Some more crafting this week

This week has been very busy once again by way of crafting. We have a special visitor coming over and he has two lovely children (boy and girl) I was able to buy something unique for the boy but struggled for the girl so decided to make this reversable pinafore dress. My very 1st reversable dress I might add. I used some lovely Ikea fabric on one side with polka dot binding around the hem. Even the button holes went smoothly this time, I was pertified I'd stuff it up.

On the reverse side is Michael Miller red check with an applique M in lime green. The dress is not perfect (I need to practice keeping my hand steady and be a bit neater when I sew) but it fitted perfectly (actually looks better in real life, in the photo it looks a bit big).

I also made some matching flag bunting out of some fabric scraps. I love the colour combo.

Anyway, enough sewing for now, I must get back to finishing the fondant cake toppers for Annike's birthday cake, only 2 weeks left to go, yikes!

Baby box for Kaleb

Yes its baby time again, lots of babies being born amongst my friends and this is a box I've just completed for baby Kaleb. I used fabric from Wendy Slotboom from her lilypad range which had cute little frogs on it.

Handmade fabric bunting in Wendy Slotboom fabric to match the rest of the gifts.

Cute baby canvas with hand sewn fabric frog applique

Handmade fabric babywipes

One of three T-shirts that was dressed up with some fabric applique.

It started with an invitation

My daughter Annike's 5th birthday is fast approaching but we decided NO PARTY this year! Well I decided no party, Annike had other ideas and has been quietly but persistently been whitling away at my resistance on why she WILL be having a party this year and yes its a good idea to invite lots of friends with a lovely big cake to boot. I compromised, only 6 friends and it will be a BBQ outdoors, no decorations/balloons and NO stress on my part. Yeah right, its already started with some lovely handmade invites for her 7 friends (she managed to sneak an extra friend onto the guest list) which were handed out yesterday. In keeping with the casual/outdoor theme, I was thinking lovely sunny weather (a lottery when you live in Melbourne), homemade lemonade, lots of fruit and picnic blankets.

I found some lovely Tanya Whelan & Cath Kidston fabric and made these adorable envelopes from this website SKEBBA its actually quite simple to make. The name and stamp for each person was printed on some A4 canvas (bought from the $2 shop) and cut out using my scrapbook scissors and then sewed onto each envelope.

The invitation itself was just a simple white broderie anglaise blank card (from the Martha Stewart range) onto which I printed a black and white sketch of some mice playing in the garden with toadstools, which I snitched off the web (hence not showing a photo, incase I get sued lol) The party details were printed inside, easy peasy.

Now I am pondering on what cake to make ;-) and I have paper lanterns, vintage bunting and gingham checks floating in my head, very much like a picnic of yesteryear. But its going to be simple...........with no stress!

How to make a fondant horse

My friend Nat (Dec 04 group) wants to have a pony party for her daughter's 5th birthday this year and was going to google how to make a fondant horse. Well I googled and there are no instructions for a horse. Sheep, mouse, pig and cow yes, horse, nup, so I wipped up this little guy this afternoon to show Nat some of the basics. Hopefully I've explained it properly. Firstly I use Orchard ready made fondant from the supermarket as homemade fondant is too sticky to sculpt with. You'll also need some brown colouring paste (not liquid) I've bought the Wilton brand, a kebab stick, piping tip, paint brush and ball tool.

Split your fondant into 6 balls, 1 large one for the body, a smaller one for the head, two for the legs and 2 for the arms. I've put a dessert spoon next to the balls to show scale. This topper will fit nicely on a 18cm/7 inch round cake.

Roll your legs into two sausage type shapes and use a sharp knife to mark the hooves. You could make a horseshoe out of grey fondant for each leg but I was feeling lazy.

Using your clean paintbrush and some water attach the legs to the body. The trick is not to handle the body parts too much or they loose their shape.

Do the same for the arms, attach to the body with a bit of water and stick a toothpick or a piece of raw spaghetti into the body to act as a support for the head.

Next cut a piece of white fondant with the back end of a piping tip and shape it into the snout of the horse. Attach with a bit of water and use the back of the piping tip to form its mouth. Use a kebab stick to make its mouth if you want the horse to look surprised.

Now use the kebab stick to make two holes in the horses snout to represent the nostrils.

Break off two small pieces of brown fondant and shape into cones. Flatten the cones with a ball tool on one end and squeeze the pointy tip to form the ears. Attach to head with a bit of water.

Take a few bits of fondant, make into thin sausages by rolling between your fingers to represent horse mane. Trim to fit the horses head and attach using some water. Use a toothpick to gently seperate the hair and position it on the head. Tweezers also is a good tool for this.

Viola, a sitting horse (easiest postion to make, and easiest postion to move without breaking) Leave to dry for about 48hrs, do not touch or move it while drying or it will loose its shape.

