Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams: The Bakery

Showing posts with label The Bakery. Show all posts

Friday, September 24, 2021

DIY Spooky Blackbird Pie

I am on a roll with fun and spooky Halloween decor! This week I put together a 'blackbird pie' that you can copy for yourself. Check it out:

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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links. If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission. You can read more about affiliate links here

I have a handful of these tiny Styrofoam birds in my craft supply and thought they would work just fine with a little makeover. After a coat of black paint and some yellow detailing on the beak, my bird was ready!

I made the bottom of the crust just like I did with these miniature pumpkin pies (salt dough in the oven), and filled it in with extra dough. After placing my blackbird, I continued adding clumps of dough until I had a nice pie shape. Then I flattened out a circular shape just bigger than the pie to serve as my top crust.

After cutting a hole for my little bird to peek through, I crimped the pie crust edges with my fingers and used a knife for the detailing on the top.

After getting the dough to look the way I liked, I popped the entire pie back into the oven to get the top and filling dried out.

Though the dough did just fine, the eyes on the bird melted away! It's hard to see in these photos but I ended up using black puffy paint to recreate the small, shiny eyes.

Wanting my pie to be a bit more baked looking, I mixed some brown acrylic paint with water and brushed it on.

And there you have it, a DIY faux blackbird pie for your Halloween decor!

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Want more Halloween fun?

Halloween Eyeball Plant

DIY Harry Potter Spell Books

Dollar Store Halloween Cloche

Halloween Jeweled Skulls

DIY Halloween Spooky House

Skeleton Fairies

Halloween Decor

Snow White's Poison Apple

I hope you enjoyed this Halloween decor post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

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This post was added to the following link parties:

You're The Star

The Really Crafty Link Party

Craftastic Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays With A Twist

All About Home

Wonderful Wednesday (Oh My Heartsie Girl)

Wonderful Wednesday (Penny's Passion)

Party In Your Pjs

Thursday Favorite Things

Creative Crafts Linky Party

Funtastic Friday

BFF Open House

A Themed Link Up

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This post was featured at:

Funtastic Friday

Friday, September 10, 2021

How I Made My Faux Pumpkin Pies

Pumpkin everything season is officially here and what better way to add charm to our kitchen and dining displays than with these adorable mini faux pumpkin pies?

Read on to see how easy you can create some yourself using salt dough and spackle:

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Using salt dough and some mini cake tins, I pressed the dough into tiny shells and baked at 250 for about an hour until dry.

Salt Dough:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

My goal was to create a cavity to hold the filling, and you can see that it worked, but since this project I have figured out a better way. Instead of creating a bowl shape that requires a lot more of the spackle pie filling, fill your container mostly with the salt dough instead. Once the salt dough is dry you will now need less of the pie filling (which is more expensive) and the pie filling itself will need less drying time.

When It came time to mix up my filling I combined acrylic paint with lightweight spackle (joint compound). Not having the exact shade of brown that I was going for on hand, I decided to create my own with one part yellow and one part orange. I also added in some ground cinnamon so that the finished pies would smell good.

*Note - Cinnamon is naturally pest repellant so using the spice won't draw bugs to your displays.

Here you can see the salt dough shells and their spackle pie filling. Because my shells were made to be deep I needed more of the pie filling to complete them. If you imagine that the shells were mostly comprised of salt dough with just a small indentation, then you can see how I would have been able to get away with a lot less of the pie filling.

*Side Note - Though the pies pictured here dried nicely there is always a chance that spackle can crack during the drying process. The more spackle you use the greater the chances are of this cracking happening. Therefore using less pie filling not only saves you more expensive materials, but helps to keep the finished product looking it's best. If your spackle does crack, wait until the item is completely dry and then add another small layer to cover any imperfections.

*Tip - While salt dough is a wonderful and inexpensive material to work with, it must be kept dry for preservation. Because the spackle contains moisture, you are essentially adding water to your previously dried dough. This rewets the dough and if not allowed to re-dry properly can ruin the piece. I like to place my items on cooling racks to ensure full air circulation and leave them to dry for days at a time. With larger pieces, such as thick pies, I'll let them sit for over a month to fully dry before putting them into storage containers. When completely dry it's best to keep your pieces in air tight storage containers to prevent any moisture buildup. If they aren't fully dry before you seal them up though....a whole lot of icky stuff starts to happen. I learned this lesson the hard way! 😌

Once my spackle filling was dry I added another dollop of plain white spackle to serve as a whipped cream topping. A generous sprinkling of some more cinnamon and the pies were good to go.

And there you have it - cute little decorative pies that smell good too!

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Want more fake bake fun?

