thread - I'm Topsy Turvy

barbie standing guitar cake

October 24, 2012 by Ashlee · 6 Comments

I was tickled when my friend Holly asked if I could make a cake for her daughters Barbie – The Princess & The Popstar Birthday Party! When she asked if I could do a guitar cake I was even MORE excited!!! How totally awesome!!! You know me, I can’t just make a guitar cake… I have to make a STANDING guitar cake!

I enlarged a guitar shape in photoshop and used it to draw an electric guitar shape in 3/4 in thick wood. Then I cut it out with my jig saw! My kids love the Barbie movies so I quickly bought the new one for “research” to get the shape of the guitar just like the one in the movie.

once I cut it out I created shelves of more wood as well as built out the neck of guitar and covered it all with aluminum foil (we don’t want our cake/food touching raw wood!!!) Then I added rice krispy treats to the bottom, cause it’s light weight, and “glued” it in place with ganache, royal icing works too.

Then I started stacking the cake to the shape, also using Ganache to “glue” it together. You can choose to stack it the way I did, from the back, or upright, from the shelves. It took two oval cakes to get the right height, I barely had to carve any off the top!!! It was perfect!

To create the standing I screwed some metal corner brackets to the base (I used my jig saw and cut a star) and to the guitar shape. THEN I bent it back to the angle I thought would work best (and not fall over).

I covered the body of the guitar in purple, then sprayed it with a pearl sheen to glitter-fy it! then added the fondant to the neck! Time to add all the details!!!

I dried fondant ovals to some covered wire and stuck them out the back for the string tighter’s. To hold the string I screwed some, well, screws right through the fondant into the wood.

on the other end I tied the string to some straight pins and shoved them right into the cake!

I covered the screws with fondant and I left some of the string hanging out, to look more real. I used upholstery string for the thickness.

And covered the other end with more fondant!

A close up of the details…

And the full guitar! I am still SOOO in love with how it turned out!!! Eeeek! I’d love love LOVE to create a realistic looking guitar, painting the fondant to look like real wood… anyone NEED one?

Filed Under: cake tutorial, Cakes, carved, Party cakes · Tagged With: airbrush, chocolate, fondant, gygi, thread

Thread Crochet Rose Ring pattern

May 7, 2012 by Ashlee · 24 Comments

I love thread crochet, so when I saw these cute thread crochet rings on Pinterest last year I HAD to make them! I’ve already made all three in every color of thread I have and sizes for me and for my girls!

This is ring 1 done with a smaller hook to create a smaller flower

And ring 2 using the hook the pattern calls for

I actually used the technique from the first rings (creating longer loops and connecting them in the back) with this doily earring flower!

Then I found this AMAZING and totally gorgeous ruffled ring! SERIOUSLY I’m going to make about 3 dozen of these!

So I thought my crochet rose would be perfect as a thread crochet ring! I love it!

Thread Crochet Flower ring
US 7 hook (1.5mm) – up or down a size or two is fine, it will just change the final size a bit
crochet thread
This flower can be rolled tight or as loose as you’d like it, so the size also depends on that.

Chain 53

Row 1: DC in 5th Chain from hook *CH 1, skip 1 (DC-CH-DC) in next ch (V stitch made). repeat from * across to end, turn.

Row 2: CH 3 (counts as DC) 5 DC in CH space, *SC in next CH-1 space, 6 DC in next CH-1 space (shell stitch made). Repeat from *, ending in 6 DC in last CH-1 space. Fasten off, but leave a good LONG tail for anchoring the flower. 6inches or so.

Finishing
Starting at that end roll the flower up, this should have a natural twist so it should be easy!

Threading the tail onto the needle and weave across the base creating x’s all around. make sure not to pull TOO tightly!

Add it to a blank ring base! and Voila! Done!

Have you made anything inspired by Pinterest recently? Come post it up on our Pinterest Challenge link party!

Thread Crochet Flower ring
US 7 hook (1.5mm) – up or down a size or two is fine, it will just change the final size a bit
crochet thread
This flower can be rolled tight or as loose as you’d like it, so the size also depends on that.

