Clip Art Fun!

I'm about to let you in on a great little resource of wonderful images. All the material was printed prior to 1923 & it's in a public domain. I've used this site for my own personal creative projects for a few years now. If you don't know about it yet, check out Karen's Whimsy. (And have a TON of crafty fun!)

Here's some cupcake picks I'm working on from the Paper Doll prints. Front & back. Cute, no??

{cupcakes}

Yesterday afternoon I made cupcakes to bring to my littlest one's preschool class. She has a summer birthday, but today is the day she'll celebrate with her friends at school. Pazely LOVES Little Pet Shop toys with a passion! Her birthday, the last day of June, will be in the theme of "Little Pet Shop". I kinda cringe at the thought of planning a party around trademarked characters. Maybe I'm a handmade snob.

I purchased these Little Pet Shop stickers & decided that the girls & I would make some decorations for the cupcakes.
The girls & I cut &/or punched 3 different sized circles, stuck them together with double-sided tape, put the lil' stickers on, & hot glued a bamboo skewer (cut in half) to the back.
The girls had a blast digging through my box of scrap papers & designing each cupcake pick on their own. I was wondering what kind of mess the picks would look like with such a random selection of different colored & patterned papers. But they turned out adorable! The "hodge-podge" look works!

And Pazely was so proud. That's the most important thing!

I'm sure I'll be repeating this project come birthday time in June. Despite the fact that I'd rather make my girls' parties completely handmade, I decided that I would face this party as a challenge. I am really going to try to bring a handmade element to the theme.

Trademark shrademark.

Felt Dessert Picks Tutorial

I recently saw some felt cupcake picks in a magazine. Unfortunately I can't remember which magazine it was. They were of the Halloween theme & the magazine suggested using them as party favors/pencil toppers after use as cupcake picks for a party. I thought that was an EXCELLENTLY clever idea. I'm all about useful crafts with a 2-fer-1 design purpose! I put a twist on the cupcake toppers & my versions follow.

You'll need various colors of felt & thread, needle, glue (not pictured), scissors & picks for your cupcakes (I purchased skewers used for shisk-a-bobs, cut in half. Lollipop sticks would work great too!). Optional supplies: decorative scissors & sewing machine.

Here's a peek at what my family sometimes goes through with my crafty stuff spread all over the dining table. They still love me though.

Decide what design you'd like your picks to be. I decided on owls, acorns, mushrooms & cupcakes. Cut out templates from scrap paper or cardboard.

Trace your template onto the felt. You'll need 2 pieces of each design, for the front AND back of your dessert pick. You really only need to trace ONE---you can then fold over the felt & cut out two.

FOR THE CUPCAKES:

I found these really cool felt cupcake pieces at JoAnne's. They were on clearance too!--A pack of 10 (2 of each color) for 25cents! All I had to do was cut out a bottom cupcake "liner" in an appropriate size.

To make the cupcakes, I created a decorative stitch with my sewing machine, to connect the bottom piece to the top piece. This can also be done by hand, or by gluing. (As an option, all of the picks shown in this tutorial can be done with the simple gluing method.)

And then, by hand, I stitched all around the "frosting" part with a matching color of thread & then the bottom part in a matching color. Remember to leave an opening wide enough at the bottom to fit the cupcake pick AND/OR a pencil.

FOR THE ACORN:

Put the two bottom pieces back-to-back & hand stitch (or glue!) them along the edge. Once again, remember to leave an opening at the bottom.

Then, sandwich the two top pieces of the acorn on top of the bottom part. Machine stitch using a straight stitch & just rotate the fabric as the stitches zig back & forth, creating the cross-hatch style pattern. That's it!

FOR THE OWL:

Hand stitch each side separately--the wings, the beak & the eyes--onto the body. Then, place the pieces back-to-back & stitch all along the edge.

I didn't have any cupcakes lying around, so I had to improvise with some Sunday morning donuts. The owlie, I think, is my favorite.

FOR THE MUSHROOM:

Make sure your white "bottom" pieces are a little smaller then the red mushroom caps that will be placed on top. That way, when you stitch (or glue!) around the edge it won't be very bulky & the white won't show through on the sides.

Glue the mushroom caps on.

Handstitch along the edge where the white part meets the red part.

Sandwich the pieces together & sew along the edge.

Glue on white dots cut out from felt.

The owl, acorn & mushroom make for a great woodland themed party. Oooh, picture them on German chocolate frosted cupcakes. MMMmmm....

The owl & acorn would also be special decorations for your Thanksgiving desserts!

I also thought these would make fun teachers gifts as pencil toppers---or sweet little presents for school mates.