Come Unto Christ 2014 LDS Youth Theme {studio file}

With the new year upon us, it was time to redo our Young Women notice board at church. We really wanted it to reflect the 'Come Unto Christ' theme for the year and decided that the logo should feature on the board. I have a Silhouette Cameo machine and I wanted to be able to use my machine to cut the logo from scrapbooking paper, so I re-created the artwork in the Silhouette Studio software. The completed project really does look lovely on our notice board!

I have included links to the file I created so that you can use it too, just click on either image to download the .studio file. Both colour and monochrome versions are in the same file.

Baby Shower

A little while ago I wrote about a gender reveal cake I made. Well now baby is nearly due, so we threw a baby shower for the Mum-to-be. I designed the invitations, then themed the party from that.

The cake is a black forrest gateaux, iced in buttercream with fondant figurine and laundry.

We tried to make the room really cosy, like a baby's nursery, and draped wash lines full of onesies across the room.

Individual squares for the cot quilt were made by different friends, then I took them all and assembled the quilt.

We had a 'design a onesie' station. There were some really beautiful onseies created!

Instead of a guest book, each guest was asked to write a message on a little card onesie, then hang it on the framed wash line.

We played various games such as "Don't Say Baby"

and "Name That Poopy" (various brands of chocolate melted into nappies,

you then have to try and guess what they are.)

Mum-to-be got a few penalties as she tried to guess what was in her gifts.

She had to eat a chocolate bar out of a potty full of apple juice....

...eat baby food and drink from a bottle.

I just loved this photo of Dad-to-be that I took at the end of the evening.

Happy New Year!

The last few weeks have been wonderful! Here is just a short post to share some of the fun we have had over Christmas and New Year.

We went shopping where saw reindeer and listened to choirs singing carols.

I made lace ornaments...

...and painted our names on to slate ones.

Christmas cards were made and posted.

The tree was trimmed and the house decorated.

We had a hearty Christmas dinner...

...followed by a dessert of milk tart.

We went for long walks (the weather was very mild).

Winter Wonderland in London was fabulous!

And finally, to see in the New Year we partied with friends; eating popcorn balls...

...and playing some rather boisterous games of Rapidough and Apples to Apples.

Christmas Party Bakes

I love baking at Christmas time!

I went just a little over the top for our Ward Christmas Party this year. I had so many ideas in my head that just needed to get out, if only I had more time!

My first creation this year was the Christmas Cake: 

The main cake is traditional fruit cake (without the alcohol), and the tree is filled with cereal treats. All the decorations are modelled from modelling chocolate, except for the white, which is fondant. I also used a small set of battery powered led lights to add a bit of drama.

My idea was to portray Christ as one of the gifts under the tree, since He is the greatest gift we have been given. All the rest of the characters from the nativity appear as ornaments on the tree.

I created the seal on my cake using a personalised stamp that I bought from The Cupcake Company.

My next project was a gingerbread nativity scene. I was going to make a gingerbread house, but decided to keep that for my family Christmas, and do something a bit different for a change. It is made up of various layers of gingerbread decorated, and glued together, with royal icing. If you would like to make this yourself, I have shared my pattern and a tutorial here.

Next up is a candy tree, something I have wanted to make for a couple of year and finally got round to making a reality. People loved it so much they refused to pick the candy off of it and eat it!

And last but not least was my Santa's Grotto. I styled it as a gingerbread house, and covered it in gingerbread men and candy canes that the children could pull off and eat (each gingerbread man is wrapped in a cellophane bag).

Needless to say, I had to bake a lot of gingerbread men!

Inside the grotto:

All in all, I had a fabulous time. Merry Christmas everyone!!