Disney Autograph - Smash book

This is the second of our kids smash books, you can see the first one here.

This young girl is almost 7 and loves Tinker Bell. She decided to go with an upcycled cover using an old Peter pan book I had.. the book was very big, so we cut this scene out of it.

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She also loves the Princesses and we printed cardstock with the images of her favorites. I've only shown a few here.

We left a space for the Princess to sign the book by their picture on the right.. and on the left there is a photo mat for a photo with the Princess.

Here and there we added a pocket (made with hot pink lunch bags, available at Michaels) with tags made from paper and Princess playing cards. 

We also added some quote pages cut from a Princess book.

We used plain pastel card stock to make up the extra pages for smashing everything else and getting autographs from Characters that are not in the Princess category, but important non the less.

Add some clips, a Hidden Mickey key chain and some gems and you have a cute little book.. bound together with my handy Bind It All.

Simply Smashing!

I have a couple of young girls in my life and after seeing this sMashing Mickey, they want to Smash! So, we decided to get busy. I have a couple of books finished, each for different uses, to share with you. I'm making one for myself now. <grin>

Let's start with this one:

The older girl requested a black and pink theme. She wanted to make her own cover... so, I used raw cardboard for the front and back and left it for her to do as she pleased. I gathered double sided cardstock from my own collection as well as added a few more I picked up so I could stick mainly to the pinks and blacks.

Here is her

book with some papers and embellishments she can add along the way

Coin envelopes are great for keeping things in that you don't want to tape.

I made tabs out of 2 - 1"circles glued together with the page between them.

Paper bag pocket! I left the top opened (bag was cut down to fit) and the bottom flap is only closed on the edges leaving a second small pocket.

    

Lots of embellishments for her to add as she fills it up. 

With all the pages added, I bound it with the Bind it All and she is ready to go!

I'll be posting another smash book for a younger girl in a couple of days.. she plans to use hers for a trip to Disneyland and has made room for autographs and pictures of herself with the Princesses. She also went with an upcycled cover using an old Disney book.

Get Smashing!

Enlarge Pinterest Pins by hovering over them

So, we all love Pinterest but it only recently occured to me that most people (friends of mine) are viewing the small images and having to click on every one to expand the viewing size.. if they can't quite see it.

I'm here to tell you that is not necessary. If you are not already using Google Chrome as your browser, you should be. It does all the work for you allowing you to do your surfing without any hassle. Not to mention all the wonderful extensions and apps you can add to it. If you are using Chrome, but not using the extensions, it's time to fix that.

Extensions like... Pinzy - Enlarge Pinterest Pins simply by hovering over them. Pure genius.

So, what are you waiting for? Search for and load up Google Chrome (easy to do), put the icon where you can get to it and open it up. 


Now.. up on the top right, click on Chrome for the drop down menu. 
Go to preferences
Click on extensions
.. you won't have any but it will ask if you want some or something like that.
Now, off to the Chrome Web Store with you.
When you get there.. search (top left) for Pinzy and when it comes up - click on add to Chrome.


That's it! Easy. Every time you go to Pinterest now you will only have to hover to get a better view. 


Now look around and see what else you want, so many choices.
I also have the FB Photo Zoom for viewing photos on Facebook the same way. 


Need more reasons to switch? - 2 of my favorites: When you open up Chrome, you will see 8 of your most visited pages displayed, saving you time. Did you close a window accidently? Whenever you open up Chrome you will see "recently closed" on the bottom right... click on it. Voila! 


I could go on, but then I'd be off topic completely. Check Chrome out, explore and I think you'll love it.

Sushi Fondant Cake

Sushi Fondant Cake!

This was fun to do, but made me hungry.

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I had a friend call and ask me to make a Sushi fondant cake.

It sounded like a great challenge and I couldn't resist giving it a try.

I started by making the soy sauce dish, which is fondant with a bit of added gum paste to make it harden. I cut out a circle and laid it over an overturned dish. It was left to dry for 3 days.

Using twinkie style cakes, I cut them into pieces for the rolls. Then I frosted and rolled them in black fondant, adding frosting with coconut (rice) on top.  I added seaweed texture to the fondant by pressing it on a plate that had leaf veining on it, always search your kitchen for interesting textures. Gummies and fondant were used for the different bits of roe and veggies.  By breaking small pieces off of some gummy worms and jelly pumpkins I was able to reproduce everything I needed.

You can even eat the dishes..

The shrimp, wasabi and ginger are all fondant.

The board is covered in wood grain fondant..

I used real chopsticks so the recipient could use them to eat the sushi off his cake.

The soy sauce is chocolate syrup mixed with corn syrup.

Of course, after watching me work on it all morning, my husband insisted we go out for dinner and have what else?

Sushi!

Vintage Sign Tutorial using Cricut

Well, that was quite the month! 

Lot's of changes with my jobs. I still do after school daycare, but have gone from working nights in a job I wasn't happy in, to a job that will allow me to work during the day till school is out.

