DIY Birthday Card | Book For Birthday Keepsakes

TGIF! It's been one of those weeks! Starting off with losing pictures on my blog... can you tell I'm still a little bitter about that. Apparently, that has happened to a lot of other bloggers out there. Oh well, time to move on! Hopefully, next week will be a better week :)

So this weekend my kids have 3 birthday parties to attend! Yup, busy birthday weekend... so I thought I would share with you a little gift I made for each of the kids. I got the idea from one of my favorite bloggers Thienly Azim from her blog modpaperie, if you have not visited her yet...YOU MUST! She will inspire your socks off  :) She made a birthday book, I loved that idea. A place where you can keep all your memories of the day.

I didn't feel like going out and buying birthday themed paper so I thought I would just make my own pages using the print and cut features of the Silhouette, and use papers I already owned. For my books, I thought I would make a little box on the back to place some cards or even some of the birthday pictures. So here is my take on the birthday book, well 3 of them...

I used graphics from Lettering Delights Scribble Kids Alphabet, Banner Day Alphabet, and the Sweet Birthday SVG  kits. This is what the front covers look like.

Here is what the book looks like when the book is opened up,

even a spot for the birthday girls picture.

Here is a boy's version.

A place for pictures, cards, whatever they like!

Here is a pic of a tag that I put on the back of all my crafts!

The box was just made on a score board, didn't use a cutter.

The box measured 4.5" X 6.5" X 0.5" 

Folded down the top edge and glued it. Then glued down all the rest of the edges to form a box.

Here is what it looked like all put together.

For the fan part of the book, I used the same measurements and then just glued the two sheets together. Once I had finished embellishing the pages I just adhered the last page to the box. Added some ribbon to tie it up and keep it all together. I hope the kiddos like them! I know my son already has put a request in for one!!!  Well better get busy!

Thanks for visiting!

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Star Wars Cup Cake Toppers for Star Wars Birthday Party

For the party, I decided I would make some cupcakes. I thought about making cupcake wrappers with my Silhouette, but then I thought that might be too much work and use up a lot of paper. So then I decided on just making cupcake toppers. Jin Yong from Under a Cherry Tree has taught me pretty much everything I have learned about my Cameo. If you have a Silhouette, you should definitely check out her blog... She has some really good tutorials, and I referred to this one when I made these cupcake toppers.

I Googled Star War images and came across some really cute ones, I then opened up the image in the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition and followed Jin's tutorial for the rest.

Here is what I had once they were all cut up. For the toppers, I just used hot glue and toothpicks.

On the reverse side of the topper place a large enough glob of glue.

Fold in half and align with the bottom part of the topper. Press together. 

All ready for the cupcakes!

Now time to get started on the cupcakes, cake pops, and the cake!

Thanks for visiting!

Ilda :)

First Communion Cake Pops | Plus Tips I Learned From the Process

And the baking begins... 

So the first time I made cake pops it was kind of a disaster, I had watched you-tube videos but still, it was a mess. They kept falling apart because they were so heavy and dense and it was really frustrating! This time was much better, like anything else you learn from your mistakes!

I ended up using a cake pop maker this go around. So much easier and the cake balls were not as heavy so they didn't fall off the sticks. (I do have to admit that the baked cake pops don't taste as good as the dense cake pops that are made with cake batter and icing)

Something else I learned from last time was that the balls kept rolling around and staining the sticks with wet chocolate. This time I used an old Styrofoam egg carton. It worked wonderfully and made it easy to transport to the fridge as well!

I don't have a fancy cake pop stand, so I used floral foam to support the cake pops while they dried. All I did was take a sharp knife and poke holes all around the foam, piercing the plastic wrap that the foam came in. That way it kept all the foam flakes inside the plastic and made it easy to wipe off so I can reuse next time (you could also use cling wrap or tin foil to wrap up the foam)

Having the cake pop on the foam also made it easy to pick up and rotate the position of the pops as I decorated the top!

More tips... 

• when melting your chocolate if you find the consistency too thick, add a tiny bit of shortening until you find it easy enough to coat the pops. (Thanks to my sister In-law Rozana for that one, made a huge difference!)
• The other thing I did was melt my chocolate in microwave in a deep bowl.  Placed a smaller bowl underneath the chocolate bowl with boiling water, this kept the chocolate from solidifying once I started dipping the cold cake pops.

Hope these tips help future cake pop makers... if you have any more tips I would love to hear from you as well!

Well gotta run and get ready for an evening shift at the Hospital. Thanks for stopping by!

Ilda :)

Up next the Communion Cake!

DIY Tissue Paper Rosettes | First Communion Decor

And my party decor continues.... two posts in one day! Only because the kiddos aren't home, LOL! Thank God for Grand Parents! :)

Rosettes are pretty trendy right now so I thought I would try and figure them out. It actually was pretty simple after making all the pom-poms! 

Here is a step by step tutorial on how I made my tissue paper rosettes...Sorry! Not too happy with my pictures though, bad lighting! I need to work on my photography skills... oh well, lesson learned!

I hope you enjoyed this step by step tutorial... next up paper cake party favor treat boxes!

Ilda :)

DIY Tissue Pom Poms | First Communion Decor

Next weekend we will be celebrating my son's First Communion. So this week I have been busy making some decorations for the party. His favorite color is blue so I thought I would just go with a blue and white theme and start off by making a blue and white pom pom.

I love Martha Stewart and her products, but I don't like her prices. So today I thought I would share with you how I have been making her pom-poms for a fraction of her price. You can make them in however many colors as you like!

Next up....  tissue paper rosettes tutorial!