Holiday Yarn Wreath

Like I said in my previous post, there are so many different ways to make a Christmas wreath.
Because I was SO worried about whether my friend would like the wreath I sent to her, I decided to make her an 'indoor' wreath - maybe I thought of it as a consolation prize or a gift with purchase.  I'm not sure but I just knew that I wanted to make this yarn wreath and send it to her.

My inspiration was this yarn wreath - it was labeled a 'different' kind of wreath.  I was so attracted to it, I just knew I had to make it.

A different kind of Christmas Wreath

Here were the easy parts of assembling the supplies for this wreath:

• white, green (dark and light), red felt? - check
• yarn that looks like twine? - check
• green and white yarn for accent? - check
• hot glue gun and fabric glue? - check

So what was left, you ask?  The wreath form, of course.  And if you go into Michael's or Jo-Ann's (the two closest craft stores to me), you will see that the only 'fat' wreath form are the straw ones.  I could have sworn I've seen fat Styrofoam wreath forms but sadly, it must have been my imagination because there were none to be found. I even asked my sister to run to Hobby Lobby to see if they had it - negative.  So she said the thing that I was hoping to avoid...maybe we just have to use the straw ones and keep the plastic wrap over it. 
And that is exactly what we did.  We each took a straw wreath, didn't mess with the plastic cover, and just started wrapping our yarn over it.  This was INFINITELY harder and more time consuming than wrapping a Styrofoam wreath because every wrapped piece of yarn had to be exactly in place - not like your Styrofoam ones where you can wrap, wrap, wrap a few times and then slide them neatly in place. I think I developed arthritis while wrapping my wreath. And it took more than a couple of hours to complete.
BUT once we had our wreaths wrapped, we went to work on the felt flowers.  I had NEVER EVER made felt flowers and for some reason, the thought of doing it was so daunting to me. Thankfully, my sister has made felt flowers before and with her help and this tutorial (Rosette Tutorial), I got the hang of it. 
We made three different size florets/rosettes.  To expedite the whole process, I would double up on the felt and cut out two circles at a time...that's where it all starts - circle shapes.  I would say ours ranged in size from 4-inch diameters to 8-inch diameters.  Once all your different colored and sized flowers are done and glued, I would place them out nicely on the wreath and then hot glue them onto the wreath to make it permanent.

This was my final product:

I added little floral rhinestones to the center of the flowers....I cut them down to be able to fit into the center of each floret.  And if necessary, I would glue them in.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I've already started a similar one, using a Styrofoam wreath, and will use felt poinsettias instead (BHG poinsettias).

Happy Crafting!

A Simple, Rustic Christmas Wreath

I was recently so humbled by my friend who asked if I would make a Christmas wreath for her and her family.  They had just moved into a new apartment in Brooklyn earlier this year, and knowing that I LOVE to craft, she asked if I wouldn't mind making her one.
I was so excited at the possibilities - do you know how many ways there are to make a Christmas wreath?!  But the one that I had my mind and heart set on had to involve BURLAP!

I had been wanting to work with burlap for awhile.  I also didn't want to make a straight all-burlap wreath because they're in Brooklyn, not Birmingham.
After discussing tastes and preferences with my friend, I had an idea for my inspiration:

 

 What she surely did not want was a burlap-dominated wreath.  So I reversed the idea by taking a traditional plain, green wreath and making the burlap the accent portion of it.

The only time I stumbled was figuring out what kind of bow to make and the placement of it.  Also - whether or not my final product needed some editing...and by editing, I meant MORE STUFF.

The actual wreath itself only took me about an hour to assemble - the most time being the bow.  But after I was done with it, I wasn't QUITE done with it.  I had to hang it in my house and be able to look at it multiple times to decide whether or not I was truly happy with it.

Here is my final product:

 

It turns out, I loved it.  I loved it for it's simplicity and I loved it for it's rustic charm.
Like I said, I took a plain, green wreath (from Michael's), some burlap ribbon (from Jo-Ann's) and use the dividers on the back of the wreath to weave the burlap in and out.  Then I was able to twist some of the evergreen stems over the burlap to make it look like there were breaks in the burlap.
Next, I bought stems of berries (they were 'fake iced') and separated  different stems from its bunch and tied each one to the base wire of the wreath until it was evenly distributed all around.
FINALLY, it was time for the ribbon.
I recall having a ribbon wizard - I think I even know where it is in storage, in my basement...but I needed the ribbon for this wreath to be FAT and SPECIAL.  I just folded the burlap ribbon (same one that is weaved through the wreath) back and forth and make sure there were no tails - so the end was tucked UNDER (not over) the top layer.  Then I cinched the middle with floral wire. Then I took a thinner, red burlap ribbon (from Jo-Ann's) and tied it to the middle and cut 'V' ends at the tails.  The red ribbon is wired so the tails are 'poseable.'  It took me awhile to get this fat, special bow right but in the end, I loved it so much - I lovingly deemed it the 'Nelly Oleson bow.'

The more I looked at it, the more I loved it.  I thought about putting bells in (but that wouldn't be good as it made it's way through the US Postal Service).  I thought about putting rhinestones in it to sparkle - but didn't want it to be tacky.  Ultimately, I left it as is. 

