Polymer Clay Wedding Cake Ornament

Polymer Clay Wedding Cake Decoration by Diana Rudolf

Wedding Cake for Fall Wedding 

Created by Betty Roebuck

Roses and Leaves 

by Karla Wadas Hickenbottom

This was so much fun to make.  The polymer clay is easy to work with.  Love that stuff!  It was great in that I could make a piece, set it aside and come back a week later and still work with it.  It doesn't dry out.  I used the Sculpey brand clay.  This is an ornament I made for my daughter and son-in-law for their tenth wedding anniversary.  The actual cake was created by my daughter's mother-in-law, Betty Roebuck.  She makes the most beautiful cakes. 

DIY Mod Podged Dispenser

Mod Podged Toilet Dispenser

This project is made using the flushable wipes dispenser you find in your grocer or Walmart.  This was fun to make and went pretty quick.  I got the idea from my daughter, Kristen.  She made me one as a gift awhile back.  This one goes great with our beach bathroom theme.  You can design your own with any of your favorite scrapbook papers and embellishments.  

 

I used The Paper Studio's Beach House scrapbook papers for my design on this box.  

First, you will need a piece of paper to trace your top pattern to.  Before you begin, place the flushable wipes in a zip-lock baggie so they won't dry out. 

Cut a section of paper to fit over the top of the dispenser.  Tape the paper to the top on both sides. 

Using the side of the pencil lead, shade over the top around the lid.  This will be your pattern piece.  Shade that entire area of the lid.  

Remove the paper from the lid and cut out your pattern on the lines you created with the pencil rub or shading.  Place the pattern over the top to make sure your scrapbook piece will fit.

Next, place the pattern piece over your scrapbook paper.  Tape it to the scrapbook paper and cut around the pattern piece.  Set this piece aside.

I placed the scrapbook paper along the bottom edge of the dispenser and measured where to cut the strip of paper to fit on the front edge by pressing with my finger along the bottom to get the cut line as shown above.  Cut out your strip. 

Next, place the strip along the front of the dispenser and cut out a notch for the closing tab as shown above.  

"Paint" on a layer of Mod Podge in the front of the dispenser with a brush or sponge and then lay your strip along that edge of the front as you see above.  Try not to get too much of the Mod Podge onto the surface of the dispenser.  You can see it has a smooth and shiny finish and too much Mod Podge will make it bubble. 

If you need to, you can cut a tiny snip that may want to stick over the edge of the dispenser as shown.  

Cut out any design(s) from your scrapbook paper that you desire to go on the sides and the lid at the top of the dispenser.  

Using your Mod Podge like glue, glue each cut out in any way you desire onto your dispenser. Next, using your paint brush or sponge, cover the entire area of scrapbook paper.  I'm fairly new to using Mod Podge, so if you know a better way of getting your paper onto an object with the Mod Podge, please share it with us.  Thank you!!  

Add any tiny embellishments you would like to your dispenser.  Place it on the back of the toilet in your bathroom. 

Cadance's Christening Gown

I made this Christening gown using McCall's Pattern 3063 for my granddaughter, Cadance.  I enjoyed sewing this so much for her.  I made the blanket using the shawl from her mommy's wedding gown as shown in the photo below.  I had purchased extra fabric for the blanket out of the same fabric I chose for the Christening gown.   I folded the shawl into a rectangle. I then cut a rectangle for the blanket to match the size of the folded shawl adding 1/2 an inch around the edge of the fabric rectangle for the hem.  I folded the edges of the fabric twice creating a 1/4 inch hem.  Press in place.  You can machine or hand stitch the hem in place.  I placed the shawl and blanket with their wrong sides together.  Doing a slip stitch around the entire blanket with a very fine fishing line type thread makes the blanket look nice.  You can then cut the fine line later to remove the shawl from the fabric if desired. 

Christening Gown from McCalls Pattern 3063.  Blanket is the shawl from her mommy's wedding gown.

 

Gown with matching bonnet and bib.  

 

McCalls Pattern 3063

 

Maggie Sottero gown with shawl.  Photo Greg Johnson Photography. 

Baby's Christening Gown with Blanket made
from her Mommy's Wedding Gown Shawl.
Gown ~ Maggie Sottero
Wedding Photographer ~ Greg Johnson

Sushi Chef Nutcracker

I love my Sushi Chef Nutcracker.  Larry found him at TJMaxx. 

DIY Cutting Board with Mom's Recipe

DIY Cutting Board with Mom's Recipe

This was a lot of fun to make!  It's much easier than I thought.  I purchased a bamboo cutting board at Wal-mart along with the wood burning tool set below.  It was in the craft department of Wal-mart.

I used the tip that was similar to a felt tip pen.  It worked on the bamboo the best for me.  You can experiment with the tip that works best for you.  This tool was comfortable to use.  

The first thing I did was scan my mom's recipe into my computer.  I then opened it in a program that made it larger.  I wanted it to fill up most of the cutting board.  I printed off the recipe.  Next, I placed a piece of carbon paper over the board and then centered the recipe onto the board.  It's easier to center if you cut away most of the paper around your recipe.  I traced the handwriting with one of those mechanical pencils.  I liked the very fine point for the tracing.  That way you can get the handwriting as close to the original.   

