Sunflower Cupcakes

Before we start talking about cupcakes, let's discuss sunflowers. You can buy packets of sunflower seeds ($$$) or you can do what I do which is much less expensive. Use bird seed.

Each June, a local farmer plows part of our field and we scatter a bag of bird seed, either the solid black or striped ones. By the middle of August we have a a huge bounty of flowers. Up goes a sign saying "Free Sunflowers" (with a pair of clippers) and then we watch while people stop to gather bouquets. It's kind of like a human aquarium. Every once in a while notes appear saying that our sunflowers were featured in an arrangement at the local fair or went to a hospital to cheer up a patient. One young husband excitedly told me that he let his wife know that she was getting a very special surprise that evening - my sunflowers. I only hope she wasn't expecting a precious gem.

The only downside is that sunflowers are voracious feeders. They deplete the nutrients in the soil. The first year the plants are 6 feet high. Then next year, 3 feet and the third year a foot. We let our field go fallow every so often, then plant again.

Now for the cupcakes which I always make in August.

Materials

yellow cake mix (or your favorite cake recipe)

cupcake liners

Pam

yellow icing (tube or tub)

nonpariel candy

Tools

cupcake pan

star shaped piping tip

pastry bag (optional)

I threw away my regular muffin pans and now only have mini ones with the thought that I will consume far fewer muffins and cupcakes if they are little. Who am I kidding? Although I've done the minis here, this idea works for the regular sized cupcakes as well.

Put white or yellow cupcake liners in your pan and spray Pam on the top of your pan. Fill the cups up to the top so that the batter will spill over and form mushroom tops. This way you'll have more surface to form your flowers. (the Pam is so that the tops don't stick to the pan)
The easiest way to ice them is to buy a tube of yellow icing and this assortment of tips. The tube should be enough for 7 mini cupcakes. This is not the the least expensive way, but the most readily available if you do not have access to a pastry bag and tips. (available at Michael's)

Use the flower shaped tip that is in the upper right hand corner of the picture above. Screw it onto the end of the icing tube and pipe a petal starting at the middle of the cake and move to the outside perimeter. Pipe petals north, west, south and east then fill the petals in between. If necessary, fill between those petals as well.

Place a nonpareil candy in the center.
Now tell me that this doesn't shout summer.

Paper Cloud Lantern

Years ago I made a lamp like this with basket reed and rice paper*. Unfortunately there is not a fully stocked art supply store (rice paper) or basketry supply store near me. Ever the craft diva who wants to make this NOW and doesn't want to order the proper stuff and wait for it to arrive, I devised a way to use dowels and tissue paper.

Materials:

10 - 1/8" diameter 3 foot dowels

string

thin wire

masking tape (optional)

white sewing thread (optional)

binder clips (optional)

2 packages white tissue paper

white glue (Elmer's)

Tools:

garden clippers

hot glue gun

1" paint brush

Soak dowels in hot water for a half hour. Dowels don't like to bend so carefully curve them inch by inch. If they start to break, back off and tightly wrap the break with masking tape. Continue to bend. Make a slip knot at the end of a piece of string. Put it on one end of a dowel and gently pull. Wrap the string around the other end of the dowel. Tie off. You should have an arced dowel, looking like the bow in a bow and arrow set. Repeat with the other dowels. Make each one approximately the same profile. Allow the dowels to dry.

Remove the masking tape from any broken dowels and glue the broken ends together. Wrap tightly with white sewing thread then wrap again with a small piece of tissue paper and glue. Use a small clip as a clamp. Allow to set up.

Place two arcs opposite each other and overlap the ends a bit. Wrap the ends with wire 2 or 3 times. Place two more arcs opposite each other but perpendicular to the first pair. Wrap the wire around them. Fill in with the rest of the dowels. Try to space them evenly. Do not remove the strings yet.
Remove any clips. Dilute the white glue until it is the consistency of milk. Paint the edges of the dowels and gently lay sheets of dry tissue paper over the lantern, tapping with a dry brush to adhere the paper to the dowels. Don't cover the ends of the wired dowels with paper just yet and leave an open section for removing light bulbs.
Place the lantern in a large bowl to stabilize it. Gently wet the paper on the lantern with diluted glue and carefully place pieces of tissue paper on top. The wet tissue paper is extremely fragile and may tear. No problem, just patch with a new piece. Keep wetting and piecing until you have covered one half (top or bottom) with 2 layers of paper plus the original dry tissue. Carefully paint on a top layer of glue. Allow to dry or use a heat gun or hair dryer to speed things along if desired.