There was also a considered move and well... Christmas season all rolled into the last 30 days!

Whew, I didn't sleep much but I've made it to the other side and am back to blogland to show you

what I've been up to in the art room.

Rather than post all in one, I'll spread them out over a few days.

Quick Cricut sign making 101

We  finally decided to put some shelves up, under and over our TV, as it was hanging on a big wall looking lonely and there were horrible wires hanging around.

I dislike wires.

So, after my Honey got the shelves up, he decided to nap. I on the other hand needed to add something to the shelf and with Christmas around the corner I thought I could use a sign.

There are so many ways you can make an old sign.

I decided to use My Cricut for this one.. because it's sitting there.

I started out by painting a board black.

I then cut some vinyl letters and snowflakes.. I made extra letters to use for a "Joy" sign later.

Next, stick the vinyl letters and snowflakes onto the board and paint a cream color over everything.

After it is good and dry you can peel away the vinyl revealing crisp black lines..

I sanded down the whole board, aging it as I went along.

Here it is on it's new shelf.

Since doing this I managed to make a couple more different styles for gifts.

Of course I forgot to take pics.. I'll try to get them.

(I also replaced that wimpy wreath with a spectacular one.)

sMashing Mickey!

This was intended for a child but it would make any Disney fan a fun journal. I started this last spring for a friend's child, but their trip was postponed and I stopped working on it. With all the rage being journal type smash (I like to call it Mash!) books, I thought it would be fun to complete this autograph, activity, scrap, up-cycled trip journal.

plain papers for autographs and a photo mat

Recycled book

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Top Secret Envelope

Mickey pocket for tags and stuff.
Looks like I missed the buttons, will fix!

I always come back from a Disney trip with papers, maps, fast passes, coasters, cute packaging and anything else I think will bring back the magic... in my pockets, in my bags, in the kids ears, wherever I can stuff it.. to get it all home.

Then, I stick it in a drawer. Forever.

I'm the perfect candidate for this type of thing.

Magic Kingdom Bingo

Make Character Paper Airplanes

Mash it up!

Although, I started this "Mashing Mickey" journal to house everything a kid would collect along with Character autographs... there are some trivia and facts pages, (to keep the kids amused while waiting in line) photo mats and more plain pages that I didn't photograph. It also has 4 divider pages with tabs you can write on or add a label. As a big Mickey fan, I'd use this journal myself. A pen and a glue stick (and now they have the cute smash tape) and I'd be good to go...

..right back to Walt Disney World. 

 °o°

Make it Sweet, Patricia

Linking up to these wonderful blogs..

Sugar Bee Crafts
Make it Monday
Making the World Cuter
Mommy by Day Crafter by Night
Not Just a Housewife
Reasons to Skip the Housework
Vintage Wanna bee

Mickey Cookie Lollipop and a Birthday Cake!

I had a very productive week!

It seems that sweets were in demand.

I'll start with the Mickey Mouse Cookie Lollipop. The kids and I decided that we had to make these once we spotted them at Cake Central some time ago. Since then, I have seen them around on other sites.. none of which I can remember. So, I remembered to buy Oreos and we finally got to it.

Here is what we started with.

Double Stuff Oreos

Red and Dark chocolate Melts

Lollipop sticks (I had hollow ones, like straws, that worked best)

A Red Starburst fruit chew or fruit leather would work too (optional)

Microwave safe container for melting the candy melts

We melted our red and dipped half the cookie, leaving it on waxed paper to dry.

I found that once the candy coating hardened you can't get the stick in without it cracking. 

Adding the stick while the candy coating was soft worked much better. Also, putting the Oreos in the microwave for a few minutes (before you even get started) will soften the creamy inside of your Oreos to make the stick slide in better as well. 

Next we heated a small pot of water on the stove and used the side of it to slightly melt the edge of a dark chocolate melt and stuck two of them into the creamy centers for ears.

Another option would be to use Mini Oreos and use melted dark chocolate to glue them on as ears.

We wanted Minnie pops too.. so I broke out the Starburst candies from halloween. I microwaved a red one for a few seconds to soften it and flattened it to cut little triangles to make Minnie bows.

Add some white icing buttons or polka dots and Voila!

How Cute is Minnie?

 And the two together....

One little tip on the dark chocolate, if you find it's really scratched up you can rub it with a clean finger and it will be smooth again. In the above pic, Minnie has smooth ears while Mickey's are a little scratchy.

They were not long for this world....

Sweet!

Aside from that, I also whipped up another fondant Birthday cake..

This

Crooked little cake

Plus this...

I created some extra large fondant sprinkles.. and a cherry complete with stem.

EQUALS THIS....

TADA!

A cute cartoony cake

Watch for my Disney autograph/journal/smash style book! It's almost completed..

Linking up at these link parties..

lolly jane boutique

Along For the Ride

Be Different Act Normal

Boogieboard Cottage