Here are the cookies I made as shower favors.  They weren’t overly difficult, but a tad time consuming. I’ll post the recipe in a later post if anyone is interested, but basically it’s a non-leavened sugar cookie, covered with royal icing.  With small skewers for sticks, inserted before the cookie is baked.

The octopus is drawn on freehand, and it doesn’t take artistic talent… Everyone is cute, unique, and just a little bit ‘wopty’!

See below for the how to.

The Base

First just ice the white circles.  There’s many good tutorials for this, but they generally involve using a stiffer icing around the edge, and filling in the center with a more runny version.  I didn’t do that neat a job with mine.  Let that harden before you do the octopus.

Here’s a great tutorial from Wisdom of the Moon on working with royal icing, with a ton of pictures, so you can get the idea.

How to draw the octopus head and arms.

You’ll need your royal icing to be a little runny (but not as much as fill icing typically is), so that it will expand to fill a little bit, but not too runny or it will just flatten out (leading to fat legged octopuses without as much dimension).  Add a little water to thin, and practice on a spare cookie or parchment. Let them dry before you move on to the real ones, as it may take a few minutes for the icing to flatten.  If the icing doesn’t merge together when you draw two lines next to each other, then thin it a bit and test again.

Now, here’s a picture of how to draw the octopus – it’s just 4 lines.  The head is created when the lines merge together.

Adding Accents

You can decorate the octos any way you want, but I’d suggest at least adding eyes.  Here’s what I did.

Eyes: 2 large drops of white icing, topped with tiny dots of blue.

Spots:  Random drops of blue

As you can see, they are all different, and not quite perfect, but that really added to the charm.

If you try this, I’d love to see!

You might also like…

I just realized I never posted the actual finished invitation, but the illustration for the invitation is here, along with instructions on doing a quick neat photoshop coloring job:

Published on: Feb 2, 2011

If you’re looking for fancier Easter egg ideas, you can find some here, here, .. and an Easter basket here.

So I usually buy a big thing of eggs, and boil a handful of them ahead of time to throw in lunchboxes or to make tuna salad with, or whatever, and I like to be able to tell them apart from the non-boiled at a glance.  I used to take a sharpie and mark the ends (maybe with a little face so it would be cute in kid’s lunch), but this is my new plan, and I love it.

Also, I love the look of brown eggs, but I’m not going to pay extra for them just because they are aesthetically pleasing.

So, my solution?  Whenever I boil eggs, I throw in a handful of onion skins (I pretty much always have a bag of yellow onions on hand) and a dash of vinegar.

By the time the eggs are done, they are also a lovely peachy brown color.

Other ideas — that might actual be Easter related:

Of course, this is also a way to cheat and make quick easter eggs.  No dying, just dye while boiling!

Or you can do these, then wipe them down right after you take them out.  You’ll leave a speckled brown effect which you could then dye over in blue for a robin’s egg look.

Another idea is to use this as a base, then dye as usual, for a neat natural effect.  I’m not sure how well it would work (let me know if you try it) but I think it could definitely be a cool effect.

How to boil an egg

If you need to know, here’s how I like to do it.

Put your eggs in a large saucepan, covered with water.  Turn up to high, and bring to a boil.

Since I have a gas stove, I turn it down to low for 3-5 min.  Then I turn it off and let it sit for 15 minutes.   (If you have electric burners, you can just turn off after the boil, and let it sit for 15 minutes, as the electric burners retain heat.)

The book has a bunch of really cute creatures and scenes you can create with needle felting – everything from a silly science lab, to a sweet shop, to a pirate island… with easy to follow instructions.   It looks like it would be a good introduction to the craft of needle felting, you don’t have to already know how to do it.

Tutorial: Big Purple Alien Blob

Huggable and utterly lovable, this friendly alien blob loves making friends, playing sports, shopping, and taking long walks along the lunar landscape.

Download the Full Tutorial : Alien Blob from Wee Felt Worlds

Or… buy the whole book of projects (use the link below to support Dabbled!)

Enjoy!

This is a fun project if you’d like an inexpensive way to make your own “canvas print”, and you like a retro, old fashioned feel.  It makes a great gift, too (like the one used in the tutorial, a great wedding momento!)

I did this for my December post on FedEx’s Out of Office blog.  It is easy to do, but be warned it is a bit time consuming when you get to the final step of removing the paper from the canvas, so I wouldn’t go any larger than 8×10″ for this project.