I then heated the iron up and began "writing" with it.  I used it like a pen or pencil and found it quite easy to fill in as shown in the image of the bread, flour and eggs.  If you can color in a coloring book, you can do this.  The bamboo is fairly forgiving and I just began coloring and it was so easy!  For the darker areas of shading, I went over a few times pressing a little harder until the desired effect was achieved.  I tried the very fine point from the tool kit and found it would take me forever, so I gave the "felt tip" type point a try and it worked perfect.  I was still able to achieve the fine lines.  This was on the bamboo.  I haven't tried using the tool on the other types of wood cutting boards.  Like the instructions say on the tool package, don't squeeze the tool too hard while working or you'll burn your fingers!  Very true!  Just relax and take your time and it won't burn.  Have fun!

Here are two I made for my mother-in-law to give to my brother and sister-in-law.  These are fun to make.  

After our move into a new home, I found this oak cutting board I had from way back in one of the older packed boxes.  I thought I could burn sunflowers onto the board for my daughter.  She loves sunflowers.  : )  The wood was easy to work with the burning.  I found this lovely wallpaper border print online and did the same where I used carbon paper to trace the image onto the board.  

 

Here's a fun idea where you can use an image from a wedding invitation to make a wonderful gift for the bride and groom.  I did this one the same as above by scanning the monogram band you see around the invitation into my computer and printing off the size I needed to fill the bottom of the cutting board.  You can get these bamboo cutting boards at Walmart.  

Barbie Wedding Gown

Barbie Wedding Gown

Here is a wedding gown I made for my granddaughter, Cadance.  She has a Ken doll who wears a tux and she asked Nana if I would make her a gown. 

You can get the pattern for the gown at the following link:

https://sites.google.com/s/1KXHUTF4J-8G2ZCu-d9MCBHfG4AjQ8MkY/p/1GEBd_Oh3I_SZJ9t5gjFy1hkMWXgdK38W/edit

Items Needed:

Satin Fabric 1/4 of a yard
Sheer Fabric as shown in photo 1/4 of a yard
Thread to match
Desired Lace Trims
Velcro

There are two downloads.  One is the bodice patterns and the other is the skirt pattern.  Be sure to print each of the two downloads at 100% for the correct size.  The pattern pieces are pretty self explanatory if you have sewn 11 1/2" doll patterns before.  You'll want to start by making the darts in both the front and back bodices. Next, sew the front and back bodices together with right sides together.  All seams and hems are 1/4 inch.  Make the hem at the top of the bodice front and back.  Sew the trim(s) at the top of the front bodice.  Set aside.   You can leave out the trim on the under skirt of the gown if you prefer.  If you do add a trim, be sure to hem the under skirt with a width that will allow the trim to match the hem length on the over skirt.  Next, add the trim to the under skirt hem.  Hem the over skirt too.  Sew the over skirt to the under skirt at the top of the waist line.  Gather that top edge by basting.  Pull threads to gather and pin to the entire front and back bodice matching edges.  Sew in place.  You will now have a facing at the back of the two sides of the bodice and the back of the skirt.  Press them down to the inside of the gown with your iron.  Sew the raw edge down.  I cut a 1/4" width of the Velcro with the length to match the length of the opening on the back of the gown.  Pull the Velcro apart.  Place the top piece of Velcro under the left edge of the opening on the gown.  Press down the entire length.  Do the same for the bottom piece of the Velcro pressing it down on the top of the right edge opening.  The gown is now ready for Barbie's special day.  


The bouquet was made with the glue and bread dough, a small Styrofoam ball, ribbons and rhinestones.  I used jewelry wire made into a small loop about a half inch long and hot glued its ends into the Styrofoam ball.  A piece of 1/8" elastic was looped through the wire loop and hot glued together at the ends to form a bracelet for Barbie.  I cut off the extra length.  This way you can put her hand through the elastic bracelet and let her fingers go through the wire loop for holding the bouquet. 


To make the glue and bread dough, take a slice of white bread, (don't use wheat) remove the crusts.  Tear the bread into 1 inch pieces.  In a small bowl, pour about 1 tbls of Elmer's Glue and add the bread pieces.  Knead the dough until it is smooth and like dough.  You may need to add more glue if necessary.  After you have kneaded it, you can split the dough into separate dough balls.  Add food color.  Green for the leaves and I left the other dough ball white for the roses.  You can add whatever color you'd like.  To make a rose, tear off a tiny amount of the dough from the ball and roll into a tiny ball.  Shape into an oblong ball.  Next, tear off a tiny amount again and flatten the dough to as thin as you can without tearing.  Wrap that piece round the oblong ball to resemble a bud.  You can leave it as a bud or you can add more flatten pieces of dough around each "petal" to make your desired rose size.  When you have your desired size rose, pinch off the bottom with your fingernail to make a flat bottom for gluing.  Set aside each rose for drying.  For the leaves, tear off a tiny piece again and flatten the dough.  Shape into a leaf by pinching each end.  I let them dry overnight and then hot glued the roses, leaves and rhinestones to the Styrofoam ball.  


I then used a 1/2 inch wide sheer ribbon as shown around the bottom of the bouquet.  I made a basting stitch at the bottom of one edge of the ribbon to gather and then hot glued it around the bottom of the bouquet.  Next, I added 1/8" wide satin ribbon in colors to match the wedding colors.  Each ribbon was cut to 2 inches in length.   I hot glued them to the back of the bouquet behind the sheer ribbon.  I made a tiny bow and glued it over the glued ends of ribbons.  If desired, press the sticky side of the rhinestones into the bottom of the ribbons as shown.   

Japanophile