Cake anyone??? – The Hockey Goalie

Tags

birthday, black, cake decorating, cakes, goalie, hockey, purple, vanilla cake

Today’s cake was made this weekend for one of the goalies from my son’s team. This kid just started skating this year and has been an incredible thing to see how much he has improved his skills over the last few months!

Anyway, his parents asked me to make him a cake. The first idea was to make him just a jersey in the colors of the team but, because I have plenty of time in my hands (NOT), I decided to go one step further. Here is the result:

Mom already sent me a message that he really liked the cake and that everyone thought it was a good cake. Vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream, covered in marshmallow fondant and decorated with a candy goalie!!! What’s not to like???

I know I’m boasting but it was a real pleasure to have made this cake for this very friendly, outgoing teen. Happy Birthday, Justin!

Here are some more photos:

Take care,

Catia

Cake anyone??? – Arts & Crafts and so much more

Tags

art, arts& crafts, birthday, books, cake decorating, cakes, cat, cross stitch, papercrafts, reading, scrapbook, sewing

I love that my little girls share in my interest for arts & crafts.

In fact, my oldest daughter likes it so much, that I decide to make her a birthday cake inspired by all the crafts she likes.

I sketched some ideas, shared them with the family and….. well, soon what was to be just a cake about arts and crafts became a cake about my daughter and ALL her likes. This being said, I was requested to make a cake that included her love of reading, knitting, embroidery, sewing, painting, drawing, snowmen, snow, paper crafts, the colour blue and of course our cat Monica. She also requested that her fish be included but I run out of room on the cake to do it

I started by sculpting a figurine in gum paste. Well, that didn’t turn out very good!!!! The gum paste was all sticky and wouldn’t hold its form. I was sooooo frustrated! Finally I gave up and look elsewhere for ideas of materials I could use to make the figurine.

I came across salt clay, cold porcelain and I even considered making it in polymer clay….. after a while, I finally found the solution: modeling chocolate! Why haven’t I thought about this before??? That’s a question I will never be able to answer, lol!

I sculpted the figurine of my daughter sitting with a book in her hands. I’m so proud of myself for this one! It turned our pretty good for a first time

For her party with her friends, I made matching cupcakes. The children were really amazed by the figurine and kept giving suggestions to my daughter on the best way to bite into it!

Anyway, take a look at the photos and leave your feedback. There’s too much to be seen on the cake for me to waste your time reading my words .

Arts & Crafts and so much more cake

Arts & Crafts and so much more cake

Take care,

Catia

Cake anyone??? – The Lorax

Tags

cake decorating, cakes, cupcakes, Dr. Seuss, Lorax, Music, school, Seuss, Truffula trees

Last year, my youngest daughter was part of the choir at school. It was such a fun time for her.

The choir was called the Musical Munchkins and was directed by one of the music teachers at the school. They even got to go to a local competition and won the gold medal!!! Yep, they were THAT good!

Can you tell the amount of motherly pride I feel???

Anyway, at the end of the year they did a small presentation for parents. The theme was The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

They did so well at both the competition and the presentation, that the teacher decided to throw a small party for them, and asked for small contributions from the parents. Being who I am, I could not help myself but to offer to bake them a themed cake; which was promptly accepted by the teacher , who requested that I make it about The Lorax.

Oh, and did I mention that the entire choir had around 75 members?????? Yes, not only did I have to make a cake about the Lorax, I had to make it big enough for everyone!!

I finally decided to make one big (10 inch) round cake (for all the teachers and volunteers involved with the choir) and 75 cupcakes for the kids.

The Lorax Cake

I used the stand my dear husband made for me in order to display everything.

The Lorax was sculpted in gum paste and was surrounded by Truffula trees. These were made using candy paper sticks, painted with black strips, and topped with clusters of mini coloured marshmallows.

Each of the cupcake had a wrapper with passages from the book. My girls helped cutting and gluing them together. They were iced with buttercream and decorated with a candy melt musical note.

The music teacher was amazed by it and so very grateful! The kids were ecstatic and anxious to eat it.

The best part of it all was to have them sing a beautiful song just for me, as a thank you for the cake. My eyes teared up at the beauty of their voices, so innocent and pure; and the heartfelt feeling of love and friendship they transmitted.

I spent a few (around 7) hours working on the cake but it was well worth the effort!

