Blue and Gold Cake - Olympic Theme

It's that time of year again - Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts!!  This is the last year I will have to make a cake, because my youngest son will turn 11 in 2 weeks!  I'm a little sad, but mostly excited. haha :)

 

Well, the theme this year is the Olympics!  So fun!  We decided we wanted to do torches for our cake this year.  Way easier than decorating a cake, in my opinion.  :)

 

We baked cupcakes in sugar cones, made little Olympic papers to wrap them in, and then just squirted frosting on top - super easy, huh?

 

Here's how they turned out....

 

 

Okay, the really hard part, was finding something to hold them all in.  I tried cutting holes in a disposable pan, (That was how I baked them.) but then remembered we had this handy little put-together organizer thingy.  It's a little big - not sure what that will look like on the cake table, but it saves me a HUGE headache!  Whew!

Here is how I baked them...

 

One little tip - DO NOT FILL THE CONES TOO FULL!!  My first batch looked like volcano cupcakes instead of torches.  Not pretty.  You will want to fill them only 1/2 way full - leave a good 2 inches or more because they seriously expand!  Also make sure they are standing straight up - that helps too.  I baked them at 325 F for about 15 minutes.

 

I just used a box cake mix, and a can of lemon frosting.  I added a couple drops of red food coloring in and didn't even really stir it, just scooped it into my frosting bag.  It turned out a little pinkish in spots, but it looked way better than the yellow plain.  I added red sprinkles on top and that was it!

 

Well that's it!  I am also in charge of a little Olympic craft, so I bought a package of large craft sticks, and I am having the boys design and decorate their own "snowboards" using markers.  I think it will be fun for them to do, and pretty easy for me!

 

Let the games begin!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

 

Table Box Centerpiece

I have been really wanting some kind of centerpiece for my table that wouldn't be too tall, but would fill a big space and that I could change out for different holidays or seasons.  I have seen these beautiful wooden boxes on the internet and decided that would be so perfect!

 

So my amazing husband made this for me - to my exact specifications.  haha :)

The measurements are:  3 ft. long, 7 in. wide, and 5.5 in. tall.

Here is the end a little closer up.

 

I painted the sides and edges dark brown, then I smeared petroleum jelly randomly in spots (on the edges, corners and some on the sides). 

 

Then my sweet husband spray painted it for me in an antique white. 

 

After it was all dry, I took some sandpaper and rubbed the paint off where the petroleum jelly was so it looks a little weathered.  Sorry, I don't have pictures of that by itself.  Hopefully you can tell what I did in the next pictures.

 

Here it is all decorated for fall:

 

 

 

Next year I will use real pumpkins and gourds, not those plastic-y things.  I have also realized I'm not very good at arranging these things.  My husband actually made this for me last spring, and I could never figure out what to put in it, so it sat in a closet until I got it out in September.  *sigh*

 

For Halloween, I replaced some of the pumpkins with little tombstones and added in some cute miniature skeletons.  I don't have a picture of that either - don't know why....

 

Hopefully I can come up with something halfway decent for Christmas.  I know what I want it to look like, I just have a hard time putting all together so it looks full and beautiful, you know?  Any suggestions??  :)

Christmas Advent Craft

Guess what I got the other day?!  A fun new Christmas craft!  I actually got two of them because my little sister is going to do one with me! :)

 

 

I found them at Porter's Crafts - I think it's a local craft store, so I'm not sure where you can get these.  They measure about 16.5"x 16" and the little doors are only 1.5" wide. 

 

You can pretty much do anything you want with these, but the craft store had two different ideas on display.

 

The first is a Nativity advent - very pretty!

 

The second is a cute little Santa one using different craft paper and embellishments...

 

This is the one I'm going to make, because I already have a more religious advent with Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem.  Plus, I want to use up some of my cute Christmas paper!! haha :)

 

I also bought the vinyl they had there, because I didn't want to try to make my own.  I will be cutting out my own numbers, though.

 

We are going to make these in a couple weeks when I go to visit my sister, so I will have to update and show you what we ended up with.  I'm so excited!! :)

 

UPDATE:

Here is the one I made - I LOVE how it turned out!  So cute! :)

We bought the vinyl city scene at the craft store, because I was NOT about to try to do my own! haha  I did make my own numbers on my Silhouette though.  So many fun fonts!

I had so many cute paper scraps, it was so fun to use them.  They look so much prettier in person.  (Some of the paper has glitter on it.)  We stuck it all on with Mod Podge, so it's sealed really well.