Turn the lantern over and repeat on the other side.

When the lantern is dry and stable, unwind the wire and remove the strings. Clip off the overlapping ends of the dowels and glue them together with a hot glue gun.
Cover the ends with tissue paper and glue as before. Dry.
Place an electric tea light inside and hang from a tree or use a light kit and hang over your dining room table. A very nice look for under $10.00.

*note - Rice paper is stronger than tissue paper and reeds are far more flexible than dowels.

You can make a long skinny lantern (called a "cigar" lamp) by only bending the dowels slightly.

Kaleidoscope Photoshoot

I found these inexpensive kaleidoscopes and thought it would be fun to try to add them to the lens of my "point and shoot" digital camera. It was difficult to hold the scope, find a subject and push the button. (No jokes about walking and chewing gum, please). Duct Tape to the rescue!

Turn on your camera. Line up the scope with the lens opening and wrap a piece of tape gently around both. It's that simple.

The only problem is that my lens retracts if I don't take a picture once in a while. I'm sure nothing would break, but it might mess up the tape so I just snap often.

A word about the scopes. I found most of these at Michael's for $1.49. You can find them at speciality toy shops and art museum gift shops. They are online at Oriental Trading or here as well as many other places. There are several different lens configurations including triangles (classic), diamonds, circles and lines. Try them all.

Use your photos to make cards or cool desktop wallpapers.

Here is a variation on this theme. Wide angle lens.

Faux Cupcake and Ice Cream Sundae

I needed to make a giant cupcake for a silent auction. A trip to my local Dollar Tree was in order. In fact, everything for this post came from the dollar store except for the product used to make the whipped cream and ice cream (available at any hardware store).

I hadn't thought about making these for the blog until after they were finished so I don't have my customary step-by-step photos. I'll walk you through this.

Materials

plastic tub (paper paint bucket will work too)

plastic plate to fit top of tub

swimming "noodle"

red rubber ball from a paddle ball set

wooden skewer

kraft paper

Great Stuff

waxed paper

Tools

glue gun

serrated bread knife

Accordion pleat the kraft paper and wrap it around the tub/bucket, glueing each valley fold to the bucket, at the top and bottom of the pleats, with the hot glue gun.

Shave a diagonal piece out of the end of the kiddies swim noodle. Circle the noodle around until it is the same size as the circumference of the plastic plate. Glue the shaved end to the rest of the noodle with the hot glue gun.
Continue to glue the noodle in a spiral fashion; each layer slightly narrower than the last. A word of caution: you need to hold the glued areas together for a long time (probably a full 5 minutes). If you don't, the noodle layers will separate and leave this mess. There will be a large hole in the top of the noodle icing. Not to worry, we will cover it with "whipped cream".

Glue the "icing" onto the plate. Trim the rim of the plate so that it doesn't show.

Great Stuff is an expanding foam in a can. (The nozzle stuck open last night so I woke up to this cool free form sculpture) Spray the foam onto a piece of waxed paper. Work slowly to make a build-up of foam. It will expand, become smooth and take an hour to harden. Rip the edges off of the paper so that they don't show and glue the cream to the top of the icing.

Pull the elastic thread out of the paddle ball. Glue a skewer into the thread hole. Clip off the end of the skewer. Glue the "cherry" to the whipped cream. A perfect centerpiece for a sweet table.

I also made a faux ice cream sundae in pretty much the same manner.

Materials

ice cream goblet

Great Stuff

plastic spoon

brown acrylic paint

red rubber ball

wooden skewer

Tools

hot glue gun

Fill the goblet with Great Stuff. Allow to expand and harden for an hour. (when partially dry insert a plastic spoon). Slowly drip brown acrylic paint over the "ice cream" and allow to dry.

Pull the elastic thread out of the rubber ball and insert a wooden skewer. Shorten the skewer and glue to the top of the sundae.

Remember not to eat these or you might get "faux fat" and we don't need that!

Old As Dirt

Has (s)he reached THAT age? Celebrate.

Materials:

cellophane bag (Wal-Mart, Target, Michael's)

cardstock

dirt

Tools:

stapler

Download the label here. Print using borderless letter size. Cut out one label (download has four) and fold in half. Fill bag with dirt and fold over that top. Staple the label to the top of the bag.

What could be easier?

Hope that they don't use this to plant a seed of revenge for your birthday. Dirt.....seed...get it?