DIY: Making Felt Cupcakes (Free Pattern & Tutorial)

Aren't these just adorable?  One of the things I love about making felt food is that it's easy, inexpensive, and so cute once they're done.  I made these as my daughter napped today. I also took lots of pictures and created a pattern so you can make some too.

Here is the pattern.  Cut the pattern out and trace it on to your felt. Then cut your felt pieces.  Your cupcake pieces look something like this...

Okay I know it looks like a happy face.  I placed it that way because it made me giggle :-)  As you can see, we are making a chocolate cupcake.  So you should have:

• cupcake bottom
• cardboard bottom
• cupcake top
• cupcake side

Take your cupcake side and overlap the two ends slightly.  It should look like this.. 

Sew the piece together using a whip stitch.  In case you don't know how to whip stitch by hand, here is a good video.  It's really easy and you can do this while watching t.v.  

Once that's done, you can sew the cupcake bottom to the cupcake side using the same stitch.  When you are done, it should look like this....

Next, sew the cupcake top on. About half way through, place your cardboard bottom on the inside of your cupcake.  This will help your cupcake stand.  No need to glue it on.  You will add the stuffing next and that will keep the cardboard in place.  Once you stuffed your cupcake, sew it shut.

Ice, Ice Baby!  Time to cut out some icing.

Once my icing pieces were cut, I went ahead and used fabric glue to place the icing.  You can sew this if you prefer. First glue Icing A, B, C, D, and the topping of choice all together.

Once the icing has been assembled, glue the entire top to the cupcake.  Allow to dry according to your fabric glue instructions (mine says 24 hours).

Viola!  Your cupcake is ready to be served at your child's next tea party.

I designed these cupcakes to be the same size as actual cupcakes, so you can put them in muffin tins or in cupcake liners.

Enjoy!

The Elephant In The Room

Last summer I watched Bethany Getting Married on Bravo. She was putting her nursery together and came across the adorable stuffed elephant. I totally fell in love with the elephant and decided that I needed one for my baby's room. After a little research on the elephant, my dreams were shattered when I found out that they cost $130 for one stuffed elephant! They also had a mini for $50. Seriously??? I mean they are cute and all, but $130?!?! I decided I needed a backup plan. I'll make my own if I have to! I did more research and found the perfect pattern from Retro Mama for a fab price of $8. I really love how my elephants turned out. So that's what inspired the elephant baby room. I know it's not the pink dolled up room some people expected me to have, but I love the earth tone I chose for her room.

I framed the sign-in sheet and a few of the cute elephant decorations created by my friends for my baby shower.

I found this great wall decal from Byrdie Graphics on Etsy. I love how this looks on the wall!

The crib sheet and crib skirt are Sprout from Serena & Lily and the Breathable Bumper is from Target.

My insomnia has gotten worse, so I sew in the middle of the night... Here are pics of the cute burp cloths I sewed for our little one.

Thanks for stopping by the blog! Time for me to catch some make-up zzzzz's. I hope everyone has a fab week!

~Hillary

Sewing: A Simple Way To Hem Your Jeans

Being only 5' 3" there is always a length issue when it comes to buying jeans. Before I learned how to sew I got really creative with "hemming" my jeans. I used safety pins, duct tape, packing tape, or fabric glue. The sad truth is, I was too lazy to get them hemmed. Finally after taking a few sewing classes, I learned how to hem my own jeans. Now mind you, I am not good at sewing. I can do basic things. If you can go a basic forward and back stitch, you can hem your own jeans. Here's how I did it...

Mark your desired length and measure how much you'd like to take off. I am taking 4 inches off this pair.



Cuff you jeans up 1/2 the length you plan to take off, and measure it starting at the bottom of the hem. You don't want to include the hem because you will not be taking that off. Notice that I measured 2 inches below the hem. Make sure your seams are lined up properly and pin your cuff all the way around.



Time to sew! Sew a simple stitch right under the hem all the way around the cuff. It doesn't matter what color thread you use since you won't even see your stitch. Don't forget to take out the pins as you sew along and backstitch at the begining and end to lock in your stitch.



If you look closely, you can see my stitch right under the hem. I used a cream colored thread.



Fold the cuff under and press at the hem with a hot iron. You can choose to keep the cuff underneath as is if you plan to let out the hem. Or you can cut the excess cuff. If cutting, cut right under the stitch you just sewed. Be careful not to cut your stitch and iron the hem to ensure that it stays flat. Here's how it looks...


You've now hemmed your jeans but got to keep the original hem. BTW, I meant to wear taller shoes in this pic, but ended up grabbing my flats. Oh well...



I hope this lesson was useful!

Have a great day!!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

December At A Glance

Okay, so I know I'm a little late, but better late than never. The pic above was our 2009 Christmas e-dard. I can't believe how fast this past month flew by. So here I am trying to get one last post in before the year is up. Here is my month in a glance...