The photo for this project is by the fabulous Sarah Howell, of Kimball Bates Photography (recently relocated to North Carolina, for my readers up there–I highly recommend her!)

Tutorial Summary: Retro Canvas Print

Basically, you just need an inexpensive canvas, acrylic gel medium, and a image you want to use.  For the image you’ll need it slightly larger or the same size as your canvas.  Use an image editing program to reverse the image (so you have a mirror image) and to size your image appropriately.  Then you can have it color laser printed or get a color photocopy.

You’re going to adhere the image to the canvas (face side down) using the gel medium.  When it is dry, you’ll remove the paper from the canvas, leaving just the color.  You’d definitely have areas where the color doesn’t stay, hence the weathered, retro look.  You can then cover the whole thing with gel medium for a finished look.

Full Instructions, with photos (and Lessons learned)

I’ve got all the step by step instructions up at the FedEx Out of Office blog: Retro Photo Canvas Tutorial.

Also, a few lessons learned, based on trying this a few times:

• Like I mentioned, smaller is better due to the time consuming nature of the final steps.  It can take multiple (like 6!) times of rubbing the paper off the canvas.   Let it thoroughly dry after you think you have it all removed, then you’ll see more paper fibres.  Keep rubbing!
• Try a small test piece first.
• Experiment! You might find that it’s better to let the paper NOT dry all the way, and then just try peeling the paper off.  When I’ve done similar projects before (but with B&W photocopies) I’ve found that it was much easier, and worked just as well.  But with color I think it’s better to wait til it’s bone dry, which means much more work getting all the paper off.  But, it’s worth a try to attempt some experiments and see what works best for you.
• Related to that, here’s the technique I’ve used where you don’t let the paper dry all the way: Wooden Photo Ornaments

My son, he who inspired the Clone Trooper Cupcakes, Dragon Cake, and Perry the Platypus Cake, is obsessed with Angry Birds.  Well, he’s really obsessed with about a dozen games on the iPhone or Android when we’ll let him play them — and he got to play a lot while we were on vacation in Mexico.  And we had a 4 hour delay so I played my share of Angry Birds, too.  Anyway.  So here they are in cupcake form (here are a bunch of other Angry Birds creations, too).  Lots of fun to make, and quite tasty, too!

Wanna make them yourself?  They really aren’t that hard.  But I will warn you, they are definitely time consuming!

OH YEAH! Please go vote for these in the instructables cupcake contest!

More photos on Flickr

Basically, on top of your standard iced cupcakes, you place a bird.  The birds (and pigs) are made out of donut holes covered in marshmallow fondant, (the smaller birds are wrapped up mints or whoppers or similar).  It’s like playing with playdoh, and my 6 year old actually helped me make one of the set of 3 little birds (those are easier to make because with a hard center, you don’t have to be as careful while wrapping them).  Really, this is not that hard to do, it does take a little time and patience though, especially to kneed all those different colors into your fondant!

I wrote up an Instructable with everything step by step, and you can download it here: PDF: How to Make Angry Birds Cupcakes

Just those minor adjustments really add a lot to the costume!

How to Make a Perry the Platypus Costume:

See Part 1 (the previous tutorial) for the making of the tail, the suit, the bill, and the feet.

New for 2010: The Eyes…

You’ll need:
2 pingpong balls
black sharpie (permanent) marker
2 large safety pins

I decided that the eyes needed to be removable, since The Boy likes to wear his platypus tailed sweatshirt around the house a lot. Alternately, you could stitch these on for a more permanent solution.

Try the hoodie on your child, and guesstimate where you should put the eyes.  Depending on the size of your child’s head, and the size of his Perry hat, this could vary, but mine are probably 4-5 inches from the center top.  They are less than an inch from the edge.  But use your best judgment as hoods will vary.

If your pingpong ball has writing on it, you’ll want to hide it, but if you pin through the writing, it will show as the balls sag a bit when pinned.  So you’ll want to pin through the ball a little ABOVE the writing.   (Try a test ping pong ball first!)  [Or just spray paint them white, I suppose, to avoid the hassle!]

Make the holes in the ball by pinning through the ball (as close together as you can get them (maybe 1/3 inch?).  Then remove the pin, and pin on to hoodie.

Place hoodie back on child, and mark where you want the pupils to go with a pencil.  Remember you want it to look good from both the front and the side.  Mine came out a little wall eyed… I would have liked them looking more forward, but The Boy likes it as is.

