Baby cot mobile gift set - Project 1

This week, one of three projects I had going was this lovely gift set for a friends baby girl (Audrey) born on the 18th March, 5.5 pounds. The birdie mobile was part of the gift set, I love how it turned out in the end. I had a clear idea of what it was supposed to look like, and thrilled I managed to do it. The birdie pattern I used came from SKIP TO MY LOU, its so cute. I used some felt and fabric scraps I had lying around in shades of pink, blue, red and cream to create the birds. An embroidery hoop was used as the frame of the mobile and scrap ribbon tied around the frame hid the timber and added some colour and visual interest. Although I stuck to the colour scheme each ribbon has a different width, pattern and colour. The idea for the mobile came from THE RED THREAD blog

I whipped up a taggy blanket with some left over Sandi Henderson fabric and pink minky, stitched a birdie card with some fabric and watercolour paper and made the gift tag with ribbon to hang from the wrapped parcel. I was a bit cash poor but time rich so decided to use some of my fabric and paper stash to make these gifts.

Happy Valentines Day

This is what we made today, Sugar cookies with Royal icing.

Ingredients
4 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
220 grams margarine or butter
2 cups white sugar
2 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine flour, baking powder and salt.
Beat the margarine and sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
Add flour mixture a few tablespoons at a time ; beat until well mixed.
Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
Roll out the dough and cut with favorite cookie cutters.
Place on cookie sheet and bake at 160 degrees for 15 min.

Kindy outfit #2

This is the 2nd outfit I made Imara for Kindy. The tiered skirt is made from Michael Miller Malibu stripe and ta-dot green and Alexander Henry Apples & Pears fabric. Red T-shirt is from Cotton on Kids and hand appliqued fruit to match the skirt. I'd love to buy another pair of these canvas shoes, so I can try some sequence and fabric paint I have a-la Lelli Kelly style.

Ring-a-ring-a-rosie......

Last week my cake decorating classes started back up again. I asked my teacher if I could please learn how to make roses as I've attempted them before in the past and they were very clunky not to mention ugly. Well I learned my 1st mistake (out of many lol) was that I used the wrong fondant, instead of using the store bought Orchard icing I SHOULD have used either modelling paste or flower paste (derrrr Leoni) So after a bit of practice (rolling out the paste VERY thinly) and a few boo-boo's I made the above roses. Not bad for a 1st attempt, quite proud of the result, I was told by my teacher the more I make the better I'll get, so I better keep practicing ;-)

First day at Kindy

Yesterday was my 3rd daughter, Imara's 1st day at Kindy. Ofcourse I just had to make her a special kindy outfit and here it is. I've never made a tiered dress before and have to admit it WAS a bit tricky at first but once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy. I followed Sandi Henderson's Gracie pattern for the skirt part of the dress, while the top part of the dress was made using an old dress (I traced an old dress and then used the pattern). Fabric used was some scraps I had lying around, Sandi Henderson stripe and cherry fabric, Tanya Whelan pink polka dot fabric and Alexander Henry apples and pears fabric. I was quite pleased on how it turned out. I also made a tiered skirt from scraps and will do a post on the weekend, after Imara has had a chance to wear it.

Happy 3rd birthday sweet Imara

Yesterday was my daughter's 3rd birthday and the theme this year was Mermaids. Imara loves mermaids and asked if I could please make her a mermaid cake. I made the tiered skirt she is wearing above out of Michael Miller Sea beauties and malibu stripe fabric. The pattern is from Sandi Henderson's Gracie range.

Here is the lovely and ultra yummy birthday cake. This year I tried something new, no more caramel or chocolate mudcake but instead I baked a strawberry jelly cake with vanilla and strawberry buttercream icing. I can't believe how scrummy this cake ended up being, its nearly all finished and it was super duper easy to make.

RECIPE (from the BestRecipes.com.au website, slightly altered)

1 x 600g box of vanilla cake mix (I used Betty Crocker vanilla cake)

1 x 85g packet strawberry jelly

1 punnet strawberries, pureed

4 large eggs

120 ml vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

1 tsp strawberry extract/essence

ICING

3 level Tblsp margarine

500 g icing sugar

1 tsp strawberry extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

a few drops of milk to smoothen the consistency of the icing

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius (mine is non fanforced gas oven). Line and grease a 12 cup capacity dolly varden cake tin.

Beat eggs in a large bowl till light and fluffy, then add cake mix, jelly crystals, pureed strawberries oil and water (I also added 3 extra tablespoons of maragarine to my batter, but you can omit this if you like).

Beat on medium speed untill all ingredients are combined (don't overbeat). Pour into cake pan (about 2/3 up from the rim)

Bake for 63 minutes (they said 45 min, but it wasn't enough time) or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan and then remove and refrigerate (give mudcake texture if you do this). The next day remove from fridge and let it come back to room temperature. The cake produces a lovely moist almost mudcake/banana bread like texture but not as stable as mudcake. I personally wouldn't use this cake if I was to make a novelty cake, which requeres a lot of cutting and shaping.

ICING

For the icing, combine butter, icing sugar and milk and beat on medium speed until the frosting is light and fluffy and pale in colour (almost white). Add colouring and strawberry & vanilla flavouring.

Place some icing on the bottom of the cake and secure to your cakeboard/serving plate. Ice the cake and quickly sprinkle soft brown sugar to represent the sand. If you wait till the frosting is dry/set, the brown sugar will fall off, so make sure the icing is still wet when you sprinkle the brown sugar. Now you can add your cake topper and water effect (I normaly use blue tinted Royal icing) and shark fins.

For the mermaid topper I tinted about 1 cup of Orchard fondant (you are supposed to use modelling or flower paste, but my children do not like the taste) with Wilton copper (use a tiny bit, or the skin will be too dark) I then moulded the body, two arms and a nose.

I then attached the head, arms and nose using sugar glue (bought from cake decorating store) I shaped the hands, adding fingers and added eyes with a kebab stick, the mouth was made using the bottom end of a piping tip. Using a straw, I indented the "scales" on the tail of the mermaid.
The mermaid is then left to dry completely, in this case two weeks, modelling paste dries much quicker and becomes much harder when dried.

Next I shaped a top out of some fondant tinted grass green and added some grooves using a toothpick to look like creases. Stick the top down with some sugar glue and let it dry. I also made some purple flowers out of purple tinted fondant using my blossom cutter and then "glued" it down onto her hands. Let it dry completely. The tail was brushed with edible green chalk (I grated about three different greens and blended the colours using a soft new paint brush) finish off with lustre dust (I used white lustre dust)

Once the mermaid was dry I placed her on the cake and added her fins (green tinted fondant) and hair. For her hair I tinted some fondant brown and used a clay extruder to make her hair. I then added her hair a section at a time (begining at the back of the head, so she wouldn't end up bald!) using sugar glue to stick it down. The reason I did this after she was placed on the cake was so that her hair wouldn't break if I tried to move her, ditto with her fins on her tail.

A gift for Sabrinah

Look at the lovely goodies I made Sabrinah for her up coming 1st birthday. These are felt cupcakes with buttons for cherries and beads for spinkles. I popped them in a cupcake window box complete with polkadot ribbon.

Nat asked me to create this birthday sign for Sabrinah's sweet shoppe party, the idea being that the sign could be kept as a keepsake afterwards. I used mixed media for the canvas, some items like the letter S and writing was painted on, while the cupcake and lollipop was made from felt.