Patriotic Stars Cake

Happy *early* 4th of July!!! This past Tuesday was my last fondant cake decorating class and this was my final cake. It is probably one of my favorite cakes that I have decorated so far. It is very simple but I absolutely love how the colors pop, and for once I am happy with how smooth my fondant looks. It was super easy too!



The teacher went over how to cover a cake and showed us four different borders. I was initially thinking about doing the multi-colored balls one, but then thought one color would look better. I will probably use the balls one when doing a more whimsical cake. The other two borders were very delicate, almost looked like lace. They would be perfect for a bridal or baby shower cake.



This 4th of july funfetti cake mix was the inspiration for the cake. I knew the kids would love it and I thought it would be a neat idea for a final cake. The frosting is whipped vanilla, a favorite in our house.



My daughter has been my biggest fan and would stay up to see what I had made in each class. She absolutely LOVED the star cake and today asked if I would help her make one with play dough. I also taught her how to make some easy roses, see in the top left corner. She was bummed that we didn't have white play dough and instead had to use yellow for the base. Here is her creation:



Thank you so much for visiting and have a great 4th of July!

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Coffee Filter Butterflies

This is one of the crafts that my daughter did in school last year that we couldn't wait to do at home. She loves repeating her favorite crafts, I think in part because she likes to 'teach' her brother to do things. And also because she loves being able to make as many as she wants without being rushed.



We started by splitting the filter in half, following the line. At this point you can cut off the border to make it neater or wait to do it later.



Then we colored the filters using washable markers. This was a fun step because my son just did random lines and dots whereas my daughter did drawings. Later on they were both amazed to see how much what they colored changed when they added water.



Take a paintbrush dipped in water and "color" over the marker to make the colors bleed into each other. This part can get a little messy, so we did it on top of plastic place mats.



Allow the filters to dry before the next step.

Add a handy little pipe cleaner and you got yourself a butterfly!



This was my creation... can you tell we did these while watching Spain play in the World Cup? :)



We made a bunch of these and they look so pretty 'sitting' on our windows overlooking the lake.

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Fun Zippered Pouch

While organizing the master bathroom the other day, I noticed I have a ton of little zippered pouches given to me by different companies with samples of their products. My daughter loved this green/blue one and asked me if she could have it. I agreed but told her I wanted to make it special. The reality is I wanted to cover the name of the company advertised on it.

I traced a butterfly on a scrap of felt and then picked some buttons to add a some color.



My daughter did a great job tracing the flowers for the other side. I really enjoyed the hand stitching and finished it while watching some World Cup action.



There are sure to be many more alterations to zippered pouches in the near future!

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Bead Crafts

Do you ever look back at purchases that seemed trivial at the time but later make you think they were the best money you ever spent? That recently happened to me with some beads we bought at Ikea. I have seen these particular beads many times, but for some reason decided to pick some up on our last trip. I guess I was thinking that perhaps they would be fun for the summer break. I am happy to report that they were a HIT! All I have to say is they kept my kids entertained all afternoon... yippee!



My daughter (4) decided to make a heart shaped necklace while my son (2) sorted them by color. I loved that they had fun while working on their fine motor skills. We also practiced saying the colors in different languages and talked about the rainbow.



In addition to the huge tub of beads, we purchased a set of bead boards. That is what my daughter used to make her shape which I then ironed to set. The possibilities for these beads are endless... still to come are fridge magnets and traditional bead jewelry. I'll be sure to keep you posted on our future projects!

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