From left over Frosting to Hydrangea Cupcakes

I always make too mush frosting. I am constantly paranoid of running out while decorating a cake. This results in the top shelf of my fridge being devoted to tubs of different colours and flavours of frosting. Sometimes I get around to using it up and other times it goes too hard and has to be thrown away. Most of the time the latter is the case.

With my recent Chalkboard cake, I had a little left of each colour used along with some white vanilla frosting from a previous project before that.

It had crusted over so a good mix and a little water was needed to bring it back to life. I mixed the white frosting in with the purple and had plenty to make a batch of cupcakes with.

One of my earliest pins was this.

I discovered Glorious Treats from this one pin and I have been a fan ever since! If you haven't already seen Glory's blog, check it out here.

I have wanted to recreate these for a while. Here is my version of Glory's cupcakes.

I didn't blend my colours like Glory, however, I used the same tip for each colour so that there was a little transfer on a couple of the cupcakes. I used Wilton tip 129 and filled my bag half way with frosting. Using a 90' angle (straight up) I began by piping a flower in the middle.

I then piped a couple more either side of the first one, and continued around to the edge.

This can be a very random technique and you can over pipe.

I filled the whole top of the cupcake with flowers to achieve the look of a Hydrangea.

I did the same technique for each cupcake. This is so simple and quick. They would make a lovely gift for a Mum, Grandma or friend. Perfect for birthdays, Mother's Day, or just to say Thank you!

Beautiful and bright!

They look equally nice if they are all the same colour.

I hope you like these and have a go! Have a great weekend!

Painted Terracotta Pot Beaded Chimes

It's hot hot hot! I am not going to complain one bit, it's been a long time coming this summer! I do wish I had an air conditioner though. We had one in our previous house, but the set up of this house makes having one a tricky thing! I managed to vacuum downstairs before getting too hot. Upstairs will have to wait till later!

So while I am cooling off with a nice cold drink, I thought I would share these easy wind chimes with you all. Well I say wind chimes, they don't actually chime, but you get the idea.

The garden coming into bloom!

I actually made these last year but didn't thread the beads on strong enough thread. I was constantly worried they were going to drop and break.

All you will need for this craft is :-

Plain terracotta pots, any size that you fancy as long as they are not too big as that may put too much strain on the wire you use to thread the beads.

A selection of beads. I purchase a mixed pot from Hobbycraft along with some smaller packets of beads in colours that matched the paint I was using.

Acrylic paint. I chose 3 different colours for variety, shown below.

Clear sealer. Easier to use than the bottled varnish and weather proof.

Wire to string the beads with. I used florist wire.

Firstly paint your pots.  The pots took 2 to 3 coats of paint to develop a nice deep even colour.

Once fully dried, spray your pots with the sealer. It is best to build this up in a couple of coats. Plus it gives the pots a lovely sheen. I don't plan to have this out all year round, just the summer months.

Take a selection of beads, either matching them to your painted pots, or being completely abstract! I decided to select beads in similar colours with a few tonal beads added in.

I selected lots of simple pony beads to thread on which would mainly be in the pots and therefore not visable. All the pretty beads I strung after these so they could be seen.

Purples and Pinks.

Greens and Pinks, plus a bike charm I picked up a long time ago.

Blues with Orange.

I eyeballed how much wire I would need and the rough gap I wanted between each pot and cut it to size. I began by knotting the bike charm at the base of the wire, then threaded on my green and pink beads, followed by a set of green pony beads. I kept one larger bead back which would sit at the hole on the base of each pot to keep the pots in place. The green pot was then threaded over the top of these beads. I then moved onto the blue set of beads, doing the same thing. Finally I added the purple beads. I made a loop with the wire at the end and reinforced this with extra wire wrapped around the loop and the top of the wire thread.

And that's it!

I love how they add a little colour to the garden.

You do want to hang them on a strong branch as they are quite heavy.

I love the bike charm!

Have a lovely warm sunny week!

Kids Craft - Mother's Day Planter

So Mother's Day in the UK is always in March so you rarely see any pins on Pinterest until later in the year when the US celebrate. Never fear, for us UK Mums and Grandmothers I have the perfect little project for your little dears!

I've talked about Tiger stores before. I really like them, they are a treasure trove of bits and pieces, from spices to garden tools! Everything is very reasonably priced and yes there is the odd thing which looks cheap but as for the rest they are the perfect little items to either customise or pick up for any number of reasons. Check out their website for a slice of the things they sell http://www.tigerstores.co.uk/.

When I went in there looking for Spring pieces, my son and I spotted a little wooden planter. It was plain wood, perfect for decorating and it was just £3.00! They also sold little galvanised buckets and seeds, so we picked those up too! The total for these supplies was about £8.00.

Firstly we painted the planter off white. This was a little fiddly due to all the slats so I did this part.

This didn't take too long as the paint dried very quickly on the wooden planter.

I then gathered some supplies, paints, embellishments and ribbons and let my son pick what he wanted to use.

He then set to work painting his design onto the planter. He decided to paint grass and purple flowers. I just let him do whatever he wanted. If you have a younger child you may want to help or even glue ready made flowers to the planter.

Lots of concentrating as he gets to painting the grass!

He decided to add tufts of grass to look like it was growing up the sides of the planter. He then painted purple flowers with yellow centres.

Cute huh and all his own work!

He wanted to decorate the buckets so chose 2 purple ribbons and some buttons. I measured around the buckets and cut the ribbon to size.

I used a little hot glue to stick the ribbon in place with another drop of glue to secure the other end.

I then secured a button to the centre with more hot glue.

2 of the buckets were used to hold the seed packets.

We made a little heart and flower topper and placed it in the middle bucket with a little bit of oasis to secure it in place.

All that was left to do was a little bit of varnish to protect the beautiful artwork! This took so little time to do, about 2 hours for all the painting. He really enjoyed making this and it's such a personal little gift for his Grandmother!

Do your kids like to make gifts? Share on my Facebook page!

Linked on http://www.iheartnaptime.net/.