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...