The Crafty Red Rabbit

RJ's cousin, Nikki, was having a tropical sea theme for her baby shower, and RJ's mom Jamey mentioned that there were some toys on the baby registry that would be great on a diaper cake. So RJ brought me to the baby store where I educated him on registries, baby bath items, diapers, and babies in general. Needless to say, he was overwhelmed just trying to get a printout of the registry. There wasn't a lot of plush toys on the registry, but a reference to bath toys sounded promising, so we headed down that isle and found a package of about 8 super adorable squishy underwater animals like fish, crabs, dolphins and turtles. They were a bit small, so we hit the list again, looking for something to use as a topper for the cake. We found it in the shape of a octopus-shaped toy, the kind that has a clip that you attach to the baby carrier, stroller, or crib. After picking up a box of diapers, we went home so I could figure out how to make everything work together and wh...

I'm always trying to think of activities to do with my nephew that he will actually 1) want to participate in and 2) not get bored with. You always want to build memorable times with your family, and sharing something new with Caleb has not only been fun, it has opened my eyes to how someone new can view something I have been familiar with for years. I have a ton of hobbies and I like to share those with him in case one of them catches his interest. So when Caleb asked me to make him some cake pops, I took the opportunity to suggest to him that we make those cake pops together. We made two different kinds of cake pops: chocolate cake with peanut butter candy coating, and s'mores pops with chocolate cake and marshmallow candy coating. I prepped for the activity making the cake crumbs and assembling all of the ingredients for decorating the pops: candy melts in peanut butter and marshmallow flavors, jumbo and mini marshmallows, chocolate sprinkles, chopped chocolate bars...

I have actually done this project before for my cousin, Carol. For her debut, her mother had found a wooden terrarium and asked me to put some flowers on the glass. I drew some on with Sharpies. They used the finished terrarium on the gift table as a holder for cards and envelopes. Ever since then, that same terrarium has been put on the gift table of every major party that her family has had, from her parents' and grandparents' anniversaries, her sisters debuts, wedding showers, and baby showers. When it came to the wedding shower for my coworker Amanda, who was having a garden-themed wedding, I knew it was time to do another one terrarium. I bought a simple white and glass one from IKEA. Not being assembled yet made drawing on each panel so much easier. I could lay each side completely flat. I could also do the drawings on the inside of the terrarium. I used clip art for my flowers, choosing a few types of roses and begonias so I would have different petals and leave...

Even though I had already created a gift for Mark and Jo with their little "house", I had to make them one more thing. Jo has always wanted one of my diaper cakes... even though she wasn't quite ready for the baby. So rather than make her wait another year or two until she finally got around to baking a little bun, I decided it was time to try my hand at a towel cake. Not a tea towel cake. A cake made of bath towels. Why you ask? Why not?  A diaper cake is both pretty and useful to the couple about to have a baby. A couple starting a new life together must obviously be in want of bath towels. In fact, I had thought about checking out M & J's registry to see if they had towels on there, but while colored towels would have made for an interesting cake, I wanted to do a white one since there would be so many colors on it from the decorations. So I bought plain white generic bath towels: 4 large bath towels, 6 hand towels, and 12 wash cloths. My imme...

This was by far one of the most involved projects I have ever worked on. My friend, Jo, loves handmade gifts. And with the rash of engagements going on among my coworkers, I've had a bunch of opportunities to make unique gifts for all the wedding showers. I wanted this one to be exceptionally special and tailored personally to one of my favorite couples. It started with a house. I don't remember how it came up in conversation, but Jo and I had gotten to talking about their future house and I thought it would be cute to make one for them. I thought about creating an actual dollhouse, but felt that would take entirely too long. So I opted for more of a symbolic house. I found a simple wall shelf that was shaped like house: two side walls, a floor, and a pointed roof, with the front and back completely open. I added some carved accents to the front edge of the roof line to make it look more interesting. I also found some wooden initials, 'J' for 'Jos...

I love DIY weddings. They make the event so much more customized and personal and extra-special because someone took the time to make something by hand. When my best friend got engaged, I made my crafting skills available: to help them keep their decorating costs within budget, produce any Pinterest project that caught her eye, or just provide advice and support in any task the bride and groom might possibly find me helpful for. I had acquired a book on paper flowers and was keen to build my skills at the more complicated blooms. I had previously mastered tissue paper poufs at my brother and sister-in-law's wedding and I thought perhaps that I could use paper flowers in place of the more expensive silk ones I was using on diaper cakes. So when the bride wanted to do some paper flowers for her wedding, I happily lent them my book to browse through and pick some they liked. They picked three different styles. After discussing the steps involved in each one, the choices ...

