Friday, June 13, 2014

Super dad Father's Day cake tutorial

For Father's Day we wanted to make a superhero themed cake so to begin I made a cake using a 8 x 8 square pan that I usually use for brownies.  It's a two layer cake.  Once they were done baking I stacked the two layers one on top of the other with a layer frosting in between to hold the two together.   What's the two layers were stacked one on top of the other I turned the cake so that it looks like a diamond and cut the top corner off to make that Superman emblem.  Then with blue frosting I went around all the edges.  The one problem I did find is that the edge that I cut off crumbled a bit so I had to put an extra layer of frosting over that just to make sure it stayed smooth. It wasn't the best frosting job but it was good enough.


Once I was done with all the sides, I got some yellow frosting and covered the entire top of the cake making sure that the edges were completely smooth and not overlapping each other. 

The last step in the process is to do the red frosting. I filled a lunch bag with the red frosting, cut a corner off and began to trace around the edges with the red.  To do the letters I found it was best if you do the a first and then do the d's so that you can make sure that your word is centered.  Initially I attempted to do this part with some Wilton red sparkle gel but it began to drip onto the blue sides and it didn't look very good.  Here is what it looked like...
Too bad because I had hoped to have that little sparkle for some extra pizzazz. When I used real frosting it looked so much better! Here's what my final result look like! 

And the side view looks like this...
 I know has been is going to love this cake!!  I can't wait to show it to him on Sunday!! 

Monday, June 9, 2014

Pop can teacher gifts tutorial



I saw this idea a few years back and I don't remember where but I absolutely LOVE this idea!! It's always a teacher favorite and a wow moment as the recipient tries to figure out how you got the goodies into the can. It's actually pretty simple.  You start out by purchasing any 15oz can with a pull top. In my case, I bought fruit cocktails, peaches and madarin oranges because I figured it would be easiest to go through those but it really doesn't matter what the contents are.  We're only going to use the cans.

Step 1: To empty them, open the cans from the bottom instead of using the pop tops.  We want to preserve those.  I use an old fashion can opener and try to keep it attached at the very end just a little.  The newer can openers that cut the lids off on the outside are harder to glue back together. They don't quite fit back in.







Step 2: once your cans are empty, make sure you carefully clean them out and dry them.  Just remember there will be sharp edges. Also, pull the label off at this point.


Step 3: fill the cans about half way with whatever candy you choose.  I used hershey kisses and starbursts.  Then to add some pretty, stuff a little tissue paper to fill the other half.  

Step 4: once your cans are filled, push the can bottom back down and hot glue them shut.  This part won't look pretty but that's ok! No one will even see it!  

Step 4:  use the label from the can as a guide and cut some scrapbook paper the same size.  Wrap the paper around the can.  I hot glued them since I already had the gun warmed up but you could also use tape or gluedots. For the label, I just typed up the cute little saying and added each of my children's names.  I glued that to the paper before gluing the paper to the can just to make sure I centered the arrow with the tab.


Step 5: add some colorful ribbon to the tab just to give it a little more flair.  I tried to use ribbon that matched the papers.  
And then your done!! Your final products sure to wow your child's teacher! Total cost is around $1-2 a can depending on what kind of candy you use and whether you already have ribbon laying around.  I already had most of the supplies in my craft drawers.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Text inspired birthday party!


My son just turned 15 and we struggled to find a party theme that was fun and teen approved.  Finally it hit us.  What if we based the entire celebration on something every teen loves...texting! We started out by making this invite.  I wanted it to look like a text message and I also wanted to use a chalkboard background.  I love the way it turned out!

I also made a matching banner...


It was a very small gathering but I still wanted some special touches.  I bought yellow plates and with some sharpies I drew faces on them.


His cake was pretty simple but so cute.   We looked at all the different emoticons and Aaron picked his favorite.  I think it was perfect! 


The kids had fun with the plates which doubled as really cute masks.

All in all it was a simple and perfect celebration for Aaron's 15th birthday! Especially because we gave him a new phone!