My friend offered to pay for my parts and labor but I couldn't charge her for this - especially since I didn't know if she would like it or not. I did, however, include a wreath hanger exactly like the one in my picture because I thought it just went so well together.

Here's to hoping she likes the wreath I made for her and it spreads a little holiday cheer!

It's BOO Time

It is October, Crafty Friends, and the start of holidays galore!
First up we have Halloween, followed by a late Thanksgiving, and then Christmas will be here before you know it! But let's not get ahead of ourselves - let's start with Halloween!
I use to HATE Halloween as a kid - I haven't enjoyed trick-or-treating since I was five and I was sweating my butt off running around the neighborhood as Strawberry Shortcake. But now that I have kids, I'm trying to EMBRACE the Halloween spirit (although the cashier in my cafeteria has told me multiple times that my kids should sit Halloween out because it's the holiday del diablo!).

Maybe I don't EMBRACE Halloween but I really enjoy all the food and activities that surround it - CRAFT FAIRS (!!!), changing leaves, Oktoberfest, apple picking, mulled cider, baked goods, pumpkins, candy and costumes!  Tell me one thing in that list that doesn't put a smile on your face and I'll call you a Liar!

Disco Ghost #1

I decorate the house (not as much as I do for Christmas because Christmas is my jam!) - I take more pride in my outdoor decorating now that I have my 'disco ghosts,' as Matty likes to call them. This was a find at HomeGoods a couple of years ago.  I purchased a whole family and I ALWAYS look forward to putting them out for the Fall!












This year, I wanted to make a door hanging for my front door - another Crafty Momma pinned this wooden 'BOO' sign using a burlap bow to hang it..  I had been meaning to try something with burlap and thought this would be perfect. And it was VERY easy.

That's all you need!

Here are the materials you'll need:

• The letters: B, O and O
• Raffia - found in the floral section
• Burlap ribbon - try to use a wider one for a wider bow
• Paint (optional) and paint blotter

I didn't just want plain, black letters.  Originally I was thinking of painting the letters in chevron but as you can see, the letters are slightly 'cursive' or fancy - they are not straight edges so I thought chevron would be difficult.  So I just went with polka dots. I happen to have a lot of paint blotters and little paints left over from the boys' birthday party - so I just pulled all the orange and blotted in the polka dots.

When the paint was done drying, I just connected the letters with the raffia, as shown in the picture.  I had never worked with raffia before and I wasn't expecting it to be a big, long, unending spool of straw!
But I just treated it like ribbon - took a few strands, cut lengthy pieces and tied the letters together like I was tying shoelaces.


After the letters were all attached, I tied some strands on top of the 'B' from which the burlap ribbon would hang from.  And here is where my challenge set in - how to make a NICE burlap ribbon like the one in the inspiration photo. I actually went to search 'how to tie burlap ribbons' and found a general tutorial on how to just tie ribbons (when you're not wrapping a gift...otherwise, I know how to tie a ribbon) here. I also noticed,while tying this ribbon, that my ribbon's width wasn't large enough to make a 'fat bow.'  So I settled for a neat bow. This was my finished product:

I think it turned out well and I can't even tell you how EASY this craft project was.  Aside from waiting for the paint to dry and figuring out how to tie a nice bow, it probably took 30 minutes, at most. This is a fun, quick, craft that will last a lifetime!

THE Library Bag

If you've been following my blog, you know that my little dudes have just started kindergarten.  And with that, I decided to introduce them to the public library.
Don't ask me WHY I haven't done this before - my other craft mommas have! 
We have SO MANY books at home...not only do we buy and are gifted books for the kids, we get A LOT (I mean A LOT) of hand-me-down books from my sister, who also has two boys that are 5 and 8 years older than my boys.  So there is a lot of handing down going on - clothes, costumes, games, and books. There really wasn't ever a need to go to the library to borrow MORE books because the boys always had plenty of books to read at home.
But now that we've gone to the library, they're a bit overwhelmed - they were introduced to our local library AND their school library.  So now they're just borrowing up a storm!

Before we made our introduction to the local public library, I wanted them to have their own bags to hold their books - something special that would encourage their love of learning and reading.  I found this bag on Pinterest and immediate knew that I had to make it for the boys. It is also listed as one of my To-Dos for 2014.

 

I love everything about this bag - the Dr. Seuss quote, the Cat's Hat, and the library card holder.

It took awhile to get off my rump and actually start on this project, but once I did, it was a piece of cake.

Here are my materials:

• a bag - preferably canvas; make sure it's not "non-woven polypropylene"
• heat transfer material - I used Silhouette's Smooth Heat Transfer Paper
• red and white felt (I got the minimum amount you are required to purchase - I think 1/4 yd)
• thicker, black thread

First I measured out how big the quote needed to be on the bag and still have space for the hat to the left.  Then I got on my Silhouette and used the GRINCHED font (it's a free online download) to write out the quote. NOTE: When printing this out on the Silhouette, I specified for a DOUBLE CUT because it is hard to even see, with a single cut, if it's cutting anything!  So double cut that quote!
Then I used my tweezer tool to remove all the 'non-worded' space from the film. You can also follow the instructions on the heat transfer material box - it was so easy!
While the CAMEO was busy cutting out my quote, I cut out pieces to make up the Cat's Hat!

