A Mary Poppins Carousel Cake

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Jennifer

Several months ago Caroline had a Mary Poppins birthday party.

So for a Mary Poppins party we had to have the proper hat...

play a bean bag M.P. toss game…

ride wooden “carousel” horses…

play pin the bow tie on the penguin…

play in the cardboard chimneys…

and have a Mary Poppins cake.

I started out this cake as I do all cakes – from a box mix.

Frost the cake and set aside.

To create the carousel, I used cake dividers (not sure of their official name but they are placed in between cakes with multiple layers) and ribbon.

First, I attached the bottom of a piece of ribbon with hot glue.

I continued to do this until I had gone completely around the circle.

I then glued another cake divider onto the bottom in order to cover up with glued bottoms.

I then glued a piece of ribbon along the side in order to cover up the opening between the circles.

Next, I glued a candy stick wrapped in ribbon to the center of the top circle.

I then took each ribbon individually and glued it to the center post (candy stick).

I topped the whole thing off with a little white pom pom.

I then attached the “legs” to the structure.

The legs are candy sticks wrapped in ribbon.

For the horses I found a picture online that I liked and printed it out on card stock.

I then cut out the horse and glued it to yet another candy stick.

Three horses late and the cake was done.

Caroline seemed to like it although it’s honestly not one of my better cakes.

Now that she is about to be three and half I’ve finally shared everything from her party.

And if you had any doubt about next years party, Caroline started talking about it roughly 10 seconds after her last guest left.

Kids Work Spaces

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Jennifer

I’ve been looking at tons of desks for kids on pinterest and have found some beautiful work spaces.

My helpful crafting hint for the day is that you simply do a google search for “pinterest + kids desks” and you will find tons of examples. Or type in, “pinterest + printables,” and you will get loads of boards with printables.

Here are several kid desks that caught my eye.

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How fun would that wallpaper/doodle art be in a room?

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Ummm…YES PLEASE! Love the bright colors!

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Love the art wall and the organized art desk

The wall reminds me of the art wall in our house

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The empty frames here just invite creativity but I would have to move this wallpaper to an area where the kids wouldn’t have to climb on the desk to use it.

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This desk is brilliant for a small space – it folds up!

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Nice use of an odd space

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IKEA to the rescue again!

Looking at these inspiring work spaces makes me think I might be painting some walls white in the boys room.

Shhhh!

Don’t tell my husband because he would freak out if he knew.

Felt Garland

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Jennifer

For my sister’s baby shower I created 2 felt garlands to help spread the colors around the room. It was my first time to create these but it certainly won’t be my last.

Since turquoise and hot pink were the colors of the shower I used those but also added a bit of yellow and white to make it more interesting. All of the felt (except for the turquoise) was the hard felt that is not floppy.

I grabbed 3 spice jars from the pantry and traced their tops in order to create circles. I used 3 different size circles for this garland.

I then cut out my circles and sewed them together with my machine. Sewing them together was by far the easiest part of this project.

Here’s one of the garlands at the shower (my sister is preparing for major renovations so hence the paint samples everywhere).

I really loved these and think they would be so fun across a nursery, a play room, or even a classroom. I’ll definitely be making a few more for different occasions.

For the shower’s food flags, go here.

For additional photos of the shower, go here.

Food Flags

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Jennifer

For my sister’s baby shower we decided on the colors of hot pink and turquoise. Our theme of the event was “What will the baby be?” or “?” since Amanda is choosing to wait to find out if she’s having a boy or a girl.

One of the items I made for the shower were food flags.

I didn’t actually get any pictures of them at the shower but I dressed up our breakfast to show you what they looked like.

I started with a piece of card stock which I printed various lines onto it.

Click here in order to download this form.

Next I cut the paper into strips of the same size.

I then took a paper strip and a tooth pick and glued them together by placing some hot glue onto the paper and folding the strip together.

Finally. I used my scissors to cut the strip into a triangular shape.

And voila – stripped food flags!

In addition to the striped flags, I also made solid colored flags using some of the material I used in other baby shower projects.

I’ve never used food flags before but definitely will in the future since I think they added just an extra detail to the food table.

(For my 1st post about this baby shower click here.)

I’m Back

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Jennifer

I’ve been missing from here for the last several days since I was furiously preparing for my sister Amanda’s baby shower.

I was in charge of decorations so I’ll be sure to share that with you soon.

I left on Thursday night and flew back on the 7:20 am flight on Sunday. Early flights always seem like a good idea until the night before.

So I’m tired and plan on settling into bed early but I wanted to leave you with a few shots from the weekend.

and what did my baby prediction test say the little one will be?

though most people still believe it’s a little boy 🙂

Hope you are having a wonderful Monday 🙂

Wonder Woman Crown

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Jennifer

So the Wonder Woman crown and cuffs are done.

I’m pretty sure Linda Carter would be impressed.

