Halloween Cupcake Picks

I saw a picture online of some cute cupcake picks, but never made them up.  I printed out the picture, and I'm sad to say I don't remember where they came from so I can give due credit.  If these are yours, sorry!  They were too cute not to share.

These first two are made from some Halloween stickers I had in my stash.  I simply stuck them to cardstock, cut them out, and attached a toothpick.  So simple, right?  If you were doing a lot for a party, this might be the way to go.  Stickers are a great alternative if you don't have a lot of time, and all the cute work is done for you!

Sorry the bat is so hard to see--should have used a lighter background.

This candy corn is so easy to re-create.  You could easily use a die cut, but I drew up this pattern. A triangle with rounded corners (pattern included). Cut two of the triangles, one for the base, and cut one apart to use as a pattern for the yellow and orange pieces. Layer and glue, add black pen lines, and add a toothpick to the back.

This little guy is my favorite!  I'm including a pattern for his arm.  The eyes are four circle punches of varying sizes.  The smallest of mine was a regular hole punch.  A few pink squggley lines, and some glue to hook the circles together, and you have crazy eyeballs!  They are attached right to the cupcake liner. I outlined each piece with a fine-tipped black pen to make them stand out.   The monster arm is stuck right into the cake.  My kids thought this was the best cupcake and were fighting over who got to eat the monster. Lol  Happy baking and crafting!

Cupcake Picks

Burp Cloth Cupcakes Revisited

Last year I brought you these (via this guest post on U-Create). They are burp cloths that I turned into cupcakes. The cuteness serves no purpose other than to be cute and jazz up something ordinarily plain like a burp cloth.
Well this year I have revisited the idea, enlarged it and simplified it and I think the result is just as cute. 

So here is what you do.
First: start with a burp cloth- mine measures 15 and 7/8 inches long, 9 1/2 inches at the widest parts (the top and bottom) and 8 1/2 inches in the middle. Basically I took my former burp cloth pattern and traced it an inch bigger on the sides but left the height the same. I wanted my cupcakes to have some bulk to them. I made these from store bought receiving blankets. They are flannel on both sides. I am sure you could try the idea with any kind of burp cloth, just some kinds will work better than others (let me know what you try, will be interesting to see).

Second: to make the cupcake start by folding the sides of the burp cloth in to the middle, overlapping slightly like this.

Third: fold in half, lengthwise and press with an iron (or don't if you are like me and hate all things ironing).

Fourth: starting at one end, roll up the burp cloth like a jelly roll only don't make it too tight. Place your roll inside 2 jumbo cupcake liners. I found that 2 has more stability than one. These cost like $2.30 at Wally world so you won't break the bank.

Fifth: wrap the cupcake liners up around the burp cloth and secure with a rubber band.

Sixth: tie with a ribbon (being sure to use a ribbon thick enough to cover the rubber band). Side note: I went looking for satin ribbon at Michael's and they had it but it was $3.99 a roll which I decided I needed to buy anyway cause I needed it for this project, but then when I was at my favorite big blue store I found this fat grosgrain ribbon for $1.79 for 18 feet and I was like "heck ya, this will work for that price" and I actually really like how it looks. And there you have it folks a cute little burp cloth cupcake.

Now last year a reader suggested giving my original creations as a gift in a muffin tin. I found these 6 count tins at the dollar store and look how cute!!!. I plan on spray painting the tins (I think). Isn't that a fun baby shower gift? I suppose if I didn't spray the tins, then the recipient could make use of the tin for baking. I am planning on selling these in my melon days booth. I am going to use the tins for display and sell the burp cloths individually and let people pick and choose to make their own sets as well as have some sets premade.

Here is the girl version.

Birthday cards

I had to switch gears out of baby stuff making mode and set my sewing machines aside for a bit and do something totally different. So here is one of my latest projects:birthday cards.

She's two!!!

It happened-today April 15th Small Fry turned 2. I can't believe it. When she was born I wasn't sure how we were even going to make it through 1 year-I felt overwhelmed and unsure of myself as a mother and look at us now-we've made it-she's two and I am more in love with her than I ever was before. She is super smart, funny, sassy, sweet, impatient and demanding, energetic, imaginative and playful. She is a good helper when she wants to be and a daddy's girl through and through. The weight of my responsibility for this little life hangs on my shoulders heavier with each passing day as I know that my husband and I have been placed in charge of raising this amazing girl and I don't want to mess anything up- though I know I do all the time. Isn't it great how forgiving and forgetful little children are. Well she is just adored I must tell you. We had her party yesterday and she had a blast. Today she has been telling me that she doesn't want it to be her birthday any more so I told her that any other presents that come her way are going to be mine. I am sure she will change her mind later on. Here are some of the highlights of our 2 year old birthday bliss:

This is how she shows how old she is

Adorable

A little turkey
Chilling out like I always tell her to do

Today I took her out to lunch for her birthday

We had pizza

Eating her birthday Elmo cupcakes

This is while everyone was singing Happy Birthday. When they were done she said, "one more time."

