You Know You Want It!

A Silhouette craft cutter, that is! If you're like me and you love doing artsy/crafty things, this machine is to die for! Just a Girl is hosting a giveaway for one with a bunch of fun accessories! I would love to win this, and I'm sure you would too! If you want to know how to enter, see here.

Good luck! And remember what your mom taught you to do...SHARE! LOL!

Happy Father's Day

Okay, so I know I'm a week late here...but better late than never, right?! Well, I did say to watch out for my Father's Day crafts and I think I'm done making you wait.

First off, I made a brag board for my dad. My girls are constantly making something for the grandparents and when I saw this idea I thought it would be perfect for him! Now he can just switch up his pictures/drawings from the kids and have something new to look at. I'd love to give credit here for the person that made this first, but I can't seem to remember where I saw it from! But thanks anyway for the inspiration!

Secondly, I was visiting a new-to-me blog and saw her project from last year...an awesome Father's Day frame. As soon as I saw this, I knew what I'd be making for the hubs! I think it turned out amazing, and I'm a little jealous that my hubby gets to see it everyday at the office! Maybe when Mother's Day rolls around again I'll make one for myself! Hehehe!!

Both of these projects were easy and barely took any time (not that they weren't still made with tons of love)!

For the brag board, I just bought a wood plaque and two 2 packs of magnetic clips. I used paint and brushes I already had at home to paint the plaque. After it dried, the hubs screwed the clips on and added a picture frame wire to the back so dad could hang it up. Easy right?

The blog where I first saw the frame has instructions for photo shop users. But I, unfortunately, don't have photo shop. I do however have another photo editing program I use that I downloaded for FREE(!) from here. It may not be as fancy as photo shop, but I like the price much better! So, with this program I went into the editor button, picked my picture from the left sidebar, clicked on the filter button and picked region option. In this area, click on the grayscale and try to get the circle right around your letter. I had to go back a few times to make sure most of the photo was grayscale by reversing the area and filling in some colored spots. If you are going to try this and need more help or explanation, contact me and I'll try to help you get 'r done!

SO, there you go! You now have about 357 days to get this done in time for Father's Day 2011.

Good luck! And have fun!

Calorie-Free Cupcakes!

I went to my monthly cake club (SAGNFL) meeting last night and learned how to make the cutest little cupcakes! And guess what!? They are calorie-free, but they probably don't taste very good either. Wanna see?
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Don't you just love it? We also learned how to make another kind, but I don't have a finished one to show you...yet! But there is a video if you want to see how these gorgeous things are made that show both cupcake styles (Yummy and Delicious-love these names)! If you want to make one yourself, you'll have to buy the template (which does include both cupcake styles)...but at $5.99, it's a pretty good deal considering you can use it as much as you want! It is also a fun and easy project that kids will have a ball with! Or you can use it to make as favors by including some hidden candy, chocolate, or other little goody inside! The possibilites are endless...and calorie-free!

Enjoy!

Wishful Thinking

I must be a little behind...I am just now learning of something called the Silhouette. It is like the cricut machines, used for cutting vinyl, paper, glass etching, etc. It looks amazing, but also has a nice big price tag like the cricut. So, if you don't have the money, but would like the chance to get one, check out the giveaway here.

Good luck to you all! Now, I'm off to bed and will be dreaming about all the projects I can do if I win this machine. Good night!

Pop for Pop

My dad has always had a fondness for popcorn, whether it was stove top popped, microwave popped, store bought, etc. Thus leading to this year's Father's Day theme...a popcorn party. And of course, I had to make a cake for the party, popcorn and all! So I revved up Blue and made the german chocolate cake batter. I divided the batter between the bottom of the giant cupcake pan and a 12 cup cupcake/muffin pan.

As the cake and cupcakes were baking, I starting making the "popcorn". I cut an "x" into the top of marshmallows (using clean scissors), placing them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. I also left some plain, uncut marshmallows. When I had the tray full, I sprayed them with the yellow Wilton Color Mist food color spray.

After that I mixed a little tequila with brown food color gel and used a paintbrush (only used for cakes) to dab some brown in the middle of various pieces. I iced my cupcakes and added some "popcorn".

I iced the cake then wrapped it with wax paper, then scrapbook paper and added a "Dad's Popcorn" sign. I cut and shaped wires and added them to a wax paper-wrapped board and put the board on top of the cake. For the finishing touch, I added the rest of the popcorn to the bucket. There you have it...delicious, buttery popcorn!

We all had a fun Father's Day! Hope you all did too! Check back soon for the Father's Day crafts I made for my dad and hubby!

Happy Father's Day

Just posting real quick before I head out to visit my Dad!

More to come tomorrow! Hope all you dads out there have a wonderful day!

Ice, Ice, Baby!

I brought my new baby home yesterday. She is so beautiful! I named her Blue and was so excited to put her to work! Here she is in action...



That's right, I have now joined the league of Kitchenaid users!



When I woke up this morning, I thought I had dreamed that I got one last night. But when I walked into the kitchen, she was just sitting there, gleaming at me! She's so pretty, I just can't stop staring!

Oprah's Cake-Off

I was flipping through the channels last night and caught a glimpse of some famous cakers...and seeing as I don't have cable, and therefore don't get to ever watch the cake shows, I had to stop flipping! It turned out Oprah was having a Cake-Off. The contenders were (1)Marina Sousa, (2)Duff Goldman, and (3)The Cake Girls. And here are their cakes:




I was pretty excited about watching this until it was over shortly after it started. The contestants were basically announced, allowed to show and tell their cake, and then hear which cake the audience liked best. Then it was over. I hadn't heard O's show was about reality TV, and not just cakes. Booooo! A whole 10 minutes of cake reality TV. Better than nothing, I guess!

Onto the creators!

Marina Sousa created "an O cake", as Oprah stated. It was a multi-tiered masterpiece with thousands of handmade sugar beads, flowers, inspirational quotes from Oprah and lots of "O"s, including a large, sparkly, spinning one on top. It really was a sight to see!

Duff Goldman was the oddball out here, and created a non-Oprah cake. But, in my opinion, it was still awesome! His pie in the sky cake weighed an impressive 170 pounds, with ice cream and a cherry bomb to top it off!

The Cake Girls (Mary and Brenda Maher) created a huge Oprah mosaic made from about 5,000 fondant circles, which had faces drawn (or printed?) on them. Then they made other pieces which were important to Oprah and Chicago, like a book for her book club, a plaque for the Oprah Angel Network, and so much more!

And the winner was....The Cake Girls! Not my first choice, but nicely done anyhow.



Did you watch the show? Which cake is your favorite?

*Update* After searching the web, I found out this is a rerun from October. So, if you already saw/read about it, sorry! But it's new to me and I was excited!

Countdown to Summer

Since summer is only a week away, I thought I'd remind myself of the beautiful things spring has sprung...flowers! Not the one's made by mother nature, but the sweet, sugary ones, made by...me (excluding the Nicholas Lodge ones)! Now, these may not be as beautiful as the originals (in my defense, these were all made B.N. (Before Nic), but I had fun making them anyway!


Carnations





Daisies




And A Colorful Spring Combo



Hope you all enjoyed your spring, and have even more fun in the summer!