Green Snake Cake

When the pictures of the Burmese python by North Star Cakes was going around on Face Book I thought that would be a fun cake to make. I tried convincing my 6 year old to have snake party but he was not keen. However my godchild Rhylie decided he was having a snake party this year so ..... Snake Cake here we come.

1. Bake 2 cakes (1 circular) 

2. Crumble and mix the other cake in with chocolate butter icing.

3. Use this mixture like clay and sculpt the snake shape around the circular   cake. (at this stage the cake will look very unappetizing!)

4. Make the head & tail separately. Cover with fondant icing

5. Paint with colours

6. To create the pattern of scales - I used a net like water sports bag and pressed it onto the icing and the dusted dry coloured icing onto it and when I pulled it off I had the scale pattern.

Gyotaku fish rubbing

I loved this project but it did take a lot of prep work. The art of fish rubbing is called,  Gyotaku. Here is a video I found showing you how to do the fish rubbing. Charl caught the Spotted Grunter while we were on holiday at The Mudlark Riverfront Lodge. The eye has to be painted after the print is made. Try it - this is great fun.

Blue Bird Xmas

Christmas table decorations all inspired from Pinterest and Geninne. I while back I found a box of old music sheets at a charity shop and decided to hang onto them for a project. So this year everything is Music and blue Birds. The crackers, I punched the edges to make them "fancy" and copied a templete, the birds were printed out and stuck on. The place mats, I painted a word on each place-mat and then covered them with glue and then tissue paper (give it some texture) the birds were stuck on last with little speech bubble. The Christmas balls took a while, pasting all the music paper on the balls..... shew! then painted each persons name and varnished and then sprinkled some glitter. The table runner was same idea as the place-mats. I had some wood blocks I painted these with cute family messages to run along the center of the table.

Surf party

Jack decided for his 8th birthday he would have a surf party, I was very excited to get to make a "WAVE" cake. I rolled the fondant out, draped it over a champagne bottle and let it dry for 4 days. The sponge was 3 shades of blue. The picture of jack surfing I printed both sides & stuck onto card. Blue shades of butter icing and for the foam I mixed icing with water till it was sticky & pipped it onto the wave. Party pack = blue energy juice, big wave surfboard biscuits, certificate and a surf thong necklace. Unfortunately the weather was wild & stormy so we had cancel the surf lesson for another day and go to Dunes Restaurant.

 

Velt flowers

At the begging of the year I put my name down to do the foyer flowers for Jacks school - what I did not realize was that the week I choose was a long weekend so we were away. Not wanting to rush back from the Breede river (www.mudlark.co.za) we needed a plan. So we went for walk in the fields and collected flowers, Kids had so much fun and the flowers were spectacular!

Spring Hat day for Max's school

Max had to come to school with a hat decorated with the Spring Theme - so Jack Max and I spent a fanatstic afternoon cutting and decorating his hat with flowers & bugs. He was so proud of it he is still wearing it.

Dusty slides revived

This was a project that had been on my TO-DO-LIST for a very long time. What brought it to the top of the list was when I found these 2 beautiful slide holder trays at the charity shop, I came home immediately and dusted off the slides that had been in a box tucked in the cupboard. I then had the scanned and copied to CD. Great fun to look through all the old pictures and play with effects in Photoshop. 

Lino Cut Mouse Bird

This is a lino cut I have made, I am thinking about using it to stamp a pattern on my moms staff aprons at her guest house. The Mouse birds can be seen eating fruit on their deck every day and the really are very cute to watch. Have a look at their gallery pics on the Mudlark Riverfront lodge for loads of stunning pictures of bird.

Homemade Hula Hoop

Boys got excited about Hula Hooping after playing with some at a concert so I searched the web for a cheaper option. They ended up costing only R15 to make, garden irrigation pipe, connector and some electrical tape...... so easy. Visit this site for more details www.jasonunbound.com/hoops.html   

River rocks & blue birds

Ok - I think I have a problem.....I have become hooked on painting rocks! - Finding it very therapeutic. Hopefully I will be able to sell them at the school Christmas market otherwise allot of friends and family will be receiving rocks for Christmas. Painted with Acrylic ink and spray varnished with clear lacquer.

Little Artists

When i grow up one day...... my answer was always ' art teacher ' - ( I ended up being a graphic designer) So I offered to help out at my 5 year old pre-school with a little art lesson.

I took photos of all 25 kids and asked them to pretend to hold something, then printed out in Black & white. All the kids were told to draw something in their hands that makes the happy, so we had allot of lolly pops and flowers. I asked them to make it as bright as they could and fill as much white space as possible. I also gave them stickers and let them add glue and glitter. They created masterpieces!!!! 

SPRING Kids Market

Market time again.....my boys & I have been making mini Aloe & Succulent gardens - collecting jars & old tea cups from Church sales and Nazareth House Charity Shop. We noticed that last time everyone wanted the pretty blue pots so this time we painted them all blue, and we sold out!!!  To join Sam's next kiddie market day, see KidsDecor website, Have a look at the pics while you are there.

Rock painting

Rock painting

I love Geninne stamps and style (she has just brought out a beautiful book) so these "rocks" were inspired by her. Our winter holiday - (4 moms and 9 kids) was spent collecting rocks off the Breede River beach and then spending the cold afternoons indoors with a fire painting our treasures. We used Acrylic Ink and sprayed them with clear varnish.  Thanks for the holiday The Mudlark Riverfront Lodge

Princess Rainbow cake

I have always wanted to make a kitsch Barbie cake, but I have 2 boys. So when I heard Holly wanted one for her birthday - I was in! Being a mad Pint-rest fan I have seen all the rainbow cakes and have wanted to try that too. So I combined the 2. The  glitter pattern was painted on with a wet paintbrush and the sprinkled the glitter over it and blew away the excess glitter. Now tonight I am making a skateboard cake as Holly is sharing her party with her little brother (my godchild) - couldn't leave him out.