Let It Snow!

In early December, it actually snowed in Houston. Here are pics of my aunt's gorgeous backyard being covered in snow. Well, for us this is a lot of snow. The whole city practically shut down at the sight of the white stuff falling from the sky.

Bargain deal!

I have been eyeing this necklace at Banana Republic for a while, when I saw this cheaper version at a discount accessory store. Score!

Design On A Dime!

Will made a beautiful TV stand for us. I am so lucky to have such a handy husband. I have now requested a new dining table and a bed frame :-) We also got a great new armless double chair. Our place finally looks all put together.

My New Fav!

I love this purplish matte nailpolish. Dries in a few seconds.

Team Edward or Team Jacob???

I created the Twilight cupcake for my co-worker's daughter. Asia loved her Twilight cupcakes!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Christmas on a budget can be tough! This year, I created scarves for my family. Here are a couple of scarves. The basic grey/black scarf that goes with everything, and a pretty ruffle jersey scarf. My family loved them. Not sure how I'm going to top this next year.

Suspended At Work

You ever look at the window washers of tall buildings and wonder if they are worried about falling? Well this drama unfloded right in front of our windows at work. The scaffolding platform got knocked by unexpected strong winds. It cause the platform to lose some of it's harness. The platform started swinging into the building. Windows were breaking and the poor window washers were holding on for dear life. Thank goodness, one of the guys had a suction cup and stuck it to the window when they swung close to it. It kept them in place and the firefighters got them down safely. Makes me thankful to have a boring desk job.

Cookie Monster!

My girlfriends and I finally had a cookie exchange. I broke the "official cookie exchange" rules and allowed bars and no-bakes. It was a huge success and a new tradition for us.

Well, I need to dash! I've got to get a quick outfit together for our big NYE celebration with friends. I hope you all had a wonderful 2009. So looking forward to 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Halloween 2009

First of all, major apologies from a long absence. I hope to be back to posting on a regular basis again.

So I thought I'd share some pictures from our big Halloween Party a couple of weeks ago. As most of you know, I got braces this past summer. I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate the braces and make them work for me. The costume I came up with was...Ugly Betty. At first I was planning to just wear mismatched clothes, but when I went to the local Goodwill, I came across a red tablecloth. I immediately remember the famous Ugly Betty episode where she come in wearing a red and blue poncho with "Guadalajara" in big yellow letters. Using my sewing and craft skills, I made my own poncho using the red tablecloth, leftover blue felt found at the local fabric shop, and yellow fabric paint. I found red reading glasses at the dollar spot at Target, and for her Ann Boleyn B necklace, I made a B out of gold scrap paper and taped it on a faux strand of pearls. I just wore crazy tights, a skirt, and a button top underneath my poncho. The total cost of the costume was a whopping $12! The best part, is that I actually won the costume contest. My inner Betty was out in full force! Will was my cute nerd boyfriend. We pieced his costume together using his own clothes (yes, he actually owned grey Velcro shoes already). He really hammed it up and played the perfect nerd! How was your Halloween? What did you dress as?

Here are our pics!

My last day before a "painful" journey

Are you wondering what that painful journey is? I am getting braces (again for the second time in my life). Yes, I was one of those bad kids that didn't listen to the orthodontist or my mom and I didn't wear my retainer. Over the last couple of years, I have noticed that my teeth are shifting more and more. It has effected my bite and if I smile really big, my smile is crooked. It has also caused my jaw to lock/pop. So I am fulfilling one of my New Year's Resolutions and getting braces. I told myself that I would wait till after the wedding, and the time has come. Tomorrow I get my spacers in. The brackets won't be on till next week. Then I'll have 2 lovely years of tightening. Goodbye pearly whites, and hello brace face!

On to my outfit....

wrap dress - TJ Maxx

floral scarf/belt - Old Navy

peep toe pumps - Rack Room

For lunch and dinner, I had wild sockeye salmon (seared then steamed), steamed broccoli, and fresh cherries. The cherries are so good right now. I cooked while we were home for lunch and we had leftovers at dinner.

Today was a rest day for me. No swimming or gym today. Instead I took a sewing survival class. I know the basics of sewing on a machine, but I can't do it by hand to save me life. Now I can proudly say that I know how to properly sew a button, mend a tear, and hem my pants. This weekend I'm going to attempt to fix on of Will's shirts.

I hope everyone has a great day. I'd like to say hello to Jennifer, who I just got into contact with. I am so glad you found me.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Couple Of Outfits

Just a quick post on my outfits the past couple of days. The past week has been seriously HOT here. We are now allowed to wear jeans all summer long at work, but I just can't bring myself to putting them on. So here I am in my colorful skirts.

This basic look is a white scoop from Express, the green skirt I sewed, Unisa tan pumps, and a beaded necklace won from a blogger challenge.

