The Crafty Red Rabbit

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 ...

When a coworker and friend of mine was getting married and I heard she was having a nautical themed wedding, I thought for a while about what I would give her as a gift. I looked around my room and saw it. A ship's wheel that had been sitting on a shelf for a couple years. A half-thought idea of some pirate-themed project that I had long ago forgotten. I thought about painting the wheel white, but once I laid the flowers I was intending to use next to it, I decided to leave it as it was. The light green, beige, and coral flowers popped out on top of the aged brown. I worked the wheel like a wreath, adding the silk flowers and greenery around the wheel using wire and hot glue. Then I added a simple label with the bride and groom's monograms. It was a simple project, it only took about an hour to complete, but it fit the bride's theme and became a symbol of their marriage: they would steer the journey of a shared life together.

Sometimes my craft projects are a little too ambitious. Case in point: the year I decided I would make a tabletop topiary tree every year for Christmas, so that eventually I would have a nice little collection of different themed mini Christmas trees. They would make fantastic center pieces or an occasional object of curiosity scattered throughout the house. They would also make great handmade gifts. I haven't done one every year since I came up with this idea, but here are the ones I have done so far: TREE 1: The first one I did involved cutting all the petals off a pine cone and gluing them all over a tall Styrofoam cone. I had seen similar pine cone trees online and in several stores and thought that recreating them myself by hand would be simple and cost-effective. After doing one though, let me tell you: buying them is worth every penny. It took super sharp scissors to cut off the petals from the pine cones. And it took a lot of pine cones to get enough petals. Gluing t...

Yeah, it's a mouthful of a name, but when I decided to create a cake pop for my charming boyfriend, it not only had to be tasty, but also a bit witty. The tasty part was a bit of a challenge.  I mean, this is a person who is not a fan of desserts.  You offer him a ten layer chocolate torte oozing with layers of rich cream and smothered with chocolate ganache and fresh strawberries and he'll say, "Eh".  Give him chunks of creamy Swiss chocolate and he'll say, "Nah."  I know, crazy, right? So what does peak his interest?  The minute I said Grand Marnier, his eyes lit up.  So orange cake laced with Grand Marnier became the core of the cake pops.  And the candy coating?  Dark chocolate has always been a favorite pairing with orange flavor (I absolutely loved the dark chocolate covered orange peels from the department store candy counters where they sold luxury truffles and the sort by the pound).  Fortunately, RJ prefers dark chocolate over m...

I always thought that my little cake truffles would make the cutest wedding favors.  So one night I made a few cake truffles and dressed them up in some elegant looking attire, fit for a formal wedding.  I think mini silver foil cups would  have been better (or black ones if I can track some down).  Plain ribbons in colors to match the wedding palette would also work, also changing the colors of the decorations on the truffles themselves to match would be adorable. But here are the results of the trial run. This one is topped with a little fondant flower dusted with edible glitter and with a pearl sprinkle in the center. And this little morsel is studded with pink pearl sprinkles.

One year, a very good friend of mine asked me to help her with a fund raiser she was having at her church.  She wanted me to help her make some cake pops, and while I was loathe to part with some of my cake pop making secrets, it was for a good cause, and for a friend that I've known since high school (I won't say exactly how long ago that was). Since it was right before Mother's Day, I figured some really cute pink pops were in order, and would attract those good sons and daughters who wanted something unique for their moms. We did 4 sets of cake pop bouquets, 2 sets were chocolate cake covered with milk chocolate and 2 were strawberry cake covered with pink tinted vanilla candy.  They were all rolled in either pink pearl sprinkles or a hot pink mix of nonpareils. I had found some adorable cardboard buckets in my local Target store dollar bins, and viola!  Our Mother's Day cake pops were in the bag, or bucket.

One year, the count-down to Christmas was well underway... and while I hadn't written my Christmas cards yet, or managed to get my tree up and decorated, I was determined to post a blog about my Christmas inspired pops BEFORE the blessed day comes! How did I become such a procrastinator during a time of year that I really love?  The decorating and the parties and the FOOD... the giving of presents that make a face light up... Baking Day with mom that wasn't quite a tradition until the last few years, but better late than never... and the lights!  A spectacle of delight that brightens the darkness and turns every man and woman into a child expectant for wonder. Maybe it's overload... so much to see and do and all crammed into a single month of joyous celebration.  There are so many choices during the holidays.  So many ways to decorate the tree... themed?  traditional?  red and gold?  hot pink?!  so many songs to hear piped over store speakers ...

My boyfriend's mother, Jamey, loves pumpkin.  One year, her birthday was coming up, and I knew I wanted to make some pumpkin flavored cake truffles for her.  What I came up with were yummy spiced pumpkin cake dipped in vanilla candy coating and rolled in one of two kinds of crushed cookies: graham cracker crumbs reminiscent of pumpkin pie, and ginger snaps for some extra spiciness. The cake truffles covered with the crunchy ginger snap bits really worked out well, so I made cake pop versions for our craft show at work.  When I told my friend Nicole (who is also a big pumpkin fan) about the pops and showed her a picture, she said they looked like mini ginger heads!   We love gingers... (my boyfriend and Nicole's best friend Steph both happen to be redheads) I laughed, and the pops were thereby dubbed Ginger Head Pops in their honor.

When my sister-in-law, Shayla, was about to have my nephew, Caleb, we threw a baby shower for her.  Since her nursery was going to have a jungle theme, we naturally decided to make the shower jungle themed as well.  I was brand new to making cake pops, having only made some once before.  So what did we pick for her party favors? Lion cake pops, probably the most time-consuming pops I will ever make.  Pretty ambitious for a beginner, but boy, did they turn out darn cute. Since Shayla loves Reese's, she picked chocolate cake for the core of her pops which were then coated in peanut butter candy coating.  For the mane, peanut butter chips were laid in a line around the pop.   Candy eyes started the face.  Originally, the nose was half an m&m and the mouth was drawn on with a food coloring marker.  I wasn't happy with how the marker worked; it didn't write on very thick, and the tip ended up gouging the candy coating.  In the end, I e...

Say that 10 times fast... Another genius idea from the boyfriend who asked if I could make a cake pop like a pop tart.  I thought about it for a while, I mean, the graham cracker crumbs I thought of right away.  That's half of what makes a pop tart so good: that sweet, crunchy bite.  My cake crumb mixture is so moist, it has that consistency that you find in the middle of a pop tart, but it wasn't until I saw the confetti candy melts that I knew I could pull it off!  The white candy with the tiny multicolored dots reminded me so much of the strawberry pop tarts I love. So here it is... strawberry cake, surrounded by vanilla candy and rolled in crushed graham cracker crumbs and then topped with confetti candy.  I don't suggest putting these babies in the toaster, but we're happy they turned out so yummy!  And so cute!

I'm a sucker for fairy tales.  What girl isn't? So when I came across this charming frog prince figure I knew he'd make an adorable topper for a diaper cake. Used some ribbon with some funky, but regal looking patterns, blue and green for a princely, but earthy touch.  Added some coordinating flowers and greenery and this amphibian royalty has a perch even Kermit would envy.