Tutorial - Mini-muffin Flowers

Last week I showed you how to make super cute gumdrop favors for your flower-themed party. Today is the last of the tutorials from that party - a mini muffin flower. This was also one of the first things I saw when I was starting to plan this party.

What you need: (For one flower)

- Bamboo skewer

- Green straw

- regular sized muffin cup (I used a thick yellow one)

- mini-muffin/cupcake decorated with icing (I made vanilla with bright pink butter cream icing)

For the display

- Flower pot

- half of a styrofoam ball or florist's foam

- green tissue paper/easter grass

Step 1: Fold your large muffin cup in half and cut to create a six petal shape.

I used a template for the first few and then gave up and did most just by eyeing it. This is a step you  can do a few days before the party.

Step 2: Create your stems by taking the bamboo skewer and placing it inside the green straw. Make sure you have a bit of the bamboo skewer sticking out the top. This makes it easier to insert into the muffin.

 Step 3: Make your muffins and ice. I used a simple butter cream icing that hardened nicely, so I wasn't worried about the icing dripping off. Wait until the icing has dried before sticking them though, just to be sure.

We baked the cupcakes on Friday night and iced them on Saturday morning. Little Sunshine was starting to get sick, so I had to do a lot of this prep work with her on my hip. :)

Step 4: Glue your mini-muffin to the larger muffin cup and then stick the bamboo skewer into the bottom.

Step 5: Arrange in your flower pot. I made about 15 flowers and split them into two flower pots. Make sure people know they are edible - we had a lot left over because they didn't know they could eat them. :)

They really added a nice touch to the sweets table and it didn't take too long to put it together. The rest of the cupcakes we displayed on the table.

Hope you enjoyed this series of Flower related party tutorials. Come back next week to see how I made sheep centerpieces for a baby shower.

You can see more of this party here.

Linking up with: Tutorial Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, TOO Cute Tuesday, Terrific Tuesdays, Handmade Tuesdays, Crafty Tuesday and Take-A-Look Tuesday

Tutorial - Colorful Cupcake Stand

It all started with a set of plastic bowls. It was a great deal at the superstore - and while the bowls didn't last very long, I was left with several matching lids that were screaming to be used somehow...

When we decided on a flower theme for my little sunshine's party, I knew we were going to incorporate green into the decor. Pink, Green and Yellow were the colors we used throughout the party. And since I had these green lids, all it took was three little flower pots and we had a cute, colorful cupcake stand.

Here we go!

What you need:
- Three matching lids of varying size. (You could also use plates, this is just what I had around)
Mine were 9.5"(25cm), 7.5"(19cm) and 5.5"(14cm)
- Three flower pots (same size) - height: 3"(8cm) width: (at top) 4"(10cm)
- Hot glue gun

You can see I used three different colors for my flower pots, allowing me to incorporate pink and yellow with the green lids.

1. Set it up - Figure out what order you want the pots (if they are different colors). I decided to go with yellow at the top, light pink in the middle and the dark pink at the bottom. (Also, plug in your hot glue gun so it's ready to go.)

2. Mark - You can see from my lids that it was pretty easy to see where the middle of each one was, but if you are using something without a clearly marked center make sure to mark where the flower pot will go. When you're using hot glue it's best to only have to stick it down once.

3. Get Gluing - I started with the top and worked my way down, first gluing the yellow pot to the bottom of the top tier of the cupcake stand then to the top of the second tier - making sure it was in the middle. This way when I turned it upside down to glue the pink pot it was steady and also reinforced the glue a little bit. Then I glued the pink pot to the bottom of the second tier, and to the top of the first tier. And so on and so forth...

4. Ready to go! The good thing about the hot glue gun is that if you get it totally off center it's pretty easy to clean off and try again. Also, after the party I was able to take it apart very easily (that also means it's not a suitable toy for your kids before the party!)

All set up at the party! In the end we didn't use it for the cupcakes, but for a Brazilian treat called Brigadeiro. The top tier will definitely only hold mini cupcakes, but the bottom two tiers would hold regular cupcakes.

See more of this party here.

Linking up with Tutorial Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, TOO Cute Tuesday, Terrific Tuesdays, Handmade Tuesdays, Crafty Tuesday and Take-A-Look Tuesday

Tutorial - No Sew Banner

Love the look of those cute patterned stitched pennant banners but don't have a sewing machine at home? With your computer, printer and colored paper, you're only a few steps away from your own completely customizable cute banner.

Here we go...

What you need:
- Computer with Pages or Photoshop. (Not sure what comparable program is for a windows PC - all Mac girl here)
- Color printer (and ink)
- Colored paper (US Letter or A4)
- Ruler
- Box cutter or scissors (box cutter is much neater, easier and straighter, but scissors would work too.)
- Hole Punch
- Cutting surface (I use my glass table top)
- Twine or ribbon

1. Create your template in Pages or Photoshop. I used Pages because it's a simple template to design. I created a triangle (7 inches along the top side), copied it and flipped it upside down so the two triangles create a diamond shape on the page.

2. Consider the colors of your party as well as the paper you have. The colors we were using were yellow, green and pink. I had picked up an assorted pack of colored paper which had green, yellow, pink and blue. I decided to print a color on color pattern to give it a little extra kick. I used patterns that I have created in Photoshop (exported as JPEG) but you could also just search on google for different colored patterns to use as the image fill. In the photo below you can see that I filled the shape (Triangle) with the image as a Tile, put a border on in the same color as the pattern (shown here is the pink), and also modified the opacity a little so the pattern wasn't too strong.

 3. Do a test run on your printer on a white sheet of paper to see if any part of the triangles get cut off by the printer margins. If you find that the triangles are too big, you can adjust the size of the document you print (try %95 instead of %100).

Then set up your printer to make as many copies as you need. Below are my printed sheets all ready to be cut out.

4. Cut, cut, and cut some more until all your flags are done. Use your ruler to get a nice straight edge on all the flags.

5. Phew! It was a lot of cutting, but I finally had all my piles of flags. I also printed out a few sheets that had no pattern, just the outline of the triangle.

6. Use one of your flags (maybe one that had a bad cut or mistake) as a template for where you want the holes punched. This ensures that all your flags have the holes in the same spot. Use your template and hole punch and punch two holes at the top of each flag. I could do about 6 flags at a time with my hole punch. Just make sure they are all lined up with the template and facing the right way.

7. Once all your flags have the holes punched it's time to get your twine and start stringing them together. You could also use a thin ribbon for this part. Since I was keeping my flags very close together I decided to just use the twine.

String the flags together by threading the twine (or ribbon) in through the front, across the back, and out the other side. I didn't keep the same pattern throughout the whole banner, just mixed it up a bit between colors, patterned flags and solid color flags. I needed 9 flags to cover a 6 foot span.

 9. Finished! Tie up your banner, letting it swag a bit. We added tissue paper pompoms to both sides of the banner to finish off the ends.

 Closeup. Banner and Pompom with coordinating ribbons hung together with the pompom.

One of the best things about this project is you can do it well in advance of your event, and it really makes a big statement in terms of decor.

Once your event is over, you can separate the flags for use in another banner, or keep as is.

Hope you enjoyed our first tutorial. There will be more to come!

Check out more of this banner in action here.

Linking up with Tutorial Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, TOO Cute Tuesday, Terrific Tuesdays, Handmade Tuesdays, and Take-A-Look Tuesday