Paper Decorating- spirals

Card Stock Paper Spirals

(Doesn't have to be card-stock, scrap book or even tissue paper would work too!)

I threw a Christmas themed baby shower for a friend last week and wanted to decorate without spending a lot of money. I happened to have lots of left over bold colored card stock so I went to work creating fun pin-wheel type spirals.

I've seen lots of versions floating around the internet, but this is the way I learned as a kid in school. We used tape and elmers glue back then, but if you've read much of my blog you'll know I don't do any craft without my handy-dandy hot glue gun!

Start off making a square out of your paper by folding it in half to form a triangle then cutting off the excess.

Save this extra piece to make tiny spirals out of or for a guideline ruler as shown next.

Using some of your excess paper make a strip that's aproximately 3/4 inch wide.

Hold the guideline strip in the center of the folded over triangle with one hand as you cut 1/2 inch slits up to the strip's edge. You're starting the slits on the folded side and cutting up towards the open side's tip.

Cut 6-7 slits on each side. Remember the guideline paper is there to stop you from cutting too far into the center.

Try to match the width of the slits equally on both sides.

Now open the triangle up and starting with the two outside slits, pull two sides together and attach with either white glue, tape, stapler or if you want something quick and easy, a dab of hot glue.

Now grab the next two slits and pull them to the opposite side and glue.

Continue gluing the two sides together, alternating the side you pull it to each time.

I left the center piece open for a cool diamond look, but gluing it to itself looks cool too.

After a few large spirals I started to get stingy about my paper so decided to make smaller spirals instead.

Depending on what size you want you could make several spirals out of one piece of paper.

 I wanted to create a whimsical feel so I hung them up with curling ribbon all over my house!

 Don't ask how I got them up here...

Next I'll post the rest of the baby shower decorations!

Baby Shower Food

Christmas Themed Baby Shower

Semi- Homemade Food

I wanted to post about some of the yummy food we had at a baby shower I threw last week! Most of what I served was the usual: fruit platter, veggies and dip, etc. But I was especially excited about the pinwheels or tortilla wraps we had!

I made two types. The first was just your basic pinwheel. I used tomatoes, ham lunch meat, spinach leaves and chive cream cheese spread. I've also used mayonnaise before and other combinations of cream cheese bases. I assembled everything on a green spinach tortilla to add more color to my table spread.

The second type I made were my favorite! I didn't want to combine too many different flavors here so I opted to use flour tortillas and plain cream cheese spread.

Spread cream cheese all over tortilla. Sprinkle with Feta cheese, craisens and chopped green onions (please tell me you don't still cut your green onions with a knife! Use your kitchen scissors to chop those babies up in no time!!)
I experimented with just putting the toppings in the center or spreading them out all over the tortilla. The tortilla stays together better with toppings only in the center since the cream cheese helps glue it closed. But it's prettier with the craisens all spread out. To get the best of both worlds use the largest size of tortilla you can (burrito size) then roll it up like a jelly roll, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate about an hour before you slice it into 1 inch thick circles.

A guest helped me cut these up and put on the serving platter. Usually I'd serve them face up so you can see all the layers, but this worked too! They made a really tasty and festive appetizer- perfect for any Christmas party!

Another one of my favorites was this easy peasy festive drink! All it is is a 2 liter bottle of "Sparkling Cranberry Arctic Cooler" served with floating orange slices. We call it "Christmas in a cup" at my house! It's my absolute favorite new thing! It tastes like a "Martinelli's" non-alcoholic sparkling cranberry cider. But this one is sugar free and only $0.84/ 2 liter! You can buy it at Walmart in the seasonal aisle right now. They don't usually have it in the soda section for some reason, but you'll find it on end caps or just in it's own display in the middle of the floor (usually next to the lunch meat section.) There are lots of other flavors too, like sparkling strawberry lemonade, sparkling blue raspberry, coconut, sparkling peach and sparkling apple cider. I don't recommend the apple one but the rest are deeelicious!!!

I found cute festive straws from "Dollar Tree" that matched the rest of my polk-a-dot Christmas theme perfectly!

I should have got a better picture of these cookies but they were gone too quick! They were just a quick store-bought oatmeal mix cookie with added craisens and white chocolate chips. The tip is to undercook the cookies, like really undercook! Take them out 1-2 minutes early. They don't look done yet but trust me. They'll set up more as they cool but stay gooey soft!

