Back in Business!

Yay! I am back in business for the New Year! Unfortunately, I have been very busy since my last post and have quite a few things to get caught up on...

We'll work in reverse chronological order and see how quickly I can confuse myself =P

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Santa's Elves delivered quite a few cake decorating supplies this year (Thank You, Thank You, Thank You) and I had to do them justice and make a cake as soon as I had the chance! This particular gem (only my second cake after the cake decorating workshop I attended in Novemeber) is a white almond sour cream cake (WASC for those of you who like to visit cakecentral.com) with buttercream frosting and decorations.

I originally intended to do fireworks on the side of the cake...but I had a slight mis-communication with one of my fingertips and one edge of the frosting was sacrificed :(

Luckily, after a few deep breaths and a calming walk around the apartment...I was able to recover and experimented with a few of my new decorating tips at the same time!

Below are a few close-up shots in case you are interested...

HOLIDAY CARD!!!

In an effort to make-up for my Christmas negligence this year, I decided to make some really cute holiday cards to send out to certain family members. I started with a coloring book page that I had salvaged from one of my really really really old books hiding around my parent's house (I probably got distracted with the coloring book when I was supposed to be packing/cleaning up my room).

I could not find any crayons or colored pencils (did I even keep any after I left high school?) and resorted to a set of sharpie-like markers that I've kept in my collection for card-making purposes! The results were not anywhere near what I had hoped for...I didn't even snap a photo it was so embarrassing!

So...instead I decided to trace the original coloring book page and start my own cut-and-paste-construction-paper project! YAY!

Since I have been reading a lot of tutorial-type blogs recently, I think that I will show you a step-by-step photo tutorial...just because I can =D

I started with an outline of Frosty's entire body and accessories out of white computer paper:

then I cut out a second outline and slashed it up into smaller template pieces for each item of clothing I would be adding.

 

then we pull out the stack of handy-dandy construction paper and start tracing and cutting away!

first we add his stove-pipe hat...

 and then some decorations to the hat...because this snowman has some style!

and then a scarf to keep his neck from getting too chilly...

 and some mittens for his hands...

 then I added some golden buttons...

 and a nose made from a carrot-like substance...

 and cute little eyes!!! (these were just hole-punched because by this point I had gotten sick of tracing and cutting out small pieces of construction paper with a set of kitchen shears...)

 Finally I used those markers again...this time just to add some small details that just finish off the look.

 And don't forget that adorable snowman smile!

And there you have the front of a very adorable snowman holiday card! I think my snowman turned out much cuter than the original...but that might just be because I took the time to document each and every step along the way *shrug* You'll notice that mine is also a mirror image of the original...a product of the tracing and cutting steps.

But either way...this post has gotten exceptionally long, so I think it is time for a snack! I'll be back to finish posting later on!

-M-