make - decorate cupcakes Seseme Street style

I don't always bake, actually, I almost never bake, but when I do, I decorate what I bake.  I'm not a baker, so I'm not ashamed to say that I used chocolate Betty Crocker cake mix and vanilla frosting to make these lovelies. If you're fancy, you can be more creative with awesome batter and frosting recipes.

For my bloody Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster cupcakes I used: coloured frosting, I flavored the green frosting with matcha and the brown frosting with cacao (so that's a bit fancy), I used food colouring to dye the frosting.  For the eyes, I used yogurt covered peanuts and painted pupils with melted chocolate using a toothpick. I had to sacrifice some cupcakes to create height by building on top of my cupcakes and then roughly frosting the outer layer. I used a spoon and toothpicks to apply my frosting. I inserted half of the bottom part of a my sacrificed cupcake into Oscar's mouth and a whole mini chocolate cookie into the Cookie Monsters mouth.  I diluted some red frosting with water and dripped it over Oscar's mouth, cuz it's almost Halloween and blood is gory and people like that! So that's that! Adults and kids loved them, yey!

make - really easy wire sculpture

Decorate with this little wire sculpture.

you will need:

• craft wire (aluminum craft wire)
• pliers (optional)

simply bend the wire into your desired shape, you can use pliers to create sharper angles and bends or simply bend with your hands.

make - easy nook wall installation

My husband and I just moved into a new rental unit and I have been busy decorating since day 1 of our move.  Our bedroom had a weird nook wall, perfect for a queen size bed without the frame. To cast interest to this wall, I had originally wanted to apply a funky wallcovering to this area, however since the unit is a rental, our landlord would most likely not be thrilled if he found out he would have to remove my funky wallcovering when renting out the unit to a new tenant. I didn't want to paint either, so I decided to apply a black vinyl tape to the wall. The tape is easy to install and easy to remove.  It's not super sticky and won't ruin the wall if you want to peel the tape off later.

 For this project you will need:

• wall ( preferably with angles) 
• black electric tape
• scissors

Don't worry about marking the walls, just go with the flow. Start with opening the tape and applying it to the wall, try to make the tape stick to the wall in a straight line. Play with the angles of the walls. You can continue the tape along the walls or cut with scissors if you want to change the angle. Have fun!

make - wedding cake topper

This past August my beloved younger sister got married.  Prior to the wedding, she asked me if I could help design and create some signature pieces. One of these pieces was a wedding cake topper. 

The wedding's theme was bright, rustic, and cheerful.  We created the mood using yellow sunflowers, natural wheat, and by adding cheerful elements like birds into the mix.

Cake toppers can be expensive, but even if it's something custom, they don't have to be, you can make these yourself! Some cake toppers are made from conventional materials like ceramic or sugar paste, however your cake topper doesn't have to be edible or washable, in fact you can't even eat most sugar paste flowers because they have no taste, are hard and have wires in them. 

While you can use sugar paste, due to lack of experience, I use a wonderful, non-toxic Crayola product called: Model Magic  http://www.crayola.com/things-to-do/how-to-landing/model-magic.aspx

This modeling compound comes in a variety of colours,  is lightweight, is easy to form, air-dries and can be painted when dry.  Another product I use is small bottle form acrylic paint found in any local craft store.  The consistency of this paint is flat and the colours are opaque. Don't use the expensive metallic tube acrylic paints as this paint has a thicker texture, and dries translucent.

To make a cake topper, first find an image of the type of topper you would like to have.  My sister chose a fabric cake topper like the one below:

Next, decide what other materials you will need.  For my topper I used:

• Crayola, Model Magic in white
• acrylic paint
• crystal gems
• small hot glue gun
• hot glue sticks
• large toothpicks
• white lace ribbon
• black ribbon
• black and white felt
• card stock
• small pins (used for the eyes)
• raffia

To make my topper I first glued large toothpicks together to form the skeleton and support of the body. Next, I formed the modeling compound around the toothpicks until it reached the shape I desired. I let the compound dry for 24 hours. 

Once the compound had dried, I made a small hat for the groom bird out of card stock (which I later painted black), and a lace ribbon headpiece for the bride bird.  I glued these items onto the bird bodies with a hot glue gun.  I prefer using a hot glue gun because it bonds things quickly end effectively, however please be careful!

Using felt and ribbon that I purchased from a craft store, I proceeded to create little outfits: a felt jacket and tail for the groom and lace wings and tail for the bride bird. I rolled paper into small beaks, painted these a dusty pink-orange colour and glued them onto the face of the birds.  I cut 4 pins and inserted them into the face to form the eyes.  I lightly painted the birds an off-white and painted the head of the pins (where the eyes are) black.  I made a small rose out of paper for the groom and a ribbon necklace adorned with clear crystals for the bride bird. I attached all these items with a glue gun. I created a base out of the same modeling compound, and once this had dried I hot-glued the toothpick feet of the birds into the base.  As a finishing touch, I wrapped raffia around the base to make the birds look as it they are sitting in a nest.

My sister loved the finished product, and her wedding cake was simply charming  :)

  

visit - Toronto Queen Street Graffiti

On the west side of Spadina, between Adelaide and Queen Street.... is a Jem. This place is nothing new to the Toronto scene hipster,  but if you love the graphic arts or illustration and haven't gone there already... go!

Toronto by laws prohibit graffiti and make building owners and occupants, maintain a property free of graffiti.  Yet, somehow this place survives. The Queen Street graffiti alley is not just two short walls of graffiti between buildings, no it's more.  The alley starts from about Spadina and continues west towards Portland Street then beyond into the wonderful world of Queen West.  To those of you who do not know Toronto, Queen West is a Toronto district which is home to many indie jewelry shops, retro furniture stores and of course home to the stereotypical artsy, hip and modern individual known in Toronto, as the hipster. 

The graffiti in the photographs posted here may be long gone by the time you go there, but as old graffiti is erased, new graffiti is produced.  The cycle continues, and art here is always fresh.  The posted photographs were taken on a rainy day in July 2012; the colours on the exterior walls of the buildings were vivid as overcast skies often produce what fine art historians call chiaroscuro, a term describing the phenomenon of exaggerated light and shadow in baroque painting. 

This alley of graffiti is not a haven for vandals, it is not the kind of graffiti that is scribbled upon a freshly renovated European facade, graffiti that defaces and is vulgar. The graffiti here knows colour theory, shading and demonstrates high artistic technique and skill; whether it's a beautiful woman staring back at you, or lovable cartoon characters like Tom & Jerry chasing each other in a playful scene, the art here is fleeting, inspirational and beautiful.