To keep with the red and white theme I made this super quick jazzed-up box mix Jell-O Cake that I posted about here. 

I'm not a huge mint girl, but when I saw these super cute wrappers at the dollar store I didn't really care what was inside of them! I was surprised at how many actually got eaten though!

There's a lot to deal with when hosting a baby shower or any party for that matter. I love hosting, but I know it tends to take away a lot of time from my husband and little kids. So I try to simplify as much as possible. Semi-home made is the phase of life I'm in right now and that's ok for me!

Jell-O Cake

Jazz up a white cake mix

I threw a baby shower for my friend last week. At the last minute I was afraid that I didn't have enough food prepared so I quickly mixed up a cake. 

This recipe is special to me since my grandma made it for each one of my birthday's. It's super simple, quick and always a crowd pleaser!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

Prepare white cake according to box mix directions.

Pour in pan and spread batter towards outer edges to prevent a dome shape while cooking. 

Bang pan against counter a few times to allow air bubbles to rise to the top. 

Bake according to box directions.
While the cake cools slightly boil 2 cups of water.
Mix one small box of jell-o with 2 cups of boiling water until completely dissolved.
Using a fork, poke holes all over cake.
Pour dissolved jell-o all over cake.
Put cake in the refrigerator and allow jell-o to slightly set up.
Just before serving spread cool whip on top of cake.
Top with sliced strawberries if desired.

Yum!

Chiffon Shirt resizing

Slim a Chiffon Top

From too boxy to just right

I saw a shirt just like this at the mall and thought it was so cute. Of course I couldn't get myself to spend $28 on it so I passed on by. A few days later I was grocery shopping at Walmart and walked by the clearance section. I generally never bother with clothes at Walmart because they're usually too boxy for my body. But since this shirt was the same fabric as the one I wanted earlier it caught my eye. It was $7 so I got it. 

When I got home and tried it on I wasn't surprised that it was boxy. Normally I'd just return it, but I really like the fabric for some reason so I decided to try altering it instead.

Without thinking too much I took it off, turned it inside out and sewed a straight stitch up the sides, under the armpits and tapered off at the sleeves.

Then I trimmed the excess material.

And wore it all day.

Sounds great, except in my hurry to alter the shirt and get out the door I forgot to think about the nature of the fabric I just cut and sewed.

Little by little the chiffon fabric started to fray and was barely held together by the straight stitch I had made earlier. Oops! I should have cut the fabric with pinking shears, then folded each edge over twice and sewn with a good zig zag stitch. But too late for that now! Instead I resorted to my favorite invention on earth- my hot glue gun! I used it like a fray check and folded over the sides and sealed them in with the stitching.

Not the most professional alteration, but it worked! :) I get asked a lot about my hot gluing fetish. Honestly I've found that hot gluing lasts as long as I want it to. I like that it's permanent but not. It holds up in the wash and stays unless I pull it off really hard. Even if it did start to come off by itself I could easily just reapply. It sounds ghetto, but it's a great trick!

Box of Cereal Christmas Tradition

Christmas Cereal

Looking for a fun tradition to start this Christmas?

My grandma has been giving her kids, grandkids and great grandkids a box of cereal for Christmas since before I can remember!
It is such fun gift that we all look forward to every year!
She stocks up sugary cereals that go on sale all year round and hides them under her bed. Then at our family Christmas party she stacks them up high and we all wait in anticipation until the time comes to choose our favorite!



She collects all the good kinds, the kinds your mom never buys you because they're too expensive or too sugary! All throughout the family party we look over the tall stacks of cereal boxes trying to make up our mind what kind we will choose this year. I was the kid who always chose the same kind every year-  Frosted Flakes. Doesn't sound too exciting maybe, but still to this day anytime I eat Frosted Flakes I think of Christmas morning!



My grandma makes the cereal distribution fair. She puts the numbers 1-31 in a hat and when the number of your birthdate is drawn you get to run up and choose your cereal. The only rule is once you pick yours out you have to go get a kiss from Grandma. My grandma is the type of lady who feels naked without her bright red lipstick and she makes sure to put an extra glossy coat or two on for the special occasion. I think she might even reapply after every few cheek kisses!
Everyone holds onto and compares their cereal to eveyone else's the rest of the night. Then we go home and save our very own special box until Christmas morning. Sometimes as kids we'd trade and share cereal with each other, but most of the time we'd all try to see who could make theirs last the longest!