Using your sharpie marker, draw a large circle for the pupil, then a smaller circle inside it for the reflection dot.  Color the large circle in black, leaving the smaller one white.

And that’s all there is to it!

I think adding the eyes are well worth the effort…

And if you make a Perry costume, I want to see it!  Leave a comment or email me a pic..

The pops are basically Rolo candies, covered in marshmallow fondant, with fondant details.  No baking required!

Though I do admit that they are a bit time consuming…

But were definitely appreciated by the young Star Wars fans…

Wanna Make them yourself?

I’ve written up the whole thing as an instructable, with tons of photos and instructions for both the clone troopers and the storm trooper versions…  Click the image below, or go here…

I’ve been playing around with glass tile necklaces, with either prints from my artwork, or original drawings, as fun and wearable art.
Here are the 2 prototypes–based on the watercolor series (“Robot World“) which is currently in the Museum of Science in Boston. One is the robot from “A Clockwork Red” and the other is one of the balloons in the background of “Blue”. I’m really loving the balloon one, I’ve worn it several times!

And yes, I’m about 6 months behind on my shop (I really have to stop starting other projects!), so if you’d be interested in one, drop me an email! I’ll do a “really, the shop will be up soon” special for you guys for $18, including US shipping. [dot-at-dabbled-dot-org] . So if you’ve always wanted to wear some Dot Art around your neck, here’s your chance! It doesn’t have to be one of these 2, but it does need to be something i have a high quality print of lying around the house to slice up for you. And yeah, if you want an original it will be a little more.

These are done with prints (obviously!) but my idea is to also showcase original drawings/watercolors, for something more personalized, or more special.

I’ll do a post on how I made the necklaces next week, but if you’re in a hurry to try it yourself, I’ll point you to this good tutorial that I found at Trey & Lucy, where she does some really cute ones using scrapbook paper. Oh, and I totally screwed up at first — can you figure out what’s wrong with the balloon one shown in the picture?

In addition to the traditional felting techniques that everybody uses (needle & wet-felting, dying my own wool, accenting with tufts of colored wool)  I also use an Airbrush to add shadows & gradients to my pieces.  I’ve found this to be a super easy & fast way to give my felting that little somethin’-somethin’!!

Airbrushing some Chocolate Frosting!!!

Here are all the supplies you need to help paint & shade your Felted Sculptures!!

*Airbrush, Compressor, & bottles
*Watered down Acrylic Paint
*Yummy Felted Cupcakes!!

This is what the cupcakes look like BEFORE any paint has been sprayed. Just plain, white frosting all ready to be transformed into Chocolate!!

I didn’t want to get any over-spray of the brown onto the “cake”, so I put a little paper & masking tape to cover that part. First layer of color is a warm yellow!!

I like to paint in light layers of many different colors. I think this gives the colors more depth instead of just blasting a color onto the wool. Also if you get too much acrylic paint onto the wool, it tends to bleed & get a little crunchy.

Slowly getting darker & darker!! Going from the yellow base to a warm brown.

Starting to look like chocolate with the darker brown!! This could pass as a Milk Chocolate, but I want a darker frosting.

Working with the darkest (almost black) brown to add some dark shadows within the “twirl”.

Yummy Yummy!!! Looking Delicious!! Love the dark shading in the creases!!

Almost done just need….

Cherries On Top!!! Yea! All done!

Thank You Dabble.org for letting me share!!  I hope this tutorial has inspired you to take another look at your chosen medium & maybe think outside the box!  Never feel confined by the “traditional” way of doing things!!

If you are interested in learning more about felting, or seeing some fun Tutorials on the felting process, Please visit my Blog:

FeltedChicken Blog

(Well, except the Bacon Roses, those are just plain weird.)

I’ve been seeing them everywhere lately, so here are a few ways to make them:

Some fun Rose Making Links:

<<Here’s a rose “chip” made from Beets!  Such a clever idea for a ‘savory’ rose!  See the how-to at Eye Candy. Also some done with purple potatoes (see pic above)

>>
Little Birdie Secrets has a tutorial on making really pretty paper roses, that looks very neat!  Love the end product…>>

<<Another one from Eye Candy – Make these cute radish roses.. dyed pink using beets!

For your sweet tooth, Grieg shows us how to make Tootsie Roll roses, here at Dabbled.>>

More paper rose ideas:

• Crepe paper roses at Dollar Store Crafts (from Filth Wizardry)
• Origami roses at Instructables