Strawberry Shortcake Cake

My little girl turned 3 in August and wanted nothing more than a Strawberry Shortcake Party.

I decided to try a Topsy Turvy Cake for the first time.
This made WAY too much cake for just 9 mouths. It ended up being part of their take home goodie bag.

I had totally planned to take pictures throughout the process, but didn't do too good of a job. One day I will actually do a tutorial of something on this blog. Hopefully that day is soon...

If you really want to know how to make a Topsy Turvy cake just google it and you'll find a few different versions of how to do one.

However, I do have a couple of tips that will make cake making easier.

First tip...to make your cakes not stick to the pan trace your pan onto 2 layers of paper towels. Cut it out, stick that in the bottom of your pan and pour your batter directly onto the paper towel. You don't have to grease the sides or anything and it will come out great! Just be sure to run a knife around the outside edge before taking it out.Simply peel the paper towel off the bottom and you've done it.
(Thanks to my friend Nicci who taught me that trick.)
Another tip I have learned is to freeze or refrigerate your cakes after wrapping them in seran wrap.This makes them not so crumbly and it's easier to cut and shape, especially for a cake like this one.

The last tip to remember when making a Topsy Turvy Cake...
don't eat all of the parts that you have to cut off, because you won't want cake for a month.

Mod Podged Lunch Box

My daughter has started Kindergarten!!!
Unbelievable how time flies!
She has to take a snack every day so I was on the hunt for a snack box. We had a couple of these from our days at Busch Gardens, but they were a little too "Busch Gardensy."Decided Mod Podge usually fixes anything.I removed the sticker (which came off surprisingly easy), traced it on my pretty paper and Mod Podged away. I cut out her name on my Cricut and Mod Podged some more.We don't have to worry about someone else walking away with her snack box at least.

Luau Birthday Party

My daughter turned 5 and wanted a Luau Party.
So here's the cake!
This was the first time for me to work with gumpaste. If you're wanting a homemade recipe, THIS is a great one.
I also learned a great secret...how to make buttercream frosting smooth (I don't like the taste of fondant very much).
Frost your cake, let it set until it kind of has that crusty feel. Then lay a paper towel on your cake and rub it gently in circles with your fingers or something flat.
It will eventually be smooth!
Love it!

Sidenote: I didn't really want to invest in gumpaste "tools" so I used a real leaf to vein my hibiscus leaves. I think it worked just fine.

I didn't take pictures of any other decorations...because there weren't really any.

I did put some grass skirt stuff around the tables, but we were at the beach so we used that as our decor.
Here are some other things we did that made it fun:

*The kids drank out of coconut cups with flamingo straws.
*We all got leis.
*For Dinner - shrimp, meatball, chicken & veggie skewers, fruit skewers, and other picnic foods.
*For Party favors - the coconut cups and a little bag of chocolate seashells I made.
*And then playing on the playground and beach.

A luau theme is always fun to do.

Curtains & Handprints

I am getting so close to finishing my girl's hot pink & zebra room!

I finally made their curtains. This really makes the room look complete, and actually isn't very encouraging to make their bedspreads like I thought it would be.
I guess it makes the room look so complete I don't think you would even notice their beds. How often are they really made anyways?! Maybe that will be my motivation. They will learn to make their beds every morning if I make these bedspreads...

And I also finished a project we started a year ago. Using leftover plaster from another project we did these handprints. Little did I know how I would treasure these.
I put the date that we made them on the bottom because this was the day I got the call that my dad had passed away. So it's a nice little thing to have hanging in their room.

I used a pie plate to hold the plaster while they pressed their hands and it dried.
A year later, I spray painted them black and then painted in the rest with a brush (not necessary to wait the year to paint).
I had to do something with them other than the plain ol' handprints.

Now about those bedspreads...

Maybe I'll Call It "Deal of the Month"

Ok, so I didn't stick with doing a "Deal of the Week."
Oops. Guess I didn't find anything that stood out since June.