So this diaper cake was the first one I created specifically for a dad. When my coworker announced that he and his wife were pregnant with their second child, I immediately knew what theme his diaper cake should be. When I say that he is a Star Wars  ®  fanatic, I do not do his fanaticism credit. We had to limit his Star Wars  ®  references to a mere two a day. Yes, you read that correctly... two a day. He could weave Star Wars  ®  into his daily conversation the way a normal person simply breathes. We couldn't eliminate his quotes all together, since, as he says, he would probably implode. He has a room full of collectibles, several costumes, and he sees every movie on opening day religiously.  I'm not poking fun, I myself have a room dedicated to Alice in Wonderland, have dressed up as Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and of course Alice. I carry Alice in Wonderland purses and collect Alice in Wonderland art. I thought I was Alice-crazy, but I h...

Oh, Time... you creep along so slowly at times and then we blink and you've raced past us in a blur that leaves our heads spinning and asking, "where did you go?" My last post was about my nephew's soon to be re-faced nursery mural. Well, this one is about a mural pulled way back from the past. My aunt was having a baby... the timing of which I will reveal a bit later. She was a fan of classic Winnie the Pooh for the nursery and of course had a crib set with Pooh Bear and his friends rambling through the Hundred Acre Woods. It was green and earthy, with a beautiful sky of fluffy white clouds above them. When she approached me about painting the nursery to match, she wanted rolling green hills and blue skies and those billowing white clouds. She had wall stickers of Winnie and company, so all I needed to provide was their background. No problem, I thought. I was used to painting landscapes in high school, so this would be an easy project. She bought paint to matc...

A coworker's daughter was going through chemo during her senior year of high school and when all her hair fell out, she rocked a wig-less head, even to her prom. Instead, she asked me if I could make a headband for her, something pretty and sparkly.  We went shopping at the craft store together and picked out ribbon that matched her dress. She wanted it to wrap around her head, tie at the back with a simple bow and have long dangling ends that would trail down her back. We looked at all of the different kinds of lace by the yard and picked out something that was pretty, but not overly complicated. It came with tiny pearl seed beads sewn all over it, so after finding two spots in the pattern to cut the lace down to size, I had to cut out the seed beads and pray that I wouldn't accidentally cut part of the lace itself. Then came the scary part. The ribbon had to weave in and out of the lace, to tie it down around her head, but also so the color of the ribbon would ...

When I make a diaper cake, I like to give it as personal a touch as possible.  If I'm making a cake for a friend of mine, making it personal is usually not a problem.  The color and theme will typically match the nursery, if I'm lucky enough to hear how the planning of the nursery is going.  As I LOVE hearing about decorating projects, and of late I LOVE hearing about decorating nurseries, I usually am lucky enough to hear about it. When I'm not privy to the joys, or tribulations, of the nursery project, I will rely on what I know about the mother, or father's, hobbies or tastes.  A favorite color, a favorite flower, a love of owls or of bunnies.  Even a favorite book or movie can lend a direction to the cake. In this instance, I knew neither the mother or the father.  The commissioner of the cake didn't know anything about the shower theme or what the nursery would look like.  They couldn't tell me anything to go with on the cake beyond the colo...

If you know me, and have heard me rattle on and on about my nephew, Caleb, you may wonder why I am writing about his nursery, after all, he just started first grade. He's a big boy now. And as things naturally go, his bedroom is about to get a face lift. Which made me nostalgic about the mural I painted... to match that jungle themed shower you might have read about in a previous post. It was a monkey, dangling from some jungle vines. It was a simple design, cute, minimal, but not lacking in charm. He was lifted from the design on the crib set that my sister-in-law had picked out.   He didn't take as long as some murals I've painted. But it makes me happy to think that my nephew went to sleep with that monkey looking over him. And eventually, when he was able to talk, he used to have conversations with it. I don't remember what they talked about, but the idea of those intimate talks between Caleb and my painting makes the upcoming removal of it a little ...