Carousel Cake: Baby Shower Wrap-Up!

The whole thing started here... my plans for the shower and the idea to make a carousel cake. My first cake ever in honor of my sister's baby shower.

The shower was this past weekend. We had men, women and children friendly games. Coloring for the kids. Good conversation and well- a carousel for amusement. There ended up being close to 40 people, almost everyone who was invited responded with a yes (wow). Everyone seemed to love the carousel (I know I did) at one point the entire shower was on it from the smallest babies to the most senior of our guests who were in their 80's. Which was a fantastic moment. We had good food and lots of fun with family and friends.

All I can say about the cake is- I did it.

I wasn't sure if I could but I actually made a decorated cake and got it to the site of the shower in one piece (with lots of help from my husband- who packed a beautiful car that got the cake there and made many a trip for supplies during "construction").

It was a long way to get there from a test cake a few weekends before which was my first ever cake from scratch

to making chocolate lollipops (also a first).

Constructing the top out of foam board then covering it with fondant and icing.

Then putting the real thing together into the wee hours of the morning before the shower.

At the shower I was asked to make this cake again for a little girls birthday party that will be at the carousel. I might try to make other cakes but I just don't think I can do this one again. We'll see I promised to at least think about it. I was so flattered to be asked, it was a real compliment since I'm a total novice and was winging it on this cake from start to finish. (I had visions of it ended up on cake wreck)

My 1st ever glass creation!

It's heeeeeeere! Ok, well actually it was here last week but I struggled with getting any decent pictures of the paperweight. It's very smooth, very reflective, and the colors are pretty translucent so I'll warn you right now, the pictures aren't the greatest.

I came home for lunch each day last week hoping it would arrive. On Thursday I got to the driveway and I could see the box sitting on the porch (I almost skipped to the house I was so excited).

But was a little scared when I saw this

But thankfully the glass was packed really well, inside this box was packing material, then another box. Inside that box were the two glass pieces each in their own box and more packing material.

This is the ornament my sister made.

I love how she got that strong swirl all the way around.

Here is my paperweight

Like I said the pictures aren't the best, but I tried to shoot it from a few angles and with different lighting so the colors would show.

I love the colors, and I'm happy with the amount of bubbles (I tried not to get too many in there).

It's such a funny thing to make an object with your hands but have no idea what it's going to look like until it's sent to you.

I can't believe I actually made this- I've always wanted to work with glass and although I didn't do any of the hard parts (I got the fun easy tasks) I'm happy to have been in a working studio, near the equipment and to have manipulated the molten glass.

After this experience I have to confess that I'm smitten with the idea of getting some actual instruction in glassblowing. I think it'll be a while before I take a class or anything (at least a year or more) because it's hard to find a place that teaches it (less than a few hours away, that is) and it's pretty expensive (at least from what I've seen so far).

I'm feeling a little bit like I might need to make a decision between getting a spinning wheel and learning to work with glass. Each is an investment in both time and money. And I'm just not sure I could realistically do both.

If you missed my first post on glassblowing be sure to check it out.

MSCE April and Kids Craft Week: Make a Kaleidoscope!

It's smack in the middle of both April and my Kids Craft Week. Today I did a project that I've always wanted to do... making a Kaleidoscope.

It was a really fun and quick project- I've never made one before but I was able to work out the details and have the actual kaleidoscope made all before work this morning. This project would be suitable for older kids (with adult supervision). If you wanted to make this with a younger child they could choose the beads that go inside and decorate the outside tube. While I was making this it seemed like it would be a fun thing to do at a kids party.

Here's What You'll Need:

• One mailing tube with plastic caps for the ends (it should be slightly smaller or about the same size as a TP tube).
• One toilet paper tube
• Three mirrors or an already assembled prism toy that is smaller than your tp tube.
• Clear Duct Tape
• A handful of beads, bits, and cool things.
• One small clear container- the kind that little beads and grommets from the craft store are packaged in. (You can also buy these small containers. I found mine at a dollar store)
• One sheet of white cardstock
• One sheet of decorative paper or stickers, and markers.
• A scrap of vellum (big enough to cut out a circle the size of your mailing tube).
• Optional- Glue that can be used on plastic.
• You'll also need a craft knife, scissors, paper glue, and a pencil
  

Here We Go:

To start you'll need a prism-

I didn't make mine I purchased it ( they sell them as toys) and took the decorative paper wrapper off (mostly since I was taking pictures of it) but you could make your own easily. You would need three mirrors about 1/2 inch wide x 3 inches long, taped together to make a triangle.

Once you have the prism you need to cut your tp tube up the side and roll it into a smaller sized tube so that the prism will fit snugly inside. Then tape it so it stays that size. (I taped the edge with regular duct tape but later used the clear tape- either is fine.)

Then I rolled the tp tube in cardstock until it was thick enough to fit snugly into the mailing tube without jiggling around.

Once I had this done I traced the bottom of the clear container on the vellum and cut out a circle.

Then I filled the container with beads, bits of paper, and even some scraps of soda bottle plastic from Monday's project.

I noticed that the mailing tube seemed long- I lined up the tp tube, the bead container, and the plastic cap to estimate the length I needed. I made a pencil mark all the way around and used a craft knife to cut the mailing tube down to about half the length.

I put the tp tube into the mailing tube and stuck the plastic container on the other end. It was at this point that I realized that the lid on the container could easily come off and spill beads everywhere (ask me how I found that out, it may have had something to do with beads flying all over the studio... maybe). So I took the container back out of the tube (picked up all the beads I could find) and decided to tape the edges closed (you could use plastic glue here too).

Then put it back into the end of the mailing tube and taped the vellum onto the top (you could also glue this- it would look neater- but the tape worked fine).

Last- but a very important part of construction for the finished kaleidoscope is to make the eyepiece. I used one of the plastic caps that came with the mailing tube.

With a craft knife I made a hole, then used the end of a paper craft tool to smooth it down a bit.

I put the cap into the other end of the tube. (Now I had a tube with the vellum then the plastic container on one end- the TP/prism tube in the middle and the eye piece at the other end.)

To finish I covered the outside with decorative paper. You could also cover it with white paper and use markers, stickers, and paper punches to decorate.

It works great, and was so much fun that I kind of want to make a few more! It's also got me thinking how neat it would be to make some holiday specific kaleidoscopes.

And If you missed it, here's Tuesdays project: tye-dye coffee filter spring critters