But I did just get back from Walgreens and got 9 cent folders (with brads). Surely that counts.

There are too many good deals to mention if you coupon like a crazy person. So I'll just mention good deals when I get one. :)

Deal of the Week

I'm always so happy when a friend tells me about a great deal she got. So I thought I would start the "Deal of the Week." Each week I'm going to start posting something I found that I think is a great deal. Hopefully you can take advantage of it also.

Soooo, this week it would have to be this breadat the Dollar Tree!
Normally I believe these are about $3-$4 a loaf!

They had a limit of 4 per customer, so I got 4 and put them in the freezer until I need them. Great thing is that they taste just the same when thawed.
They may or may not have these at your store, but if you're there you might as well look, right?!

Moss Baskets

For Easter I made these cute little baskets for my girls like the one Disney from Ruffles & Stuff made. I couldn't have been happier about how they turned out.

Then I had a dream for this little 25 cent basket I found at a garage sale...
I thought this same moss technique would be cute. But it's just not what I thought it would be.
I liked it better on the Easter baskets.
Maybe if I find the perfect pretty flowers to put in it, that will change how much I like it?

We'll see how that goes.

Pretty Pedals w/o Sewing

My crafty friend I mentioned earlier started obsessing about making all of these different flowers we've been seeing in blogland. I'm so glad she did! I've been wanting to make some, but didn't know if they would really turn out cute.

They ARE so cute though!
I'm putting a note on how to make them under each picture.

She made these...Take a thin piece of material and twist it. Start curling the twisted material around itself and hot glue it as you go. Add a little jewel in the middle and attach all three flowers to a piece of felt and then to a clip of choice.

Use a strip of material folded in half longwise and hotglued on the open edge. Start in the center of the flower and fold over the material until it looks like this. :)

and I copied ones she had already made and did these...
Use a strip of material (about 10-12"). Fold lengthwise and hot glue open end. Start rolling from the middle. Gather and scrunch around and around...hot glue as you go. Make 3 flowers and attach to a felt circle.

Cut different sizes of circles and burn edges. Hot glue the layers together in the center of each circle. Add a jewel and clip on the back.

I love how feminine they are. I put them all on alligator clips so I can attach them to headbands or crocheted hats or whatever else I want to put them on.

She also made some flowers out of zippers...I'll have to get a picture. Then I'm going to make some!

Pretty Wipie Case

My wonderful crafty friend gave me a wipie case she had prettied up. It was so cute I had to make one for another friend. This is how mine ended up looking.
Easy peasy...cover the top and bottom with batting (or if you don't have any on hand, but still want to make it, like me, use polyfil). Cover it with the material and add ribbon all around the edge. You'll hot glue everything down. It's easiest if you make a pattern to use to cut out your batting and material pieces.

Now my inventive friend is having crazy cute ideas for other wipie cases. I'll share when she does them.

Another Baby Cake

I had the chance to make my baby cake again. I love making this little guy (or girl)!
If you're wondering how it's done, it's pretty simple.

I used the Wilton Stand Up Bear Pan Set.
After baking & cooling, you cut off the ears and muzzle part around the little pug nose. After cutting down the ears some, you replace them on the sides of the head with toothpicks.

I also cut half of the arm off that I'm putting on top of the bottle. You have to cut out underneath the bottle so it doesn't stick out away from the body too. If you want to use a rattle or other baby object, you probably won't have to cut out the body.

Then it's onto piping the baby. This time I did the diaper smooth. A trick from a friendly Wilton magazine...you can smooth the icing by dipping your finger in cornstarch and tapping lightly on the frosting.

You can also make the bear into a little girl or boy or even a graduate.

Not that I've done it, but I might have to try.

German Chocolate Cake

My hubby had a birthday and I got to make him one of his favorite cakes...German Chocolate. But I thought this time instead of buying a boxed chocolate cake and the little cans of German Chocolate frosting, I would do everything from scratch.

