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.

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Cute Marshmallow Arctic Animals for a Winter Birthday Cake

Cute Marshmallow Arctic Animals for a Winter Birthday Cake

When Amy and I were working on our book, Candy Aisle Crafts, her nephew was celebrating his first birthday with an arctic-themed party. We made him a cake topped with a marshmallow polar bears and penguin mommas and babies, and a couple of marshmallow seals. The cake itself is chocolate and we used this recipe, a longtime favorite!

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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)! 

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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!

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Comic Book Birthday Party!

Comic Book Birthday Party!

My son requested a comic-themed party for his ninth birthday. He loves Calvin and HobbesBig 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.

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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.

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Fun Cookie Flower Craft!

Fun Cookie Flower Craft!

We're thinking spring! These cookie flowers are made from store-bought cookies and candy and are an easy and fun party or rainy day activity for younger kids. They're pretty on the side of a frosted cake for Easter, a shower, or any party! The M&M centers are “glued” to the cookie with a dot of vanilla icing that has been tinted pink. 

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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!! 

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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!

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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.

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