Bounce House Castle Cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a sweet girl turning 4 who was having her birthday at an indoor bounce house party place. Her mom told me she was a girly-girl who loved pink and sparkle! When I saw that the invitation featured a cute castle bounce house, I knew immediately what I wanted the cake to look like!

The mom asked me to include some sparkly jewels for her princess!

I made fondant jewels and dusted them with edible shimmer. The bottom tier was vanilla with almond butter cream and the top tier (inside the fondant castle) was strawberry with strawberry cream cheese filling.

A fun cake for a very fun birthday party!

Spring Easter Celebration

I was so excited that I was able to host Easter this year (I rotate hosting with my family)! I love spring and all the beautiful colors. I have a long going love affair with gingham, so I knew I wanted to use it for our Easter celebration. Piggy Bank parties has a beautiful printable gingham collection that was just perfect! It's also available in the spring version, which is beautiful for any spring celebration!

Everything was very budget friendly....I used gingham fabric left over from my daughter's birthday and various containers I had on hand. I made or printed out almost all the decorations!

I found this free cute print from The Hands on Housewife!

The place settings included more of the printables and the egg napkin rings I shared with you last week. I found the placemats at Dollar Tree a couple of months ago...perfect!

I was so excited to find these adorable mini GINGHAM take out boxes at Michael's. I added a party tag and filled them with some goodies for everyone.

I served brunch as our first course and we had our main meal (which included my husband's awesome eggplant parmigiana) in the afternoon! But I took no pictures of the main meal LOL!

Of course dessert is my favorite so I made cake...two cakes to be exact! One for the kids...

And one for the grown ups...

Despite the fondant carrots on top...it was actually chocolate cake with mocha buttercream filling!

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed hunting eggs and spending precious time with our loved ones!

 I hope your Easter was sweet and fun!

Beach Cake

A birthday party at the pool next to the beach calls for a colorful beach themed cake!

I love the bright colors of this fun cake! Finished in buttercream and decorated with hand-cut & handmade fondant decorations (I used a mold for the shells only). Inside both tiers are chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream...requested by the chocolate-loving birthday girl!

A fun cake that puts you in a summer mood!

{DIY} Spring Wreath

I love having a cute wreath on the front door and I knew I needed to make one for Easter. If you read yesterday's post about the napking rings, you know my goal is to only use what I already have for all my Easter & spring decorations. So I whipped up this wreath doing just that!

This was super easy to make and I only used a handful of supplies:

-wreath
-burlap or fabric to cover wreath

-yarn

-felt

-buttons

I actually had this wreath wrapped with burlap on hand. You could use fabric instead of the burlap. It was left over from a Valentine's Day craft FAIL, but like a good crafter I hung on to it knowing it would have it's day eventually! All I did was cut the burlap into wide strips, wrap it around the foam wreath & hot glued the ends.

I have this really fun multi-colored yarn that I just love...it's so cheerful so I had to use it! I'll be honest...my original intention was to COMPLETELY COVER the wreath in this yarn. But you know what? That takes a REALLY LONG time...and I have no patience for those kinds of crafts. So I went with a more "whimsical" look...and I ended up really liking how the burlap shows through.

I made some very simple flowers out of felt, using a flower template that I printed out. I cut the flowers out with the inside flower being smaller than the previous to achieve a layered look. I hot glued them on and then used some colorful buttons in the center (as I've mentioned many times...I love buttons)!!

I'll be using this wreath for Easter, but it's perfect to keep up all spring!

Happy Spring!


I'm linking up to...

{DIY} Easter Napkin Rings

I recently cleaned out and organized my craft cabinet and man...that was an EYE-OPENER!! It turns out that I buy waaay too much craft stuff that NEVER EVER gets used! Who knew??? (well according to my husband HE knew...ha ha ha)! Sooooo...I'm hosting Easter this year and decided that I was going to make all the decorations using only what I already had on hand. So Michael's PLEASE stop sending me all those great coupons!!!!

I have no idea why on earth I have a TON of felt...but I do, so it's going to be featured in most of my Easter decor. The first thing I made were these cute & colorful napkin rings!

These were super simple to make and I whipped up 10 of them in less than an hour!

You will need:
felt in various colors
ribbon
buttons or other embellishments
hot glue

To begin, cut your ribbon to your desired length. I cut mine about 10 1/2" long. This length allows for a large enough hole to slip a napkin into.

Then I cut out my egg shapes out of felt. I googled an egg template,printed it out on cardstock and used it to cut my eggs out. I tried to free hand them, but my eggs were all wonky so the template was easier.

Cross your ribbon over and use a dab of hot glue to secure.

Then use another dab of hot glue and attach your egg.

I have a thing for buttons...so I have lots of bags of them. I thought these pretty flower buttons were perfect for spring.

Hot glue the buttons onto the eggs.

That's it! Cute little napkin rings to add some cheer to your Easter table!

I was taking the pictures for this post, staring at these cheerful little creations got me thinking...

And I thought of another fun use for them...

I might just have to whip up a few more of these little cuties!

Happy Spring!

Hunger Games Cake {Cake on Fire}

Are you a Hunger Games fan? The book was recommended to me and I DEVOURED the series...just loved it! I was actually sad when I finished the last book because I knew that was it! But then of course there was the movie. My friend Wendy of Wendy Updegraff Photography hosted a Hunger Games premiere party and everyone brought a dish inspired by the book. Of course you know I had to bring a cake!

I LOVED making this cake!!! I wanted the cake to be on FIRE because if you've read the books (or have seen the movie) you know fire is an important element! I wanted it to be engulfed in flames with the Mockingjay rising out of the top...the symbol of rebellion and freedom! (yeah...I totally dorked out on the books I know).

All the decorations (including the Mockinjay topper) were hand-cut from fondant. This was actually the 2nd topper I made, as the first one just snapped in half (oh SNAP) and I sprayed it with edible gold.

The party was AWESOME! Everyone brought great dishes and we played trivia before heading to the midnight showing. With a theater full of teenagers, I've never felt so O-L-D in my life LOL!!

You can read all about the party & see the great pics on Wendy's post at Wendy Updegraff Photography. All photos in this post were taken by Wendy...except for the close-up of the Mockingjay topper, which was taken by me.

HAPPY HUNGER GAMES &

MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!!

Country Music Groom's Cake

I make alot of cakes for kids and girly-type cakes, so it was fun change of pace to make a groom's cake. The groom-to-be loves to play guitar and is a country music fan so I incorporated those elements in his fun cake!

Cowboy boots, cowboy hats and a rope border for that country feel...

Hand-shaped musical notes spilled down onto the cake...

and an acoustic guitar topped the cake!

It was fun to feel a "little bit country"!