It's a silly little tradition, but we all look forward to it every year! 

A box of Christmas cereal is the perfect tradition to start if you're looking for a meaningful inexpensive gift to give. It's even great if you have lots of family out of town that you have to mail presents to! I promise it's a tradition you'll want to continue year after year!

Monster's University Cupcakes

Mike Wazowski Eye Balls

Moster's Inc. and Monster's University were both adorable movies! I love how fun all the characters are! Check out these cute cupcakes I made to go along with the Sully Cake for my neighbor's first birthday party!

By the time I was finished with all the fur on the 12 x 12 Sully cake I decided there was no way my hands could handle decorating the cupcakes the same way! Luckily I had lots of purple and blue frosting (Betty Crocker Tubs stiffened with about 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar) left and some cute coordinating sprinkles. 

Using my largest star tip, I created a dome of frosting by hovering my tip just above the cupcake on the outer edge. To get the best look squeeze with even pressure as you apply frosting to outer edges first then spiral in towards the center, slightly over lapping the frosting as you build each layer up. Release pressure before you lift frosting tip up and away. I sometimes like to release pressure then push the tip down before pulling away for a cute star top. If you're going for a tall cup cake use this dome technique and overlap the layers even more.

Notice how this method of spiraling from the outside in gives a domed-peak look instead of the opposite, inside to out, that produces a flower bud like this picture from my daughter's Frozen party.

For the Mike Wazowski cupcakes I dyed my tub of white Betty Crocker frosting green with 5 blue drops and 7 yellow drops of food coloring. Then I mixed in 1 3/4 cups of powdered sugar to stiffen it enough to hold its shape. I don't have a large round frosting tip so I just cut off  the tip of a decorating bag and used that for my round shape. With this look it's especially important to burp the bag and get out all the air bubbles. 

As with the other cup cakes, the spiral starts on the outside and works its way in, but this time the layers don't overlap. It doesn't really matter how you end the spiral (lifting straight up or pushing down first) because the eyeball will cover it up anyway. I happened to find these edible eyeballs in a Wilton Halloween Kit on clearance after Halloween for $0.45. You can find them year round in the cake decorating aisle of Walmart but they're $3.97 for a pack. A package of mini Oreo's would work too. Just set one open face on top of each cupcake. Pipe a thin light blue outline around the iris for added detail.

 And there you go! Two dozen adorable Monster's Inc. cupcakes in 15 minutes!

Monster's Inc. Cake

Sully cake tutorial with baking and decorating tips

My neighbor's son turned 1 this week and she threw a big party for him. She chose a Monster's Inc. theme and it all turned out adorable!
As she was planning she came over to ask for advice on this and that. I asked her what kind of cake she was going to make and she told me she was looking around for a good bakery to make one. I was shocked!
I come from a long line of do-it-yourself-ers and I doubt I've ever seen a store bought cake appear at a family birthday party!
I told her there was no way I'd let her spend a small fortune on a cake and that I'd do it for her instead. She told me what she wanted and although I'd never done anything like it I was excited to have a good reason to practice and learn!

How to Sully Cake

Tips on baking a 12 x 12 cake

A 12 x 12 can be a tricky size to bake. It's easy to burn the edges and leave the inside gooey. I've seen people add a flower nail to the bottom of their pans to help the heat conduct more evenly. But I've always had good luck just adjusting my cooking time.
Start off by lining the pan with parchment paper or use the good old fashion technique of spraying the pan with cooking spray, then dusting it with flour.

Hold the pan up and shake the flour by tapping each side to evenly cover the bottom and edges of the pan.

A 12 x 12 pan needs at least 1.5 boxes of cake mix. I made a 2 layer cake and used a total of 3 boxes of yellow butter cake.

To keep the cake from puffing into a big dome in the center I push more batter to the sides and corners away from the center.

 Pick up the pan and drop it against the counter a few times to force all the air bubbles to the top.