I made sure to lay them out so it would resemble something like the hat...and made the more precise cuts after I was satisfied that this actually does look like the Cat's Hat.

So after the cut is made and I remove all the unnecessary material, this is what it looks like laid out on the bag:

Don't the colors look great?!  I couldn't wait to get this all ironed and sewed onto the bag!  But then...epic fail! Non-woven polypropylene bags - look great, seem sturdy...don't like heat.  When I started ironing on the Dr. Seuss quote, the polypropylene started melting against my iron! I had big, melted, blue globs on the bottom of the iron.  Needless to say, both bag and iron were ruined.

I eventually ordered two CANVAS bags off Amazon for like $6 each and re-cut the quote and everything ironed on beautifully.

I pinned down the felt pieces into the shape of the hat and sewed with the black thread.  I actually sewed through twice, making sure to sew over my previous stitches to make the black look thicker.
Even though I hit a snag with the original bag and the iron, I think it turned out great in the end. 

Up close view of the Dr. Seuss quote (in Grinched) and the felt hat.

As for the library card holder - I'm still working on that.  I was thinking of using a baseball card holder but then worried about sliding the card in and out - so I think I might just iron on a pocket to the inside of the bag to hold their library card.  We shall see. In the meantime... 

 HAPPY READING!

First Day of School Keepsake

When the boys started Preschool two years ago, I got my big PBK chalk board and wrote 'Our First Day of School' with the date on it.  I had the boys each take a pic with the chalkboard, and then together, and that was that.
Fast forward two years, the boys are starting kindergarten.  I was thinking about how to make the chalk board sign more 'exciting' and different this time around.  That's when I came across 'First Day' informational signs. Some vendors on Etsy will develop this graphic for you so your child not only has a pretty cool 'First Day' sign but it captures information about your child at that moment of time.

Of course with my awesome sense of timing, I found these signs the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend...school started the Tuesday after Labor Day.  Plus, did I really want to spend $40 on two signs that I needed for a pic...not really.
So I went ahead and started collecting stats for the boys - I grabbed their height/weight and interviewed them on their favorite things.
I had some leftover craft paper I used for their signs and took regular old Sharpies to the paper and made it as creative as possible.
The end results:

They loved their signs when they saw them in the morning.  I loved the signs I made for them...especially my freehand Batman and Incredibles logos.  It's Day 3 of school and the boys STILL love reading  their signs while they eat breakfast. The plan now will be to make one each school year, until they tell me to stop cause I'm embarrassing them, so I'll always have something for them to look back on!

A (Much Needed) Family Command Center

The boys are starting kindergarten in a couple of weeks.  I can hardly believe it!  They have been in pre-school and junior-kindergarten for the past two years.  I cannot express how appreciative I am of all the teachers and administrators at their school.  I have one little guy that is reading at a first grade level and the other little guy is quite the detailed artist and has awesome fine motor skills.  Both kids know their alphabets, can write words and numbers and do simple math.  I honestly can't remember what my milestones were upon entering kindergarten (I do remember learning to write with a pencil with one of those rubber triangles on it) but I am so proud of all their accomplishments and can't even thank the teachers enough!
That being said, the boys have been in the same class for the past two years and my hope was that they would get separated upon entering elementary school.  I had called their elementary school back in the spring and confirmed that they do, indeed, separate all twins, as a policy.  I was so relieved!
My boys are two, completely different kids.  They have different personalities, different interests and are on different learning curves. Their pediatrician often refers to them as siblings, not twins - they just happen to have the same birth date.  But when they are together, there is a constant need to compete with each other.  I am hoping that by being separated, they get the individual attention they need and won't worry about how the other is faring.

With the start of elementary school comes a whole bunch of new stresses for me.  Two classes, four teachers (teacher + helper), two sets of friends, two lunches, two after school snacks...you get the picture.  So I had to organize myself in a way that would not only keep me sane but also let my husband know what the heck was going on.  And in comes the family command center!

I've kept up with all our activities (tennis, piano, birthday parties, Chinese School) fairly well using Google Calendar online (I sync my activities and the boys' activities with my husband's activities) and getting reminders on my phone.  Now that we have to introduce school stuff into the mix, I figured it was time to put it all in one, centralized place. And you know, with my love of Pinterest, I was getting all kinds of great ideas from other people's family command centers.

While browsing all the different ideas for command centers, I thought about what my needs were:

•  A calendar with activities
•  Mail slot for incoming and outgoing mail
• Individual folders for each child with class information
• Dry erase board for messages and menu planning
• Cork board for notes and business cards (doctors, pharmacy, Papa John's delivery!!!)
• Some place to put coupons (you can never have too many Bed Bath and Beyond coupons), gift cards or take out menus
• Holder for dry erase markers and eraser

I knew the command center would be in our butler's pantry and that gave me some limited space -so I had to draw a layout of what could potentially fit in that area.
And here is the finished product:

I originally had two Pottery Barn Kids magnetic chalkboards on this wall (one on top of the other) holding things with magnets and writing things with chalk (which is not the greatest).  So I took those down and replaced it with:

• Dry erase board with cork border - from Target (what a great find!)
• Two magnetic slot folders from the Container Store
• One long slot holder for mail - the left label says 'Out' and the right label says 'In.'  This, too, is magnetic so I have a magnetic letter opener on there as well as two strong magnets (also from the Container Store) that holds our car keys.
• The pink pencil holder that is currently holding the dry erase markers and eraser is actually a locker pencil holder from the Container Store - it fits four markers and the eraser PERFECTLY!
• I got the letter stickers from the Container Store - I do have the Silhouette but it was so much easier to purchase the pack of letters ($5) and stick them on there quickly - I'm an instant gratification type of person!

