Pirates!

I absolutely love these pirate papers from Paper House!  I don't have too much to show for them yet but I was so happy to use them for pictures of my kids that were taken a year ago while they toured the tall ships, Lady Washington (used in Pirates of the Caribbean) and her companion Hawaiian Chieftan, that were in port here.  I added a few eyelets, lots of distressing and inking as well as a few embellies from Tim Holtz.

The Tangled Tower

OK so keeping this blog up to date really isn't my forte.  However, this, I think, was worth the wait.  I've been swapped with end of school year activities with the kids as well as V's birthday and an upcoming bridal shower and bachelorette party for a friend.  V's party was a success and I must say that the cake we made was impressive.  My great friend Kelly Conrad and I shared the task of creating this tower.  Yes, we know we're insane but we treat the day of creation like a girls' day and we have loads of fun chit chatting and laughing through the hours.  And there were many hours - about 10.  The end result was fantastic especially since this is our first try at a dimensional cake.  We take on about 3-4 cakes a year, for our kids and that definitely does not make us professionals.  Gotta say it is so fantastic to have a friend to do this with, one that thinks is such similar ways as me and one that completes the balance of artistic skills with what she literally brings to the table!  Her talent is amazing! (Thanks Kelly)

The cake itself is a store bought cake mix, actually two of them.  They were white cakes but I divided them and coloured half pink and half purple and then swirled the colours together.  The bottom is a 2 layer 10 in cake on a wood platform. There is a dowel attached and then there is a 4 in platform at the top.  The top cake is a 2 layer 4 in cake.  The fillings were blueberry.    The tops of the towers were sugar cones.  The tower section was Rice Krispy Treats.  Everything was covered in buttercream icing and then the tower was covered in fondant.  The vines are buttercream and the all the flowers were fondant.  Pascal the chameleon was a very last minute thought and is made of fondant.  Rapunzel is from a set of Tangled figures purchased at the Disney store.  The base cake is iced with buttercream.