2012 Goals

I'm not a big fan of New Year's "Resolutions", so I make New Year's "Goals" instead.  This year, I have some personal goals and crafting goals, which I will update on here.
** Making cards instead of buying them MOST of the time (I would love to say that I want to make EVERY card I need, but I'm trying to be realistic here by not setting goals that are very difficult)
** finish my Israel scrapbook
** make at least 1 new project each week and post it here within 2 days of finishing
** get my cake decorating business running
** complete at least 1 crafting volunteer opportunity every month

Now my personal goals:
** get back on Weight Watchers and get back to my goal weight
** work out at least 3 times a week
** get accepted and begin nursing school
** run a 5K

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas (a little late)! Happy Hanukkah! Happy New Year!! Here is the cake I made to take to Christmas dinner at my boyfriend's parents' house. I was not happy with it at all until it was finished.

Christmas for My Mom's Work

As I mentioned when I posted my pumpkin cupcakes, my mom works at an assisted living.  Every year around Christmas they have TONS of volunteer groups come in, so this year I made her some thank you cards so she doesn't have to send boring, plain ones from the dollar store.

Every year my mom also gives her boss and the head nurse a special gift.  She has always made chocolates, so last year her boss got a chocolate sleigh with cookies and peppermint bark, so this year I made her a cake that has a white tree on it. I used a sugar cone for the tree and cut the snowflakes on my Cricut Cake Mini.
The head nurse just started this spring, so we gave her a cake with a chocolate sleigh with peppermint bark on top.  These are each one layer chocolate and one layer of yellow.

Pumpkins!

Here are some Halloween cupcakes I made for my mom to take in to the residents at her assisted living, and a pumpkin cake I made for Thanksgiving with my boyfriend's family... They had no clue I made cakes... Now I'm the designated cake baker for parties...

Sorry it's been MONTHS since I posted. I lost my job over the summer and got really down and stopped doing anything crafty. I'm finally feeling creative again, so hopefully I'll be posting alot more.

Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!! I made 3 cakes for the holiday. Well, I started out making a star cake for my parents to take to their friends' 4th of July party, which they have annually.  These friends happen to be from Montreal, so my mom and I decided on Friday night (the party was Saturday) that I should make them a small Canada Day cake as well.  So I did.  Since it was a small cake, I had extra batter and made it into a 1-layer 8" cake for us.  I would have done cupcakes, but decided to do the cake because I've wanted to try the brush embroidery and writing on a cake, not just a practice board.
I'm very happy with all 3 cakes, but my hand got tired on the star cake because the sections were too small to use the 3-star tip.  I think in the future, I'll try an FBCT for something like the maple leaf on the Canada Day cake.

A Cake! A Cake!

I made this cake yesterday. I have been wanting to try a stacked cake, but was nervous even after watching TONS of videos on YouTube. Luckily, the Joann's store where I'm taking my classes had a Tall Cakes class yesterday (the last time they're offering it) so I could learn how to stack them. I love the way it turned out, except I wish I could have gotten my buttercream smoother, especially on the top level.

I also finally made some two-tone cupcakes with the extra pink icing.

My Best Friend's Having a Baby!!

My best friend (who I've known since we were 3) is having a baby.  Her shower was this past Saturday. Of course I made her a card.  I forgot to take a picture of the card before I put it in the envelope with the gift. So, I took a picture of her holding the card. The sentiment inside says, "A new hand to hold, a new heart to love, a new life to lead."

Finally did some scrapping!!

I finally got done another layout this weekend. I did the next layout for my Israel scrapbook. This one is from the town of Caesarea and the beach. I'm planning on doing another page today. I hope to get it posted later today. In Caesarea, we had a toast on the beach since this was the first stop after getting out of the airport. Here's the layout, including close-ups of each page.

Father's Day BBQ Cake

I made this cake for my dad for Father's Day. It was my first fondant covered cake. My brother, father, and uncles were all AMAZED that it was cake and that I made it! Everything is edible except the grates on the grill. The message, flames, and hot dog are fondant. The cheeseburger is cake pressed through a garlic press to make it look like ground beef with buttercream "cheese" on top. It was a chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate buttercream, and tasted so good. I had to take the left-overs to school to give to my autistic support class.

