Project of the Week: Pumpkin Carving!

This past weekend Will and I decided to have some friends over for the LSU football game and hang out. Since I wanted it to be Halloween themed, we carved pumpkins while we watched the game!

Last year was my first time ever carving a pumpkin. I wanted fun pattern to put on my pumpkin. I found the website www.zombiepumpkins.com. There are some really cool patterns on there! This is my pumpkin I did last year.

Will's did the one with the mean face and
I did the Michael Jackson Thriller one

Will and I with our pumpkins last year

Here are the pictures from our pumpkin carving this year!

Will and our friends Lam and Kimberly getting ready to carve their pumpkins.
Chuck supervised.

Will cutting the top of his pumpkin with a POWERTOOL
while Chuck held it. It actually worked really well!

Lam cut the top of his pumpkin the old fashioned way! ;)

Lam and Kimberly taking out all the gross stuff!

I cleaned out my pumpkin on the ground!

Will looking a bit too excited about his pumpkin! ;)

My pumpkin with the pattern taped on it. Gizmo came to supervise!!
Don't worry... I didn't get him wet or feed him after midnight!

Will, Lam and Kimberly hard at work!... It really WAS hard!

After lots of carving AND afters parts of the
pumpkin falling off when they shouldn't have
AND after super gluing those parts back on...
I was done with my Gizmo!

Will and I with our pumpkins! He did the Ghostbusters logo!

Gizmo all lite up!

Kimberly's pumpkin... Who can guess that this
supposed to be? :)

 We had a lot of fun with these! I hope to make it a yearly tradition at our house! :)

Reminder: 5 days until I draw the winning name for my Christmas Ornament Giveaway!

Leave a comment below to sign up or email me at createsharerepeat@gmail.com!

I have some good news I hope to be posting later or tomorrow! I am very excited about it.. so stay tuned!!!

Have a happy Wednesday! God Bless!

-Emily

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CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT GIVEAWAY! Less than one week left!

Email me at createsharerepeat@gmail.com, 

or leave your name in the comments below to sign up!

So Friday I went to Pottery Works, the location where I was planning to paint the ornament I am giving away, to see if the ornaments came in yet. As I drove up I saw a big CLOSING written on the door... and not only did it say it was closing, it said it was closing in TWO DAYS from then. So naturally, I freaked out a bit! I was giving away an ornament in just over a week! What to do? What to do? So I got on google, looked up some more pottery places, and found one on O'Neal Lane. I went straight there to see what they had. I walked in to find a pile of large, round, blank ornaments.... I was SO relieved!

I am so sad that Pottery Works is closing! I have gone there for several years! Thankfully, there is Artistico Express! Check them out here: http://www.artisticoexpress.com/.  They are located in the shopping center close to the Rave Theater. Painting pottery is SO much fun! I recommend it to everyone! Even if you aren't artistic! My boyfriend (who is an engineer and not really artistic) loved painting pottery and wants to go back!

Please sign up for my drawing! Tell others about it too! You don't have to know what you want on it! We can figure that out later, or I can come up with something for you!

Have a happy Monday everyone! I will be posting my project of the week soon so keep a look out!

-Emily

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Project of the Week: A Fall Wreath

Last Friday night, my friend Andrea and I decided that we would have Craft Night. We have been planning to have one for a while. After I saw the post on her blog about her Halloween wreath, I asked if she would like a to do a fall wreath for our Craft Night. I had never made a wreath before. So we went shopping at Hobby Lobby a few nights before to get all I would need for my wreath. She planned to fix a fall wreath that she had previously made.

So Friday, I cooked dinner and we sat on the living room floor and fixed up our wreaths while we watched part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show... until we decided to watch Grease 2 instead! :)

So for my wreath project, I started by laying all the supplies I bought out in front of me. I had leaves, pumpkins, berries, pine cones and acorns. I plugged in my glue gun (I only burned myself ONCE!) and stared at my blank wreath having NO idea where to start!!

 

Kitti decided she wanted to try and help!

Kitti, why are you biting my wreath!

So I decided to first start off by focusing on the focal point of my wreath which I wanted to be the two pumpkins. I start playing and placing things where I thought they would look nice.

