DIY {sharpie} Coffee Mug

I've seen these DIY Coffee Mugs floating around Pinterest for a while and I thought it was time to make one. 

In case you didn't know, there are a TON of Pinterest Fails in regards to the sharpie "wiping right off", so I decided to ask a friend who makes them regularly.  She told me that sharpies didn't work for her and to use Ceramic Paint Pens.   

Now normally I would have run down to the craft store to by some paint pens BUT those who know me personally, know that I'm a MAJOR procrastinator.  Unfortunately,  I had planned to give this gift to my mom... who I was going to be seeing in a few hours... eeeckkk!  

I thought... it only needs 30 min in the oven, I can do it the morning of... no such luck!

On to plan B!

I scoured the internet looking for Pinterest Success with regular Sharpies and luckily I found a bunch!  Here are a few things I learned:

* The type of mug you purchase makes a difference.  The cheaper the better.  Why?  Well it seems that cheaper mugs don't have as strong {or nice} of a glaze ---> which means the sharpie actually adheres to the mug better.
* Everything I read says "30 min at 350°" so most people would preheat oven, then put mug in - which is WRONG.  You want to put your mug in the COLD oven and then turn it on to 450° and bake for 30min.  Then let your mug cool completely before removing from oven {crack the oven door to help the speed up the cooling process}.  
* The colors will change.  So don't get upset when your red sharpie turns pink :)
* Handmade = HANDWASH.  I thought this was kind of a given, but it's amazing how many people thought they'd be okay in the dishwasher... hand wash only
* Pure dumb luck - even if you do everything right - it still might turn out wrong.  

Luckily my mug turned out perfectly - hahahahaha - except for my terrible penmanship, but heck, it give it character :)

I did a simple design  ------>  Madison + Riley = Happiness for Nana

See the date?  My momma's birthday {well minus the year}....  and here is a picture from April 16, 2014 {almost 7 months later} via my mom's FB page

I must say that it still looks pretty darn good!  Hopefully you'll have the same dumb luck as me :)

HAPPY CRAFTING!

(to see where I've linked up - click here!!)

Giant Flower Cupcake

My little girl turned 1 and I wanted to go all out!  Since her party was a Butterfly and Flower theme, I decided to make both Butterfly cupcakes AND a giant Flower cupcake.  I found this picture online and knew that I had to make this.  Since it was just a picture, I didn't have much to go on, but I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

 For those of you who are curious, here is how I made the Giant Flower cupcake :)

1. Bake 24 cupcakes (any flavor)
2. Once cooled, place cupcakes in groups of 7, then shape them into 3 separate flower petals, use 2 cupcakes for the leaves (1 cupcake will be left over - aka the one you get to eat right now)
3. Frost all the cupcakes with one layer of white frosting (I used a basic Cream Cheese Frosting).  Place the cupcakes in a cool place (or refrigerator) to let the frosting set/harden a bit.
4. While frosting is setting, take additional frosting and start mixing your colors.  You'll need 4 colors, I used Green, Brown, Light Pink and Dark Pink, but feel free to use any color combination you wish!
5. Using an offset spatula or fondant spreader, carefully spread out the frosting on the OUTER 6 cupcakes - make sure to leave the middle cupcake alone!!  Evenly distribute the frosting along all the cupcakes, so that it looks like 1 cupcake instead of six. Repeat with the other 2 flowers.
6. Once the frosting has hardened a bit, outline the flowers with another color frosting and add little dots near the center (I used white frosting for that part).
7. Frost the middle of each flower with your brown/chocolate frosting.
8. Frost the remaining 2 cupcakes with the green frosting.
9. For the petals I used fondant that I colored green and then cut out into the shape of a leaf.  However, if you don't have fondant on hand you could use: green fruit roll up, apple Airheads rolled out flat, or any sort of gummy candy that can be rolled out flat and cut out with scissors or a knife.
10. Use left over frosting to spread down between the leaves - acting as the flower stem.
11. Sit back and enjoy your beautiful work of art!

ENJOY!!!! 

(to see where I link up - click here!!)   

Butterfly Birthday Cupcakes

Remember these?? I thought I could do better, so I gave it a 2nd try!

 Recipe and Idea from Hello Cupcake

Recently my daughter turned 1 and her party had a Flower/Butterfly theme, so I thought it would be fun to make these cupcakes again, plus this time I had the correct melting chocolates.  While the 2nd time went much smoother, I did make a few changes from last time... I decided that outlining the Butterflies in white chocolate (instead of regular chocolate) would look softer and girlie; I also used pastel colors for the wings.  The cupcakes turned out much cuter the 2nd time around!

As I mentioned, my daughters party was Butterfly and Flower themed, so of course I had to also make a Giant Flower cupcake!  What colors would you make your butterflies?  

Do you like the White or Dark chocolate better?

Happy 60th Bday!

When my Mother-in-law, Nancy turned 60, we all wanted to do something really special for her, so my sister-in-law asked me if I would be willing to make her a scrapbook and of course I said YES!  

There was one problem, we had a ton of photos, but NO CLUE when they were taken, where they were taken or what age Nancy was in any of them... which made it kind of hard to add any commentary to the book, so we came up with a great idea.  We emailed all her family and friends and asked them to answer the following 3 questions.  

1. What do you love about Nancy?
2. What is your favorite memory of Nancy?
3. List 3 words that describe Nancy

I figured we'd get a few responses and have enough to add some nice, sweet comments to the pages, well was I wrong!  We received more than we expected, paragraphs, full pages and even more pictures about memories, or things they loved about Nancy.  After reading all the sweet things people wrote, I realized that I couldn't cut out 1 single word, so that just meant that I had to add more pages... 

A LOT more pages. 

Here is how it turned out!

Cover Page and Intro Page