Introducing...SCAMPER!

Lately I've been obsessed with the Food Network channel (I know, I know, I need a life! ;) ), especially Chopped and the Food Network challenges. So, the other day I was watching one of the cake challenges and felt inspired to make a cake!

I started thinking about what I could make a cute cake for, and then it hit me...Heather's boyfriend (Traber) and I got her a micro-mini pig for Christmas, and we were going to pick her up the next day. SO, I made the little piggy (even though she wasn't allowed to eat any!) a "welcome" cake for her "gotcha day"!

DISCLAIMER: The cake pictured below was made by a beginner and has several flaws so don't be too critical ;)

I made a carrot cake (out of a box of course, I'm not trying to be a chef or anything! ;) ) with cream cheese icing.

Then I added green food coloring to some of the icing and used a fancy icing tip that I had forgotten I bought (think I have a shopping addiction?!) to make the grass on the top. I also added some yellow food coloring to icing to make little ruffles on the side.

I found the little edible pearls at Walmart for about 3 bucks, and LOVE them if you can't tell! haha! The flowers were made out of fondant (pink that I bought and some that I dyed purple) with the pearls in the middle of each...so easy!

I found a tutorial for the fondant pig on www.videojug.com ...the step-by-step instructions they give made it pretty simple!

Then for the words.....they were the one part of this cake that I truly, TRULY hated making. I have horrible handwriting so I decided to make the letters out of fondant. A lady I used to work with (who now has her own bakery by the way! Impressive, huh?) told me that you can use the Cricut to cut fondant if you change the settings. That probably would have been very simple and fast, BUT my Cricut is my child! I could never forgive myself if something happened to him because I was making a pig cake (no offense, Scamper! ;) )!

So instead, I used an X-Acto Knife to cut out each letter. SO tedious and time consuming, I don't recommend it unless you have incredibly bad handwriting...even worse than mine! ;) After that, I added a darker sparkly pink edible gel to the letters to make them a little cuter! and that's it! So I might have to add another hobby to my long list--stamping, Cricuting (yes, it's a word...now!), painting, dancing, fishing, and now...cake decorating!

Ok, NOW I get to brag...about my CUTE nieces!!!!

My two nieces (Honey the Boxer and Scamper the mini pig) meeting for the first time...wow, imagine how crazy I will be if I ever have a human niece!!! lol!

Scamper and her mommy (Heather) looking at the cake I made

Another cute picture of Honey and Scamper

 I'll put up more pictures of Scamper soon but I ran out of room on my camera! haha!

-Sarah

Twins--Friends from the Start

For those of you who didn't know, I (Sarah) have been working as a nanny for about 5 months now. The kiddos I watch are boy/girl twins, and they are 9 1/2 months old (and SUCH good babies)! They have so many toys and clothes and everything else that I had no idea what to get them for Christmas. So I know they won't appreciate this at all now (how considerate am I? lol) but I made them a frame for Christmas!

Some of my absolute favorite moments with the babies are when they are eating, because they randomly stop to smile at each other. So I was obviously very happy to catch this sweet moment in a picture!!! It took me a while to come up with a saying to add to the frame, but "Twins...Friends from the start" just seemed perfect because they really are the best of friends. :)

To make this frame, I used a silver metallic paint for the base (this picture doesn't doesn't show just how shiny the paint really is) and rub-ons for the letters (time consuming, but super easy!). I also found this pretty blue floral print for the edge of the frame and I LOVE it! The whole thing was relatively easy to make, but I'm actually pretty happy with the outcome and can't wait to give it to the twins and their parents! :)

In other news: the Peanut Festival went well, we had a craft fair at a school where our cousin Christen just received a full-time teaching position!! (We are SO proud of her!), and.....Heather and I are officially college graduates!! Heather is going to grad school for Occupational Therapy so will be super busy for the next couple years, but me? I should have plenty of time for crafting and blogging now, so expect to hear from me more often than once every few months ;)

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas,
-Sarah

My First Post!

I have been so busy with school I haven't had a chance to post anything yet! Today I got out of class and decided I'm not going to study. I would really like to work on something, but I don't have any of my crafting supplies with me! So, I decided posting on here was the next best thing ;)

So, something I have been meaning to do and will probably work on this weekend is painting more pointe shoes. Sarah and I had decided to make a collection of princess pointe shoes. So far, we only have two lol But, I have big plans! I want to make: Alice (from Alice In Wonderland-My favorite!!), Dorothy (although, I guess she is not technically a princess), and I lost my train of thought. I am also making a really exciting pointe shoe, but I want it to be a surprise so I will just post the picture after I make it.

Our Belle pointe shoe (we also have a purple Jasmine one!)

The Whitesboro Peanut Festival is coming up soon! Come check out our booth on October 15 :) We have so much to do, I'm not stressing out yet, but I know I will be within the next couple weeks!!! We almost sold out of hair bows and bow holders last year, so I guess that is what I will be making for the next few weekends. We were really into making memo boards, but they didn't sell as well. So, we aren't making anymore. It's kind of sad, because they are fun to make!

Here is one of our many memo boards that did not sell...haha

That is about all I can think of for now! I will post again after we get started on our new items for Peanut Festival!

- Heather

Hairbows Are a Girl's Best Friend!

Heather and I are so excited that the Whitesboro Peanut Festival is in one month! We have SO much preparing to do though...We almost sold out of our Halloween bows last year, so I have been working mostly with spider, pumpkin, and other Halloweeny (Why is Blogspot telling me that's not a real word? LOL!) ribbons lately. However, I of course took time to make some fun new animal print and camouflage bows the other day as well!

I don't know why, but my camera is taking blurry pictures right now, so you can't see the glittery tulle on this bow! It is super cute though--glitter is my favorite!

I want to put this one on a crocheted headband, just haven't gotten around to it yet!

I think this one is my favorite! The ribbon is hot pink, even though it looks almost red in this picture!

I attached a thin light pink ribbon to the edges of the camo, which I think gave it an extra girly touch! Love it!

If you are in the area October 15th, stop by our booth at the Peanut Festival to see these hair bows (and much much more!) and to say hi!

Updating more often than Heather (haha!),
-Sarah

Practicum and Paint!

This year so far (senior year for both of us!) has been so busy that we fell way behind on updating our website! So we decided to switch from a website to a blog, and hopefully it will be easier to update!

This spring I completed my first practicum with a WONDERFUL non-profit organization that grants wishes to Texas children diagnosed with life threatening illnesses. They are called A Wish with Wings (visit their website to learn more!). Needless to say, I absolutely LOVED it and the three sweet and hard working ladies who helped me through my journey, so I wanted to make them something really special to thank them. I decided to make each of them a picture frame with painted butterflies (the organization's logo is a butterfly). It was definitely trial and error--I had never painted something for anyone other than myself because I am usually unhappy with what I make (maybe I'm a little bit of a perfectionist ;) )! But I feel like all three frames turned out pretty stinkin' cute considering my lack of painting experience. What's even better is they were SO FUN to make! I forgot about how much I love painting, and hopefully I will get better with practice! So here are some pictures of the finished products:

All three loved their frames (or maybe they were just trying to make me feel good--it worked! heehee)! One of the girls even asked if I could make a custom frame for father's day to give to her boyfriend from his daughter. Of course I jumped at the chance, and I will put up pictures of the frame I made as soon as I find out which camera or phone I took them on! (A little disorganized? Me? No, never!)

'Till Next Time,
Sarah