After I got my pumpkins and berries in place and glued down, I glued leaves, pine cones and acorns all around the wreath. 

And that was it! I was done! It came together very easily! It was a little intimidating at first with all the different items I had for the wreath, but I was able to make everything fit well together!

Now it hangs happily on my front door!

It was a very fun project, and I think I may do a Christmas wreath for my door as well!

Andrea with her wreath!

 

My Captain Jack!

I have A LOT of projects coming up... almost a little overwhelming to think about... but I know they will be FUN FUN FUN! The most important one right now is my Christmas Ornament Giveaway! SIGN UP TODAY! :) Send me an email or just say that you would like to sign up in the comments below!

Have a great week everyone! Leave comments!

-Emily

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Project of the Week: A BOOday Cake!

 BOO!

Happy Thursday! I sure have been having a fun, creative week! There are few things I would like to mention before I get into the good stuff! ;)

First, have you entered my Christmas Ornament Contest yet? Well you should!!! Do it now!

I have 25 entries so far! Some are double since you can an extra entry if you blog or facebook about my blog/contest! So please sign up!

Remember that t-shirt contest I entered for the Market that I blogged about a while back? Well... I think I sorta kinda won... ;) Well, they emailed me, and asked if I could change something in the design (add some fruits and veggies). So I did that, and they emailed me back again asking if I could swap an apple I put in the design out for another vegetable (I picked corn). In that second email they sent, they said I was the "front runner." Well, I just submitted the revised design. Hopefully I will hear something back soon! :)  I will let y'all know when I do!

And now for my project of the week... A Happy Birthday (Booday) cake for my coworker, Jean! She is such a great lady, and it was a great pleasure to make this cake for her!

I started off with a chocolate cake mix and added to it using a recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor Book.

The cake was DELICIOUS, but the cake was too moist. It was too crumbly to decorate on. I still managed it though. I am still searching for the perfect cake recipes to use for cake decorating. So if you know any, let me know!!

A lot of times before I do anything, a design, a painting, a cake, etc., I like to sketch out what I want to do. My sketches aren't pretty, but they really help! Here was mine for this cake:

I thought it would neat to post this to see how an idea
can become a reality! 

So I got started by layering my cake with green icing, and then covering the top with black icing and the sides with orange icing. I was finally able to get a BLACK icing... It would just stay gray when I made it before. The secret was to add some cocoa powder!  http://www.wilton.com/blog/index.php/how-to-make-black-buttercream-icing/

Then I used my icing tips to decorate the top and sides of the cake. I did orange squiggles on the top and made bats, trees and squiggles on the sides. I finished it off with a large black border.

Then I got to the fun part... playing with fondant! I haven't taken my fondant class yet, but I have watched Ace of Cakes enough to sort of know what I was doing! So I got some rice crispy treats and molded them into a ghost which I covered in white fondant.

Then I dyed some fondant orange, rolled it to little balls, and make them into pumpkins!

Added some lines to make them look more like pumpkins

Made some vines by twisting little pieces
of green fondant around a toothpick

The pumpkin patch!

I put the ghost and pumpkins on top of the cake. I finished my cake with "Happy BOOday Jean" in green icing.

I am very happy with how my cake turned out! Everyone loved it! There are definitely some things I need to work on, like getting proper recipes, but I think I am off to a great start. It is SO MUCH FUN! I love being able to make edible art! I have two more cake classes to take starting in November. I was supposed to start one yesterday, but it was canceled. I am excited to learn even more about cake decorating! This is the last cake I will be doing for awhile I think so y'all will get a cake break! I know I have been doing so many of them!

I worked on another project this past week which is almost complete. Katherine's Baby Shower invite! I will post it very soon! It's so cute! (It would be  easier to throw this shower if we knew the sex of the baby, KATHERINE!!!!! ;) Just kidding. I still love you.)

Next week expect a blog post on my newest project, a fall wreath! I have never made a wreath before, but after I saw my friend Andrea's Halloween wreath on her blog, I REALLY wanted to make one! So yesterday we went to Hobby Lobby and bought all the stuff  I would need to make one. Andrea and I are going to have a craft night this Friday and decorate our fall wreaths! Should be a lot of fun! I also get to cook for her!

