First Fondant Cake

I finished my fondant and gum paste class at Michael’s last night.  I’m pretty pleased how my cake turned out.  It is white with yellow black-eyed Susan’s on it.  I’m really glad I decided to add the leaves because I think they give it a lot of movement plus a more whimsical feel.  I really like the “eyelet” ruffle I did on it to.  It makes seem kind of vintage or something.  My teacher seemed pretty pleased with it and took tons of photos…maybe to do something similar?  Anyway,  I’ve always been so terrified of fondant before taking this class. I’m glad that I no longer am nervous of it.  In fact I just wish I had more time to do cakes!  It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty pleased!

My Susan Cake

 

Side view.  Those eyelets can use a little more work but they are slightly tedious…especially trying to do them before the fondant dries out.

Felt Choosing Cubes

(This past 3 months!) I’ve been subbing for the Primary Chorister.  I made these little cubes to try to motivate the children in Primary to #1 be quite so I would pick them #2 have reasons/variations to repeat a song and #3 because felt does not get destroyed as fast as paper does  and #4 it’s a sneaky way to teach musical terms. 

You could use these cubes for other motivation, such as which chore to pick for the day or what kind of activity to do when your children are arguing…there are so many possibilities!

The kids LOVE it when I pull these out!  So glad I came up with them!

Here are some of the different things I put on them:

Red:

Leave out a word

crescendo (grow louder)

decrescendo (grow softer)

fermata (hold a note)

rall.  (slow down)

accelerando (speed up)

Yellow:

Staccato (short and bouncy)

Largo (smooth)

Legato (slow)

Forte (loud)

piano (soft)

allegro (fast)

Blue:

Boys only

Girls only

Right side (of room)

Left side (of room)

No teachers

Hum

Cheap Baby-Doll Bed

If you ask my son what he wants to be when he grows up, he will tell you quite frankly “I want to be a daddy!”  He loves babies and kids and he’s always asking if we can have 20 kids in our family…of course my response is always “Nope!”  He has a baby doll that he got when he was almost two and in that stage where all that little toddlers love babies. 

When his baby sister was born last December, my mom came to visit laden with matching items such as blankets and pajamas for his baby sister and his baby doll.  It was very thoughtful of her.

There have been many times when my laundry baskets have been confiscated by Christian to use as his baby’s bed.  Until one day after a visit to Sam’s Club when I realized that one of those dumb half/cardboard box things they give you to load your giant items into was about the perfect size and shape for a baby bed.

So, Christian picked some paper that he liked and I mod-podged  the thing and made a cushion.  Now it’s a very cheap baby bed that I won’t feel guilty about discarding when his love of his baby doll has bid its last farewell and I can use the cushion as a toddler pillow for one of his sibling(s)…

First Royal-Icing Flower Cake

I finished my Cake Flowers and Design class at Michaels last week.  Here is my finished product:

I’m getting better at piping flowers though it sure has its own learning curve.  I thought I’d go crazy in class when the teacher first showed us how to do it.  So, I went to the Wilton site and found some tutorials.  Hurray for tutorials!  Christian thought it was really weird that I was watching a movie that wasn’t a real movie…it was women talking and holding bags of icing…  It really helped me.  That’s for sure.

Here’s the side of the cake with the basket-weave pattern.  I think it looks okay.  I would like it to be better though.  I guess I just need to practice some more.  Jared’s work will be pleased.  They were very happy when I made Jared take this cake with him.  Thank goodness.  Who wants to eat their own creation?