 Bake 47-50 minutes in a 325 degree preheated oven,

Tap on the top of the cake and see if it springs back up. If you don't trust your judgement with that method use an uncooked spaghetti noodle to test the doneness of the cake (the cake will probably be too deep to properly check with a short toothpick.) If it comes out clean your cake is ready.

Let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes then run a knife along edge of pan, slightly picking up cake as you go and making sure it will release easily from pan.

Flipping over to your hand like you do with most cakes isn't a good idea with one this large. Instead, use a large cookie sheet by setting it on top of the cake then flipping both the cake pan and cookie sheet upsidedown. The cake should release fairly easily if you baked it thoroughly and greased/floured the pan right.

Wash the pan and completely dry it. Follow the grease and flour technique above then cook the 2nd layer.
Refrigerate both layers for a little bit to make handling and frosting easier.
My cakes turned out almost perfectly flat, but for some reason one corner of my oven always cooks different than the others and leaves my cakes flat on that side. If yours isn't even and you're a perfectionist too you can shave off the top with a wire cutter like this or use a sharp knife.

Brush off extra crumbs. Center the bottom cake layer on platter or use a piece of cardboard. (This is part of a pizza box.) Spoon a couple of dollops of frosting or custard on top then spread evenly trying not to stir up too many crumbs.

Add extra frosting to the sides making a small wall around the edges to help fill in the gaps that will come with the next layer.

Set other cake on top and add even more extra frosting around the sides to fill in the gaps.

Fur Frosting Tutorial:

What you'll need:

Tub frosting
Food Coloring (If you buy precolored frosting you won't need food coloring)
1-2 cups powdered sugar per tub of frosting used
Grass decorating tip
Frosting bag

Spoon a few dollops of blue frosting on top of cake.

Spread evenly making a crumb coating. This crumb coating will serve two purposes. It will keep the crumbs out of your final decorating as well as make the space between each fur line less noticeable as it will camouflage in. Crumb coatings should be pretty thin. You don't want to overload on frosting at this point. There's plenty more to come!

Refrigerate for about 20 minutes to help make the next frosting steps easier.

Prepare some purple frosting. I used a tub of Betty Crocker precolored frosting. Empty frosting into a medium sized bowl then stir in about 1.5-2 cups of powdered sugar until it's stiff enough to form peaks. 

Prepare a frosting bag by cutting a small corner off the tip just big enough to fit cuppling and tip through. If you feel like you need two hands to load the frosting in put the bag tip down into a tall glass and fold over the top edges. I just drape it over my hand, but it's the same idea.

Load the frosting by spooning into the bag, shaking it down and repeating.

Twist the top of the bag, wrap it around your first finger and use your other fingers to create pressure as you squeeze. "Burp"the bag by squeezing out a small amount of frosting back into the bowl and squeezing hard enough to let the airbubbles out.

To create the "fur" texture with the grass tip hold the tip slightly above the top of cake. Begin squeezing and continue with even pressure as you slightly pull to the side. Release the pressure then pull the tip to the side, up and away to discontinue the stream of frosting. You want the fur to mostly all go in the same direction as if it's combed that way, but still keep it a little messy. The length depends on you. I started with pretty short fur at first then realized how long that would take and ended up redoing the short fur with longer strokes.
Start with the purple spots by makings un-uniform circle shapes.

As you can see my crumb coating was super thin and pretty sloppy. I had to go back and add a thicker layer to my corners and sides which turned out very ugly since my frosting was pretty hard and flaky at this point. But honestly it truly didn't matter. All the fur covered that up anyway.

I'm not gonna lie, this was one of the longest and most painful cakes I've ever made! My hands and wrists hurt sooo bad! My husband jumped in to help for a little bit. Love him!

I probably shouldn't have added quite so much powdered sugar to my frosting. It was extremely stiff and hard to squeeze out. It also became brittle and broke off easily.

Continue the fur frosting technique along the edges. This is a little trickier than the top since gravity liked to pull my frosting down. But eventually we finished it and it was adorable!

My favorite part was having all sorts of neighbor kids running in and out of my kitchen and then gasping as they watched me work! "Wow! It's Sully's back! How are you doing that!? Will you make my birthday cake?" Ya, it made me feel good! Totally worth my aching hands! 

Next I'll post about the coordinating cupcakes that went along with this fun cake!