Wedding of the year

Well Selina and Brad's wedding is over and I can have a little rest. Phew, what a busy week its been, baking, icing, sewing and more baking. Here is the lovely dress I got to wear on the big day, I was very pleased with how it turned out. My gorgeous dress was bought new from Ebay, Max Azria silk chiffon gown which I upstyled with vintage lace straps, mauve braid around the bustline and mauve and pink crystal beads and pearls on the bodice. It gave the dress a more vintage look to suit the wedding.

Close up of the mini cupcakes I baked. The mini cupcakes were vanilla sponge topped with white vanilla butter cream or cherry cream and topped off with a pink sugar rose, silver caucau and edible gitter.

Selina sent me some unpainted wooden dolls she had bought from Etsy and I used some Jo Sonja paint to re-create her lovely family. This cake topper was to go on the main wedding cake. Aren't they cute? If you aren't artistic or just plain lazy you can actually buy a custom made set from Etsy, but since we were on a budget and since I am not afraid of painting I decided to do them for her.

Here is the strawberry fondant with white choc hearts I made for the lolly buffet. I bought some mini heart silicon pans from a baking shop and first poured in the fondant, let it set and then poured over the cooled white chocolate. They were yummy!

100 minu cupcakes, they lasted all of 5 minutes lol

I apologise that the photo's are all over the place, still haven't worked out how to upload them in the order I want them to appear on my blog.

The completed wedding cake, triple layer caramel mudcake with vanilla butter cream icing topped with the wooden toppers and standing on a vintage crystal cake stand. I am a bit tired of caramel mud ;-) must bake something different next time.

Close up pic of my lovely dress, the flower and ribbon is actually a brooch that you can remove.

Selina's kitchen tea

So this is what little ole-me has been up to this week! I've been one very busy bee. I was invited to a friend's kitchen tea this afternoon and when I saw her lovely pink boxed invite I just knew I had to get her something equally special to celebrate her upcoming wedding. Since I will be making her main wedding cake next month I thought I'd give Selina a small tester cake to try out today so she could not only see what the cake would look like but also how it would taste. Ofcourse I just couldn't give her an undecorated cake ;-) so that was my excuse to whip up a lovely pink "camelia". Well it was meant to be a peony, but since I did not have a peony petal cutter I used my rose cutters instead and came up with this funny flower. Funny thing is I used a golf ball in the middle so the petals would keep their shape while drying and by George did I have a hard time removing the bugger after I was done! The cake is a simple caramel mudcake iced in vanilla butter cream icing. Cake stand made by me using crystals, lace and fabric getting my inspiration from the Marth Stewart website. Have a peek, its very easy to make. Funny thing is that I matched Selina's kitchen tea decor so closely its scary, like we read eachother's minds lol

Next was Selina's pressie, she wanted bedlinen or lingerie/sleepwear but after much searching everything looked either skanky, smutty or cheap. Well out came my trusty sewing machine and a visit to Lincraft where they had lovely satin and lace on sale and I whipped up my very 1st nighty. The picture is a bit crappy, as it looked really lovely in real life (and fitted!) and best of all it wasn't too hard to make. Even the husband was surprised I managed to make it myself and couldn't believe how lovely and luxurious it looked. I even had time to whip up some sleeping shorts in some Sandi Henderson fabric I had lying around but ran out of time when I wanted to make a matching top and knickers (next time!). This was all boxed in a matching (what else (rolls eyes)) pink box and ribbon. Hope Selina likes it.

Yummy vanilla sponge cuppies

So the girls begged me to make them some dessert last night and the suggestion of cupcakes were met with squeels of delight. I've made these vanilla butter cream cupcakes before but wanted to try and make some cupcake wrappers. Yes you can buy them from Paper Orchard but at $1 per cupcake wrapper I thought that was a bit steep. These ones were made from large Paper Doilies and were really easy to make, you just need some scissors and glue and viola a very pretty looking wrapper. These wrappers are all the rage now at weddings, I'll try and make some more next time out of Christina Re paper and use one of her filigree cutters, I LOVE her range.

So the recipe for these cupcakes are

125g butter softened

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1.5 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup milk

Make sure everything is at room temp before you begin.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and line your cupcake pan with cupcake cases.

Beat eggs till nice and pale yellow and fluffy then in a seperate bowl cream the butter, essence and sugar till almost white and creamy.

Add beaten eggs to your butter/sugar mixture and gently stir till combined, don't overbeat.

Sift in flour and add milk, gently combining into mixture, use a wooden spoon, or spatula. Devide mixture (about 2 tablespoons of mixture) into each case and pop in the oven for 18 min (I have a non fan forced gas oven). Its about 12-15 min baking time if you have a fanforced oven. Let it cool in the pan for 5 min then remove.