It's a LEGO Birthday - The Cake

Months ago, when Seth said he would like a LEGO cake for his birthday, I started thinking about how I was going to do it. I wanted to put a pirate mini figure on it and I didn't think there was any easy to do that. Until, that is, I came across the silicone form. I made it out of Rice Krispie cake because I wanted it to stand. The treasure chest is made out of Rice Krispie cake as well. I hollowed it out so I could fill it with chocolate loonies. And for the bottom boarder I used my chocolate LEGO's.








The awesome candles I made!



My LEGO pirate model and his treasure chest! He stood so still and never once complained! ;)



This cake turned out so great! Way better then I expected! Someone asked me how long it to make, and honestly I don't know! A couple hours here and there add up. I do know that time I put in was all worth while when Seth got up on his birthday morning and said "WOW! I really like my cake! WOW!"

It's a LEGO Birthday - Getting Ready

My son loves LEGO. Long ago he decided he wanted a LEGO cake for his birthday. I searched the internet for cakes but couldn't find one I liked. I really wanted to combine pirates and LEGO since Seth really likes the LEGO pirate ships and we have the play ship in the backyard. Then I came across these silicone forms.



Now this was something I could work with! First off I made LEGO chocolates. I've melted chocolate many times, however this time I thought maybe I should do it the correct way using boiling water. Does it ever work well!! I shouldn't be surprised I guess, but I always thought just doing it on the stove top was quicker and easier. Never again!





This is the first time I've ever used silicone moulds. I couldn't believe how easy it was to get the chocolates out! Just turn them inside out! So much easier then the plastic moulds I have.

They turned out so well that I didn't want to stop at chocolates! So with the mini figure moulds I made candles for the cake, and crayons for the loot bags.



For the candles I just melted some cheap tea lights I had and used some wicks I had left over from a couple of years ago. I tried to dye the wax but the wax just burnt to the bottom of the tin I was using. Probably should have added it a little later. I ended up using a permanent marker and coloured them to match a pirate mini figure.



For the crayons I dug through the crayon box looking for broken crayons of similar colours and melted them together. I made 4 different colours and each kid got 3 crayons.



Since I bought that Shrinky Dink plastic before Christmas for my Advent calendar I've wanted to make key chains. This was the perfect opportunity. I found a website that had the LEGO font and printed out the names of all the kids coming to Seth's birthday party, traced them on to the plastic, and shrunk them in the oven.



For the loot bag I also put together a collection of LEGO colouring pages for a colouring book, added a fun water bottle and a little bag of LEGO candy with a few chocolate toonies.



Since I was going for a pirate LEGO theme I thought it would be fun to do a treasure hunt with the loot bags being the treasure. I drew 10 clues and put them in little LEGO boxes to hide around the yard. My drawing skills are not very good at the best of times, and since I was doing this at 11:00 the night before I wasn't very worried about how they looked! (The kids didn't have any trouble locating the treasure, so they couldn't have been that bad!)



I got the idea for a utensil holder from this blog and made a napkin holder to match!



This is the most effort I have ever put into a birthday party and it actually wasn't that hard. Everything I made was fairly simple, just required a little bit of time, with the exception of the cake. And it turned out so well it deserves it's own post! :)
Stay tuned!

Birthday and Anniversary Calendar

This is another Pinterest project I've had my eye on for quite sometime. I wanted to make it for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Obviously that didn't pan out! Plan B was to get it done for her birthday.

The calendars I saw on Pinterest only listed the birthdays and I thought it would be really nice to add in the anniversaries as well. I came up with a design that I thought would be nice and headed out to the garage to find a big enough board. I did find one - I think it was what was left over from the ruler!

I ordered the letters, circles and hearts from this great Canadian site called Wood Things and got ready to paint! I printed out the words and traced them so that they were outlined in the wood. I took me quite a few days to paint. I had to do 2 or 3 coats on everything and I haven't done that much painting so my hand was not all that steady! I distracted the boys by giving them their own boards to paint. They enjoyed themselves immensely!

At one point my mother-in-law came over unexpectedly and saw my mostly painted board in the kitchen leaning against the wall. She thought it looked pretty good and I tried to brush it off as just another project. Someday I will learn to put stuff away!

The end result was great! It is one of those project that turn out so well you want to make it again. (Luckily I bought extra circles!) I just did the immediate family since I wasn't sure what my mother-in-law would want, but, when I have time I'm going to add the extended family as well. It should look even better with longer chains.

Baby Accessories

I know you are probably tired of reading about baby stuff - this is the last one for a while...I think! :)

I wanted to get these things done before Victoria was born, but never had the chance until a couple weekends ago. The first project was a change pad for my purse.