With her presents

She loves this present

Grandma and Grandpa gave her a swing set for her birthday and she loves it. She said, "Look everybody, my new swing set."

It has a little trampoline on the side

Swinging

We had to do some major renovations to set this up. Stay tuned for that post.

For the treat bags I made Rice Krispie cupcakes.

And put them in these cute cupcake wrappers with these toppers. I put them in paper sacks with a thing of bubbles as well.

And for dessert we had Elmo cupcakes. I saw these online and knew I had to try them for small fry's birthday as she is an Elmo fanatic. Here are my version

Making these made me totally miss my older brother. He would have loved making these with me. He was here last year for small frys birthday and I really wish he was here again this year. Didn't they turn out cute. I used a marshmallow cut in half for the eyes with some black gel for the pupil, a orange slice cut in half and then rolled into a ball like shape for the nose and a half an Oreo for the mouth.

It was such a great birthday party-fairly low key and simple and the kids and small fry had a blast. I am really looking forward to this age for her even with it's "terrible" moments (some of which we have been graced with early on). She is really interactive and we have some of the funnest conversations and I can start doing all the cute fun things I have been waiting to do as a mom now that she is a bit older and I am really excited. Happy birthday my little turkey, princess, sweety!

Burp cloth cupcakes the continuing story

This week has been busy and I have managed to check everything off my To Do list but man, where does the time go? I have made some good progress on the new craft room and happened to take these pictures in there and I now realize that the lighting SUCKS!! Great, only day time pictures of projects from now on. But such is life, I finished the burp cloth cupcakes and took the pictures and clear or not here are the finished products.

I got these cute boxes at Expedex. I just decorated one side.

Inside you will find 3 adorable burp cloth cupcakes tucked in cupcake liners. I think they turned out pretty cute.

And for the boys....

Some cute puppy dog cupcakes. I made 6 sets all together and I am selling them for $8.00. I think they would make a super cute gift for a baby shower. Of course I am the original creator so I would think that. I guess we shall see in a couple of weeks.

Cupcake Apron

Well I was long over due for a new apron. The one I have been using has been with me for a lot of years and a lot of recipes but it was time to retire him. I have seen so many amazing aprons on different blogs and websites and I keep telling myself that I just have to make one. Well I finally just bit the bullet and did it. Since there are so many apron tutorials and patterns out there I am not going to overwhelm everyone with yet another one. What I did for my apron was used my old one as a pattern (because I like how it fits me) and then I embellished it with a ruffle on the bottom and the cupcake applique. I decided that I would include the cupcake tutorial here though because that is the totally cute part anyway.

To find a pattern for the cupcake I did a google search with the words "cupcake template". Some great stuff came up by the way so if you are a cupcake fan and have some free time that would be a really fun activity. I found the template that I used here. You could easily make your own but I wanted to find one that I could link to so that others could use it too. I copied and pasted it into Word to allow me to resize it.

So 1st: Print the template twice.

2nd: Cut out the piece for the cupcake top and the bottom(from seperate pieces of paper). For the top I cut out a section that will lay beneath the bottom of the cupcake and for the bottom I cut it up slightly higher than the bottom of the cupcake top (this allows you to overlap as you applique the pieces on and makes life a whole lot easier for you).

3rd: Next pin these to your fabric (I used polar fleece) and cut. You will cut one top piece but cut the bottom piece twice.4th: Pin the two bottom pieces together and sew the cupcake liner lines. You need to back stitch at the top of each row but not the bottom.5th: Trace the pattern pieces onto your piece of Heat N Bond paper. (For a more detailed tutorial on appliqueing with Heat N Bond the small fry way click here. ) Cut the pieces out so that they are smaller than the fabric pieces (except on the cupcake liner piece, you want to have the tops match and just the 2 sides and bottom smaller).6th: Before you iron the Heat N Bond onto the fabric add any embellishments that you want. I used some mini buttons to be my confetti. I sewed them on with clear quilting thread.7th: Iron the Heat N Bond onto the wrong side of your cupcake pieces. On the cupcake liner piece line the tops (top of the fabric and top of the Heat N Bond piece) up before ironing the Heat N Bond down. After you have ironed the Heat N Bond onto the liner piece notch the top to look like a cupcake liner. You could also do this with pinking sheers (I however don't have a pair sharp enough to use on fabric).8th: Peel the paper backing off of each piece and position both the cupcake pieces on your apron. Cover with a press cloth ( I just used an extra piece of fabric) and iron until it is bonded to the apron.9th: Finally using a small width and length (My width was 2 and my length was 1) zig-zag stitch, sew around the edges of the cupcake. I changed my thread color in between the top and bottom of the cupcake. You don't sew along the jagged top edge of the cupcake liner. And that is that. Enjoy!!