DIY projects

DIY Splatter Paint Favor Boxes

by Jenny Batt

I’m old enough to remember the craze in the 80s first hand, ok, I was a kid, but I think that is where my love for neon originated. I had to incorporate it into some fun favor boxes. Whether for a birthday party or a wedding, customizing little boxes with a dose of hot pink modernizes even the drabbest of favors.

You will need: craft paint, favor boxes, medium to large sized paint brush, a bit of water

Click through for more photos and tips.

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Styled Eats: How to Perfectly Frost a Scallop Cake

This post is sponsored by Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of your family’s favorite treats!

Today is the second post in our “how to frost a cake” series. I asked pastry chef Hope Waggoner to us some tricks on how to frost a scallop cake. When I was a little girl I was always planning parties (even then!) and I remember my mom helping me bake miniature cakes for a tea party. This little girly cake would fit in perfect at a tea party or shower. Before frosting the scallops the cake needs to have it’s crumb coat and have set in the fridge. (Follow steps 1-4 on this post.) I like that you don’t need anything fancy to make this cake, just a pastry bag and a good ol’ butter knife.

Materials Needed: All you really need to frost this cake is: A large Offset Spatula for the first layer of frosting, a heavy duty pastry bag with large tip, and a knife.

Step 1: Follow steps 1-4 over here until the cake has it’s basic layer of crumb coat and has chilled. The cake should be cold and the frosting should be room temperature.
Step 2:  Fill a large pastry bag with icing and create a row of straight dots going from top to bottom.
Step 3: Gently spread each dot with a knife, cleaning the knife on a rag as necessary to make sure the scallops are even.
Step 4: Create another row of dots where the frosting ends and spread each dot with a knife. Repeat over and over until the whole cake is finished. (Pro tip: It’s easy to remove a mistake with a knife and begin a row again.)
Step 5: When the scallops end add a final row of dots to “seal” the seam for a finished look.

A special thanks to Michelle for letting us borrow her beautiful kitchen, to Hope for her expertise, and to little A for modeling.

Photos by Paul Ferney for Oh Happy Day

Styled Eats: How to Perfectly Frost a Messy Cake

This post is sponsored by Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of your family’s favorite treats!

Frosting cakes is one of those things that I would love to get better at. My mom would always decorate amazing cakes for our birthdays when I was a little girl and I loved them but I didn’t really inherit that cake-frosting-gene. When I am frosting a cake I usually choose a simple idea in my head how I want it to look but it it never quite seems right. I decided this year I wanted to try to get better at frosting cakes so I asked the talented pastry chef Hope Waggoner to give some easy tips on how to make cakes look perfectly frosted (ps: check out Hope’s awesome tattoo, so perfect-right?) Today’s post is on how to get that perfectly frosted and delicious messy look. Have you ever tried to frost a cake like this? It is harder than you think if you don’t know how. Today Hope is unveiling all the tricks on how to get it perfect.

Materials Needed: You can stock up on lots of cake decorating supplies but if you are going to put together a simple cake decorating kit all you really need to frost this cake is: A large Offset Spatula and a heavy duty pastry bag with large tip.

Step 1: Bake your cakes using your favorite recipe. (This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe.)
Step 2: After the cakes are baked and have cooled down, put them in saran wrap and put them in the freezer for a few hours. Cooling the cake will make the crumbs way more manageable. (As long as the cakes are wrapped, freezing it will not make a difference in the taste.)
Step 2: Remove the cakes from the freezer and trim off the top with a serrated bread knife (if needed) to create a perfectly flat layer. I prefer tall cakes which means I usually make 3-4 layers and sometimes I cut those in half to create even more layers.
Step 3: Put down the first layer of cake and taking a pastry bag of frosting create a nice even layer of frosting. Take an offset  spatula and spread out the frosting about 1″ before the edge. Repeat until all the layers are in place.
Step 4: Create a crumb layer. This layer will seal in all the crumbs before you are ready to decorate your cake. Using the large offset spatula tarting at the top of the cake and then working down the sides, create a thin and smooth layer of frosting over the entire cake. Put it in the refrigerator until the frosting sets. (About 30-60 minutes.)

Step 5: Now it’s time to frost! For best results it’s important to work with cold cake and room temperature frosting. To create that perfectly messy frosting look pile on a very very thick layer of frosting with your offset spatula. The secret to get it right is there must be a deep layer of frosting to create the texture and swirls that make it look so good. Once your thick layer of frosting is on, take the back of a spoon and begin making swirls and crests in the thick layer of frosting. Continue until the whole cake looks swoop-y and delicious.

Hanging Fabric Ribbon Hoop DIY

by Chiara Alberetti Milott

What do you do when you’re co-hosting a baby shower, you’re in charge of decorations, and you live 612 miles away from the shower location? Perhaps you’d make these hanging ribbon hoops and pack them in your suitcase, ready to unfurl and hang when you arrive the morning of the party.

Since I live in New York and the shower was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I needed to make some suitcase-friendly, portable decorations. It couldn’t be too big or too fragile – I needed something that would survive the flight intact. These ribbon hoops were just the ticket. They’re virtually indestructible – just fabric and hula-hoops. The shower was held at a local flower shop called Pot and Box – which has a beautiful event space off the back, with high ceilings, white walls, and floor to ceiling shelves piled high with pretty vases and containers.  I knew there were pipes and metal hooks on the ceiling, so that hanging the hoops wouldn’t be a problem.

Materials needed: strips of fabric, hula-hoop, scissors. (I used a 20” diameter hula-hoop, and it took about 60 strips of fabric cut into 2” inch strips. There’s no need to be exact though. You can add more or less fabric strips depending on what you have).

Step 1: Cut your fabric into 2” x 40” – 48” strips.

Step 2: Fold a strip of fabric in half, lay it under the hoop, and then flip the bend of the strip over the hoop. Pull the two loose strips through, tightening as you pull.

Step 3: Continue all the way around, until you have enough fabric strips to cover the hula-hoop.

Step 4: Shake out and smooth the fabric ribbons down, and hang.

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Fruit Stickers for Kids

Here is a DIY for those parents with kids starting school. I was thinking about cute ways to send notes and jokes in lunchboxes and I remembered this genius post by Kathleen of Twig & Thistle on making Valentines from fruit stickers. I thought it would be cute to apply the same concept for school lunches -with jokes and notes for your child. This idea is really simple. Just download it and print onto adhesive label paper. Then cut out the stickers and add them to a pieces of fruit in their lunch box. (The free download is right here.)