{Halloween} Let's get the house ready for Halloween

Well Halloween is fast approaching and although we do not really celebrate it that much here, I thought I would still decorate our lounge for the children. it is giving us the opportunity to talk about witches and ghost without sounding too scary for them !
And since I got myself a Silhouette, I might as well find some projects to use it !

Here are a few inspirational projects. I decided to do our decorations on a budget so I looked for free printables.

To start with, I found this sign over at Craftily Ever After. Brilliant idea. The "Keep calm and carry on" sign has been such a big trend this year.
This one will proudly hang from our front door on the 31st.

A few weeks ago, Char @ Crap I've made posted about these frames. She used some new die cuts to create simple Halloween art. Definitely a job for my Silhouette ! I love the orange and white damask paper.

Now this Halloween garland from Paper Crave is super cute ! I am going to make the garland but also use the individual shapes to stick on our windows.

I have found this FREE party kit at Shery K Designs. It includes a banner, bottle labels, cupcake toppers and even party boxes. Shery K Designs has loads of free downloads on her blog.

Hope these will inspire you to create a little Halloween decor too.

Keep reading this week for pictures of the result.

By the way, while searching for free printables, I come across mygraphico. They have pages of freebies, you can easily find one for every occasion.

{How to} Make colored sugar

Last week I baked some cupcakes for a Macmillan fundraising Coffee morning organized by a friend.
I decided to stick to the charity color which is a bright green. I used the cupcake toppers I designed (free printable here) and I decided to sprinkle the cupcakes' white vanilla icing with some homemade green sugar (sorry no pics, forgot to take some shots before I sent the cakes away...).

Here is how to make color sugar. Choose any color, even bright ones. I was pleasantly surprised to see they do not run on the icing at all.

What you need
Some granulated sugar (the picture shows a packet of fine caster sugar, this is what I used first but the result wasn't good for sprinkling, you need some coarse sugar)
Gel coloring
A plastic bag
Cocktail sticks















How to
Pour as much sugar as you need in the bag
Drop in some gel coloring using a cocktail stick
Close the bag and "massage" the color in the sugar



Once the color is uniform, spread the sugar in a dish to dry for a few hours.
If you need the sugar to dry quickly, you may place the dish in the oven on a very low temperature setting (like 50 degree C).



And voila: colored sugar !

{Shop} Edible markers

I usually try and make do with I have or what I can find locally, but when I decided on the doodle cake I chose to follow the advice of Sweetapolita and ordered a pack of AmeriColor Gourmet Writer food decorating pens.
I have used edible markers before, but I wasn't impressed. I found the tip too hard and the result was a dent in the fondant every time I used them.

But I have to say I so please with the AmeriColor ones. The colors are bright and the writing is excellent. I followed Sweetapolita's advice and cooled the cake for a few hours in the refrigerator before my daughter drew on it. And it worked perfectly.
I ordered them through The Cake Decorating Company on ebay uk. They were dispatched the same day and delivered the next ! Can't beat that.

Sweetapolita's cake
Doodled on by her 4 year old daughter ! Isn't she clever ?

Cute words

This is from a Pampers leaflet I got through the post this morning and I though it was too cute not to share... Happy reading !

A mother's dictionary:

Family Planning
The art of spacing your children the proper distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster

Feedback
The inevitable result when the baby doesn't appreciate your pureed carrots

Full name
What you call your child when you're angry with him

Independent
How we want our children to be (as long as they do everything we say)

Temper tantrum
What you should keep to a minimum so as to not upset your children

Verbal
Able to whine in words

{Party} Chloe's Rainbow Party

I decided on the theme for this party months ago when I first spotted the now famous layered rainbow cake. I was really excited by the idea of making this cake for my daughter, I figured a 2 year old would love such a colorful cake.

The sign was created using a free coloring page from Style me gorgeous 

as the template for the rainbow

So here are all the pictures and details of the party, hope you will enjoy them !

We decorated the house with lots of colorful garlands. I made them by sewing some circles of paper together. This was so easy. Making the circles was a bit time consuming, but making the garlands only took a few minutes. Just feed the circles one by one in the sewing machine, and make the garlands as short or as long as you want. You can also drop as many stitches as you want in between circles.

I tend to always have a little craft available for the children. That way they can escape from the party madness for a few minutes if they so wish. Since the guests were all very young, I kept the craft simple. I prepared some cotton wool and bits of tissue paper for them to glue on rainbows. 

I set the drinks on a table outside. I made all the labels for the party myself. The glass bottle is actually a Paul Smith limited edition from Evian. Couldn't have found a better match to the party !

I created the birthday banner using digital papers from PixelPaperPrints on Etsy.

I made the paper flowers with different types of paper (plain coloured, printed with the same paper as the banner and I also found some shimmery papers in a craft store). There is a tutorial for similar flowers on Martha Stewart here.

I designed the cupcake toppers too, apart from the rainbow ones which are free printables from the TomKat Studio. 

Now for the cake. A week before the party I still wasn't sure about the cake decoration. There was going to be enough colour on the table and I wanted it to stand out. So I was going for a white cake, but how exactly, I did not know.

As I was browsing some favourite blogs, I came across a cake from Sweetapolita and I knew straight away this was the perfect cake for me ! She had made a rainbow cake, covered it in withe fondant and had a daughter draw on it !!! The result was brilliant.

Chloe was too young to draw on her cake so I asked her big sister if she would doodle on the cake and she accepted straight away ! She was so excited to be able to join in with the preparations.

And finally the birthday girl and her big sister:

Linking to