Cake Decorating Ideas Turned into Reality

 In all my years of teaching, I have never liked touching play dough. I don't like the texture, the smell, and the thought of all those germs trapped inside. So it came as a surprise to discover that I like to play with fondant. A few years ago, my boys came up with some birthday cake ideas that they wanted me to make them. The first ones I made were not that great, but over the years, they got better. I am sharing the ones that I found pictures of. 

My first attempt at decorating cakes was scary. One of my kids wanted a Slim Jim cake, while the other requested a carrot cake. The carrot cake was easier because all I did was decorate it with gummy carrots and plastic, candy filled carrots that I got from the Dollar Tree. I poked the carrot part of the gummies into the top of the cake. The Slim Jim cake was made using a bundt cake pan. I filled the hole with Slim Jims and made the logo from Fondant.

This next cake took a lot of planning. My daughter wanted a pirate themed birthday party. The bottom part of the cake was pretty simple. However, trying to get the top part to look right was very difficult. I eventually gave up and left it warpped looking. Everyone thought it was great, so I guess I can't complain. I used editable jewels, pearls, and chocolate coins that I found at Hobby Lobby.

The next year, my daughter wanted a Perry the Platypus cake. This was a lot easier to make. The top of the hat and the beak were made out of rice crispy treats with a layer of fondant over them. I drew the eyes on with icing.

One of my family's favorite cakes are my taco cakes. My boys had a Taco Party, so I did my best to make them each a taco cake for their birthday.  A little hint in how I made these is that I split a round cake down the middle, then I turned each half on its side and wrapped them in a rolled out layer of gold fondant. I cut out small pieces of green, red, and yellow fondant and sprinkled them across the top of each taco to look like topping.

I made a special graduation cake for my neice. For some reason, her nickname is Squid. So it was only appropriate that her cake be a squid. I made the squid by placing two cupcakes together and coving them with pink fondant. The tentacles are also made from fondant. I placed edible pearls on the tentacles. 

Recently, my family threw a surprise party for my mom. She likes aliens, so we had an alien theme. This is my favorite cake so far. I took a few pictures during the process of making it in hopes to do a step by step guide. However, I got so involved in making it that I forgot to keep taking pictures.

I usually bake my own cakes but I was short on time. So, I bought a cookie cake for the base. I scrapped off the icing that it had on it and used green icing with a grass icing tip.

I also bought a round layered cake and removed the decoration from the top. I shaped the cake and piled the shaving on top to give it a rounded look.

I covered the cake with glittery silver fondant. I placed candy Dots for the lights and antenna. I used black fondant for the windows. I used green fondant and candy eyes for the aliens. I placed a string of diamond jewels around the middle. When the cake was put together at the party, I put glow sticks arouund the base of the cup to give it a glowing effect. While at Hobby Lobby, I saw these glittery cardboard circle cutouts. I trimmed them down and placed them around the cake.

The hardest part of the cake was actually locating cows. For some reason, none of my local stores had a small black and white cow.  I am so glad that I came across this cute little cow family. It really brought the cake together.

My mom was so happy when she saw this alien cake. Everytime I have talked to her this past week, she has commented on how much she loved her cake.

New Classroom: Happy Decorating Challenge!

 I recently had the joy of changing classrooms. I enjoy getting the chance to redecorate and organize. This new room allowed me to come up with new, fun ideas for my students. However, the new room had a different layout that was somewhat of a challenge. There was no "front of the classroom." Two walls had double doors, another wall held a window and a door, and the fourth wall had cubbies screwed into it. Thankfully, maintenance came to the rescue and removed the cubbies from the wall. This wall was painted yellow so when the cubbies were removed, I was left with a rectangle of white wall. I quickly mixed up whatever paint I had on hand and did my best to color match the wall before I hung up a white board and a calendar. I also created an area to hang up my students' art work.

The "Before" Wall.

                          The "After" Wall.

I painted the front of the cubbies yellow before placing it vertically in an awkward corner. 

I like the idea of having a tree in my classroom. I had one in my room at a previous school and the kids really seemed to like it. This whole classroom has weird angles which allowed for a perfect spot for a tree. I like using lights in my decor, so I strung somes lights on the tree.

Now to tackle the window that leads to a hallway. What can I say, it's an old building. I really didn't want to hang curtains so I used a table cloth left over from my neices birthday. It had a solid back and a shimmery front. I pulled the pieces apart and hung up the solid back, then I placed fish and various other aquarium decor on it. I laid the shimmery piece over the front to give it the illusion of being in water. I added a string of lights. 

