Funny Valentines Day

We've driven past White Castle on past Valentine's Days and noticed the pink lighting.  We always laughed when we saw the sign reminding everyone that it was time to make reservations for Valentine's Day.  Well, one year I decided to surprise my husband, and made our reservations. Guess what?  We had a great time!    The White Castle staff had menus printed, took our orders at the table that was decorated with flowers and candles.  The pink lighting was created by covering the fluorescent lighting with pink cellophane wrap and the waitress dressed up with a heart shaped headband.  They even set up a decorated corner for photo opportunities!  We took both of our Moms with us last year and I think it's become a tradition.
It just goes to show you that a few special touches can make any meal fun.

Cricut Cake - a new product at the Craft and Hobby Show this week

The CHA Show is this weekend and one of the exciting products that's being introduced is the cricut Cake machine. I'd love to have one of these!  I wonder if you can create original designs?

For more information; go to Cricut Cake and sign up for email updates.

I understand you can use the Cricut Cake with gumpaste. There are cake designers that have figured out ways to cut fondant and mixtures of gumpaste with electronic cutters meant for paper crafting.  The product that I love is Sugarveil and I'm sure it would work great in the Cricut machine.  You mix it with water and spread it thin to air dry.  At a certain point in the drying time it becomes flexible yet not sticky and you can cut it with scissors or, as shown in the picture above, with paper punches. 

Here's the link to a great Sugarveil video where they show you how to cut out intricate designs using an electronic cutter.

Birds and Branches for the Table

I did a little internet Trend research this week for Tabletop products.  The Atlanta Gift Market (for the trade only) was last week and there were several manufacturers showing dinnerware with twigs and birds.  The birds are a trend that I've been following for several years and they are adorable for tablescape themes. The twigs are rustic and fit in with that trend perfectly!

This is part of a Baby Shower tablescape that I did with friends for the CHA show.  I simply stenciled the twigs and vines on a plain white dinner plate using pebeo Porcelaine 150 paints.  I placed the embossed green plate on top of a saucer (to give it lift) and tucked the branch underneath.  For guest favors; the mini bird nests are filled with pastel Jordan Almonds, wrapped in cellophane and decorated with ribbon and flower.  Do you see the little stuffed bird tied onto the napkin on the left?  Kelly Hoernig made those.  (I wish I had a better picture!)

Elena Pecora created fabulous arrangements for the back of each chair using twigs and flowers.  We tied them with ribbon and pinned them to the chair covers.  A really special look that is a DIY project.  I loved them!

Have you seen the new Pottery Barn Birds and Twigs dinnerware and accessories?  Make sure you scroll all the way down the page to see the napkins and table linens.  So pretty!

Part Five - Baby Shower - Beaded Bracelet Theme - Games

I thought I'd finish out the posts on this Baby Shower with the games. 

 Elena created the a guessing game with really cute Scrapbooking supplies. I don't remember the designer or manufacturer but would love to update with that information if you know it.

We made a 15 minute Diaper Cake (really....I forgot to put it together until the last minute!) so it's a little shabby looking but Sarah liked it anyway.  We rolled up the diapers, tied ribbon around the layers to hold them together and decorated the cake with Scrapbook stickers.  For a nicer version of the diaper cake, check out my article on the Creative Home Arts Club website.

I set up a station in the back of the room with Fabric Painting supplies, onesies and bibs. This is Suzanne painting a Onsie for the baby's first 4th of July. (We go to her house for the parade each year.) The guests could wander over there and spend a few minutes making the baby a personalized memento and play with the Fabric Fun Dye Sticks and Gel Roller pen for Fabric. One of my favorite products. So easy to use and very permanent.  Look for my original designs and patterns soon.

Part Four - Baby Shower - Beaded Bracelet Theme - Desserts

The girls went all out with the mini desserts.  Each one was pretty simple to make but the variety, display and flavor was outstanding.  We had both Chocolate Cheesecake and Cherry Cheesecake in pastry cups, Apple Cinnamon muffins,

Berries in White Chocolate cups with whipped cream and drizzled Chocolate,

my favorite; Key Lime pie filling in Chocolate cups with berries and mint leaves,

and the ever popular mini Chocolate Eclairs and Cream Puffs purchased from Sam's Club.

Part Three - Baby Shower - Beaded Bracelet Theme - Food

Melissa and Elena chose an appetizer and salad menu.  They had so much fun (with lots of help from family and friends) and we ended up with a huge selection of tasty treats for lunch. I'm sorry, the pictures just don't do the food justice but I wanted to share a few anyway.

We created an interesting display with tiered servers and boxes tucked under the baby flannel tablecloth to make "lifts and levels".  A garland of hydrangeas flowed down the table, tucked in and around the dishes.

We had a really long table full of food!

 

A beautiful and tasty appetizer made with Olive Tapenade. Click here for the recipe. It's really easy.

Caprese Salad made with fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, and fresh basil.

Part Two - Baby Shower - Beaded Bracelet theme

OK, so I've got the colors and a theme that involves letters and beads.  What's next?  I wanted to find the assorted pastel plates.  Since we were planning the shower in the Spring there were Easter colors available but the cost was just too much for that many place settings. And how many times would I need to use 36 pastel plates?  I could the paint the back of my glass plates. I already had enough of them.  I could match the colors exactly and I didn't have to buy cups, saucers and accessory pieces that came with a pre-made dinnerware set.

The paint technique had to be durable enough to hold up to handling, a food safe application, simple and relatively quick and hopefully removable.  The solution?  Liquid Starch.  Yep, the stuff in the bottle in the laundry aisle that was used to make shirts, curtains and tablecloths crisp when ironing.  I grew up with spray starch but my Grandmother used liquid starch to make her crocheted angel ornaments and the ruffles on doilies stiff.  I've used it to attach fabric onto my kitchen walls and have decorated the back of glass plates with scrapbook paper.  Why not try mixing it with paint?

It worked!  And it actually matched the vases perfectly.  The color is on the inside of the vase and the back of the plate so you look through the clear glass on both.  Yeah!  With Elena and Melissa's help we had 36 plates painted and ready to go.  I'll post a step by step tutorial for this technique and how to remove the paint soon.

I found the acrylic pacifiers at the craft store.  They were supposed to be party favors but worked great as napkin rings.  There are little acrylic pacifiers on the glasses too.  They were also in the baby shower section of the store.  Again, I think they were package ties for favors but worked perfect as drinking glass charms.  We used assorted satin ribbons to pull everything together.

We decided to decorate the cupcakes with fondant circles and use them on the table too.  After cutting the circles out of the fondant we pressed a rubber stamp in each one to decorate them. Since we had a fabulous selection of food and desserts (thanks to Melissa and Elena) we had cute boxes available for cupcakes.

Extra large sugar cookies decorated with a food safe marker repeated the BABY beads on the invitation and provided another take home favor for the guests. The cookies were propped on both sides of the table on a foam board stand covered with flannel receiving blankets.

 

The overall look was simple and classic but the details were special.  We all loved it. 

Next: The food (oh! the fabulous food) and a craft activity for the guests.