As for the calendar, I now print out a copy of the Google calendar each month to list out all our activities.  It's not easy to print out the Google calendar and be able to view all the activities in each day (unless you have a magnifying glass at the ready) so I just use my SnagIt software to get a screen capture of the calendar and the activities and enlarge it in Word and print it out. It's the 'Agenda' option in Google Calendar, if you're wondering.

SnagIt Screen Capture

The two magnetic chalk boards that were originally on this wall are now on the opposite wall from the command center and also help with command center activities.  I moved the shopping list onto those boards so I have more dry erase real estate to work with.  I also pinned the calendar to the cork board, also to give me more dry erase space.

What's not showing is another long slot holder (like the one I'm using for mail) that I put under the phone (between the cabinet and the counter) that is holding my Bed Bath and Beyond coupons, gift cards and other coupons.
I have also added a small, cubic, magnetic holder (on the mail slot) that is holding post-it notes and a pen to write down spontaneous notes and slap it in the command center or pin it to the cork board - we are ready for anything!

By putting together this family command center, I was able to clear up a lot of counter space in the butler's pantry and in the kitchen - because mail isn't littered all over the place. It feels great. 

HOWEVER, school has not started so the real test will come in the next month when the boys start school and I start getting school papers and announcements! But for now, I'm pretty happy with the turnout.

Happy Organizing!

Let's Have an Art Party!

This year marked my boys' FIFTH birthday.  The big FIVE!  I feel like time has flown by.  I did, in earnest, ask if they could revert back to their 2.5-3 year old selves instead of turning five and they both adamantly refused.  Sigh - I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

I think turning five is a big deal.  It's probably the first real birthday party that I can remember myself.  And since it is their last year at their preschool, I kind of felt obligated to invite their school friends over for their birthday (we've attended SO MANY birthday parties in the past two years for their school friends...don't ask about this whole obligation business).

Anyone who knows my kids knows that they are as opposite as opposites can be.  Even their pediatrician says that they're not really twins - they're more like siblings.  They are so different.  I have one child that loves super heroes and sports.  I have another kid that loves animals and playing toy food.  So where is that happy medium for a good theme for a birthday party?  Art...of course.  It's SOOOO obvious, isn't it?

All kidding aside, I chose to have an art party theme because I wanted the boys and their friends to do something fun and creative. I also wanted the kids to have something fun to bring home.  I also failed to notify the boys that they were even having a party because (BECAUSE) I did not want to deal with 1) threatening to have no party if they were being bad, 2) specific requests for what they wanted at their party...like a bouncy house with a slide, and 3) I didn't want them to keep talking about it for weeks on end with everyone. So when did they find out they were having a birthday party?  About 30 minutes before start time.

Drawing from ideas that I saw on Pinterest, I had purchased 8x8 canvases from Michael's - I got them on sale so stocked up on 20+ canvases.  And the bottles of paints were also on sale at the time.  And I bought some six-color paint palettes from Amazon and colored smocks from Oriental Trading.  It was all coming together quite nicely.  I had originally wanted to purchase little easels for the kids to bring home so they could display their canvases but there are no easels specifically made for that size (I actually ordered a bunch and sent them all back).
So what were the kids going to do on these canvases?   This was hard - would it be free paint?  Would it be 'follow an instructor' like my Crafty Momma friends do during Sip-n-Paint?  No.  I settled on initials!  So I purchased some Green Frog (this really is the best) painter's tape and taped out each child's first initial on the canvas. By having this done ahead of time, the kids could go right into painting and go play for the rest of the time.  And it also minimized any work I needed to do the day of so I could focus on helping kids or doing a last minute canvas taping.

One of our guests hard at work painting his canvas.

So I'm thinking that painting each canvas would take like 30 minutes - and then the kids could let them dry in the sun and go play and eat and have cake.  WRONG!  When you're four to five years old, painting (and egg dying for that matter) takes five minutes TOPS!  This equated to more drying time for the canvases.

Drying painted canvases on the front lawn.

Overall, I think the kids had a great time.  I made sure there were buckets of water available for dirty paint brushes.  We had a utility sink ready for the kids to wash their hands and thankfully (and this was one of my worst fears about hosting an art party) no paint got anywhere besides the tablecloths and canvases.  Whew!  Just to tell you how much I had to step out of my comfort zone for this party...I tarped my driveway, where the kids would be painting. This is how afraid I was.  But they did great and I can chuckle about it now...ha ha ha.

Tarped driveway, paper covered tables.  Everything was disposable.

By the time the party was over, paint was dry and the tape could be peeled off to reveal a pretty awesome piece of art!

