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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sorry I've been MIA...(pic heavy)

So, it's been a little while since I updated, and I wanted to pop in here and let you see why. My kiddos had their birthday party last week. As you might remember, we do the party at our house, and have a theme for the joint party. This year, it was monsters!


I made the invitation on my KNK. Since it's an odd size I also made my own envelopes. Unfortunately it fell outside of "normal" size for the USPS, but it was super easy to make with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board. I love the little envelope tool with that thing!


The invite is a Pop-Up card. It's a combo of printing on my laser printer and paper piecing. I love how the monsters turned out! I grabbed the good old blue Fiskars embossing plates and ran the monster bodies through the Cuttlebug with the Spellbinders tan embossing mats to add some texture (fur, scales, and ridges).

Here's the "big picture" of the cake table. My son decided he wanted the cake this year and my daughter picked cupcakes. BTW, those cute little monster cake plates (back right hand corner) are from Target. I think they're Spritz brand and were with the party supplies.


My son wanted 5 eyes on his monster cake, so after frosting the cake with the Wilton fur tip, we made cake balls (thanks for the ideas Bakerella!) and dipped them in melted chocolate then added pupils to make them look like real eyes. *NOTE* My son wanted the eyes to fan out at a bigger angle, but we found the cake balls were too heavy and the cake was too tender, so they started ripping through the layer cake if we "tipped" them too much! It was my first time making the cake pops, according to the family it shouldn't be the last, LOL!


Now, on to the cupcakes! I apologize in advance for the "purple" fur. I guess I should have actually looked at the instructions for tinting the frosting purple, but I "assumed" it would work to mix red and royal blue...well I kinda got a purplish gray! Looks like pretty boring cakes, right?


Well, the original idea for this party was sparked by some stinkin' adorable cupcakes I saw at SnowyBliss last year. That's right, the kids got to build their own monster cupcakes! The body parts were all made out of Wilton vanilla candy chips, so they were all edible too. We've got tentacles, hands, bows (there are girly monsters too, you know), and wings in this first tray.


Then there's googly eyes, teeth, horns, forked tongues,and rows of fangs in here!

The kids had a pretty good time, here's a few of their monstrous creations...


I'll share some more pics tomorrow (gotta show you the craft they did too!)


ETA: Woo-hoo! The monster cake was featured on Bakerella's Pop Stars!

29 comments:

  1. What an adorable idea for a birthday!! I showed my grandson the cake and now he says that he wants one like it for his birthday, he'll be 6 this year!! I'll have to show it to my DIL. And I love, love the invitation that you did! Are the files going to be in the store???? Hint, hint!

    Jan W. (aka jlwclanfam)

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  2. WOW,
    awesome party and ideas

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  3. looks soooo fun!! I think my kids would loved it if they were there.

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  4. You did awesome Jen! Looks like it was a hit with the kids too.

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  5. wow what a wonderful birthday
    love the idea to make the cupcake monsters so much fun for the kid
    the invitation is great too
    too bad it it was not the postal size but so cool

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  6. Sue aka barracudasueJune 16, 2011 at 7:29 AM

    Absolutely FABULOUS party and your cakes and cupcakes are outstanding! You are SO creative! Love, love, LOVE the invitations, too! You went above and beyond! Super job, there, Jen! :D

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  7. I love this! Everything came out perfectly! Is 27 too old to do this at my next birthday party? hahaha So cute!

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  8. I will have to copy the exact idea for the party for my daughter's 3rd birthday party. She LOVES LOVES monsters!! I hope you don't mind! But I will totally give you the credit for it. I really like the idea for the kids to make their own monsters! What fun! I think the grown ups will have more fun than the kids with this one!

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  9. Your monster cake is awesome! What a great way to use cake pops! And the build your own monster cupcakes are a brilliant idea. I'll have to remember that for my kiddos' party next year. :)

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  10. I love this cake! I found it on the Bakerella site last night and I've shared it on my blog today. Hope you don't mind. I linked back too the Bakeralla post and your blog. Here's the link if you'd like to take a look, http://craftedbylindy.blogspot.com/2011/07/monster-cake.html

    - Lindy

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  11. Love the party! I'm glad you commented on my post so I could see the original party. Very creative. The black and white polka dot table cloth is stunning and what incredible invites. Love the detail.

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  12. A couple of days ago I found your monster cake on Pinterest and pinned it immediately! I loved it and I've been toying with the idea of a monter theme for one of my boys. I was so excited to see the rest of the party today! Love the pop up invite and the decorate your own cupcakes too!
    I'd love if you would share your party at my "It's a Celebration" link party. Too Cute!
    Christina
    http://www.inspirationforcelebration.com/2011/10/its-celebration-link-party-october-2011.html

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  13. This is the cutest Monster! Love Love Love it - great job!!
    I had to copy and make one for my son.

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  14. Who ever said "don't play with your food" had it all wrong. These kids got to play and create.

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  15. Can you tell us how you made the fur for the monster cake? Did you use fondant and an extruder? or a very steady hand with a piping bag?

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  16. Hi Jen, Thanks so much for the inspiration for that cake! Yours looks way better than mine, but the kids don't know the difference, right? They just loved it- thanks for helping make my son's party even more special, even though you didn't even realize you did!

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  17. Love it!!! My son saw this and wants it for his birthday. I would love to know how to make the icing.

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  18. Would love to find a tablecloth like yours with the BIG polka dots. Any suggestions on where to find it?

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    1. I got it at Meijer (local grocery/mega store) in their summer/seasonal department last year. I haven't seen anything similar this year, sorry. Now, if you can hook me up with a red plaid/gingham one for this summer... LOL!

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  19. where did you get the monster plates and decor that you didnt make? ive been searching and am about to go insane lol

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    1. Kyla, they were last summer's item in Target in the Party Supplies aisle. They are made by Spritz, but I'm not sure that they are available anymore. :(

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  20. Adorable ideas!!! I am curious where to get the monster "accessories" that you used for your cupcakes?

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    1. I "drew" them all onto parchment paper with melted Wilton candy discs. Then I let them cool and harden and lifted them off the parchment.

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  21. Hi! For your cake pops did you dye your chocolate using orange food coloring and then use regular white chocolate for the eyes and just regular black frosting for pupils? I'm having a hard time figuring it out lol! Your great I love your blog!

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    1. The orange on the eye is the actual color of the Wilton candy discs. They're especially easy to find this time of year with Halloween. I then dyed the buttercream frosting of the fur to be similar.

      The pupils were a little bit more involved. I started with milk chocolate candy discs (so they were dark brown when melted) and then added the candy coloring to make it deep black. It used about half a jar of candy colorant to make a small batch (enough for the pupils, mouth, and accessories).

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  22. Curious what you used to make the mouth on the cake?

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    1. I used midnight black wilton candy melts (bought around Halloween time) and red melts. First laid a piece of parchment paper on the side of a coffee tin laid sideways. They drew out the shape on the curved surface on the top. (That way it would match the curved shape of the cake.)

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  23. Where did you find monster plates and paper goods? I have been searching for months and cant find anything like those. Please pass along. Thanks! I am so excited to attempt this myself.

    cherysecarhart@yahoo.com

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    1. Unfortunately I don't think the plates/paper goods are available any longer. They were Spritz brand (from Target's stationery section).
      Oriental Trading has some monster themed supplies:
      http://www.orientaltrading.com/monster-bash-party-supplies-a2-PT1057-12-1.fltr?Ntt=monster+plate

      Party Zone USA also has some monster ones:
      http://www.partyzoneusa.com/servlet/the-1359/Monster-Mania-Party-Dessert/Detail

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