Under The Sea Party

 My oldest daughter's 13th Birthday was delayed to accommodate the busy sports season of her and her friends so even though she didn't want a terribly fancy party I wanted to make it somewhat special. One of her favorite things is the ocean so we decided to create an under the sea party theme.

This cake was a matching blue inside and sooo yummy! All the different creatures were chosen by my DD

It was a nice change from fondant to be able to ice this cake with a whipped topping. And it made it so easy to simply cut out these shapes all ahead of time suing my Cricut Cake cutting machine. It worked nicely with the Lettering Delights SVG's and Graphics set. I was able to coordinate everything from the invitations, the cake and the decorations. Even the cue cards for the scavenger hunt!

The seaweed here is made from a glittered fruit roll, the Target brand.

It was really fun coming up with ideas for the food. It struck me that the watermelon looked like a turtle and it matched the color scheme and is a teen favorite so I just took a stab at a basic sea turtle. He is simply some extras bits cut into shapes and held together with some toothpicks. The rounded shape helped create the curved flipper sand head.

 Next is one of our families favorites.....Octopus hotdogs! Long ago I saw a show where these guys were featured and they were an instant hit. It is kinda magical how a hotdog will curl up in boiling water and creating an octopus is pretty simple. Just start by cutting the bottom portion in half. Then half each section again into fourths and then again for the eight tentacles. After making notches for the eyes, just drop them carefully into a large pot of boiling water. You'll have to do only one or two at a time but if you prepare the hotdogs ahead of time i goes very quickly. And it is so worth it isn't it?

Creatures of the deep LOL

For some fun the girls went on a scavenger hunt. It was a lifesaver to find a fun software on the internet that you can download! "Riddle me" creates a set of clues and the direction for placing them all around the house depending on a list you can create for inside, outside or both. It is completely customizable to accommodate lots of different situations and ages. It even allows you to place your art on the set of clues so everything matches!!! Love it! Get it here.

At the end of the hunt was some leis, and other goodies as well as a bucket of supplies to create their own flip flops. These were just simple plastic ones and the girls knotted various ribbons along the straps to create a fun effect. We even found some for my littlest so everyone was happy.

 

 A fishing net from Oriental trading company was dressed up with some images and a "celebrate" banner of bubbles. My daughter really wanted to help out and I enjoyed working on this party with her. The little sea characters were printed out on card stock from the graphics set and my daughter wanted to cut them herself. And place them all around.

These lanterns from the dollar store and some balloons made the sleeping area in the family room a bit more festive. The girls watched "surfer girl" and chatted the evening away. I was so happy to give my oldest a special time to have fun and celebrate with her friends. And it was  a pleasure to work with her and see how much she has grown into a young lady. Shh....don't tell anyone, but I actually enjoy her being a teen. :)

*Note: This is a rewrite of my original post which got accidentally deleted. :( Sorry to say this isn't as good a tale as the original but I still wanted to share this with my readers.

Yummy Bunnies

Funny how one thing leads to another and suddenly I am now creating fun food for my kids. :) Thanks to the fun blog community and my friends who alert me to many great new things, I have seen versions of bunnies everywhere.

Now, true to my nature I decided to look for a way I could make some treats with minimal skill or effort required. Ta Da...bunnies from mini donuts. I already had a few colors of gel frosting for writing on cakes so I used it with some pink Easter M&M's. I found out right away that gel icing does not like to stick to powdered sugar donuts but after a few attempts, easy!

On a side note. I made these today since my daughters each had friends sleep over. The 3 and 7 year olds were immediately excited but the 12-13 year olds were sorta cool about it. But, when they came for seconds...they requested bunnies too. Made me feel good they still have a bit more little girl in them! :)

Cake project with Brownies...

Cake cutting with the  Gypsy is so much easier since you can line up the cuts after you place the gumpaste!

Aren't these too cute?! The detail is surprising!

I know Halloween is over but I had to post these few last projects since they turned out so well. I made these for Halloween/Juliette Low's Birthday for my Girl Scout troop(Brownies). I am finally getting the hang of my cake and I can't wait to do more. First off I used my Gypsy so it was so simple to load the mat for my cuts. Also having more experience I rolled my gumpaste even thinner than before and had really good results! A third factor was placing the mat with the gumpaste in the fridge for just a few minutes while I moved the pumpkins around on the G :) Then to remove them from the mat I placed them in the fridge for a few more minutes...not too long but just to make them cooler. I used a toothpick to remove the eyes, nose and mouth while they were still on the mat. I am wondering if we'll be able to load our imagine cartridges onto our G then cut those shapes with our Cake. Wheels are turning!

The second project was some cute little cupcakes made with battery tea lights. I can't remember where I saw this idea but it wasn't mine...I used the SU scalloped circle with just a strip of paper from the Halloween glitter stack that was already out! lol. I used my favorite sookwang tape for the side paper again and the girls loved them. These would be cute party favors or table decorations for a party as well!! Or, maybe some fall colors for Thanksgiving buffets or Christmas papers to decorate each place setting?

June!

Wow, so much time has passed so quickly and I haven't even posted any of my Projects for the past two months. Hopefully you have all been too busy to check on my blog too! So, here are some projects I've managed to get done and get pictures of...

• A mini purse from Cricut  Forever Young. I turned it about a quarter turn in DS and got it a bit larger on a 12by paper. Threw on some leftover tags laying around from the teachers gifts, and Viola! Cute for a 10minute project. One discovery here was that the sides of the purses do not go all the way up and little things are prone to fall out! The paper is a DCWV paper stack, Nanas Garden, I believe, and the ribbon is stash with some CTMH twine to tie the tag to the bow. I did not get a picture of the cute pillow box I tucked inside. It was from the Stampin Up Sizzix Die, and fit some rolled up money perfectly. All tied with ribbon of course. :)
• Some quickie end of the year gifts for all the girls teachers. I used the Sizzix Bigz Die, matchbox, from Stampin up and just love it!! I could put two Giarhdeli chocolates (from the big bag) in each. I also found a trick online that gets the most from your paper. Use one 12X12 and cut at 6.5 down to 5.5in  then turn a quarter turn and repeat all the way around. You will get 4 6.5X5.5 pieces and a small square from the middle. I mixed and matched a few papers from a DCWV stack. Used the mini tag set and punch from Stampin Up, ribbon from a stash and some CTMH twine. Another helpful hint...I roll the twine between my fingers opposite the direction it is wound to separate it into individual strands. It goes a long way and looks more in scale with the tiny tags.

• And this is where I realize I didn't get pics of my girls Birthday cards! Well I will get them. I didn't get any pictures from my girls cakes either as they were finished last minute as usual and they were nothing worth showing. LOL Hopefully I can play with my Cricut cake some more really soon and show something fabulous.
•  OK one last thing....some yummy pancakes. The girls actually eat a mix of Hodgsen Mills Buckwheat pancakes and Bisquick. I add a bit of special pure vanilla extract and top with some strawberries crushed and heated with real maple syrup. Not too bad for you? :) We are so happy to be eating a great variety of fresh fruits and veggies from a local farm that participates in the CSA farm share program. We purchased a half share which means we pick up our share of the farms produce every two weeks. We've been happy to get enough to eat a enough to freeze for later too. *I promise to work on my photography skills too. :)