Finished products - S, M, and L

As a cute goodie bag idea, I purchased mini paint cans from Paper Mart (online) and filled them with paint tubs, paint blotters (both from Oriental Trading) and a few pieces of chocolate kisses and snack size bars. (SIDE NOTE: I purchased those strips of paint tubs that have six colors in them - and cut all the tubs apart from the strip and filled each paint can with three different colors.) Outside of the paint can, I attached a chubby brush (from Michael's) along with a favor tag I found on Etsy. The same Etsy vendor made the invitation, thank you cards and our birthday banner.  It was so cute and well done.

I've already had a few friends say they are going to do the same party theme for their kids - glad I was able to start a local trend! It really was a fun time - fun to plan and fun to relive through pictures!

I'm really happy with the way things turned out.  The boys were happy, the kids were happy and they all have a keepsake from their 5th birthday party!

Happy Birthday, Liam and Matty!

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Fondant?

Okay, fondant is neither big nor bad - it's actually beautifully smooth and wonderfully delicious (for those of you that have a sweet tooth, like me).  I've always thought fondant wedding cakes were works of art - so smooth with clean lines.  I can't even tell you how many Food Network cake shows and challenges I watched just because I thought the use of fondant was like a special skill - it always amazed me and I continue to be amazed.

I'm not a baker - have I told you that?  I love to cook but baking is not my forte.  I can do basic bundts, cupcakes and sloppy looking (but delicious) pies.  But cakes?  Not my thing.  I didn't think I had the hand for smoothing out buttercream.  And forget fondant - did you read the first paragraph?  SPECIAL SKILLS NEEDED!

So after seeing my Crafy-Momma Friend, Emily, make her daughter's La-La-Loopsy two-tiered fondant cake, I thought that I should just get over my fear of fondant and go for it - make my boys' birthday cake instead of splashing out three figures (yes, three) for a customized cake.

The boys, unbeknownst to them until 30 minutes before start time, were having an art party.  I'll be posting about that too because it was great fun and it was a super success!  (Side note: it was unbeknownst to my kids because I didn't want to go through weeks of them talking about their birthday party AND denying constant requests for a moon bounce with a slide.) So of course for an art party, you needed an art-themed cake and what better art-themed cake can you make than a painter's palette! I got so many ideas via Pinterest and the internet.  There are some seriously talented people out there, by the way!  I decided to model the boys' cake after this one:

I immediately started thinking of how to make the cake - the shape, the paint blotches, the paint brush...and I also immediately started schooling myself on how to work with fondant.  I found some GREAT videos on Youtube, via the HowcastFoodDrink channel, on how to fondant a cake.  It wasn't boring and it was very thorough - all under 20 minutes!  And I think I watched it no less than five times before I felt comfortable enough to try it on my own. This didn't, however, prevent me from having nightmares about fondant-ing a cake.  I had them leading up to the actual act of applying fondant to my cake!

But even before we get to the fondant part, let's talk about baking the actual cake.  I can definitely say that I'm an expert at cupcake baking but a WHOLE cake?  Holy intimidation!  I bought two boxes of Duff's (from Charm City Cakes) tie dye cake.  It's like a color explosion on the inside of the cake!  You can just as easily do the tie dye effect using white cake mix and food coloring - because that is basically what it all is.  I ended up using an oval pan for the palette shape and made the cake two times because the first time was a fail - DON'T FORGET TO GREASE YOUR CAKE PAN!  That is like cake baking - 101.  Major FAIL!  So I actually bought FOUR boxes of Duff's cake mix. ANYHOO....this is what the cake(s) looked like after baking.

Left: flipped over oval cake.  Right: extra cake mix in a round pan.

Cool, right?  Whew...stress one - bake the cake and have it come out nicely...check.  Stress two - I now have to make a filling and layer the cake?  What?!  Yes, I ended up making a chocolate butter cream frosting I found on Pinterest - I don't even think I pinned it but it was good.  So I sliced the oval in half, length-wise, and filled it with a nice layer of chocolate butter cream and then carefully stacked the other half of the cake on top.  Voila!  Stress two - check. Stress three came in the form of cutting out a piece of the cake to make it look more like a palette.  That was not too stressful but we did it.  Stress three -check!

Stress four - will it survive for a week in the freezer?  Fast-forward to the answer?  Yes!
Apparently you just spray some PAM on some saran-wrap and cover the cake with it.  THEN you cover the cake, in the saran wrap, with two layers of tin foil.  And off into the freezer it went for the week.  The round cake actually became my tester cake, with no filling, so I popped that one in the freezer, covered in saran wrap and tin foil and froze it for a few days and tried applying fondant to that cake two days before I had to decorate the big cake.

In the week before decorating time, I watched the fondant youtube video some more, watched some other fondant videos, had my fondant nightmare and looked at what ordinary mamas, like me, used to fondant.  A LOT of bakers and non-bakers recommended Satin Ice Fondant - ready to roll out, after some kneading.  I have to agree - it was easy to use, so smooth and very tasty!  I also purchased Wilton's Primary Color fondant - also ready to use, after some kneading, to help with the color blotches.