Since I like to use lights, I decided to make two tabletop lamps out of souvenir cups that my boys got from a zoo several years ago. All I did was put a battery operated string light inside. I wanted to use white lights but I realized I only had multi lights left in my supply cabinet.

My student are really enjoying our new space. Especially when it is a rainy or cloudy day and we have all the string lights on. Sometimes, they will just stand under the tree and gaze up at the lights in wonder. 

Door Decorations, Bulletine Boards, and Hallway Decor

Who doesn't love to decorate Doors, Bulletine Boards, and hallways? Well, I do. It can be somewhat of a challenge to come up with knew ideas all the time. I have included several ideas in other posts, but I thought I would throw some together in this one. I will keep the writing to a minimum since the pictures are self explanatory. 

The bees are made out of water bottles.

As you can see, some of these are from different themes we have had to do, such as Bees, Zoo, Halloween, Christmas, Fall, Sports, and Dr. Seuss. Of course, the best part of decorating the halls is when we use our students art work. Nothing beats that!

Indoor Camping

     I do not like field trips. Never have, probably never will. I was a nervous and anxiuos child so going on a field trip was hard for me. I was hoping to out grow it, but sadly, as a teacher, I hate them even more. Too much worry and stress involved. What I do enjoy is creating a new environment within my classroom for the kids to explore. 

    During our summer program, I decided to give the kids a camping experience. I brought in a pop up beach tent, made a fake fire, put up a Christmas tree, and created fun activites to do.  I made the fire by laying toilet paper rolls in a circle. I then wrapped a touch light in yellow and orange tissue paper. I placed the light in the middle of the toilet paper rolls. The kids loved it. 

    First, we sat around the fire. I put marshmellows on the end of cake pop sticks and we pretended to roast marshmellows. We sang a few of our favorite songs and then I read a couple of stories to them.

  

     I created some activities and games for us to do next. We went fishing. Using small dowel rods, I added yarn and a paper clip to make the fishing rods. I tied a ribbon to various small prizes and placed them in a bowl. I then covered the bowl will blue plastic and surrounded it with construction paper for the grass. I made slits in the plastic for them to lower the hook into.

    I set up craft stations. The kids got to decorate a birdhouse and paint a bandana to wear. The picture below also shows a "Welcome Campers" banner along with some paper trees. 

    I made goody bags with items for them to make smores when they got home. These are easy to make. You just place a small Hershey bar, a marshmellow and a graham cracker in a ziplock bag.

    The best part of my class going camping was hearing them tell their parents about it. This is something that I am definetly going to do every summer. It was fun and easy to put together.

Christmas Stocking Posts

     Several years ago, I found myself in need of a place to hang my Christmas stockings. I asked my mother for any ideas and she told me that she had been looking at stocking hangers but hasn't found the right one.  Like all her previous projects, if my mom can't find something she needs, she makes it. My mother is a vary handy person. I often tell people that I don't have a "handy man," but I have a "handy mom." So off we went to the home improvement store. She bought a couple of 4x4x8 posts, 18x12x1 boards (for the base), screws (not sure which kind), and white paint.

    When attaching the base to the post, you will want to countersink the screws. The screws will then be inset in the wood and your post will be sturdy and not wobbly.

    After assembling the wood and painting them white, we were left with the task of putting a design on them. I had several Christmas window clings laying around so I decided to give it a try. I glued them on the posts and then sprayed a sealent over the tops of them. We then went to various stores to find a topper.

    My mom found a pepperment striped tree, and a glass lantern. She added some fairy lights to it and wrapped a piece of garland and a bow at the base. The post has snowmen, a Christmas tree, and Santa on it. 

    My stocking post has snowmen on it. I bought a silver lantern for the top and placed a snowman inside. I also included white fairy lights and blue snowflake lights. The battery packs for the string lights are velcroed to the back of the post. We used 4 screw hooks on each post to hold up to 4 stockings.

    After making the snowman one for my family, I decided to make one for my pets. I used dog and cat window clings. I found a jar at a craft store and placed a dog and cat ornament inside along with the fairy lights.

    These were so much fun to design and create. The cost wasn't too bad. Most of the money was spent on making the toppers. The wood for two stocking posts was around $30 dollars. My mother spent about $15 on her topper all together. I spent about $30 on the snowman one. The pet one only cost about $12. I am sure many people have made similar stocking posts, but we are very happy with the ones we made. I hope this article is helpful to anyone who wants to make one for themselves.