I am not a fan of carrying a purse, and a diaper bag and a baby in a very heavy car seat, while trying to steer boys in the right direction. I just don't have that many arms. So for short trip, or running down town etc. I'll just throw everything I need in my purse. Pampers, wipes, receiving blanket, extra sleeper... I have a big purse. This is fine, except then I can never find anything! I decided the solution was a travel size change pad with a pocket so I could bundle everything all together.






I've used it many so many times already! It's so handy!

The other project was a car seat blanket. I saw this on Pinterest (directions here!) and thought it was a great idea. The blanket is attached to the car seat! One less thing to hold on to! I went down to my fabric stash and an hour later had this sewed up.






It is just perfect for this spring weather we are *finally* getting!

On a side note, I'm going to change the name of this blog to Jen's Crafts and Cakes...or Jen's Cakes and Crafts?  It seems more fitting since half my post are cakes! And if you don't have a google account etc. there is also an "anonymous" option for posting comments if you so desire!

My Baby's Blankets

I went through a baby panel buying craze a few years ago. Every time I saw a cute panel I just had to buy it - which was just about every time I was in Fabricland! I couldn't help it! Have you seen those panels hanging in Fabricland? So adorable!! I had quite the stash. Most of them were gifts, a couple I sold. I'm happy to say I'm down to 4 or 5 left to make before I can buy any more. And a couple of those I have plans for!

I've made one for each of my kids, and it wasn't exactly planned but the theme for all of them - baby animals.

I finished Victoria's a couple weeks ago. This panel I bought before Seth was born and intended to make it for him, but then I came a across a couple others I really liked and decided to make them instead. I love this one and can't believe I left it for so long! It has purple minky on the back which makes it really girly.





These are the two I did before Seth was born, one for him and one for our next baby which turned out to be Anthony! Those were the good old days when I had all the time in world! :)


Seth's baby blanket.




Anthony's baby blanket. Pandas are my favourite!




Now with Victoria's blanket done I'm trying to decide what to do next. I have 3 quilts in mind...

Baby Feet

For each of my babies I've done a cross stitch with their feet stamped on. I'm quite excited because Victoria's just came back from getting framed! Nothing is more motivating then seeing a finished project!

Her's was a lot more stitching then the two I did for the boys, but it was so cute - and the only other one I could find with feet! There doesn't seem to be very many baby cross stitches with the feet stamping. I was beginning to think I was going to have to come up with my own pattern when, luckily, I found this pattern on ebay. I was really hoping to get her's done before she was born but that didn't quite work out! We stamped Victoria's feet when she was 2 months old, not bad considering I only started it after Christmas!





Anthony's had the least stitching and it done before he was born. Stitched his name and stamped his feet when he was just a couple weeks old.




I didn't get Seth's finished until he was 3 months old. I was in a panic to get it done and actually finished it on a road trip to my brother's wedding - it was a long drive! (And Seth was so good! He has always traveled well.) I was getting worried his big feet weren't going to fit in that little space, and they almost didn't! He is pretty much standing on that poor little bird!



Now with Victoria's cross stitch done, I'm going to work a little bit on my Peach Chorus from Mystic Stitch before I start her Christmas stocking!

"What is happening?!?!"

Another birthday in our house! For his 3rd birthday Anthony decided he wanted a Lightening McQueen cake. I've made a couple Cars cakes already, so this one I based on Cars 2.

Since I wasn't about to make McQueen, Mater, and Francisco, and I knew Anthony would love some more cars from the movie, I went out to buy them. I found Francisco but I couldn't find a Lightening McQueen or Mater. The whole cake depended on these cars so we were planning a trip into the city to get them when I had a brilliant idea! I texted my siblings in Saskatoon and asked if anyone wanted to do me a favor. Luckily for me my brothers volunteered. They braved Walmart, found the cars, put them in the mail and saved the day!

I got busy making the rest of the cars for the grandstands, and cookies for his name. The grandstands I made out of rice krispie cake. Stirring those marshmallows was probably the hardest part of the whole cake!

I based the cake on the boy's favorite scene from the movie - Mater is racing down the raceway with the bomb and McQueen is trying to catch him. He finally hooks on to Mater's tow hook just as he lights his rockets. They go speeding past Francisco, who was in the lead, and he shouts "What is happening?? It is a bad dream!!".



I disguised Finn, the super spy car, as a bush! And you thought it was just a random bush! :)



I really liked how this cake turned out. I have to say it is one of my favorites!