For the paint brush, I decided to go with gum paste - so I purchased some Wilton's Ready-to-Use gum paste from Sur La Table.  I had originally bought some of Duff's gum paste from Michael's and it was HARD AS A ROCK from the second I opened it.  This is not suppose to happen.  So I ran over to Sur La Table and tried kneading the gum paste through the Wilton bag, in the middle of the store.  It was still hard but I could manage it and the sales clerk insisted that once I opened the bag, it would be much more manageable.
This paint brush-gum paste thing was completely off the cuff.  I just did it with barely a thought or technique in mind and this is what came out of it (which makes me wonder if I should not think more often?!).

I had to text it to my Crafty Mama Friend: "Does this look like a paint brush or hairy turd?"  I was told it looked like a paint brush.  Score!  The gum paste wasn't too bad to work with - it seemed to harden a lot quicker than the fondant. I used food color to get the brown and black colors.  Mixing in the brown color didn't quite work out as I had planned but it gave the paint brush a nice 'wooden' look, I thought.  I used a pale yellow for the brush and used a toothpick to make all the bristles.  Not too shabby for a first-timer! Would I recommend eating it?  Heck no!

So it was time - time to apply the fondant and decorate the cake!  But before I did all that, I had to ice the cake - at this point, I was so nervous about applying the fondant, I just used store-bought Pillsbury white butter creamy frosting.  After you ice it, just pop it back in the fridge for a couple of hours until it's time for the FON-DANT!

I used all the tools my Crafty Mama Friend, Emily, lent me - the silicone mat (key!), the rotating cake stand (key!), fondant smoother (key!) and the Wilton food colors (key!).  I kneaded and rolled out that Satin Ice fondant like a pro.  I rolled it up onto my (new) French rolling pin like a pro. I placed it gently over the butter creamed cake like a pro! And then I started smoothing it out - using my ring and pinky fingers to smooth out the sides (like the pro in the video), using the smoothing tool to smooth out the top - making sure that the top was smooth and the sides had no visible folds.  Finally it was time to take the pizza cutter (yes, this works) and cut the excess at the bottom of the cake.  No sweat.

Now that i had worked with the larger piece of fondant, the smaller, colored fondant was no problem - and this is what we ended up with:

You can clearly see the primary colors are the four on the bottom. My nephews mixed the blue and red to make the purple. I used some more Wilton food coloring on the extra white fondant to make the pink, brown, and cornflower blue.  My nephew also tried to make an orange out of the red and yellow primaries - it just came out look more red - but it's okay. i thought it looked great!


I did have some problems inside the crevice of the cake - I had to cover it up with some white butter cream icing - but of course I'm the only one that knows about this mistake...well me and the people I decided to rant to (so three total).  They assured me it looked fine so I just had to let it be. This is my FIRST CAKE, people!  I think I did pretty well.

After decorating the cake, I just popped it in a cake box and sat it in the kitchen overnight.  I read a lot of mixed advice on what to do - refrigerate, leave it out - did Duff do it?  I saw Buddy, from Cake Boss, refrigerate.  I left it out.  It turned out fine! And it tasted great!  I got so many great compliments about how good the cake was and how fun the inside was with all the colors!

AND I'm glad to report I am no longer afraid of fondant.  I actually found the whole process quite relaxing even!  I actually cannot wait to make another cake! (flat or tiered only...3D cakes will have to wait)

Cake at the actual party!

Flip Flop Wreaths

I love warm weather months - I love the sun and being out in the sun.  I love wearing shorts and flip-flops and not having to worry about bringing a jacket wherever I go.  And if you've had the type of winter that we've had (up here in the Mid-Atlantic), you'll probably love the warm weather months a little more this year like I will!

For the past two years, I've had a nice 'winter break' down to the Florida panhandle.  A friend of mine has a house in the picturesque little town of Seaside - also a part of Santa Rosa Beach.  I've taken part in the Seaside Half Marathon the past two years and have enjoyed every moment of just being in Seaside.  Everything is so beachy and scenic.  You might be familiar with Seaside because the movie 'The Truman Show' was filmed there! It is really that picturesque!

My friend's parents, who also live down in Seaside, were nice enough to host us girls for dinner one night.  That's also when I found out that my friend's Mom LOVED anything flip-flop.  She had flip-flop decor that included a flip-flop fly swatter!  What I didn't see, however, was a flip-flop wreath.  After my trip, I decided that I was going to make her a flip-flop wreath to show my appreciation for making us dinner and possibly the most awesome pie on the face of this planet - Khalua pie!

When I got back home, I immediately started pinning ideas for flip flop wreaths.  I also started a mad search for flip flops. 
First - the flip flop wreath idea...I settled on this one from the 'A Little While' blog:

It has a great tutorial that showed how to line up and stack the flip flops and how to get them all to stick together (E-6000 really does hold EVERYTHING and then some).

After I got all the flip-flops glued together, I dried them for 36 hours. 
I actually added a wood sign (size was 1" x 12") that I purchased from Michael's and painted it into a color that coordinated with the flip-flops.
As the flip-flops were drying, I painted the wood sign and used my white Sharpie paint pen to write the word 'Welcome' on the sign.  I let that dry overnight.
Once dry, I used the E-6000 to stick the sign onto the wreath - laying heavy cookbooks on top and letting that dry for another 24-36 hours.

