Royal Icing BEE cookies

For my sisters shower I gave out little butckets filled with Bit O' Honey candy, small baby food jars of honey and sugar cookies in what else bees and hives.

To decorate the bees I put the black icing on first then while it was wet sprinkled with sanding sugar (black), after it dried for about an hour (so it wouldn't bleed into the yellow and white) I filled in the yellow areas and sprinkled that with sanding sugar (yellow) so they would look like fuzzy bumble bees and not wasps. After the yellow dried I outlined, and flooded the wings, let that dry for about 20-30 minutes and then piped the lines to give it dimension.

Easy Doily Bunting

This is the bunting I used at the bumblebee shower on Saturday and it is SOOOOO  easy to make.

You only need string and a couple of packs of doilys I used 6 inch rounds and some double sided tape (or gluesticks if you want)

I spaced each doily about 3 inches apart, but do what looks good for you.

Quilted Fondant

A friend of mine was throwing her parents a 25th wedding anniversary and asked me to help her make the cake. I helped her with the structure, the frosting and the fondant. She added the beads and topper (which was on her parents original cake) after it we brought it over for the party.

Chocolate Truffle Cake

This is a super rich, super chocolatey "cake" it is more like a ganache. I have made it crustless and I have also made it with a hazelnut crust (ground hazelnuts, sugar, cinnamon and butter pressed into a springform pan). It would also be delicous with a chocolate ganache poured over the top.This year I decided to attempt using a chocolate transfer sheet and make it extra special for christmas and wrap the outside in chocolate with a pretty pattern. Anyway you make this cake it is delicious, decadent and rich!!

Modern Gray and Yellow Bumble Bee Party

Bee Hive Cake

Bee Pops-candy coated (tutorial)

Oreo Cupcakes w/ Oreo creme buttercream

These cupcakes were REALLY good. I used a tip from A Cupful of Cake and put half an oreo in the bottom of the cupcake(the side with the creme).I made these cupcakes at the same time I made the Pistachio Ones (posted here). For the frosting I used vanilla buttercream and used the tops of the oreos crushed up and blended into the frosting.

Recipe Book Cover

I recently went through some of my recipes and created a new binder for some of the more used baking recipes that I printed off and didn't put on index cards.

I made this cover for my binder and the spine. I have seen some pretty cute ideas out there and some free printables for binder covers like this one over at Prudent Baby

I filled my binder with clear sheet protectors that I can slip new recipes into as I come across them. These sheet protectors are not only a quick and easy way to organize but will also keep my recipes clean when I am using them

Casserole Caddy and Oven Mitt Tutorial

I made this awesome casserole caddy (and 2 others ones for gifts) to use for all of the summer BBQ's and potlucks coming up. It took me a while (mostly because I couldn't piece together more than about 20 minutes to work on it at a time)

I first saw the casserole caddy tutorial over at 2 little hooligans and I found the oven mitt tutorial over at Skip To My Lou but there are several free oven mit patterns out there including here or here

Pistachio Cupcakes

Pistachio cupcakes filled with pistachio flavored whip cream and pistachio buttercream on top.

Beaver Pillow

I was inspired by a this beaver pillow over at ETSY and decided to make one for Karsyn. Now she has something to cuddle with during the upcoming OSU Beaver games. I hand drew the pieces on a piece of paper then traced around the cut out pieces on to iron on transfer paper. Here is a good tutorial on how to use,draw on and cut out felt shapes with iron on transfer paper. Once I had all the pieces cut out and ironed onto the square of ivory felt I stitched around all of the pieces and stitched the square pattern on the tail (I did this free hand but you can mark it out with a pencil too.) Sewed on the eyes and then blanket stitched the back piece of ivory on. Before I finished the 4th side I stuffed a pillow form inside (I got one from IKEA for a few dollars).

Daddy's Caddy Sweatshirt

Facebook Page and New Web Address

I just set up my new facebook page for A Crafty B  If you like my blog become a fan on facebook and start following my blog by email subscription or RSS feed!!! I really appreciate all the support and love.

Also I recently changed my blog address to www.acraftyb.com   (although www.acraftyb.blogspot.com also leads you to my blog as well for the moment).

Thanks again.

Homemade Lemoncello

Have you ever had homemade Lemoncello? It is so good, you can use it in cocktails baking, cooking or you can use it to marinade fish/seafood

Chocolate Mousse in Chocolate Bowls

I made this delicious chocolate mousse with homemade whip cream in an edible chocolate bowl for a dinner party. They are actually really easy to make and a fun project to make with kids that want to help. To make you will need small balloons (**Note if you use the water bomb balloons they may break easier-as that is what they are designed to do). Blow up the balloons to the desired size you want. The bigger the "top" of the balloon the bigger your bowl will be.

Samoas - Girl Scout Cookies

I used to be a Girl Scout and sold cookies every year for many years. My goal was always to win the stuffed animal and T-shirt. I have had my fair share of their cookies and my favorites are by far the Samoas. They are really not good for you but they sure do taste good.

Photo from Baking Bites

Never too late to post a party right???

I can't believe it has been over a year since I did this party, It was right before I started my blog and I never got around to posting these pictures. The little girl who's party this was just had her second birthday and I made her lollipop cake and favors for her party.

Organic Homegrown Blueberries

Here are a few blueberries from our garden.

Aren't they cute!!! We have about 7 plants we planted 3 years ago and we get about 5 pounds of berries from them. We don't spray and apply an organic ACIDIC based fertilizer. 

The berries are different sizes because we choose a couple of different varieties of blueberries. One of our plant has given us berries that are about the size of quarters. 

Karsyn and I love to go out there and pick eat  berries from the bush. 

If you have the opportunity and they grow well in your area I would recommend including blueberry bushes into your landscaping. Not only are they a pretty bush but they also give yummy berries every summer. 

Chocolate Pinot Cupcakes

These cupcakes were delicious, and the pinot really amplified the chocolate flavor.

Birds Nest Necklace How To

I love the look of those nest necklaces, they are super sweet and perfect for any mother/mommy-to-be but wanted to make my own. If you don't want to make your own Etsy has a lot of cute ones to buy, but this is a tutorial so lets get to it.

Sewing Basket

Look at the cute little sewing basket I made.

I got a plain wicker basket and my husband helped me cut out a top to fit it (from plywood) and attached it to the basket with small hinges. I embroidered the top with lemon slices and then sewed fabric to cover both the top and bottom of the lid and stuffed the top with fiberfil before closing the seam.

I also hot glued a ribbon on to the top rim and threaded ribbon through the basket weave on the side.

Lollipop Cake and Cookies- Lollipop Party

My neighbors little girl just turned 2 and I made the cake and cookie favors for the party (which was lollipop themed if you couldn't guess) I was going to make sugar cookies and then decorate them with royal icing similar to these but then serendipitously stumbled on an adorable tutorial for lollipop cookies-NO icing required which was great because: 

1. less sugar for the little ones (especially since they had cake and lollipops at the party)

2. Less work/time consuming since I had a busy week