Faux Cupcakes

Faux Cupcakes: Candy Series

Chocolate Bunnies & Eggs

Crib Sheets Turned Ice Cream Tray

Jello Mold Recycle : Strawberry Chocolate

Strawberry Shortcake Fake Bake

Hostess Cupcakes

Fake Bake Ice Cream

Fake Bakes - Jellies & Jams

Pumpkin Soup Decor

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

-Jennifer

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This post was added to the following link parties:

You're The Star

The Really Crafty Link Party

Craftastic Monday

Tuesdays With A Twist

All About Home

Wonderful Wednesday (Oh My Heartsie Girl)

Wonderful Wednesday (Penny's Passion)

Party In Your PJs

Thursday Favorite Things

Creative Crafts Linky Party

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This post was featured at:

Friday Favorites

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Funtastic Friday

Friday, August 27, 2021

Fake Bakes - Jellies & Jams

Getting in to the spirit of fall decor, I decided to experiment with a batch of faux jellies and jams - perfect for harvest themed tablescapes! And would you believe it's just hair gel and paint???

Here is how easy they are to recreate for yourself:

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For this project I was able to pick up my glass jars and hair gel at Dollar Tree,

while the paint was from Walmart.

Side Note: Something to consider when buying your jars is whether or not they close tightly. Because my children are older and I am also able to store my jars upright, it doesn't matter if the faux preserves can easily open. But if you have smaller curious friends around, or need to lie your jars flat for storage, I would recommend containers with a good, tight seal. Because the coloring is coming from acrylic paint, these decorative pieces could create quite the mess if left in the wrong hands, or jumbled around in storage! I also make sure to keep mine in a sturdy plastic bin, that way if one cracks the spill will be contained 😉

Depending upon what type of food you are 'preserving', select an acrylic paint color and mix with your hair gel. This jar was going to hold faux apple butter, so I went with chestnut brown.

Once I had my colors mixed, I decided to add bits of 'fruits' to my jars. For most of my jars I just stuck in plastic fruits that I already had, but in the case of apples I made a few bits out of clay (let them dry fully before adding to the gel/ paint mix).

I then cut circles of scrap fabric to cover my lids, used rubber bands to hold them in place, and then covered the bands with a length of Dollar Tree ribbon.

With the jars complete it was on to the fun part - decorating! I used an assortment of plastic fruits to embellish my jars.

These are the same plastic fruits that I used inside the jars and can be found on Amazon:

Cherries

Strawberries

Citrus Slices & Wedges

Blackberries/ Raspberries

Blueberries

Grapes

Taking a few leaves/ blossoms from my stash of artificial flowers I glued them on with the faux fruits to complete the look.

And there you have it - easy to make faux jam and jelly decor!

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Want more fake bake fun?

Check out the following links:

Faux Cupcakes

Faux Cupcakes: Candy Series

Chocolate Bunnies & Eggs

Crib Sheets Turned Ice Cream Tray

Jello Mold Recycle : Strawberry Chocolate

Strawberry Shortcake Fake Bake

Hostess Cupcakes

Fake Bake Ice Cream

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

-Jennifer

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This post was added to the following link parties:

You're The Star

Craftastic Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays With A Twist

All About Home

Wonderful Wednesday (Oh My Heartsie Girl)

Wonderful Wednesday (Penny's Passion)

Party In Your PJs

Thursday Favorite Things

Creative Crafts Linky Party

Funtastic Friday

BFF Open House

This post was featured at:

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You're The Star

Friday, August 20, 2021

Fake Bake Ice Cream

Have you ever wanted a display of ice cream that won't melt or drip all over your countertops? Well dreams are coming true today, my friends!

Check out how easy it is to make up your own faux ice cream display:

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Using air dry clay and silicone molds, I made up several cones and ice cream scoops. It's really important to put your clay filled molds in the freezer before attempting to remove your shape - solidly frozen clay keeps it's shape no matter how much you pull and tug at the mold 😉

(I found my silicone ice cream molds here and here on Amazon)

Once I had a good collection of cones and scoops made, I painted them with acrylic paint. I then added spackle 'icing' and a cherry on top of each scoop. While the scoop, icing and cherries are permanently fixed together, I did not glue the scoops to the cones. This is so I can have flexibility in how I display the pieces.

Another set of cones I decorated by adding spackle directly on top of the cones and then embellished with faux sprinkles and cherries. Because I added the topping directly to the cone, it dried in place, but you could certainly make the spackle toppings separate as well.