I want to thank everyone for all your kind comments about my projects. I love that I am inspiring others to get creative! Doing projects like this make me really happy. It's what I am meant to do. :)

Have a great Thursday, and a wonderful weekend!

-Emily

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Project(s) of the last couple of weeks! Graphics, Cakes and more!

Hey you... hey you reading my blog!! If you haven't already, sign up for my Christmas ornament giveaway!!!

Send me a comment, email, facebook message, ANYTHING letting me know you would like to sign up! You don't have to know what you want on the ornament yet... we can figure that out later! Or I can come up with something for you! Just sign up! :)

But anyways, back to the real purpose of this blog!! I have been a busy girl lately! I have worked on several projects that I have to share with you.  I mentioned a couple of them in a previous blog, but at the time they weren't complete.

One was my dining room. It was a boring white color. I went to my brother's new house and saw the beautiful green color of their living room wall, and I HAD to have it! I knew it would be perfect in my dining room! So after hours of painting, repainting, running out of paint and borrowing paint (Thank you, Katherine!), I finally finished the room! And I was right... the color was PERFECT!

Will, Jack and Kitti helping!

Before picture...
Not our furniture. This is how it looked when
we were first looking at the house.

 

 

I love the view of the pond!

The other project I mentioned before was a graphic for my friend Andrea's blog. She told me she wanted a picture of a frying pan with the handle morphing into a ball of yarn! And that's what I gave her!

Check her blog out at creativecakesandcrochet.blogspot.com! She has posted some really cool projects up there! Especially her wreath! I think we are going to get together soon for a craft night to make Fall wreaths! :)

Last week I decided after much debate to enter a t-shirt contest. The market across the road from my building was hosting the contest. The theme was Eat Fresh, Eat Local so the t-shirt needed to represent Louisiana fruits and/or veggies and/or seafood, etc. I first visioned a fleur de lis.... okay... Let me stop here to say that I don't like the fleur de lis... they are EVERYWHERE. Everything has a fleur de lis on it... I'm kind of sick of it. But I understand that a lot of people like it so I don't mind using it in my designs. Anyways, I first envisioned a fleur de lis made up of lot of fruits and veggies. But I never did it because I knew I would want to draw out all the fruits and veggies and that would take more effort than I was willing to do at the time. So I decided to take the idea to another level....

I used the fleur de lis to represent a fruit or veggie on a fork. On the inside of the fleur de lis, I listed many types of Louisiana fruits and veggies. I have no idea when the winner of the contest will be announcced. I won't be too sad if I don't win. I came up with the design a day before it was due! I felt like I needed to enter something since I go to the market all the time! And the award is $50 to spend at the market... mmmmm... $50 worth of pumpkin muffins and chicken salad!! :) I will let y'all know the results!

This past Thursday was my last cake design class. We learned how to write with icing and how to make roses with icing.  Then we got to decorate our final cakes however we liked! Since I was bringing the cake to work the next day, I picked a themed that tends to work for everyone.... LSU!

I am proud of the way my cake turned out, and I really feel that I learned a lot in class... but I still have a lot to go! I have two more cake classes to take, the Flowers and Cake Design class and the Gum Paste and Fondant class! I start the Gum Paste and Fondant Class next week!

I have also been cooking a bunch of yummy things the past couple of days that I would like to share with you! My mom gave us a frozen turkey she had so on Sunday I decided to cook it for the week! I cooked it in an oven bag. It came out delicious! You can find the recipe here.

It was very pretty!

The next night I decided to take some of the leftover turkey and make a gumbo. OMG it came out so GOOD! I owe my mom for that one. She taught me!

Nothing makes me happier than the smell of a fresh roux!
My favorite smell on Earth!!

MMMMMM

I also made some fresh bread this weekend. It is a recipe my friend Jane gave to me. They bread went so well with the gumbo... Good dippin' bread! YUM! I will need to get that recipe up here soon!

Lastly I just wanted to share some art I bought for my kitchen at an Arts and Crafts Festival this past weekend! 

Those are all my projects the last couple of weeks! I hope to work on my crawfish painting this week if I get the time! Leave comments, and don't forget to sign up for my ornament giveaway!

-Emily

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