Chain 53
Row 1: DC in 5th Chain from hook *CH 1, skip 1 (DC-CH-DC) in next ch (V stitch made). repeat from * across to end, turn.
Row 2: CH 3 (counts as DC) 5 DC in CH space, *SC in next CH-1 space, 6 DC in next CH-1 space (shell stitch made). Repeat from *, ending in 6 DC in last CH-1 space. Fasten off, but leave a good LONG tail for anchoring the flower. 6inches or so.

Finishing
Starting at that end roll the flower up, this should have a natural twist so it should be easy!

Threading the tail onto the needle and weave across the base creating x’s all around. make sure not to pull TOO tightly!

Add it to a blank ring base and done.

Filed Under: Craft Tutorial, Crafts, crochet, Crochet Free patterns · Tagged With: thread, tutorial

Baby Boy’s Birth Annoucements

January 22, 2012 by Ashlee · 7 Comments

I created and mailed Baby Boy’s birth announcements at the same time as our Family Christmas cards. I figured they were going to the same people might as well save on stamps! But with as much time as both projects took I probably would have been better off doing one of the other. But I did get everything mailed by the 23rd so I BARELY made it before Christmas!

I created a booklet of sorts for his birth announcements, with the edges getting longer with each page so I could put his information on the sides. There were just TOO many good pictures to leave it to just a two dimensional announcement! I used pictures from my maternity photoshoot, the birth pictures Chelsea took as well as the birth story from Kim, his newborn pictures and finally his blessing pictures!

I used photoshop to create the booklets and printed them on brochure paper. Brochure paper is great, because it’s thinner than photo paper AND you can print on both sides. I created the booklets so I could print one complete book on a single 8.5 x 11 page. Notice I left 3/4″ on each side of the pages (outside edges) for the binding. Here are the layouts:

front: page 1, page 8 back: page 7, page 2
page 3, page 6 page 5, page 4

Then I cut out the pages, and used my sewing machine to “bind” the booklets together (use your sewing machine on the longest stitch for this to work best)! Voila!

Here is the full book layed out like you would see it if you flipped through it!

Cover

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

BackI am SO happy with them! Thanks again to Kim Olandini Photography and Chelsea Peterson Photography!

Filed Under: baby, Crafts, Family, kids, paper, photoshop, sewing · Tagged With: pictures, thread

Oversized Ruffled headband

January 19, 2012 by Ashlee · 6 Comments

I made this headband last year for So you think your crafty, it was party of my 7 red items for red week (AKA the week I got voted off). But with the craziness of morning sickness that followed for the few months after that I actually haven’t posted MOST of the crafts I made for the competition! Never too late, right? (some of the ones I DID post were my ruffled quilted stockings and tree skirt, my 6 pillow refashions, my homemade aqua-sand, my ruffled camera strap and my boot-cut to skinny jeans refashion)

I honestly love how this turned out, but of course it matches my faux hawk and hair color really well!!! But even on my daughter (without “spiky” hair it still looks good, but it’s definitely a statement of sorts. Personally I like it big, statements are a GOOD thing in my book as long as it involves being mostly dressed…

This was so long ago I don’t remember my measurements exactly, but I eyeballed it anyway. This actually used to be a blue tablecloth that I dyed red (I love rit dye). I cut the first piece out at about 6 inches wide and 30 so inches long… I wanted a pretty rough, thick look so instead of serging the edges I used a long zig zag to add to the texture. Then ran it through my sewing machine with my ruffler foot attached.

I also cut some tulle at about 5 inches wide and about half the length, and ruffled that too, although not as much so they are about the same length ruffled. Finally I cut one last piece about 4 inches wide and 10 inches long also heavily ruffled. Notice I didn’t worry about ruffling it in the center all the way down, I wanted this to have off center parts where the fabric stuck out farther than others.

Layer all three together and I ran it through my sewing machine one last time down the center to join the layers!

Then I hand sewed it onto a comfortable headband! If you make your own my suggestion would be to put the blank headband on, then play with where you want to have it. Mark the headband with something, take it off and sew your ruffle into place! Wear and enjoy!!!