My favorite part is the roof!  We painted it gray to match the brick paper we used for the chimney.  Then we hung some little Christmas lights along the edge.  Aren't they ADORABLE??!!  :)

 

 

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to make, and now I get to fill it with cute things! 

Girls Camp Stuff

Well, girls camp is coming up next week, and my house looks like a craft store blew up! Haha 

I have 25 t-shirts drying on my deck that the girls and leaders bleached the other night.  I have canvases, paints, brushes, vinyl lettering, bracelet stuff, nail polishes, glitter - you name it - all stacked in a bin ready to go!! Whew!

 

This is the craft we decided to make:

 

Don't mind the colors - it's just kind of a sample to see if they would work.  I'm sure the girls will make them WAY cuter! :)

 

I bought little 6x8 canvases at Michael's, they came in a pack of 5.  Then the girls will put the lettering and temple wherever and however they want.  Make sure to seal the letters first by painting over everything with white.  (It makes the letters look really clean when you pull them off.)

 

Then the girls can paint however they want. I bought a bunch of fun, bright colors.  After everything dries, peel the vinyl off and embellish!  Super easy!

 

We are also making some cute bracelets with colored braiding cord/twine and beads.  I will update with pictures after camp. 

 

UPDATE 6/26/13:  Here are some of the canvases that the girls made...

 

 

And a couple more...

 

 

I love how they are all individual.  They had fun and did a really good job!!

 

 



I am also in charge of the camp awards.  I found a cute list online and made up some cards to go with them that we can fill in at camp. 

 

 

My absolute favorite is the Big Red award - for the girl with the brightest sunburn!! Haha (That's bad, huh?)

 

If you would like to print these out to use, here is the download PDF file.

 

I made them kind of small, because I was using the regular-sized candy bars and didn't want them to overpower the candy.  Hopefully you can make them bigger.  If not, just leave me a comment and I will upload some bigger ones. :)

 

Oh and I purposely made 2 of the Mentos awards, because I am giving those to the youth leaders.  They get to decide who gets each award and I didn't want them to have to do their own.  Make sense?

 

Happy camping to me!! Haha :)

Girls Camp "Blow Dryer"

I am helping with our church's girls camp this year!  I am so excited!  I have never even been to girls camp before, so this will be a new experience for me. :)

 

As I was looking around the internet for cute ideas, I came across these camp "blow dryers".  Someone was selling them on etsy, and I couldn't believe it because they would be sooo easy to make!

 

So I made my own.....

I don't know if you can read it or not, but it says:

 

Camp Blow Dryer

No electricity required!

Fully Automatic!

 

Instructions:

1.  Blow full of hot air.

2.  Aim at hair and release!

 

Okay, so I thought this was hilarious!  We are having camp at a campground somewhere instead of the usual place and there are no showers!  No electricity! No cabins - nothing!  Some have already complained about not being able to do their hair, so I thought this would be so perfect.  I'm mean, huh?

Here is what you need:

Small treat bags with zip tops

1 bag of large balloons

Blow Dryer instructions - download PDF

 

That's it!  Just print the instructions on cardstock and cut them out. 

 

Place a balloon inside of each bag and staple the intructions to the top. 

 

(I know, you didn't need the explanation - it's soooo easy - but just in case...) haha

 

I will probably put these in the girls' goody bags, or even in their packets on the first day of camp.  They would be cute as a pillow-treat/gift as well. (I obviously have no idea how this goes down.)

 

Have fun and Happy Camping! :) 

Quiet Book - Girls

Here is the quiet book I made for my daughter.  Luckily, I found the pictures I had taken before I gave it to her.  Let's just say she has loved this book! haha

In case you missed it, here is my Boy Quiet Book.

This is obviously the title page.  I wanted to make a cute little mirror to go opposite, but couldn't find those plastic-y fake ones anywhere! Oh-well.

I LOVE this ladybug page!  This was so hard for me - it was the first time I had ever sewn a zipper!!  I am so proud of myself for that!  It turned out okay, don't you think? :)

Here is another picture after it was in her book.

I had so much fun with this one!  I think my next project will be a whole set of felt food.  (I might have to learn to sew first. *sigh*)

I never took a picture of just the food, and when I got them out of my daughter's book, the corn had faded.  I couldn't remember how it looked - so I guessed.  Yeah, not so good huh? The first one was better.

I love these ballet slippers for the 'tie page'.  This page was my nemesis, I swear.  Grrrr!