Lastly, I created a few ice cream bowls as well. Using a $4 set of thrift store bowls, I made more separate scoops and again painted them in acrylic. This time I wanted my cherry and whip cream topping to be separate so I could better adjust them in the bowls. I did this by laying a sheet of parchment paper on my table and squeezing a dollop of spackle on top. Add your cherry and let dry. Once hardened, the bits of spackle will pull right up from the parchment. You could use this method for the spackle topped cones as well, it all depends on preference 😊

And there you have it - easy to make faux ice cream decor!

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Want more fake bake fun?

Check out the following links:

Faux Cupcakes

Faux Cupcakes: Candy Series

Chocolate Bunnies & Eggs

Crib Sheets Turned Ice Cream Tray

Jello Mold Recycle : Strawberry Chocolate

Strawberry Shortcake Fake Bake

Hostess Cupcakes

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

-Jennifer

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This post was added to the following link parties:

You're The Star

Craftastic Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays With A Twist

All About Home

Wonderful Wednesday (Oh My Heartsie Girl)

Wonderful Wednesday (Penny's Passion)

Party In Your Pjs

Thursday Favorite Things

Creative Crafts Linky Party

Friday Favorites

BFF Open House

Friday, August 13, 2021

DIY Faux Hostess Cupcakes

Who doesn't love a nice, chocolatey Hostess cupcake?

Now you can have an endless supply when you make your own faux set!

Check out how easy it is to do:

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Using Dap brand plaster and an old plastic container, I began mixing according to the directions on the package.

Once my plaster was mixed I poured it into a muffin tin lined with paper cupcake liners. You could certainly use silicone here (and the plaster would be much easier to remove), but paper liners work just as well. You can also pour the plaster directly into the muffin tin, then give it a good whack to remove the molds when they are dry. It just depends on the look you are going for - a plain tin will give a smooth edge while the paper liners create ruffled edges.

Note: I do have silicone cupcake liners, but I use them for actual food. It's recommended not to use your molds/ liners/ containers for both food and crafting. Instead keep them separate so as not to get any unhealthy substances in your kitchenware.

Here are my plaster cupcakes the next day once dried. The paper liners can be a bit tricky to remove as they can tear apart and remain stuck to the plaster. I found that a little bit of water caused the stuck bits of paper to wipe right off.

With all of the paper removed I painted my plaster molds in a chocolate colored acrylic...

...then used joint compound in an icing bag to pipe on the decorative swirls.

And there you have it - easy to make faux Hostess cupcakes!

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Want more fake bake fun?

Check out the following links:

Faux Cupcakes

Faux Cupcakes: Candy Series

Chocolate Bunnies & Eggs

Crib Sheets Turned Ice Cream Tray

Jello Mold Recycle : Strawberry Chocolate

Strawberry Shortcake Fake Bake

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

-Jennifer

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This post was added to the following link parties:

You're The Star

Craftastic Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays With A Twist

All About Home

Wonderful Wednesday (Oh My Heartsie Girl)

Wonderful Wednesday (Penny's Passion)

Party In Your PJs

Thursday Favorite Things

Creative Crafts Linky Party

Friday Favorites

Funtastic Friday

BFF Open House

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This post was featured at:

Friday Favorites

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BFF Open House

Friday, August 6, 2021

Strawberry Shortcake Fake Bake

I know I've been posting a whole lot of fake bake projects in the past few months, but I promise I've been up to other things too! With summer wrapping up I'm trying to share a few more fake bake crafts before transitioning into holidays and various other projects...would you believe that I have draft posts for all the way into April?!?! Crazy!

Anyway, let me show you how I made the faux strawberry shortcakes from the photo above:

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I started with these small foam rounds that I picked up at Dollar Tree in their floral section. They are great because they can be used to for all kinds of floral arrangements and crafts. I've even seen some artists use them inside of cupcake liners to create larger faux cupcakes.

(You can click here to shop Dollar Tree's online selection)

I painted my foam pieces in pink, yellow and chocolate so that they would look like freshly baked sponge cakes...

...and then used light weight joint compound in an icing bag to add faux cream to the tops.

A bit of red acrylic paint drizzled on the tops served as strawberry sauce...

...and lastly I topped them with an artificial strawberry.

(You can find these strawberries here)

Side Note: See the bronze colored mat that my cakes are sitting on? It's a non-stick grilling mat designed to sit between your grill and the food that you are cooking. Once your food is prepared any mess slips right off of the mat for easy clean up, without junking up your grill's surface. Well guess what? Paint and glue and all kinds of other crafting supplies clear right off them too 😉

I was using parchment paper (that had to be tossed after nearly every project) until I came across these on clearance and decided to give them a try. I love them!

(You can find similar mats here. Just make sure you have separate sets for crafting and cooking)