Army Man Cupcakes

I'm currently a nanny for a family of three children, two boys (11 & 9) and one girl (3). A few weeks ago, as he's running out the door to catch the bus, the 9 year old requested army and camouflage cupcakes for his family birthday party...that night. I had about a billion errands to run that day as well as a pile of sports uniforms to wash for weekend games/practices, but I had to give it a try. He hardly asks for anything and is such a sweet boy! With my limited time, he had to settle for a boxed cake mix..but I did manage to make homemade buttercream frosting. 

Don't judge me for the picture...it was taken with my dying blackberry and is horribly blurry! But it gives you an idea of how they came out! I forgot to take a picture of the camo ones, but they came out ok. A little more like a globe than camo, but he didn't mind. 

It was super simple too! I just crushed up a bunch of oreos and rolled the frosted cupcake in them...and stuck an army guy down inside so it looked like he was hiding in the mud. They were a big hit and he was thrilled!

He later told me that I would win in an awesome contest...as the "Awesomest Nanny Ever"

Score!

It's amazing how a simple gesture can make a child's day :)

Cupcake Quilt

SO I'm going to be honest...I did this project a WHILE ago! In fact, the baby that this was made for is now 6 months old...and this was her shower gift. YIKES! But as I mentioned, there's been a lot going on recently, so I can't get too bent out of shape over it ;-) 

So once upon a time...my lovely cousin was having baby! For her "sprinkle" I wanted to make her and the baby something special..one of a kid and from the heart! 

So I thought for a while and this is what I came up with!

The best part is, it turned out so close to what was in my head! That almost never happens. Know what I mean? I always seem to come up with these ideas and I get so excited about them but they hardly ever come out the way I had hoped. Not this time! I was really pleased! And it was soooo simple...other than the fact that I didn't know how to quilt. Details. Details. But even that turned out ok! 


I went to Christmas Tree Shop to get an inexpensive lamp shade. As a matter of fact, the Mommy-to-be-again, was shopping with me. She probably wondered why I was buying such a boring shade! Now since I used hot glue, I had to work quickly so these are the only pictures I have. But seriously, you don't need them. It wasn't hard. I just measured the shade from top to bottom...which luckily for me was 12 inches so I didn't have to cut my paper! I folded the paper like an accordion, every 3/4 inch or so and hot glued them to the shade. Easy peasy! 

The quilt on the other hand was harder for me since the only one I've ever made was TINY and several years ago. I played around with some patterns, but ended up going for tried and true...squares! Just to ensure that this pretty Mama actually received a gift on time. haha I fell in love with the pattern of the polka dot fabric and since it the gender was a secret, I thought it would be a good choice! 


I was so thrilled with the way it came out..and having some left over red felt and a fake flower stem was just the "cherry on top." HA! Sorry, bad pun. But that's all it was really, a little red felt sewn into a circle and a fake flower stem that I clipped the flower off of and hot glued it inside. Done and done. 

Here's the woman of the day and her giant cupcake!

(I promise she's not naturally this orange!)

I think she liked it! And thought it was...dare I say..."Sweet?"