Pages

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Baby's Room: Beaded Wall Decor






A very special cousin of mine is going to be a father for the first time!  So when I received an invitation to his girlfriend's baby shower, I knew I had to come up with something wonderful 💟   

Read on to see how easy it is to create your very own beaded wall decor:



Step 1

The first thing that I did was to browse through the mother-to-be's online gift registries to get an idea of the colors and patterns that she liked.  Once I had a good feel for the decor plan of the nursery, I used a digital scrapbooking app (MyScrapNook) to create these images and saved them to my computer as a photo.  From there I uploaded them to my photo account on Wal-Mart.com and had them each printed out in a 5X7.

Side Note:  It took me around an hour or so to create these printables, but if you are new to MyScrapNook it could take a bit longer as you get used to the program.



Step 2

I purchased 5X7 frames in a gold tone finish to coordinate with the printables.  These frames came complete with a cream mat that had a gray border.  This was great luck because I had already planned on adding beading around the entire piece and the gray border substituted as the perfect, pre-measured guideline.  I love it when things come together!



Step 3

I framed the printables making sure to place the glass behind the artwork.  This was important for a couple of reasons; one, I needed the artwork exposed for gluing, and two, if the mother ever wishes to change the decor of the room all she has to do is remove the artwork and the frames are still functional for standard use.



Step 4

I used hot glue to add beading around the borders or the artwork as well as inside the centers of the smaller roses.  Two of the pieces I finished out in shades of pink, but for the print containing the baby's name I used pearly white and crystal looking beads.

And there you have it, custom art work for baby's room or any room of your choice.

**********

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Winter Wrap-Up: Valentine's Day, Seasonal Art & Spring Cleaning

Welcome to my winter wrap-up!  Today I'm sharing our Valentine's celebration, a beautiful painting by my Baby Girl and a link to my master spring cleaning list.



Valentines

The top photo shows the valentines that Baby Girl made for her classroom.  Each student got a small treat box with a decorated valentine attached.

The photo on the bottom shows some of the valentines that the kids collected.



Valentine Brunch

Since the actual holiday fell on a school day this year, we celebrated with brunch on the Sunday before.  I used pink, hear-shaped plates (that I found last summer treasure hunting) and made pancakes, eggs, strawberry smoothies and of course, bacon roses for Husby 😊

You can click here to read all about how to make bacon roses.



Winter Cardinal

Baby Girl came recently home with this painting that she made in art class!  I love it!  This will absolutely be getting framed and incorporated into part of my winter decor 💗

**********

Since winter is finally winding down, it's time to think of spring and spring cleaning!  Now I must confess, I already completed my spring cleaning.....in January.....but for all you normal folks out there, here is the link to last year's post:

Spring Cleaning

I hope everyone is having a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017


Friday, March 3, 2017

How to Make: Shark Fin Cupcakes





Ready to dig in to those shark fin cupcakes?!
Read on to see how easy it is to make your own:



Supplies

The Little Man picked out a Betty Crocker rainbow chip mix and I picked up three cans of blue, buttercream cupcake icing (with decorator tips included).  Normally I use standard icing and just spread it on the cupcakes, but these needed to look like ocean water.  I figured the decorator tips would help to make things more 'wave like'.  White liners and a few brightly colored candles from my baking stash finished off the look.

Side Note:  I don't like to make all of my cupcakes identical, hence the colorful candles.  Most featured the shark fins, but I think adding a bit of variation is always more appealing 😄

(You can click here or here to read more about my baking supplies)



*Bonus Pic*

My Little Man, decked out in pirate jammies, was excited to help with the prep 😍



Fresh From the Oven

I baked the cupcakes as usual and left them to cool.
Now, lets take a little break to make some decorative shark-fins 😀



Step 1

After seeing a photo of shark fin cupcakes on Pinterest and figured I could come up with something pretty similar.

The first thing that I did was to sketch out the shape of a shark's dorsal fin and cut it from the paper (left).  Then I traced around the cut-out, flipped it over so that the cut-out was touching the tracing and traced again (center photo) to create a shape that looks like the very end of a whale's tail.  Once I had all of them traced, I used a non-toxic black marker to color them in (right).



Step 2

After cutting out all of the 'whale tail shapes' (left), I used hot glue to fold them in half around a tooth pick secured in the middle.



Step 3

Admire your work and breath a sigh of relief that you managed to cross yet another task from your list 😉




Decorate!

Out of 24 cupcakes, 18 featured one of the shark fin cut-outs.  The remaining 6 sported either a red, yellow or orange glitter candle and some sprinkles.  I hadn't planned on the sprinkles to begin with, but one thing led to another and, well, there you go 😏

Side Note:  The cupcakes are in this baking dish to be stored in my extra fridge until the party.  I added the fins so I could take the photo, but didn't actually leave them in.  I was worried that the moisture from the fridge would cause the paper to get all icky, so I took them back out before storing.



Feeding Frenzy

The shark fin cupcakes made a great addition to our pirate ship cake, but most importantly, the Little Man was ecstatic 😁

(You can click here to read about the pirate ship cake, or  here to see the rest of the party decor)

**********

I hope you enjoyed our cupcakes, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017