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.