So far they have made an appearance at the grocery store, the shopping mall, and swim practice.

They were quite simple to make so I thought I’d show you.

First, draw the crown shape you desire on a folded piece of paper.

Once you are happy with the shape, cut it out and you have the front shape of the crown.

Measure your child’s head and figure out how much more paper you need to add to the sides. It’s important that you leave about 2-3 inches in the back free (you will be putting elastic back there eventually).

Cut out 2 crown shapes – one a little bit larger than the other.

Find an old red t-shirt and cut out one star from the fabric.

Sew the red star onto the crown that you would like to be in the front.

Sew the crowns together inside out first. Remember to leave a little opening to pull your fabric through.

Pull the fabric through so that the outside fabric is now on the outside.

Place a little bit of stuffing into the crown.

Sew on a large piece of elastic on the back of the crown.

(In the picture you can see that I used 2 smaller elastic pieces. If I make another crown like this I will use thicker elastic – less things for little hands to pull on).

Connect the 2 sides of the crown by hand sewing the elastic to the second side.

Have your very own Wonder Woman model the final product.

(I forgot to take a picture of the cuffs but trust me when I say there is lots of posing going on when they are worn).

Caroline loved her crown so much she insisted on putting it in her bed the first night.

Now onto finding some Wonder Woman boots – in a teeny tiny size.

A Fart Cake

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Jennifer

Two years ago my son had a bowling party so naturally I thought I would make a bowling cake.

Instead, I made a fart cake.

When asked what kind of cake he wanted me to make in true little boy humor he declared, “I want a fart cake.”

So I pondered. And pondered. And pondered.

And finally we came up with this… A Bowling Fart Cake…

Where’s the fart part you ask?

Take a close look at Alex’s rear end…

The green fart smell than inundates poor Andrew who is sitting at the back of the lane.

Earlier in the day we took pictures of the boys, shrunk them, and used them on the cake.

Add in a bowling bowl and chair made out of fondant, two signs printed out, and your fart cake is all done.

Trust me when I say this cake was a huge hit with eight year olds.

Oh, and the cake tasted great, I decided not to take the theme too far 🙂

Guest Post : Survival Bracelets!

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Jennifer

My good friend Melissa and her husband Ryan surprised me with a guest post – yes, people, my friend wrote a guest post out of the kindness of her heart. Or maybe she noticed the quality of my posts slipping and wanted to remedy the situation. Either way, enjoy a little humor and craftiness from my dear friend Melissa as she writes about making a birthday present for my son…

Thank you Melissa and Ryan! Andrew loved his bracelet and was super impressed his friend Alex made it.

If you would like more instructions on making survival bracelets go here.

Easter Mess

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Jennifer

Two days ago we had tornadoes come through the Dallas Metroplex.

Around 2:00 the sky started to look ominous. My oldest was home sick so I went to see if I could get my six year old out of school a little early. I was told the school was on lock down due to the tornado threats; no children were being released. I went back home and watched the news coverage for the next hour, all the while listening to our city’s tornado sirens. I knew my six year old was safe in the school but it was quite nerve racking to not have him in my sight during this time.

Roughly an hour after school should have let out, the school starting releasing students. I picked up my son who enthusiastically told of being stuck in the teacher’s bathroom for an hour with his class. (In my mind, his teacher should receive Teacher of the Year for being in a bathroom for an hour with twenty-two kindergarteners – can you even imagine?)

So… because of the storm…our night activities were cancelled…so….we were able to do two Easter “crafts.”

First off, dying Easter eggs (and yes, Caroline does not have clothes on, it’s cleaner this way for everyone).

Notice the fingers…that’s what happens when your technique for dying the eggs is completely hands on.

Once the eggs were dried, it was time to decorate with stickers.

Just because it was time didn’t mean it actually occurred.

Apparently, peeling your eggs was more fun (I’m looking at it from the perspective that it was a scientific learning experience).

My six year old said, “Oh yuck! These smell like rotten cheese! No, wait. They smell like rotten ham!”

Just for the record, he has never been served either one of those options.

For our second craft of the night, I thought it would be fun to create some No Bake Chocolate Egg Nests which I saw on the Chef in Training blog.

This is what we were going for…

but this is what we ended up with…

but we sure had fun making them…

although I’m not sure if anyone but Mom really completed any nests…

since they were too busy “cleaning up.”

Easter Mess

=’s

Easter Fun

Star Wars Art: The Final Chapter

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Jennifer

So I have shared most of the room my boys shared but I left out one key ingredient – the large wall art.

The boys found images of their favorite Star Wars vehicles in a book and I copied them onto paper. I then used the tracer to trace the image onto the painted canvas. I then took navy blue paint and painted inside the image. Relatively easy – good thing since they wanted me to make eight of them.

Here’s my favorite – an AT-AT – that’s All Terrain Armored Transport for you Star Wars novices.