The top on this outfit isn't as "loud" as this photo makes it. It really is a gorgeous color. I tried to jazz it up with the red pleated skirt from Ann Taylor Loft. This outfit looked okay in the mirror, but now that I see it in a pic, I'm not too sure if I really like it. I originally had a long necklace, but swapped it out at the last minute for the brown baubles. I should have kept the long necklace on.

Sorry to keep this short. I'll be back tomorrow with my food for the week. I tried a new low-carb flour for some muffins and surprisingly they turned out great! Stay tuned...

Thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a great Friday!

Last Day Before Vacation

My life the past few days have consist of the 3 W's... Work, Workouts, and Wedding. At least I can drop the work thing after Friday. I'm on vacation for 2 weeks! Yay!!!!!

So I am sorry I haven't really taken or uploaded any daily outfits, but I did manage to take a quick pic of myself before heading to the gym the other day. So here's my workout warrior look:

No make-up, hair pulled back in a ponytail and a headband, and my Bodybugg. The whole outfit was bought at Target. The shoes are Asics. I need a new pair badly. It's been over a year since I bought these. I am so bad about new tennis shoes. I'll buy a million and one pair of heels, but I always out off buying new workout shoes. Oh and I am obsessed with blue if you couldn't tell from this pic. Not pictured is my aqua blue water bottle and aqua blue iPod Shuffle.

In the food dept, this has been one of my favorite meals. It's called Marine Corp Mash. I sometimes get take out from a local healthy meal place, My Fit Foods. They have this meal and at first I had no interest in it. It just didn't look as appealing. Once I got brave enough to try it out, I loved it! So now I make it. It's a mixture of red quinoa, 96% lean beef, onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme, kidney beans, and a smidgen of 2% cheese. Lots of good protein! Paired with the MCM is a simple salad of spinach, avocado, and cucumbers in a balsamic spritz.

Lastly, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of my madness. Here are few wedding goodies that need to be organized and packed up for Mexico. Our colors are brown and green. I had some left over material from a purse I made, so I sewed a few goodie bags for my guests. I thought they turned out so cute. I think everything will come together and turn out great. Despite the big swine flu scare, we have about 35 people going to Mexico with us. I know we're all looking forward to some fun in the sun :-)

So this will probably be my last post till I get back. I'll post pics when I get back! I hope everyone is doing well. I can't wait to see all your fab pics when I get back. Take care!

Palm Thursday

Since I only have 3 pairs of jeans that fit right now, my jeans week at work got cut short. So here I am in my Palm Thursday outfit. Here are the details...

Brown top - Anthropologie

Palm print skirt - The Gap

Beaded necklace - Target

Brown peeps - Ross

I love this skirt. I've had it for a couple of years now. I was looking at more closely and realized that I can probably make it. Hmmm... So speaking of sewing, that is the reason why I didn't blog yesterday. I was consumed with my little dress project, but I'm pretty much done with it...well kind of. I have just a few finishing touches. It fits me fine, but I think I made the collar to high so I am now debating about redoing the top of the dress. I hate to pull it apart, but I'm not sure I'll be satisfied if I leave it. Here's a preview...

Today my hubby was in the mood for some pasta instead of the fish I had planned. Somehow I was able to whip up some turkey spaghetti in 20 minutes. Since I am concentrating on my training and diet, Will got the whole wheat spaghetti and I had just the turkey spaghetti sauce with a spinach side salad. Add my 1/2 of a Power Crunch Bar for dessert and this meal was 32 g of protein, 23 g of carbs, 14 g of fat and a grand total of 335 calories. We also had the same meal for dinner, we just changed up the veggies.
Today's workout was with my trainer. Her goal was to keep my heart rate up and she sure did. My body will welcome the rest this weekend. Here are my stats...
I'm off to Austin for the weekend. Hopefully the weather won't be too awful for a few bluebonnet snapshots. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday's March Madness

I really love this time of year. We mostly have 2 seasons here...summer and winter (if you call it that). For a small window of time, we have just awesome spring weather and you just want to be outside. Today was one of those days. Here is I dressed for the pretty day...


Wrap top - Charlotte Russe
Toile skirt - made by me
lacey slingbacks - DSW
necklace - Target

March is my favorite month for several reasons.

1. The weather is fab. Not too cold, not too hot and the sun is usually out.
2. My birthday is in March. Even though I'm not totally excited about getting older at the same time, I look forward to another year of celebrating a good life with family and friends.
3. Daylight savings. Can I jam more into my day?
4. Crawfish season!!! - I love me some crawfish! Tonight was my first taste this season and it was ohhhh so good!

The crawfish below is from one of my favorite places in Houston....Cajun Kitchen. It's kind of a an Asian Cajun fusion. They load their crawfish with tons of garlic and other fab seasonings. Their shrimp fried rice has fantastic Cajun spices. We met up with my brother for dinner. Good food and good company...boy was I a happy camper tonight! I love the month of March!