perfectly {papered}

I participated in a little sale a couple weeks ago and have a few lovely leftovers.  If you are interested in any of the following, contact me at stephanie.creates@gmail.com

Christmas cards:  $1/ea.

I also made some delightful 2011 calendars that would be great in an office or kitchen.  I saw this idea on a blog I love to read and wanted to make one for myself at work.  Once I got done, I loved them so much I decided to share them with anyone else who'd like one as well!  Sometimes I think the best (and most practical!) art is just doing what you like for yourself and allowing it to overflow.  :)  One option for the calendar is excerpts from hymns and the other is just fun sayings.  They are $6/ea, measure 4.25" x 11" and are printed on card stock.  If you would like me to make a custom calendar for you with 12 of your own sayings, I can do that for $8.

 

Hymns excerpt calendar:
(1) and on him cast your care (2) take and seal it (3) it is well (4) sing ye heavens and earth rejoice (5) was blind but now i see (6) amazing love how can it be (7) arise my soul arise (8) love's purest joys restored (9) naught be all else to me save that thou art (10) tune my heart to sing thy grace (11) this our hymn of grateful praise (12) tidings of comfort and joy

Sayings calendar:
(1) here we go again (2) know love (3) take time to wonder (4) risen indeed (5) do justice love kindness walk humbly (6) all things new (7) fun in the sun (8) practice curiosity (9) go big red (10) fear not (11) full of thanks (12) love came down

Fun.  Have I mentioned I love paper?  stephanie.creates@gmail.com if you're interested!

happy birthday to {asher}

Our friend Asher got to celebrate his THIRD birthday in style with a fun Elmo cake.  I had so much fun making it, which was probably due to all his excitement for a strawberry "Elmo cake"!  He helped me pick out and bake the Dora cake for Praja's birthday in October and actually fell off a chair in the kitchen as we were mixing the batter because he couldn't contain his excitement.  :)

The stats: 9" round strawberry cake with buttercream and fondant icing.  3 year old kiwi with a serious sweet tooth.  1 sweet family and 1 fun Sunday afternoon.

We met the MacDonalds a year ago this week when God brought them to Omaha from New Zealand for Asher's big sister, Aria, to get a multi-organ transplant.  You can follow them and the incredible story of how God is at work in their lives here.

Happy birthday, little man.  Thanks for the joy you bring to your family and all those you meet!

praja's a{dora}ble birthday

Praja's mom asked me to make a Dora birthday cake for her 5th birthday party today.  I was a little nervous because it was my first attempt at making a character cake that people are supposed to recognize and I know from other art projects that these things usually go one of two ways... they're a huge hit or a major flop.  Just google "Dora birthday cake" like I did for inspiration and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about!

Praja's cake is a strawberry 10" cake (yum) with white buttercream filling and icing.  All of the decorations are in gumpaste and fondant.

My favorite part is the fact that it imitates Dora's actual logo.  I like the little Nick Jr. logo turned into "She's 5!".

I had so much fun making it and am really excited about how it turned out!  Happy birthday miss Praja.  You are loved!

anika grace's {baptism}

I got to make a fun little chocolate cake for the beautiful Anika Grace's baptism last weekend.  It was just a simple 9" round butter cream cake.  Joelle (mama extraordinaire) requested chocolate and that it would say "Anika Grace, child of God".  Precious.

 I used a really simple technique for this cake.  After I frosted it in the white buttercream, I got out some flower cookie cutters and gently pressed them into the icing where I wanted the large and small flowers.  I had a tiny cutter I used to outline the centers.  I then outlined the flowers and centers with a small circle tip and filled the flowers in with a star tip.  I used the same star tip for the edging on the bottom of the cake.

Pretty cute, huh?

And I just had to include some photos of the darling little one.... we got to photograph her when she was just a week or so old in the living room with mom and dad.  Beautiful.

 

 

cozy mittens {for a cause}

My friend Elaine is selling these WONDERFUL warm, adorable, and cozy mittens to raise money for her family's upcoming {adoption}.

 

 

They are handmade from {recycled} wool sweaters.  Each pair is lined with fleece and is 100% machine washable.  They come in kids ($15) and adult sizes ($25), as well as a "long" adult size.

 

 

  

If you are interested in any of the mittens please email Elaine at eandeolson@cox.net.  Your fingers will be happy for a cause all winter long!

o {happy} birthday

I made this cake for a friend of a friend a few weeks ago.  It's just a simple 9" butter cream chocolate cake.

 

 

Happy.  :)

when life gives you {cake} crumbs...

...you make cake balls!  Kudos to my cousin for the idea!

Chocolate and chocolate mint.

{congrats} to jesse and allie

Allie and Jesse said their vows Sunday in a GORGEOUS wedding at The Fountains Ballroom.  It is SUCH a beautiful wedding venue!  It helped that God provided them with one of the most beautiful days of the summer to get married... I look forward to seeing sunset pictures.  :)

Allie wanted a simple butter cream wedding cake.  We weren't positive about what she wanted, so we spent some quality time on google and came up with an image we both loved.  She also had an ice cream sundae bar (YUM), so the cake was only three tiers.

After my disaster Saturday morning was behind me, I rolled up my sleeves and ended up with a much more presentable cake!  Abby spent the day keeping me company (thanks!).

And of course my wonderful hubs accompanied me early to Glenwood to set up the cake.  He snapped a few shots of me at work.

The final product!

Had to include a couple photos from the wedding.  Too beautiful.

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs.  Thanks for letting me make the cake for your big day!!!

life lessons...

...this lovely creation will NOT be featured at Jesse and Allie's wedding tomorrow.  I must say, though, I tried a few bites and it was pretty amazing.  I just don't have it in myself to eat 100 or so servings of ugly-yet-amazing-tasting chocolate cake, so it's headed for the trash (sad).

For reference, here's a beautiful white layer that will top the happy couple's cake tomorrow.  The kind I expect when I throw a pan in the oven:

And this would be the little {but still tasty} disaster we're dealing with:

Bahaha.  I'm excited that I didn't have a meltdown.  But, it's back to the grocery store for me.  (Third time in 24 hours if we're keeping track).

P.S.  Allie, if you have time to read this in your "day before the wedding" chaos.  DON'T STRESS.  It'll be amazing... not as beautiful as you on your big day, but beautiful nonetheless!

{congrats} to david and nicole

All done!  Wedding cake #1 of my life is a memory.  It was a lot of fun, but I'm relieved.  :)

David and Nicole got married in a gorgeous {outdoor} wedding in Nicole's parents' backyard.  The wedding was beautiful and so much of it was DIY which I thought was very fun!  Their colors were gold, ivory, and brown and we dreamed up their cake with a little help from the embellishments they chose for their invitations and programs.

I got prepped Thursday evening and my dining room table looked something like this.  And for those who are concerned, the eggs made their way back to the fridge after their photo shoot appearance:

Friday morning baking began.  I think I would have been much more overwhelmed with all the mixing, frosting batches, and cake crumbs, but a happy little elf stopped by on her way home from work and stayed ALL day.  Thanks, Meg, you're the best.

By Friday evening, this is what we'd accomplished:

Saturday was devoted to the chocolate fondant ribbons on the sides of the cakes and painting Nicole and David's design in gold dust.

Sunday after church was operation "prep, deliver, and build this cake!"  I found a dreamy guy I happen to know that made all of that go much more smoothly.

AND... the finished product!  David's dad made the topper, which looked great!  I was a little worried about the cake outside in the heat until the wedding, but it did just fine!