Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes - For Isabella

We celebrated Bella's Birthday this past weekend at The Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor.  The kids got to make their own sundae, the adults indulged in ice cream cake.  Both desserts got rave reviews and my family was checking out the Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches, that they sell in the store, so I think we'll be back some day.

Sarah and Bella made these cupcakes inspired by Bakerella.  So cute and yummy too!  It was a sweet and special day for our little granddaughter.  Happy Birthday Sweetie!  Love you Much!

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

Baptism Decor using Photos and Clip Art.

I'm a member of the Designer Crafts Connection Blog group and we post projects on the First Monday of each month.  Click the 365 Days of Crafts Logo on the right to see all the creative ideas that we have to share.  To celebrate we also have a giveaway! Read through to the end of the post for information on how to enter.

The theme for the month of September is parties, baby showers, wedding showers, etc., basically anything to do with decorating for a celebration.  I chose to share the quick and easy decorations that I made for my nephew, Cash, at his Baptism party.  This was a picnic and the decor was casual but I still wanted it to be special for Cash and his family.

I saved a small picture of Cash, added wings with Photoshop, and printed a whole sheet of them.  After cutting out circles of glossy blue cardstock, I layered the photos (cut just a bit smaller) and cardstock with Glue Dots. 

I printed a Bible clip art image for some of the flower centers to reinforce the blue and white theme. After all the circles were finished I glued them to the centers of inexpensive daisy flowers with Glue Dots.  The daisies were sold as a bunch and I just popped them into the vases. Light blue twin sheets from Walmart ($4.00 each!) worked perfectly for tablecloths.

I used the same card stock to make the cupcake toppers.  Again, I used Glue Dots to attach the images.  This time I glued them to lollipops after trimming the excess cellophane around the candy.  So cute!  I wish my cupcakes were as tasty as they were beautiful.  I tried to be creative with the recipe and they turned out to be more like heavy brownies than light and fluffy cake.  Lesson learned !  Test and Taste before you serve dessert to a large group of people!

SEPTEMBER GIVEAWAY!

We have something special this month - a set of Scrapbook Soup, Series 100 DVDs!  Scrapbook Soup is now airing on your local PBS TV channel.  Check your local listings and if it isn't listed, call the station and request it!  Program managers always like to hear what their viewers want to watch.

TO ENTER: Visit all the Blogs on the DCC Hop and stop at Life in the Craft Lane for the details on entering for a chance to win this wonderful set of DVDs.

I'm joining A Stroll Thru Life: Tabletop Tuesday  and

this week.  Stop by for a visit!

Remember When - Wedding Shower Decor from the 70s

As part of my plan to "ReOrganize"  in 2011 I spent some time cleaning off the shelf with photo albums today.  After we spent some time laughing  at ourselves, we remembered how nice it was that our friends and family were so generous for our wedding.  We ended up having 3 Wedding Showers and each one was decorated a little different. We really appreciate all the effort they made to make the parties special.  I thought you might enjoy a look back at what was popular back then!

Paper nut cups wrapped with lots of tulle and curling ribbon for favors.  There were probably pillow mints inside the cups.

A popular cake at that time was the Double Wedding Ring.  I like the little bride and groom on the left and the bridesmaids on the right.  I might still have those in my Memory Box, you never know!  Notice the satin ribbon bows on the candlestick on the left side.  That was a recurring theme at all the parties. 

A decorated umbrella and "chair of honor" decorated by my friends Lauri and Jeanette.  They sure made me feel like a princess that day.  This was really considered "over the top" decor back then.  Of course, Lauri's little poodle thought the chair of honor was for her!

Opening gifts under the umbrella with my sister, Bev, making a list of the gifts for the Thank You notes.

I'm sure all of you crafters and quilters will appreciate this gift.  It's a quilt made by Lee's Grandmother and hand quilted by her, Lee's Mom (Alice) and even has a few stitches added by Lee when he was really young.  What a treasure - 3 generations.

And finally; here we are at one of the other parties.  We were SO YOUNG!  I think Lee's hair was longer than mine is now!  What kind of fun memories can you dig up?

Birthday Cake

Sarah baked a homemade (from scratch - not a box mix) Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream frosting for my birthday.  I liked how she used the large decorating tip which showed how creamy the frosting was.

I guess you could say we liked it!  

I forgot to ask her for the recipe but here's a yummy looking one from Ina Garten at the Food Network if you want to try it. Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

"All the days ordained for me were written in Your book
before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:16b, NIV)

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.