What the wreath looked like after all the glue was dry.

When I was ready to embellish, I only used colored stones with a sticky back - in all different sizes.  I only made designs on the solid-colored flip flops...I didn't want to go overboard.
After placing each stone where it needed to be, I used Outdoor modge podge to work as a glaze, protectant and adhesive on the sign and the rhinestones. You can see the 'shiny' sheen over the sign in the pic below.

And voila - you're finished.  The last thing you need to do is tie some ribbon on the back (I used the flip flop anchors) so the wreath will hang nicely.
I actually made two flip-flop wreaths - one for my friend and one for her Mom - I think they both turned out great! And both were pretty durable as I had to carry these babies onto the plane and put them in overhead storage!

I had the 'pink' wreath hanging on the inside of my house to get a look and feel - the look was great; the feel was that this wreath really belonged on a beach house and not a regular, old Colonial in the 'burbs of DC.
The most time consuming part of this craft was waiting for the E-6000 to dry and designing with the rhinestones because some of those suckers were small!
Where to get the flip flops?  Jo-Ann Fabrics had these flip flops available as of three weeks ago.  I had to wait, patiently, for their 'summer camp' craft materials to come in. Thankfully they came in before my trip!  I also read that people have purchased flip flops from Old Navy or the Dollar Store.
This is definitely a fun craft and both recipients loved them! Hope you're able to make one for your beach-loving friends!

A Fun Baby Shower Gift

I recently attended a baby shower for the sister-in-law of a really good friend.  When I found out that she was going to be having her baby shower the same weekend as a half-marathon I was running, I couldn't wait to make something homemade, for their nursery.  This is their first baby - and a GIRL! (I tend to go a little crazy when I know someone's having a girl...it's pure jealousy.)
So I quickly went online to get some ideas of what would be a cute, homemade gift - an original.  I came across this sign and thought, 'PERFECT!'

Although I couldn't find the exact baby girl image that was in the sign, I improvised and ended up making this:

The fabric and fiberfill you see to the right of the sign was just to show you that I actually added filling under fabric behind the sign so the wood wouldn't make noise if banged against a door or crib...I thought this was a moment of genius.

Here are the materials I used:

• A piece of carved wood from Michael's - it's unpainted and they come in all different sizes
• Wooden embellishment - instead of the baby image on the original sign, I found the little princess crown at Michael's and thought it would be perfect.
• Ribbon for hanging
• Martha Stewart Craft Paints - for any surface - color of your choice
• Pink Sharpie Paint Pen
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scrap of fabric (optional) - I got a quilter's square from Jo-Ann's fabric
• Polyester Fiberfill (optional)

I had my husband drill two holes on the top of the carved wood - with holes large enough to be able to push ribbon through with a toothpick. I don't like excess hole space to exist after the ribbon is in.  After sanding the holes down, I painted the carved wood in the glittery purple. Martha Stewart has so many colors and shades of craft paint, it is just so hard to decide some time!

After drying, I pushed the ribbon through the holes and glued the crown into the corner to give me an idea of how much room I could work with for the words.

After the crown dried, I wrote the words, 'Shhh!  You wake her, you take her!!!'

I let that dry for a spell and then flipped the sign over to start on the padding on the back.

This is where it all becomes optional.  I was in a store, this past weekend, that had similar signs for sale and those had no padding on the back.  I think the padding adds a nice touch so it's not knocking on everything and making noise.  I basically cut an outline of the carved wood with 1/2 inch - 1 inch of margin.  Then I folded three 'sides of the material under the fabric and onto the wood and glued it on with my glue gun.  I stuffed the poly-fill in there until there was a nice cushion and just folded the rest of the fabric (what you see on the right side of the picture) underneath itself and glued it to the back of the wood.  It looked like a nice pin cushion.

Depending on where the Parents-to-be plan to hang the sign will help in deciding whether or not the padding is needed or not.

But the Mom-to-be seemed very pleased with the sign and I was glad I was able to make it for her.

In hindsight, I wish I had asked for their nursery colors - cause I could have made it match that OR just did a classic cream base with pink writing or pink polka dots - all using the Sharpie Paint pen.  I'm sure there will be more babies to do this for in the future.  This was a relatively quick project - the most time consuming part was waiting for the paint to dry!

When You Can't Paint Freehand, Use Sharpie Paint Markers!

It should be obvious that I love to craft.  But one of my weaknesses, within crafting, is painting letters freehand. That's why I LOVE my Martha Stewart sticker stencils and Silhouette.  If I'm etching glass, painting on ceramics or making gifts with lettering involved, I must have stencils because the thought of free handing the letters is a daunting task - am I writing all the letters in the same font?  Are they spaced out correctly?  What if one letter comes out bigger than the others?  Which is funny because I actually have very nice, neat handwriting.

Then one day, while walking through Michael's, I came across one of their end cap displays of Sharpies.  But these weren't the run-of-the-mill permanent marker Sharpies.  These were Sharpie Paint Markers!

Sharpie has made what appears to be paint in marker form! EUREKA! 

I purchased one to test out on some food cards for a baby shower (for a British Mum).
It was easy, mess free, no brushes to clean or cups to rinse out afterwards....I became an instant fan!


