Teal Damask Birthday Cake

The request from this birthday girl (that her cake specifically have a damask pattern) finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to try out the damask stencils I've been putting aside for a year (yes, a whole year!) for fear of using them! :) Turns out, they were wonderfully easy to use! Vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant with fondant details and painted damask stenciling.

Simple Valentine's Day Cupcake Toppers

So this Valentine's Day, I really wanted to play around with making some cute, simple and inexpensive cupcake toppers :) Especially when I spotted this over sized Valentine's confetti at my local Michaels craft store - bingo! Just knew it would lend itself to a cute topper. Michaels is also where I scored the red & white striped paper straws and the heart printed ribbon and the best part - I only paid $1.99 a piece for each! Even less if you use a coupon! (The pink and white striped paper straws I had in reserve from another project). So how easy was it to make these? Oh, so easy. For the toppers using the confetti, I simply cut my paper straws in half (whole length was just way too tall to be sticking out of a cupcake, obviously) and used a cool melt glue gun to place a dot of glue at one end of the straw (but any craft glue should do the trick). Then I simply placed one piece of the confetti on top of the dot of glue - voila!

 As for the ribbons, they did require a bit of trimming - roll out a bit of the ribbon, fold around your straw (again, cut in half) and determine how long you want your flag to be, making your cut. Place a thin strip of glue down the entire length of ribbon and fold around the straw, pressing together. Trim the end of your ribbon and there you have it!