Bunny Cakes

Custom Soccer Bag Tags

This spring the boys are playing soccer again and Hubby is their coach.  He wasn't planning on coaching, but had to step in at the last minute due to a coaching shortage.  The team decided to name themselves the Speedy Turtles.  As soon as they had a team name I was off creating their logo (I couldn't help myself).  I found the perfect turtle image and then added the soccer balls.  Of course once I created the logo I really didn't have a use for it until the end-of-season treats.  Then after seeing the badges my work made for all the kids on Take Your Kids to Work Day I got the idea to make luggage tags for the players to tie to their soccer bags.  After creating the design for the tags it was time to call in the professionals.  I turned to my copy center at work, which also takes on personal jobs and does amazing work.  They mounted the tag images on heavy card stock and then laminated them and punched the holes.  For those of you who don't have a copy center at work, I am sure this is something (at least the lamination part) that Kinko's can handle for you.  The cost of the tags came out to $0.50 each, I couldn't believe how cheap it was.  Both the kids and parents loved the tags!

I usually get a lot of questions on what software I use to create my images.  To create the above tags I used Google image search to find tow images: the turtle with the rocket and the soccer ball.  The turtle image didn't need any clean up, but for the soccer ball image I had to remove the white background.  To do this I used Photoshop's magic wand to select the white background and then delete it, so I was left with just the soccer ball on a transparent background.  If you don't have Photoshop, but do have some other photo editing software then chances are you can remove the white background.  To put the images together with the lettering I use Adobe Illustrator, but if you don't have that then you can also do this easily with Microsoft Powerpoint or Word.  If I don't need to do anything special I usually turn to Powerpoint because it is easy and fast to use.  The latest version is surprisingly powerful, so don't be shy to give it a try!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts - Apple of My Eye

For this year's Teacher Appreciation gifts we were inspired by Amy Atlas' Apple of My Eye dessert table found in her latest book: Sweet Designs.  The boys and I collected a bunch of apple flavored goodies and even made our own apple shortbread cookies and then packaged them in baskets for their teachers.  Of course we had to add our traditional gift of a movie gift card too.  Teachers work really hard and do amazing things for our kids.  I hope they know the little gifts we bring them are just a small token of our gratitude.

Here are the goodies we gathered...

To make the apple shortbread cookies we used red, green & brown royal icing to make little apple images on the store-bought shortbread cookies.  We used squeeze bottles for the icing so the boys could help create the apples.

Here is the inspiration from Amy Atlas, who is truly an endless source of inspiration...

And finally, the baskets...the boys wrote out 'You are the Apple of my Eye' on hang tags tied to the baskets.  We also added a little red ric-rac to the baskets with fabric glue to match our color scheme.

-K

Cardboard DIY Gift Tags

I get excited about wrapping presents.  I know most people dread it, but I think of it as an opportunity to get creative and make something look good.  Plus, it also makes the recipient feel special--at least I like to think it does.  After seeing Natalie Jost's DIY Stamped Hang Tag post, I knew I wanted to make some.  A baby shower gift gave me the motivation I needed to head to the craft room and get busy.  Instead of stamping on paper I stamped on cardboard.  Then after letting my designs dry I cut them out and punched a hole.  The trickiest part is finding out what color ink shows up best on the cardboard.  I found that either very bright or very dark colors work best, the medium shade colors get lost on the cardboard background.  Here are the results...

Here is the inspiration from Natalie's post...

-K

Jelly Bean Carrots - An Easy Easter Craft for Kids

The boys wanted to do an Easter craft while they were home for Spring Break.  I was going to have them make more Egg Animals, but I couldn't find my stash of wooden eggs.  Then Martha came to the rescue with her easy-to-make jelly bean carrots--see link here for the how-to directions.  We ended up buying 1.3 lbs of orange jelly beans and 0.5 lbs of green jelly beans which made eight carrots.  The boys enjoyed the craft and now we have fun Easter decorations.

-K

P.S.  You can use piping bags as your 'cone-shaped' cello bags.

Washi Paper Easter Eggs

Every year I look forward to getting our house ready for Easter.  I welcome the spring-like feel our house gets with the cute little bunnies scattered about.  But what I look forward to most is displaying the washi paper eggs made by myself and my grandmother.  For those of you who don't know what washi paper is, it is a decorative Japanese paper that has a thick and flexible quality.  Unless you are lucky enough to have a Japanese grandmother with her own stash, then you can find washi paper at Paper Source or other fine paper stores.  The key to washi paper is to never throw away your scraps, you can always find a use for them down the road--in fact these eggs can be made with larger pieces of scraps.  

