A {Happy 6th Birthday} Card for Colin & Cake Pops...

If my son ever doubts my love for him, I will remind him (and show him these photos) of the day Mommy made him clown cake pops.  I enjoy baking and am a fan of Bakerella.  Everyone loved the cake pops I made a couple years ago, which tasted a lot better than they looked.  I checked out this book at the library a few weeks ago and once Colin chose these clowns, there was no changing his mind.

They turned out pretty cute, definitely home-made looking.  They required a lot of time, patience and candy (which we have a lot leftover that I'm trying not to eat).  I took a lot of liberties with these.  I was not about to buy 48 sugar cones, cut off the tips for the birthday hats and throw the rest away ('cause what can you do with a bunch of cone pieces?).  Also, the fuzzy hair was supposed to be French Burnt Peanut Candies, which I couldn't find at the two stores I checked.  I ended up using some raspberry gummies that had bumps that resembled hair, although I had to trim all of them down.  For the eyebrows I used some green holly sprinkles that I found all the way in the back of the cabinet.

The book suggested making different versions of the clowns (some with collars, without collars, different kinds of smiles, etc.)  I opted not to do this since Colin will be sharing them with his class and I wanted to avoid the "why does hers have more candy?" thing.  Apparently the author doesn't have children.  So, luckily my kids had a snow day yesterday and I was able to dedicate about three hours to making these (not including the hour I spent the day prior baking the cake, mixing the cake with icing and then rolling them into balls).

When I told people that I was making these cake pops, all of them said the same thing.  They had either tried it themselves or knew someone who had and they all had the problem of the cake ball falling off the stick. After I had the balls rolled, I refrigerated them overnight.  I dipped the end of the stick in chocolate before sticking it in the balls.  Then (thanks to recommendations from friends), I stuck them in the freezer for about an hour before I dipped them in the white candy coating.  This worked like a charm (just make sure your balls don't freeze).  Out of the 48 cake pops only one fell off the stick.  Once the cake pop is dipped you have to work quickly to stick on all the candy.  The white candy coating dries really quickly.  There were a few times where I needed to apply a little more white coating to certain areas with a toothpick and then stick on the candy.

So, will I make these again?  Yes, because my little girl is already asking me to make them for her birthday.  I probably won't enjoy it, but I will make them again.  Hopefully she'll pick a less tedious cake pop.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the kids had another snow day today, so Colin will be taking these cake pops in whenever they go back to school.  So glad I rushed to get them all done!

So, onto the card I made for Colin's birthday.  I'm sorta impressed with myself over this one.  There's a lot of stuff on this card and that IS NOT my usual style. It is very Silhouette heavy, but I wanted something really special for my special guy.  Pretty much everything was cut using the Silhouette except the rectangles.  It took me quite a while to do the banner, getting them all spaced out and centered without being able to glue the string down.

Lots of dimension to this card.  The banner flags, number 6, sentiment blocks, and white panel are all popped up on foam adhesive.  BTW, this sketch used today's sketch challenge at SCS.


Wow, this was a really long post.  I'm giggling to myself re-reading this at all the innuendos with the word ball and balls.  Tee hee hee, I'm a perpetual 12 year old boy.

Have a great day!

{Happy Birthday}

Stamps: Essential Messages (Hero Arts)

Card Stock: Ocean Tides, SS White (Papertrey Ink)

Patterned Paper: Love Me Do (My Mind's Eye)

Ink: Real Red (SU)

Accessories: Red Floss (DMC), Foam Dimensionals, Stamping Sponge, Digital Cutter (Silhouette)