Wonder Boy's 1-up Mushroom Birthday Cake

As promised, here is the Mario 1-up mushroom cake I made yesterday for Wonder Boy's 22nd Birthday. I went through many versions of just how to make this in my head. Finally I decided to bake one round and one square cake and carve them and put them together. After baking them I printed out a pic to use as a reference for decorating. And that my friends is when inspiration nearly knocked me over like a speeding train. This image was perfect.....nearly round. Don't you just love those aha moments?

So, I baked another round of cakes (1 round, 1 square). While they were cooling I traced said nearly round image into my SCAL, sized it to the exact size of my round cake pans and cut it out. It was perfect. I frosted the 2 rounds together and laid my cricut template on top and carved that puppy like a food network pro!!  :)  Next up was a crumb coat and refrigerating for a bit to firm up. I tinted most of my frosting green with Wilton food coloring paste and frosted the little guy. Meanwhile I melted some Wilton candy melts in my candy melts squeeze bottle and made white chocolate "spots" on waxed paper. I melted some chocolate chips in a small freezer bag in the micro, snipped off a corner and piped out some eyes (adding white chocolate dots). Off to the freezer for a bit of firming and ta-da.....instant mushroom decorations. I did discover that the now extremely rigid spots were too flat to "mold" to the shape of the cake so I nuked them little puppies for a few seconds and it worked like a charm.  I am so proud of this cake and the Birthday Boy was thrilled!!  Any questions, let me know??  Enjoy!!

I think this picture is definitely worth a thousand words.....maybe more. Happy Birthday Wonder Boy!!

Remember the Crepe Paper Birthday Surprise Ball.....it's a good place for kittens to hide.....notice the tail sticking out on the left??  Silly Jinxy girl.

Yes I am still alive....

.....sometimes life just takes over and refuses to let you breathe 'ya know??  Some good, some bad.....but we'll focus on the good!! I have been working feverishly on the new business, "ARTful Salvage." I have posted a few more of the 60+ totems and bird feeders I have been making on my Salvage blog. Please check it out if you have time!!

Today is Wonder Boy's 22nd birthday. Wow!!  How did that happen??  Geesh!!  Wasn't he just going for his first day of preschool? :::sigh::: We will have his party later on tonight (you know....after normal people have slept and gone about their day). But I wanted to share one of his gifts. He asked for a WOW card (World of Warcraft).....but that seemed to easy for me and definitely not any fun. I like to make gifts special (and time consuming).....LOL  So, I made him a crepe paper gift ball. Basically you buy some crepe paper streamers and choose what you wish to add. You have to work backwards if you have an order or words to include. You need to wrap the last giftie to open first.

Here is the stash and the supplies. :::smiles:::

I use half of a roll of streamers at a time.....and then switch colors. I finished up with the really cool "Happy Birthday" print streamers I found at Dollar Tree. I decided to give him the $$ in dollar bills just to be cheeky!!  I interspersed them with some candy.

Here is the finished ball (Mt. Dew can is to give you an idea of the size). This ball is heavy!!  LOL  I cannot wait to give this to him. :::smiles:::

So, I'll share more on his B'day later. Don't forget to check out ARTful Salvage! I'd LOVE to hear what you think.

Repurposed garage sale mirror into garden ART....

....if want to see how this lowly garage sale mirror turns into a garden Beauty Queen check out my repurposing blog: ARTfulSalvage

New ART - actually played with paper today....

Every year I make Birthday Cards for my Mom to give to my cousin's 2 kiddos. This year's offerings were to be Hannah Montanna and Buzz Lightyear!! So, I knew immediately what I wanted for Buzz, but Hannah?? Ugh!! No clue. I knew there was a Cricut Cart. for her, but I didn't know anyone with one close enough. So, while out shopping I started looking for a coloring book, wrapping paper.....anything HM. Well, hubs found this awesome HM book that you were supposed to fill out and paste your pics into. Yep.....you guessed it.....have scissors will make cards!! I cut everything you see on the cards from the book (excluding the printed cardstock for the actual card and the paper for the envie). I am happy with the finished product.

Hannah Card

Hannah Inside

Hannah Envie

Now Buzz was a wild ride. I had never attempted such an elaborate cut file before. Holy cow.....it was like 30 some pieces. But I persevered and was thrilled with my finished Buzz. But, what to do for his card?? I found the 'perfect' paper in my DCWV Rockstar stack. Isn't it great? The envie.....well, let's just say it is perfect too!! An interesting design note. The larger green stars have these random swirls and lines on them that I think really enhance them. Here's the great part.....they were totally by accident. When I grabbed the green paper from the scrap box and punched them, little did I know that lurking on the back side was a note I had written to Wonder Boy (#1 son). I couldn't have made more random and appropriate squiggles if I had tried!! :) It was a happy accident. I then inked and smudged the edges a bit more. Pretty nifty. :)

Introducing [ARTful] Salvage.....my new blog

Just wanted to introduce you to my newest blog: [ARTful] Salvage. She was born of my love for repurposing, creating and salvaging. Please stop by and check her out and say hi!! :) I have shared many of my newest pieces of glass Garden ART, we are calling "A Touch of Glass.' Tomorrow I will be sharing our experiences of our first Farmer's Market show!! Hope to see you there!! :::smiles::: This is my repurposed and salvaged sign. I took an old cabinet door, turned it on it's side and cut letters from black vinyl with the Cricut. The backing is an old, time-worn quilt and some vintage ivory buttons. I can't tell you how thrilled I am with how it turned out. I especially like that isn't perfect and that the glass is cracked!!  :)