Take care,

Catia

Cake anyone??? – The Minecraft Block

Tags

birthday, cake decorating, cakes, minecraft

It has been so long since I last posted!!!

A lot has been going on around here. Work is busier than ever and it has been hard to find time to dedicate to my hobbies

However, I did manage to accomplish a few things since the last time I posted.

Today I will post about the cake I made for my son last December. It seems that there is this “fever” going around about an online game named Minecraft. I personally don’t see what’s so captivating about it; a bunch of pixelated characters walking around… Anyway, my son has joined the millions that find the game so fascinating.

As a result, when asked what cake he would like for his birthday, he replied: a Minecraft themed cake…………..

After looking around for some inspiration, I finally decided on making a simple dirt block. I thought I was being so smart! It’s just a simple block, right?  Yeah, WRONG! I wasn’t counting on the pixels!!! Being a perfectionist, I couldn’t just make a block with brown on the bottom and green on the top. I had to make several different hues of brown and green to achieve the pixelated look.

Long story short, it took me close to three hours to cut and place all the pixels on the block. The final result????? SO WORTH IT!!! My son loved it and his computer oriented friends recognized the cake for what it was immediately!!

Minecraft Cake – Dirt Block

Take care,

Catia

Donation – Cards Gallore

Tags

card making, cards, cards handmade cards, digi stamps, digis, handmade cards, papercrafts, scrapbook, stamps

A couple of friends every year participate in a fund-raising event for women’s cancer.

They usually hold a cocktail party downtown and have a silent auction. They are always looking for items to auction so I asked if there was anything I could hand make for them. After going back and forth with ideas, we came up with some good ones.

One of the items that I made for the auction was a set of handmade cards. Here are some photos.

The whole set

The holding box

1 – For the little ballerina

2 – For your shopping friend

3 – It’s a girl

4 – Happy Birthday!

5 – Happy Birthday Again

6- Fashionista!

The photos don’t really do them justice but…

Some of them were made using my own digital stamps and others were made using rubber stamps and digis I found around the internet. I’m not sure where I got them but if you know please do tell me so I can give their creators the proper credit.

Take care,

Girls Room – The Storage Cube Labels

Tags

for the home, organize, scrapbook, tutorial

It can be so hard sometimes to keep everything organized in the kids bedrooms!

That’s why I love the storage cubes that you find at the dollar store! They are inexpensive, colorful (or not) and hold an amazing amount of toys out of your eyesight!!

However, in order to keep the kids from dumping every single box on the floor every time they want to play with a Barbie doll or that itsy bitsy plastic toy that they just remembered they own, you need to have a system in place.

And this is when labels come in handy. I labeled each box for a determined type of toy and now they know to keep everything organized. They also find it more enjoyable to clean up since everything has a place and there are not as many toys out of their place.

Here is a photo of the labels I made for my girls storage cubes.

They were easy to make too!

• I used that plastic protective circle that comes with the boxes of CDs and DVDs.
• Place the circle on top of colorful scrapbooking paper and trace it. Cut the paper.
• Glue the paper to the plastic circle. I made sure to have the plastic go on top of the printed side of the paper so that I could write on it after.
• With a hole puncher, make a hole close to the edge of the circle.
• Write the name of the toys you want to have on that box directly across the hole.
• Cut a long ribbon through the hole. Knot it twice and then tie it in a bow around the handle of the box.
• There you made your first cute label.

The good thing about these is that you can make them as girly or as manly as you wish depending on the paper you use.

Take care,

Cake anyone???? – 40th Anniversary Cake

Tags

cake decorating, cakes, fishing, flowers, sewing

A friend requested that I make a cake for her in-laws 40th anniversary.

After talking for a while about their likes and dislikes, we came to the conclusion that the activities that they enjoyed the most, the other didn’t really care for at all. This is so cute!!

Anyway, the gentleman LOVES to go fishing and his wife of 40 years rather quilt that fish.

So, in order to make a cake that would mean something to both of them, I tried to incorporate both their hobbies in one cake.

I wasn’t there to see their reaction to the cake but my friend said they were very pleased with it!

Here are some photos:

Take care,

Girly Room – the hairclip holder

Tags

diy, dress, fabric, Felt clips, girls room, hair clips, hairclip, hairclip holder, home, style

Last Summer, I decided to redecorate the girls room. Let’s face it, they have to share it, so the least I can do for them is to make it more appealing…. At least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it, lol!

