Quadruple Birthday Celebration

The same lady who ordered the rock-n-roll cake last weekend called me this week with an original (at least to me) idea.  Her family is having a group celebration this weekend for 4 different birthdays.  So, she ordered 4 cakes, each personalized for the respective birthday person.  I did 6-inch cakes.  Two are chocolate, and the other 2 are white.  All have a buttercream base, with fondant embellishments.

--May 2012

Old Time Rock & Roll Birthday Cake

Turning 80 years old calls for a celebration and an awesome cake!!  The birthday gentleman loves music, and his favorite song is "Old Time Rock & Roll."  With some input from his daughter-in-law who ordered the cake, I designed it with that in mind.  The cake is white on the bottom tier, and chocolate on the top, with a buttercream base and fondant and buttercream embellishments.  I hadn't done a lot of writing with icing in the past, but I got a lot of practice on this cake!

--May 2012

Gender Reveal Cake!

I was super pumped to be asked to do a gender reveal cake for a friend of mine.  She came straight from her sonogram appointment ... with the results sealed in an envelope ... and gave it to me!!  I love being the first to know secrets!  I tinted the white cake batter and the frosting {pink}, then covered it all with fondant, so you couldn't tell from the outside what the cake was.  She had a big family dinner and made the first cut, as they all found out together.  There's no way I would have the patience to wait, but I'm so glad she did and I got to make this super fun cake!

-May 2011

Lego Ninjago Birthday Cake

This cake was for a friend's little boy, who was turning 6 {I think, or 7}.  He picked out his favorite design from pictures his mom found online.  He was super thrilled with the Ninjago head, which I molded out of rice crispie treats! The cake is a 2-layer (one chocolate, one yellow), with a buttercream base and fondant embellishments.  I freehanded the "ninja" font and did the cutouts with a knife.  It took FOREVER!! but I was happy with the results.

-May 2012

Farm Animal Finger Puppets

A couple of months ago, I participated with a few friends in a "Toddler Busy Bag Swap."  There were 6 of us, and we each chose 1 toddler friendly project/toy/activity to make, and we made 6 of them.  Then we all got together, had some food, and exchanged our projects.  That way, we each went home with 6 different activities for our little ones.  

I made felt finger puppets, and just like every project that I do, I went a little overboard.  I made 10 different animals, and I made 10 of each animal!  I thought it would be good to have a couple extra to use as gifts.  Well, by the time I finished, I decided that 10 finger puppets was a little much.  My child would want to put them all on at one time, and that would get super annoying...so I decided to put 5 animals in each "farm."  Which gave me 20 little farms!!  I used 6 for the swap, and I've used a few for gifts.  Kids ages 2-3 really love them!!  

It took me about 3 weeks to complete the animals and the barn carry bag...this is working during naptime, and some evenings.  I used my sewing machine to sew together the basic puppet, and then used hot glue to attach the various felt/eyes/etc that made up the animal.  Here are pictures of each animal!!

 Chicken!!

 Sheep!

 Cow!

 Horsie!

 Pig!

 Puppy Dog!

 Duck!

 Bird!

 Mouse!

Cat!

Then, the barn carry bag.  My daughter, who is 2 & 1/2, loves taking the animals in and out of the bag.  She calls it her farm, and she gets excited when we give a farm to one of her friends.

These are the pieces for the barn.  First I sewed the long bottom piece to the bottom of the front and back pieces.

Then, I folded the bottom piece in half so that the front/back were flush, and sewed up the sides.  

 Flip it inside out, and you're ready to make it look like a barn!

I glued pipe cleaners around the outline of the barn.

Then I used pipe cleaners to create the barn door and window.

Then I forgot to take pictures of teh finished barn!!  I used the short yellow pieces above and cut them to look like hay, then glued them into the window.  The top of the bag is open, and I glued a small square of velcro to close.

These were a lot of fun to make, and it was fun looking around on the internet for ideas and creating the little guys!