I used 2 yards of shiny yellow tulle and some gold ribbon for the tutu body and about 1/8 of a yard of shiny yellow stuff for the swag.

To do the swag, I just bunched up the fabric and fed it through a couple of the slip knots at the top of the tutu. (I used the basic no-sew slip knot method - Google it for tons of tutorials or visit my sister-in-law Holly's site) To finish it off, I glued some red roses at the same points where I fed the fabric through. It helped secure the roses and keep the swags in place. I used Tacky Glue - hot glue would probably work well too.

To make it easy to knot the tulle onto the ribbon and to satisfy my OCD need for symmetry, I tied the ribbon to two chairs to help space things out. This really helped to ensure the knots were tight and all the embellishments were evenly placed.

 Second, I did a Minnie Mouse tutu. I found a roll of red tulle at Hobby Lobby, and also added in about 1/2 yard of sparkle tulle and a few different kinds of red, black and white ribbon. I've seen tutorials using both rolls of tulle and tulle off the bolt, and I have to say that the rolls are much easier to work with. But if you want fun sparkles, you typically need to buy it off the bolt.

 I love how these turned out! I'm adding in a couple red hair clips and voila - instant princess party. Everything was on sale so I'm sure I did both tutus for less than $20. Merry Christmas!