How to Throw a Garlic Bread Party for your Teen!

/
How to Throw a Garlic Bread Party for your Teen!

In honor of one of his favorite foods, my son asked for a “garlic bread party” to celebrate his 14th birthday, and I was immediately in! It’s always nice to have a theme as a jumping off point…and with this one, the menu pretty much takes care of itself. Themes aren’t as easy to come up with as they were when my boys were dinosaur/planet/science/comics/Elmo-obsessed little kids! FOOD-as-theme, though, is an easy crowdpleaser.
You may be wondering about that string of brown balloons in the photo above. Well, it was my attempt at a garlic bread garland! With a little more time I think I could have used some white acrylic paint to create better-looking scoring to make it look more like bread. (As an aside, this project got me fascinated with bread scoring! I won’t ever look around in a bakery the same way!)

Read More

5 Easy DIY Dessert Stands for Etsy Studio

/
5 Easy DIY Dessert Stands for Etsy Studio

I am so happy to have recently contributed some ideas to Etsy Studio, Etsy's new-ish craft supply market where makers can find unique (and basic) materials as well as project ideas and inspiration. My first post is all about making homemade dessert stands, like this multi-tiered castle stand! I was so inspired by Etsy's wide selection of unfinished wooden blocks and shapes! 

Read More

More Wintry Candy Crafts To Try With Your Kids!

/
More Wintry Candy Crafts To Try With Your Kids!

This little seal is a favorite from our book, Candy Aisle Crafts. That sweet face! In this shot, he is sliding around on some (aluminum foil) ice surrounded by sugar "snow". You can see him here atop a delicious chocolate cake along with some other arctic friends, along with the penguins below.

Read More

Fruit Stripe Gum Letter Cake Topper

/
Fruit Stripe Gum Letter Cake Topper

Many years ago, when Amy and I were working on our first book, Candy Aisle Crafts, we shot a few ideas using Fruit Stripe Gum. We both love the colors (and the stripes)! I remember pining for it as a child! One idea was to use the gum to make letters to top a cake inspired by paper letters in one of my all-time favorite craft books, Creating With Paper. We loved how they came out but then we happened upon these really cool gumpaste letters and thought they looked way too similar so we pulled the idea from the book. Unfortunately I don't see the gumpaste letters for sale anymore but figured that I'd finally share our Fruit Stripe gum letters here.
If you want to try making them, make sure to use fresh gum if possible (not that you can really tell when you buy it)! 

Read More

Tube Letters: An Easy Birthday Garland Alternative!

/
Tube Letters: An Easy Birthday Garland Alternative!

In our house we have a tradition of leaving birthday messages for each other as a birthday morning surprise. They're usually in the form of garlands or banners, strung across doorways or along the edge of the mantel. These tube letters, from our book, Paper Goods Projects, are a fun way to display a message, no tape or string required! And they marry type and cardboard tubes, two of my favorite things!

Read More

Great Kid Gift!: Easy-to-Assemble Imaginative Play Kits

/
Great Kid Gift!: Easy-to-Assemble Imaginative Play Kits

One of my favorite gifts to give to kids is a handmade (well, hand-assembled) imaginative play kit. I'm excited to share a fun story that I developed for Parents Magazine about this very topic in the March issue (on newsstands right now) with gorgeous photos by Zoe Berkovic!

Read More

How To Throw the Ultimate Pee-wee Herman Party!

/
How To Throw the Ultimate Pee-wee Herman Party!

In honor of the soon-to-be-released movie, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, I am sharing my son’s Pee-wee-themed 5th birthday party from a few years ago. We are all BIG Pee-wee fans and very excited for his new movie, which starts streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 18th at 12:01 A.M.!! Use any of these ideas to throw your own Pee-wee viewing party!

Read More

Comic Book Birthday Party!

/
Comic Book Birthday Party!

My son requested a comic-themed party for his ninth birthday. He loves Calvin and Hobbes, Big Nate, and Garfield and came up with his own list of fun activities based on these characters! For his cake, above, we made toppers by printing out some comics we found online, trimming and then taping them to skewers and toothpicks.

Read More

Fish Pops for a Summer Party!

/
Fish Pops for a Summer Party!

Is it safe to (finally) say that summer has arrived? I'm hoping so! It's time for sprinklers and pool parties! To celebrate, top a cake with these fish pops for an under-the-sea party. Here in Brooklyn we have a blowup pool in our small backyard and my husband and I squeeze right in there with the kids! The lollipops would make great party favors too.

Read More

Book Giveaway on Bloesem Kids!

/
Book Giveaway on Bloesem Kids!

The gorgeous blog Bloesem Kids is offering a giveaway of our book Candy Aisle Crafts!! Click over to enter and also to see a few tutorials from the book, including this gumdrop sailboat! If you aren't already familiar with Bloesem, make sure to check out Irene Hoof's other inspiring blog, Bloesem Living. Thank you Bloesem!! 

Read More

Oh Happy Day!

/
Oh Happy Day!

We are thrilled that our Cookie Cakes were featured on one of our absolute favorite blogs, Oh Happy Day! They are even offering a giveaway. If you leave a comment on their post by tomorrow 8/22, you might win a copy of our book Candy Aisle Crafts!

Click over to Oh Happy Day for the full tutorial!

Read More

Planet Cookies!

/
Planet Cookies!

Our planet cookies were featured on the beautiful blog 100 Layer Cakelet, a great place to go to for kid's birthday and shower ideas and lots of other parent and expectant parent inspiration!

Read More

Triangle Cake Decoration

/
Triangle Cake Decoration

While melting lots of candy for the book, I experimented with cutting through warm candy with kitchen shears while it was still on parchment. (This is hot work for adults only!) Triangles are an easy shape to cut and they make an pretty and graphic cake decoration. They'd also work as Christmas trees for a holiday cake decoration or lollipops.

Read More

Marshmallow Birds

/
Marshmallow Birds

These marshmallow birds are one of the projects in the marshmallow chapter in our book. I had created many marshmallow crafts over the years and when I started on the marshmallow chapter I was afraid I had already made everything there was to be made out of marshmallows. After I started playing I realized that the possibilities were endless. I would have been happy to do a whole book of marshmallow crafts!

Read More

Dot Flower Pops

/
Dot Flower Pops

These simple dot flower pops are from the hard candy chapter in our upcoming book, Candy Aisle Crafts. They are a great starter project for getting used to melting hard candy and would make cute party favors!

Jolly Ranchers are my favorite candies to use for the candy-melting projects I’ve done over the years and have always found that it melts very smoothly.

Read More