Foodie Friday—Cupcakes!

Yes! It’s Friday; and, I’m happy to post about the latest cupcakes I’ve made. I absolutely love making cupcakes (even though I didn’t get to eat any of these). Making cupcakes is so much fun for me; and I love everything about making cupcakes—from using different color cupcake wrappers, choosing the frosting color, and lastly, using them for my cupcake topper photo-shoots.

While I was planning how I was going to make this cupcakes I thought, perhaps some people would love to see how I go about making them and here’s how I do it!

First, I flip through one of my favorite magazines, The FoodNetwork Magazine, and decide which color I’d like to use. I have a special issue that has a list of icing colors and the amount of food coloring drops needed to acquire the color I may desire; and, for this project I wanted to use the color Jordan Almond—which is listed at 12 drops of blue food coloring with 1 drop of red food coloring per 1 cup of icing. 

Second, I add two cups of store bought (non-creamy icing) to a bowl, add 24 blue food coloring drops and 2 red food coloring drops then mix. 

Third, I grab my wonderful collection of assorted cupcakes, and choosing my favorite ones. 

Lastly, I pipe the cupcakes and get them ready for their photo-shoot! I made new cupcake toppers using a cloud shaped craft punch, and hand stamped, hand cut toppers using my favorite stamps by Lawn Fawn. Aren't they super cute?

Photo-shoot days are always fun but adding cupcakes to the mix makes them even more exciting and I’m glad I was able to share this with you. If you'd like to purchase some of these adorable cupcake toppers they'll be available in my shop very soon. I hope you have a perfect Friday! Enjoy your weekend :-D 

Los Angeles Public Library—My Search for Vintage Craft Books

     I’m always searching the streets of Downtown Los Angeles to find the most unique craft and fabric stores; and one day I had a thought—I wonder what kind of craft books and crafting ideas can I find at my local library? Being that The Central Library, located in the heart of Downtown L.A., is one of the largest publicly funded libraries in the world—there must be books older than I am about crafts or paper crafting; and it turns out I was right. After asking the clerk at the information desk for directions to the craft section I finally made it to the isles upon isles of books on the topic; and I anxiously began to pull book after book until I had a pile so high I could barely even see ahead of me. The first book I opened was one titled, ‘New Dimensions in Paper Craft’, by Sadami Yamada, published in 1966. As I was flipping through the black and white pages I began to realize that many of the paper crafting decorations I found in this vintage craft book were much like the party decorations that are in style right now. For instance, I found what looked to me like the beginnings of the pom-pom—made of tissue; and a template for an Easter tissue paper party decoration. There were so many wonderful ideas, and I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I come here sooner?”

I took pictures of some illustrations and templates from the book to share with you, but now I’m wondering if there might be some kind of copy write issue so I’ll just demonstrate some of the cute ideas I found in that book.

Here is the Easter tissue paper decoration template provided by, ‘New Dimensions in Paper Craft’, and shared by me.

Here is the result:

And here is another cute idea I found that was so simple yet so fun!

Thank you for stopping by to share in this adventure with me. I urge you to stop at your local library to search for craft books that our ancestors left for us. To reinvent their ideas or to simply bring them back to life.

Tissue Paper Pom-Pom Tip for Hosts’ and Party Planners’

Hello! Today I wanted to share this cool tip for party planners and decorators. Last year I was the host of a baby shower, and one of the many tasks’ of a being a host is to ensure that there’s a lot of eye candy for the mother to be and guests; and one of the cute decorations I made was the popular tissue paper pom-poms. Now, this was the first big party I was in charge of arranging so I knew little to nothing about what it would take to pull it off. However, I managed to do a great job planning this bumble bee themed party regardless of my poor party planning qualifications’. After the party I did notice a few things that prevented me from a smooth decor set up, and I said to myself, “What could I have done differently?” Then a few months later, while preparing for another party, I came up with a little invention that turned out to be such a time saver!

One thing I never came across while viewing many tissue paper pom-pom tutorials was how much of a hassle it would be to hang the pom-poms after you’ve made one. I’m sure some may think common sense should have played a role in my pom-pom making and I should have thought ahead about it--but I didn’t. It didn’t even cross my mind until I was ready to hang them and it took me so long to string each pom-pom up. However, now I have an easy way to prepare my pom-poms way in advance and have them ready to for a quick hang-up.

What you’ll need: A thick marker, floral wire, and wire cutters.

Next, go ahead and cut a piece of wire at the desired length (I usually do about 15 inches).

Then wrap the wire around the marker like so:

Then give it a few twists’.

Remove the marker: and what you’re left with is a perfect circle big enough to fit any size string or ribbon.

Next, wrap the two open wire pieces around the pom-pom like so:

Remove the access.

And there you have it! A pom-pom that’s finished and ready to be stored away for the big event. What I usually do is make about 20-30 of these extremely in advance, and decide later whether I’m using fishing string or thick ribbon to hang them. It may not seem like the perfect invention but I’m telling you—it saves me so much time.