Halloween Cake !

I saw this cake on this website called Sugar, and I thought I HAD to learn how to make it. Here is the link with full video on how to get this beautiful effect: Cookig with Sugar Halloween Rainbow Cake. She makes food look awesome.

And the table gets more colorful!

Chocolate Frankenweenie.

Since I learned how to make candy clay (a type of molding white chocolate), my family has been requesting it instead of fondant.
So for Halloween,I decided to make Frankenweenie to top a cake, together with trees and pumpkins. The recipe for candy clay I found here.
Then I made a regular round cake, used Pirouline cookie wafers to decorate around, and topped with crushed Oreos to make the dirt.

All Halloween Party ready.

Feathers for Halloween?

Walking through the aisles of Michaels, I found a bag of black feathers that would be great for a costume. But none of my boys wanted to be anything for Halloween that would take feathers. Just when I was looking at some pictures online, there was a jewelery bird skull with the black feathers around, and that looked like a perfect hat.
So I grabbed some of my paper clay and started my attempt to make some kind of bird skull.

*Note that I used a small eggplant to help me shape the round part of the skull.
It took about 2 days to dry.
After perfectly dry, I gently sanded around, then in the end painted with silver paint. I used Martha Stewart's Metallic Paint.

I used a foam constructor's hat from Michaels, and cut around the wings to make it smaller. Then using hot glue gun, I glued the feathers individually, all the way leaving space in the front, to glue the skull.

Then using the hot glue gun, I attached the skull to the hat and finished placing more feathers to hide the yellow part of the hat.

Previously I made the eyes, using Fimo clay, and using resin on top.
The legs were also made from Fimo clay, and painted in gold craft paint. After dries, I glued to the sides with hot glue gun.
After all together, is all make up and fun.

Happy Birthday baby Jada!

My favorite thing to make in the whole world is little party favors for a baby birthday. So when baby Jada's mom, Serena, contated me to make her party favors, I was beyond excited! Her party will be at the Bronx Zoo, and how great to give me a chance to make little animals. My imagination was getting low in battery after I finished a few of them, but after looking at some kid's books, is always easy to get some inspiration. And with each figurine completed, it gave me such a satisfaction that they would make a more colorful table, in such a special day.
Happy birthday beautiful Jada, thank you Serena!

Quick Minion Costume.

After trying different ways to make a Minion, from the movie Despicable Me, I gave up and decided to make it simple, and use pre-made shapes (Different ways include paper mache, big kitchen bowl, and trash can. All unsuccessful.)
I found a construction hat for kids at Michaels, which was the perfect color so I didn't have to paint yellow.
The next step was to find the glasses, and searching through the store, I found these pickle containers, and the lids seemed the perfect size for them.. To make the front glass part, I cut a plastic disposable container and glued with hot glue.
To make the eyes, I just cut white paper and painted the eyeballs, and glued in the hat.
In the end the lids were glued to make the glasses, and black paper to make the straps.
With the help of my husband, we put little lights on top of the hat, connected with a small battery inside. Then I found little plastic cups at Party City to make it look like an ambulance light.
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But the real lights are not required, just used them because we had them at home.
For the rest of the costume, I went to Old Navy and found a yellow shirt and jeans ,that still can be used after Halloween. Since I could not find overalls, I cut a piece of old jeans to make the top part, and painted the letter "G" like the Minions have, using Puffy Paint
. And that it is, very simple, and the kid is happy. And not a lot of money spent.

Fluffy the Stegosaurus.

The more I have sitting and waiting time, my crochet resume grows. So after about 5 train trips to work, I completed Stegosaurus.
The patters you can find clicking here. I didn't print the instructions because my printer is broken, so the solution was take pictures of the instructions on my phone, so I could see them anytime.

After assembled, I used white buttons for the eyes, then used black puffy paint for the black part of the eye and mouth.
And there it is, Fluffy the stegosaurus.

Because we can't eat flowers

This year my husband played gardener, and it was surprising to see how the vegetables grew. According to the books from the library he read, the secret is good amount of Sun (at least 6 hours a day), good irrigation (he purchased a timer and watered the plants twice a day), fertilizer, and a good local nursery that sells the plants adapted to your area's climate. So after a few weeks, we were able to collecting potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce, watermelon and strawberries( in a very limited space).
So when too much of the same thing was growing, we started to give them away.
But who wants to get a head of lettuce, tomatoes and strawberries in a plastic bag? So I wrapped them in clear plastic and tissue paper, and made a nice bouquet. It is a multi purpose gift, because it is a beutiful bouquet, that can fill your plate, that fills your stomach, that gives you plenty of nutrients, and it is organic. Like the idea but don't have a garden? Just go to the grocery shop and make your own salad bouquet.
I bet it is going to impress anyway.

Crochet is a long trip friendy craft

Long trips are sometimes a not very good use of time. But when I was about to take this 9 hour train trip from NY to Canada, I had to find something that I could make. And sitting the chair on the Amtrack train, I found one craft that can travel with me, and doesn't take so much luggage space: my crochet bag. And the long hours turned into a very productive time, if you like little stuffed animals. I started working on my yarn when we just left Penn station, and on my phone I found this free pattern for an elephant at Woolly Tons website. Also if there was any question about crochet terminology, I would find the video on you tube to see step by step. Good thing Amtrack has Wi-Fi, outlets to connect your charger, a cafe and a beautiful view of the Hudson river. So between coffee breaks, toilet visits, feeding the kids, I completed my elephant way before we crossed the border. And the weather went from rainy and gloomy to beautiful and sunny, as we traveled north. These little crochet animals called Amigarumi are great to make, because being small, they take less time to make, less yarn to use, and can be finished before your hands start to cramp. And before the trip was ended, an elephant was made, and I could still enjoy and see the scenery. And the kids had fun as they saw Elephante being made, crossing the Canadian border, and take him to see the beautiful view of Niagara Falls.