Since then, I've used a gold paint marker for the lucky red envelopes (still practicing Chinese characters and spacing).


And I recently purchased a hot pink one to make a sign for a baby shower:

Now that I can free hand letters using the Sharpie Paint Markers, the possibilities (for me) are endless! GAME ON!

February Craft Club: Argyle Heart Wreath

Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Crafters!
We had a Craft Club this past weekend and it was FUN, FUN, FUN!
Our lovely hostess picked out the Argyle Heart Wreath!

Not only was this craft so easy, it was quick!  I think most everyone was done in under two hours!

My wreath is now hanging on the inside of my front door - primed and ready for the Valentine Holiday!

Here were the materials:

1 Foam Wreath Ring

Yarn - in the color of your choice

Felt Hearts - we used 7 pink, 7 red
Glue Gun
Ribbon for hanging

Our Hostess laid everything out for us so nicely!

To begin, glue one end of the yarn to the back of the foam ring - and start wrapping. Here, you have your choice of doing a multi-layer wrap, where the base is more 3D than flat - or you can just wrap it very tightly in single layers.  I did the single layer and I saw some crafting experts (the mommas that have done this before) wrap a few loops around the ring and then pull them in tightly (so you're not constantly looping the whole ball of yarn every single time)- it worked out nice.
After wrapping the whole ring, you can cut and glue the end into the back of the ring OR you can leave the yarn where you ended, glue your hearts onto the face of the wreath and then start criss-crossing the yarn across your hearts to make that argyle pattern.
There are a few ways to criss cross - I criss-crossed each heart and then moved onto the next.  I think some mommas 'crissed' all their hearts in one direction and then went back to cross in the other direction.
Also, when gluing your hearts to your wreath, you can have them facing in alternating directions, all in the same directions or you can glue a few and not have them cover the entire wreath!
When you're done, just cut off the yarn and glue it to the back.
We had pretty, pink, wired ribbon for hanging.
Other options for hanging are just to make a small yarn loop in the back for hanging.

Here are the finished results - they're all so cute and not every one looks the same. Okay -they mostly look the same - but if you look at the first wreath on the left, you can see that this Crafty Momma didn't cover her whole wreath in hearts!

I've seen multiple pins creating yarn wreaths and using felt to decorate - totally easy and not time consuming at all!  I can't wait to find another one to make - maybe for Easter!

Lucky Red Envelopes

Happy Chinese New Year! And for those of you that are not Chinese, Happy Lunar New Year!

I have very fond memories of my childhood Chinese New Years - most of which involve receiving a hong bao - or red envelope. These would be given to me by my parents, relatives, or family friends.  Hong baos are gifts presented at social and family gatherings such as weddings or on holidays such as the Chinese New Year. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.
I had such a collection of hong baos that as I got older, if my parents would forget to give me one, I would just give them one of my empties and they'd fill it!  I think they liked how prepared I was!

Now that I have kids, they are now receiving hong baos.  A group of my cousins came to the US last year, from Taiwan. They were visiting and it was the first time they had ever met the boys.  Upon meeting the boys, each boy was gifted about six hong baos.  I guess I forgot to mention what is in these hong baos that make them so special....they're filled with money!

I have yet to give my kids a hong bao because they haven't really celebrated Chinese New Year - that hasn't stopped other people from giving them hong baos. This year, now that they're really into learning and understanding new things, I will be gifting them with a hong bao.  In fact, we're having a group of their friends over for a playdate the day after Chinese New Year and I decided to make a Chinese New Year dinner for the kids and parents. It's also a little experiment, for me, on whether or not I would like to go forth and have bigger Chinese New Year parties for a larger group of people.  But I digress.

In my history of receiving hong baos, I have not received any hong bao that has made me stop and say, 'Wow - that's a really cool looking hong bao.'  They're all very generic or they have something embossed in gold that I don't quite care about or there is something cheesy about it.  Take a look at these hong baos out on the market today:

Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty are cool but I haven't
seen those at any of the Asian grocery stores by me!

ANYWAY, I decided that I was going to make hong baos for all the kids coming to play on Saturday. I was thinking to modernize the hong bao while still keeping up with the red and gold tradition.
Here were my materials:
Red Envelope template (click here)
3D dotted card stock from Michael's
Double sided tape
Glue stick
Scissors (of course)
Gold Paint marker (by Sharpie)
It's so simple - just print out the envelope template, cut it out.
Then cut the card stock using the template.
Fold the larger sides towards each other - I used double sided tape to hold them together.
Then take one of the small tabs, put glue on it and fold it up.
Leave the other small tab open but fold it over to close the envelope.

The 'baby' hong bao in the bottom left is for a baby
coming over - wouldn't want to leave him out!

Because it's the year of the horse, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out a horse onto Gold foil paper.  I then glued the horse onto the front and wrote, 'Xing Nian Kuai Le' in Chinese - Happy New Year!
I plan on filling them with chocolate coins for the kids.

The first envelope I made came out really nice too - I cut out a template for double happiness and used a craft knife to cut the double happiness symbol out of the gold foil paper.  Unfortunately, I was told that double happiness is more for wedding hong baos - not for Chinese New Year hong baos.  So here's my extra!

Happy Chinese New Year!