I've been suffering from a sore right thumb lately... The cause? I've signed myself up for a large project that is KILLING ME! haha.

My best friend's wedding is coming up in May and I've hired myself to be her graphic designer. Why, you ask? She's the sweetest person who isn't concerned about image and wants to save money.  I was more than happy to when she asked me to help her design her program. When I asked her where she was getting it printed, she answered, "Oh, just Kinkos or something. Maybe I'll just print it myself." My jaw dropped. I refused to let one of my best friends compromise on quality just because of money so I volunteered myself to make her some awesome programs.

I chose to go with the Fan Programs. These were beautiful and unique because it takes a lot of time and effort to make. If I space this out correctly, I can make them little by little without killing myself (or so I thought). Cutting corners and curves are much harder than I thought... after a couple of leaves, my thumb starts throbbing because of my scissors.

I've only managed to cut about a quarter of the leaves but I feel like I have a good rhythm going. Only 3/4 more to go!

Next... I need to make menus for the tables, table numbers for each table and the seating arrangements! Need to keep my spirits high!

At Heart...

You know you're an old lady at heart when an elderly woman praises you for your purchases...

What did I purchase? For my next project,  I need an eyelet puncher. The reviews on this one seemed good so I went to my friendly, neighborhood Hobby Lobby and purchased it. I waited for their 40% off coupon before I went in so this item was only $17.40 (case sold separately). I tested it out and it works pretty well!

My next project will be making wedding programs for my best friend. I've decided to make her the fan programs because it's classy and unique. I found a website that sells Do-It-Yourself Fan Programs so I ordered a sample (most wonderful idea ever).

These pre-cut papers makes the fan program such an easy task but it comes with a price. The cut is not smooth so the edging around the whole page is ridged. It may not matter to some but I've decided that it's not good enough for my best friend's wedding. I guess I'll have to go down the more difficult road and cut all the pages myself. With 150 guests and 5 pages per program, I'm going to be having a lot of blisters soon... but at least they won't look like this...

Samoas

Or I guess they're called Caramel Delights now for some reason.

Regardless, I found a recipe online to make some when there's no girl scouts around.

Recipe found here

So it wasn't too hard but it was tedious and time consuming.

Note: I only had coarse kosher salt so my cookies were a bit salty. LOVE the tip of using a decorating tip to make the center holes. Will come in handy when you need to dip.

Note: It takes a while for the caramel to turn dark amber... but once it starts changing colors, it changes fast! So keep yours eyes on it.

Note: My caramel dipping was too thick but whenever I tried to tap off the excess, the coconut shavings also fell off... grrr. I might try to only dip one side next time and throw extra coconut shavings on top.

Other than that... it was a success! I brought them to share and they were well received.  And the recipe makes a lot! Enjoy =)

Cheapo Fondant Cutter

So I'm planning on making fondant covered brownies for my friend's birthday this weekend. The theme will be "Totoro" since I think his smile is so very similar to Totoro's smile.

I will be baking the brownies in cupcake cups and covering them with a cream cheese frosting. Then I will attempt to cover them in fondant (my very first time working with it)...
the raw sketching...

as you can see, i need a small circle for the white of the eyes... and a even smaller one for the iris. I bought some circular cutters but none small enough for the iris. I figured I probably had to manually cut out the iris which is going to be a pain.
So I was sitting at work and thinking, there's got to be an easier way. I need to make these tonight or tomorrow so I can't afford to buy something online and ship it. There's not that many places that sell cake decorating tools and I'm not sure where to find this anyhow.
Then a light bulb went off... What if I made my own? I can laminate a sheet of paper and tape it together. It's not perfect but at least I won't be cutting out small irises until I go insane.
So in my first attempt, I laminated a card stock because I figured it would be better. This may have been true if I was making a larger circle but it bent when I tried to make a small circle. So my second attempt I used regular paper and it was much better.

it looks crappy but it should cut the fondant just fine.

it won't be a perfect circle but i think it'll do fine.
**UPDATE**
so... the cheap fondant cutter did what I expected it to. Work a couple of times and then pretty much become useless.  It's much more worth it to buy metal cutters. It'll last longer and will cut more precisely.
I had to figure out how to make fondant stick to other fondant but I think it turned out okay for my first time!