The washi eggs created by my grandmother use actual real eggs, but the ones I created use wooden eggs found at the craft store (have you ever tried to blow out an egg? it is really difficult).  I saw a tutorial on Martha a few years back which does a decent job of explaining the process to create your own eggs.  Once you've made your eggs the displaying part is the fun part.  I put mine in milk glass eggs cups and a big wire bunny, but they also look great in a bowl or just on their own.

-K

Christmas Crafts To-Do 2011

Here are some crafty projects I have my eye on...I am hoping to get around to at least one of these projects.

1.  Felt Ornaments - possibilities are endless.  Here is a sweet example from Rosie Little Things.

 

2.  Clay Ornaments - easy to personalize or capture a little hand print.  Here are some how-to steps from GardenMama.

 

3.  Pink Ornaments - I love this color scheme.  I need to buy some or make my own pink ornaments.

 

4.  PomPom Snowman - this little guy is adorable.  Here are the steps from BH&G.

 

 

5.   Shrinky Dink Gift Tags - I would love to use the boy's artwork to create some cute gift tags.  These would be great to add to their teacher gifts.

 

6.  Stamped Gift Bags - turn plain muslin bags into festive goodie bags.

-K

Tissue Wrap + Ribbon Flag + Bakers Twine

My new wrapping accessorie is a ribbon flag.  It provide added cheer to any gift!  For a great wrapping combo use tissue paper (2 sheets), bakers twine and a ribbon flag.  It also go great with stamped cards.

-K

Bunting Cake

The boys turned nine last Sunday!  We had a nice family lunch to celebrate (their party will be later this week).  Of course we had to have cake!  I made a 4 layer cake with alternating devil's food and funfetti layers.  To decorate the cake I added a simple bunting made with red & white bakers twine and decorative tape (from Martha's craft line).  I could have used paper or ribbon to make the bunting, but the tape came in the perfect variety of colors and patterns.

The inspiration for my cake (and a far more lovely version) is this pink rainbow cake from Call Me Cupcake.

One day I hope to make a cake just like it!

-K

Robot Party

As you my know, my sister has a thing for robots.  So when it came time to plan her son's first birthday, she naturally selected a robot theme.  The inspiration for the colors (orange and blue) and theme was an incredible robot quilt she sewed for O's birthday present (see below).  The centerpiece for the party was a dessert table with a 'robot' cake.  She commissioned her friend and expert pastry chef, Heather Roth from Love and Butter Bakeshop, to create the cake and gave her full design control.

On the day of the party, A and I busily set up dessert table leaving a space for the cake.  We followed Amy Atlas' lead and used M&M's on our trays to bring in a punch of color--simple and impactful.  We bought donut holes and shortbread cookies to replace the macarons which weren't in stock (always order ahead) and the decorated sugar cookies which didn't come out right.  We were able to 'customize' the shortbread cookies by dunking them in blue and orange royal icing, they turned out quite nice and tasted delicious (very easy to do).  Then the cake arrived.  Neither A nor I were prepared for Heather's masterpiece.  We both had anticipated a layered cake with a little robot figure on the top, but Heather's creation was a lifesize duplication of the robot from the invitation.  It was stunning!  The final detail of orange and blue bunting (sewn by A) finished off the *Robot Dessert Table*.

Other details from the party included more orange and blue bunting hung around the house, 'Sweet Bytes' take-home favors (originally we planned to have 'O' and '1' sugar cookies, but replaced with the favorite chocolate chip cookies), a beautiful bib (again, made by A), robot napkins, and orange and blue balloons.

Here is a picture of the robot quilt made by A and inspiration for the party. The robot quilt is from Boo Davis's Dare to Be Sqaure Quilting book. A said that she really enjoyed making the quilting and that the pattern was well written and very easy to follow. The quilt is very impressive in person and is the size of a twin bedspread. 

A picture of Heather's drawings for the robot cake...

And finally, my favorite picture from the party...Oliver in awe of the robot cake!

-K

Customized Party Napkins

We just celebrated O's first bithday yesterday!  It was a lovely and festive affair.  Before I show you the day-of pictures, I wanted to share some details.  Whenever I am hosting a special event, I usually get a custom stamp made (I lke to use Impress Stamps).  Having a rubber stamp allows you to emblelish almost anything you want with your party motify.  An quick and easy thing to do is to create your own custom napkins.  For O's party we created orange and blue robot napkins.  All you need is your stamp (it doesn't have to be custom, there are some great stamps already available), a fresh ink pad (I like Color Box), paper napkins, a flat surface with room to layout your napkins so they can dry and a little time.  The work goes by pretty quick and before you know it you will be all done.  After you transfer your image to the napkins make sure you let them dry, I usually leave them overnight to dry.  Your guests will love them!

-K