The decoration items are all inexpensive items that I have repurposed and all tied in together with the help of colorful fabric. The main color scheme is composed of bright tones of pink, blue, green and yellow.

Today I decided to write about the hairclip holder I made. It graces the wall in the bedroom and is a great display/storage tool for all the hairclips and headbands the girls have.

Here’s a photo of the finished project.

I know, I know… it doesn’t really look that organized, but believe me it keeps everything off the ground and the furniture. I don’t have to always be looking for stray clips

How to make it:

• You will need the following materials: a child sized clothes hanger, foam board, fabric, trim, ribbons, hooks, hot glue gun and some spare wood.

• Place the foam board on top of the hanger and trace a body shape, taking the curvature of the hanger as being the shoulders of your shape. Glue the hanger to the body shape. the side of the shape that shows the hanger will be the back of the piece.

• Cut two small pieces of wood and glue to the front of the body shape.

• Glue fabric to the top section of the hanger to make the bodice. Wrap the fabric around the shape and glue on the back.

• Glue the fabric to the bottom part. If you want a gathered look like my own, cut a rectangle of fabric a little bigger than the width of the bottom hem and gather at the top. Then, carefully glue around the sides and leave the bottom without being glued. Note that the fabric goes over the wood!

• Glue the ribbons to the waist of the body shape.

• Glue the lace or fabric trim to the neck, waist and hem of the “dress”.

• Carefully screw the hooks on the pieces of wood. NOTE: you might have to make small holes on the fabrics previous to screwing the hooks. I used an exacto knife and made a tiny slash. This allowed for the hook to catch the wood right away instead of getting tangled in the fabric.

I hope that this tutorial is clear. This piece was made in the spur of the moment, so I didn’t take photos as I was going along

Feel free to ask any questions if there is anything that you don’t quite understand.

Take care,

An award!!

Tags

awards, kreativ blogger award

Giselle at http://crazylittlethingss.wordpress.com/  selected me for the Kreativ Blogger Award. I am very honoured to receive it! Thank you Giselle.

The rules say that I have to say a few things about myself and then pass the award to seven other blogs. So, here it goes:

1 – I love it when someone gives me flower bouquets with eucalyptus cuttings on them. The smell of eucalyptus reminds me of my home country…

2 – I hate being told what to do! I’m usually easy going but don’t push it, lol!

3 – Really enjoy working with children, I’m always amazed with the observations that they make!!!

4 – Simply ADORE reading! Place an historical novel in front of me, and I’m lost….

5 – Live for my husband and children. They are the light of my life and without them I’d feel incomplete!

6 – My favourite stress relieving strategies always involve crafty activities, lol, thus the existence of this blog!

7 – Can’t really deal with inconsiderate people! They drive me CRAZY!!!

And here are the blogs that I’d like to nominate:

1. http://cakejournal.com/ – AWESOME website for cake making techniques!
2. http://whileshenaps.typepad.com/whileshenaps/ – Great inspiration for soft toy
3. http://beadazzlemesk.wordpress.com/ – a polymer clay website!
4. http://sparklingmomma.wordpress.com/ – a little of everything
5. http://paperpleasing.typepad.com/ – so many tutorials!!!
6. http://polymerclaybeads.blogspot.ca/ – for polymer clay bead tutorials
7. http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.ca/ - tutorial and ideas for refashions and much more

Take care,

Sewing Magic – A Spring Dress

Tags

children clothes, dress, sewing, spring

As I mentioned in the previous post, my youngest 8th birthday party was a Spring theme.

Of course, being a busy Mom as I am, I HAD to find some time to make her a new dress. And it couldn’t be just any dress… NOOOO… It had to be a SPRING dress!!!

Well, I’m glad the fabric store near us has frequent sales, lol. I got her 2 different green fabrics for her dress. They are beautiful. One of them is a gingham fabric with white flowers on it.

But instead of getting a pattern and just make a simple dress, Mrs. Busy Me, had to get even busier and make my own pattern…

It was complicated, but lots of fun! And it got raving reviews from everyone too!!!

Here are some photos:

The front of the dress!

The back of the dress.

I was thinking of writing a tutorial for this one, but I came to the conclusion that it would be a bit complicated to do it without photos.

So, if you’re interested in finding out how I made it, you will have to wait until I make another one. (I forgot to take photos of this one as I went along ).

Take care,