The whole shebang

I showed you the major cake decor Wednesday. I went to make the rest of the cake last night, as I was worried about drying time (the puppy: not drying out the way I thought she would). Then found out I didn't purchase enough frosting.

Yeah, frosting. You have to layer fondant over frosting to give it a nice base to smooth over. So I ran out of frosting, and did not have the supplies to make more. I decided to go out first thing this morning. I frosted the cake, rolled out the rest of the fondant, cut out my shapes and finished up with this...



All before noon. I feel like a huge success, even though there is definite room for improvement. It would be much more obvious if not for some strategically placed stars. Next time, I'm buying the plastic rolling pin. If I wished I had it making the puppy, I really, really wished I had it when it came time to cover the whole cake today.

Fondant

I spent my day trying my hand at the marshmallow fondant I have heard is really easy, even for beginners. I have to agree so far, even though I haven't tried to cover the cake with it yet.

My first time ever I made a batch, and colored it something like seven different colors and sculpted that decent looking Littlest Pet Shop dachshund.



I can definitely see room for improvement. I need one of those shiny plastic rolling pins. I really thought my wood one was smooth, but it's pretty obvious that it isn't with all of the little pits on the surface of my fondant. Oh and this thing looks like an alien from the side because I had some issues layering it and rolling it thin enough.

Still though, I'm definitely not disappointed in it as a first try. I think I'll be working with it again.

More party prep

This, along with the pinata is going to be one of the main activities of the still upcoming birthday party. But what is it? It's a Littlest Pet Shop penguin made almost entirely out of adhesive felt (I had to paint the blue parts of the eyes, adhesive felt doesn't come in a huge array of colors). We're going to use it to play a "pin the tail on the donkey" sort of game. Except we're going to try "feeding" it foam cupcakes that the girls decorate themselves and see who can get closest to the mouth.

It should be a bunch of fun. And it should be salvageable as wall art for Victoria's bedroom when the party is over and done with. I increased the size of a penguin from a dollar store Littlest Pet Shop coloring book by 250% and it ended up almost two feet tall. I think that could easily be done at a copy shop, but I went the old fashioned way and drew it out on a grid. I apparently think my money is way more valuable than my time.

Before & After

More party preparations are in the works. For today I bring you the pinata part of the celebration. It was another thing that my step-daughter insisted on for the party. Not just any pinata either, it had to be a parrot or a toucan.

I know there have got to be quite a few of you out there going, "Why in the world are you putting up with these crazy demands?" I don't really have a good answer except to say that in all of the years since the divorce my step-daughter has never let our family throw her party. The chance at finally being able to take a roll in her birthday celebration is a pretty big deal, and we want to treat it like one.

Back to the pinata...only one store in our area even carried a bird, so it was either buy it, or make my own. Obviously, I put that sucker right in my cart!



I decided that it wasn't too bad of a bird. It's head didn't take up half of its body and the eyes didn't take up half of the head, so it was distinctly not a Littlest Pet Shop bird, but I figured with a tiny alteration I could make it look a lot more like one.



I can think of quite a few more alterations that could make this into an even better approximation of a Littlest Pet Shop bird. It really helps quell the crafty tendencies though, when I know it is going to be smashed to bits.

10 cent party invitations

Isn't it always the truth, that even if you can make damn near anything, what your child wants is the licensed character stuff you have to buy? This year it's Littlest Pet Shop toys, and they aren't only on the birthday list, they are to be the theme for the party.

Wouldn't you know that in my fairly large city, the largest party store carried absolutely NONE of the Littlest Pet Shop party supplies? I hate buying party supplies online because once shipping is added it's pretty atrocious, so after I searched a few of the smaller stores for good measure, I sat down to figure out a new way to get this done.

I bring you part one: the invitation.

I turned this...



Into this...



With some scrapbook paper bits and the help of Picnik, I was able to take and edit a photo that can be printed at any drug store for $0.10! Completely within my budget while also completely complying with the insisted on theme!

First I cut scrapbook paper circles, then I glued them to a sturdier card stock circle and cut them in a Pacman shape. I folded the ends together (cutting more off if necessary to get the right size) and glued along the edge to make the cone shape. Then I glued on a miniature pom-pom (a bag with way more than I needed was $0.99 at Hobby Lobby). The cake was a lot more complex, and I'm glad it's blurry in all of the photos because it looks way better that way. HA!

My initial idea was to create a whole little diorama of a Littlest Pet Shop party, but I quickly realized, after one photo, that if I wanted room for text I had to really, really scale back on my plans. So I limited the photos to two characters or one character and the cake. I am very pleased with how they turned out.

I'm offering you the idea for your own cheap party invitations by slapping a little hat on any old toy out of your kid's stash. Or, if you're like me with a Pet Shop obsessed little girl, you can doctor one of mine to fit your situation. Accounts at Picnik are free and the tools to do all of the edits you see here are free too, save the jpeg file to your computer and print them off anywhere, cheap!