Decorating Basics Final Cake

I finished my Decorating Basics class on Thursday night. I'm going to miss it so much that I'm thinking about taking the Flowers and Cake Design in June. Here's my final cake.

Cupcakes!

Thursday night was class 3 of the cake decorating classes. Here are my cupcakes. I definitely need more practice on the shaggy mum.

Practice Fish Cake and Back to Scrapping

I decided to make another cake to practice after my class last Thursday. I made a fishy cake with the piping gel transfer. I had a minor issue with blue icing on the cake, but it still looks pretty decent.

I've also finally gotten back to the Israel scrapbook. I'm working on the next layout and I hope to get it finished and posted tomorrow night.

Cupcake Cake from Class 2

Last night was my 2nd Wilton Decorating Basics Class. I made my cupcake cake. I finished the cake, then decided I needed to do a small border around the bottom, so I added it in the 2nd picture.  I made a yellow cake with chocolate pudding filling, and class buttercream icing.

Mother's Day Cupcakes

I made cupcakes this weekend for today, and was so excited to use my new KitchenAid Artisan mixer. I also cut flowers on my Cricut Cake Mini to put on top. Here are some pictures of using the mixer the first time, the cupcakes in the oven, cooling, and the finished product.

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to wish my mother and grandmother, as well as all of the mothers, grandmothers, and any other amazing women out there who help raise and care for children a Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all have a very relaxing and enjoyable day.

Had my first class!!

Last night was the first class of the Wilton Decorating Basics I'm taking. I had so much fun. I'm attaching pictures of the cookies that I decorated as the first project.  For next week I have to make a cake and 2 batches of buttercream, and I have to make cupcakes for Mother's Day (using my Cricut Cake Mini). I'll be making those tonight and maybe one batch of icing as well. I get to use the new present I bought myself!! I bought a KitchenAid Artisan mixer since my hand mixer is pretty old, and I received my grandmother's stand mixer which made a really weird sound when I turned it on to see if it worked. I'll post pictures of all of that this week. For now, here are the cookies.

My first cake!!

I finally made a cake with my Cricut Cake Mini!! I know the icing looks really bad on it (I used store bought, and got alot of crumbs in it), but I think the rest looks pretty good. I used the idea from the Cake Basics handbook and changed it for a one-tier cake and didn't cover the whole thing in white fondant like they said.

SUPER EXCITED!!

I'm so excited! Since I got my Cricut Cake Mini I decided I needed to learn other decorating techniques, so last night I signed up for the Wilton Decorating Basics class at a local Joann's. The class doesn't start for 2 weeks, so it's going to be a LOOOOONG 2 weeks. I was also unable to make the Cricut Cake online classes they had a few weeks ago, but today I saw they are having another class next week! I'll be making that one for sure!

More Israel Layouts

I got these pages done a while ago, but never got around to posting them. Here is my itinerary for Israel and some memories of the flight to Israel.

Now I'm working on the first day in Israel... Caesarian Arches and Welcoming ceremony on the beach.

Happy birthday to me!

My birthday was last Tuesday, and my mom finally gave me my Cricut Cake Mini that she asked me about back in February. Since work was crazy last week leading into spring break I didn't have a chance to play with it, and I didn't want to make a cake over the weekend since Passover started last night. But I REALLY couldn't bring myself to wait another week to try it out, so I made Passover brownies and decorated them since I don't have any Passover cake recipes that taste good. Here's a picture of the brownies. I used Wilton fondant since it doesn't have corn syrup. I know it isn't much, but it's a start, and I'm sure I'll get much better. I decided I also need to take a Wilton cake decorating class so I know some other techniques and stuff so I can get better.
Let me know what you think!

I know it's a little late...

Here are some Mother's Day and Easter cards I made for Cards for Soldiers. I meant to post them a while ago, but I couldn't get them to upload to my computer for some reason.

Going to Israel

This past July, I took a trip to Israel for 10 days. I'm getting started on my scrapbook for that trip. My goal is to have it done by the end of April. These are the layouts from packing and before leaving New York.