Destruct-A-Bear

Erin said she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear for her birthday and to go with that she wanted a "Destruct-A-Bear" birthday cake. She wanted to make a bear at the store and pull one apart with a cupcake cake. I heard a friend talking about putting cupcake papers into a shaped pan to make a cake that was basically precut. She was doing it with a flower shaped tin but said she got the idea from someone else who did it with a round one. I thought that would be a good basis for a pull apart bear and easier to frost than separate cupcakes. I have to admit, it worked better than I thought it would.

I frosted everything in chocolate and just put the white frosting right on top of it. For the nose I used a Starburst cut in half. Then, to make the lines for his mouth I dipped a butter knife into the chocolate frosting and drew with the point of it. Add a couple of eyes from M&Ms and two ears from extra cupcakes and you have yourself a very quick and easy Destruct-A-Bear cake.

All Times

I started this blog on my birthday in 2009 as my 30th birthday present to myself. As the 4 year anniversary of that is coming up next month I thought it would be fun to go back and showcase some of the most popular projects that I've done since the beginning.

Lamps in Toyland has certainly been one of the biggest. This was inspired by an artist named Ryan McElhinney. My creation as I made it is here and the finished lamp is here.

Toy Lamp

The headboard I created for Erin's tween room has been featured a few times.  This project was under $20 to make and it created a great statement piece in her room.

Grow Tween Headboard

The Monster Truck Birthday cake made a pretty big splash on Pinterest.  It was really easy to make and the kids loved it!

Monster Truck Birthday Cake

My stone cabinet knobs/pulls were fun to make and I like that they have some history to them.

Stone Cabinet Knobs/Pulls

The framed foreign coin collection also went kind of viral on Pinterest.  I think there are a lot of us out there who have coin collections building up in jars on a shelf somewhere.

Framed Coin Art

The PVC Pipe Fort/Playhouse that I made for the kids near the beginning of my blog has always been one of the number one hits from Google.

PVC Pipe Fort/Playhouse

The Cupcake and Cake Stand that I made for my wedding is really easy to make, collapses for storage, and pretty cheap to get the supplies for.  It's nice and durable and I still use it today.

Cupcake and Cake Stand

The Dollhouse Refurbish was a real labor of love.  This was my dollhouse when I was a kid and it had really seen some better days after all of the kids it had gone through.

Part I - The original derelict
Part II - Fixing her up
Part III - Repaired and pretty

Dollhouse Remodel

The instructions for how to make dollhouse stairs out of a single piece of 2x4 goes along with that.  My dad taught me this trick and I've used it several times now.

Dollhouse Stairs

Right now we are working on a monster of a project, remodeling to give my two oldest boys rooms of their own.  I'm hoping we'll be ready to move them into it within a couple of weeks but I'll be sharing pictures as we move along. 

Welcome

So many new visitors today.  Welcome!  I've got a few fun projects in the works right now and I'm looking forward to getting those projects up here in the next few weeks.  My two oldest boys have been sharing a bedroom and it's time to get them into their own spaces so we are remodeling.  The framing is up, electrical is in progress and hopefully the drywall will be coming quickly along behind that.  As they have two very different personalities they will also have two pretty different bedrooms so the crafting going in to that will be fun as well.  I just snapped a quick photo with my cell but look for some more fun pictures to come!