Here is the original sketch - it's reversed though because of the Wonder Under. :)

Here is the dress-up page.  My sister drew the doll body from a mix of a couple different shapes we found online.  The dresser is a little pocket to stuff put all the clothes in.

These clothes are so stylish, don't you think? haha

Here is her complete wardrobe.  I wanted to make soooo many more - like pajamas and a swimsuit!  But I didn't want the book to be any thicker than it already was.  I think doing just dolls would be fun, too! :)

Button-up flowers - so sweet. The buttons are the biggest I could find, and they are wooden, so I painted them and scruffed them up a bit.

This is the same clock I made for the boy book.  I made this one first though, and thought it looked a little too Mickey Mouse for my taste, so I changed it to burgandy and grey.  (It totally looks like Mickey Mouse, huh?) haha

This is probably my least favorite page.  I don't know why - my daughter loves it, but to me it's just...eh.

The last page is a tree with snap-on apples.  I sewed every.one.by.hand.  Ugh!  Since then, I realized that my Crop-A-Dile does snaps - what!?  I guess that's what I get for not paying attention to the instructions.  The little tire swing actually dangles from the tree branch.  (Very securely, I might add.)

Here are a few of the templates if you want them:

Ballet Shoes PDF

Clothes PDF

Girl PDF

Dresser PDF

Food PDF

Clock PDF

Well, that's it!  I had sooo many cute ideas for things to make with felt.  From puppets, playmats, and a nativity scene, to seasons and alphabet quiet books.  It was the whole reason I named my blog "All The Quiet Things". Ahhh well...now maybe I can go finish some other projects. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Quiet Book - Boys

About a year and a half ago, I was looking around at quiet books for my daughter. I wasn't really thrilled with any of the ones you can buy, and the homemade ones looked - well, homemade.  

Then, I came across these quiet books at serving-pink-lemonade and decided I wanted to try making some of my own.  Check them out, they're very cute!

I decided I wanted all my own original pages (well, the artwork anyway) because I thought maybe I would sell them someday.  Okaaaaay.... nice thought. Ha! Have any of you ever tried making one of these?  They take a LOT of work.  Seriously.  A LOT.  And I quickly remembered that I am sewing impaired - can't even sew a straight line, as you will soon see. :)

However, if you are just making one, I say go for it! They are actually kind of fun.  It's also nice to look at it and think, "I made that!" 

So anyway, here are the pages I came up with for a boy quiet book.  I never even got around to binding it together. Haha  :) 

Tools.  Not a new concept, however very necessary for little boys.  My youngest son would have absolutely LOVED this.

I made the tools out of extra stiff felt, because I didn't think tools should flop around.  :)  They are also double-sided, so they can go either way and look more like real tools.

Traffic Light.  This is a snap-on page. 

I think this is my favorite of all the pages.  It was soooo hard to draw and make look right.  My oldest son, who is a soccer player suggested the lovely lime green color and also the stripes.

It was really hard to find small shoe laces, so I cut them and then fused the ends together with a lighter. :)  Just make sure you attach the shoe to the page before you add the laces, or the shoe will be all lumpy.

Every quiet book needs a clock page, right?  The hands are made from stiff felt and attached with a brad.  Remember to cut your letters out backwards - trust me. :)

My girl quiet book has a dress up page, so I really wanted one for the boy book, too.  These turned out so cute!  I intentionally left off the mouth, but you could easily stitch one on.

These glasses were made of stiff felt, also.

I looove this Viking!! His beard is the best!  I know the eyes are a little creepy, huh? haha :)

There are sooo many different things you can make for this page.  I just did a few.

Dump truck with button up tires - love!

I lightened this picture up a little too much, but the black just doesn't show up enough.  Oh-well, you get the idea. :)

I really wanted to do a finger puppet page, and so I decided to do the monkeys jumping on the bed.  I know, there's only three, but you could always do more.  Not me though, three's good.

This was one where the idea was much better in my head. It is supposed to be a jar, but I had a hard time sewing the vinyl.  I think a cute little mesh net might be better. 

The bugs turned out cute, though. :)

Okay, here are the templates for some of these pages.  Warning:  they are hand-drawn mostly, and not very professional, but they will work. :) 

Stoplight & Dump Truck PDF

Tools PDF

Soccer Shoe & Bugs PDF

Face PDF

Costume 1 PDF

Costume 2 PDF

Treasure Box PDF

Clock PDF

Well, there it is.  I will be posting my girl quiet book very soon! :)

Thanks for stopping by!