I call these ugly cakes because they don't look like my pretty decorated ones, but my hubby always says they taste a lot better.
It was a labor of love for sure. I don't really like this kind of cake, so it's only worth it because he loves it so much.

I found a recipe at allrecipes.com that people raved about and went from there.

Some tips for this recipe:
*double the frosting if you want enough to do the sides and plenty in between the layers.
*toast the coconut & pecans
*let the frosting totally cool - I refrigerated mine

If you're a German Chocolate Cake fan, you should love this one...my husband devoured it.

Picture Frame & Matte Redo

I had this frame and matte that I wanted to match the rest of my hallway frames. So, yes, I broke out the spray paint.I actually spray painted the matte too. The outside white, it was kind of a beige with swirly things, and the inner part I painted black with a brush because it's not a separate matte.
It turned out great to me. Just what I wanted.

Impatience Turns Good

I was wanting to hang my girls' pictures in their room, but had to spray paint the frames first.

I got impatient and couldn't wait until it warmed up anymore.
It was about 40 degrees outside and when I spray painted the frames the paint kind of did this crackling effect. At first I was mad I didn't hold off, but then decided to go ahead and finish them. It turned out great. They kind of have this leather look to them now. I like it.It's hard to tell in these pictures. One reason is that I have been using my old (8 years old to be exact) camera because my newer one went crazy. But now, I can produce some much better photos...I just got a new one today! Yay!

Framed Bow Holder

Have you ever broken something and just wanted to scream?!
I had spray painted a frame and was putting the glass back in and it busted!
I wasn't too happy, but found something else to do with it.

I spray painted it again...to brown this time. Then I hot glued ribbon in the back from top to bottom. And done.
I now have more room to hang bows for my little girlies. My other bow hanger was getting cramped and I didn't want to add any length to the ribbon that already existed.

I'm getting ready to make some more bows for my girls, so I will need all of this space soon. I am going to have 3 girls, so it'll be ok for the bathroom to be decorated in bows, right?

Baby Carrier Cover

After 2 babies you realize it's the little things that help out.

I got so tired of pulling up the blankets over the carrier. They would continually fall off or slip down. I always liked covering the carrier when it was cold outside or they were sleeping.

This simple solution will be wonderful in about two weeks!
I bought a yard of fabric and found some old fabric in my closet for the back side of the blanket. I rounded the corners and sewed right sides together like a pillow.

I top stitched around the whole blanket. Then added these little straps with some velcro.
Pretty simple process with great rewards in my future. :)

Now why didn't I think of this about 5 years ago...or at least found someone who had thought of it, like this lady. Thanks for the inspiration.

For more great inspiration, check out Twice Remembered today where everyone is sharing their projects.

Plastic Storage Updo

I bought this little storage container for all of my girls' hair stuff. We have a limited amount of storage (the story of my life right now) in our bathrooms. When I saw this on sale for a few bucks, it just made sense.

But I didn't like that you could see everything inside it. So Mod Podge it was. I saw what looks to be the identical little storage thing done here.
Now I think I might take out the drawers and spray paint it brown, wouldn't that make it cute? Especially since it's a cream colored paper.
And then buy one more and do it all over again. :)

Bread Box Redo

I found this lovely bread box at the Thrift Store the other day. Passed it up because I really didn't want to pay $5 for it, but went back the next day because I was afraid it would be gone quick. It's the only one I've ever seen there soooo...now it's mine, all mine.

I can't believe this was in style at one point. I'm sure I'll be saying that about my own stuff sometime in the future.

So after some black spray paint, I used my Cricut to cut out some pretty shapes that I Mod Podged on.
I never thought to use a bread box in my space-hindering apartment until I saw this posted on Mod Podge Rocks. Then I figured I could find a bread box cheap to redo also.

I don't have to use my girls' baby basket any longer.
The top of my fridge looks much much better. Thanks ladies for the great idea!