Archive for the ‘wild west/cowboy’ Category

So of course I couldn’t just have fun food for my little boy’s third birthday bash, I had to have some really fun decor too. We decorated the entire backyard, but these are a few of my favorite crafts.

The banner was a no-sew project. You’ll need:

• 2 yards of a cowboy bandanna print
• 3/4 yard of black
• 3/4 yard Heat n Bond iron on adhesive
• roll Stitch Witchery hemming tape
• 4 grommets (grommet hand tool is easiest, but you can use a hammer)
• twine

And here are the simple steps:

1. Enlarge your letters in Word and print them off as a template
2. Iron the Heat n Bond adhesive to the black fabric (per the package instructions)
3. Cut out your template letters, pin them to the black fabric and trim them out
4. Take your cowboy print, iron down 1/2″ hem and secure it with Stitch Witchery (follow instructions on package)
5. Insert one grommet in each corner about 2″ from each side
6. Place your black letters on your banner, peel off the adhesive backing and iron them down

Okay, on to the (saw) horses. They in themselves are not new; I blogged about this idea almost a year ago. However, the little covered wagon in the back is all us! I only wish I had gotten a better shot of just it. Here’s how you pull these two crafts off. The horses are just my hubby’s saw horses with a neck (2×4) and a slightly mitered head (1×4) embellished with raffia mane and tail. Very simple, but the kids loved it!

The covered wagon, a little more complex, but well worth it. The wagon itself is just our garden wagon. The side panels were covered with cardboard, Hodge Podge and scrapbook paper that looked like wooden planks. {wink} The top was created from:

• a white twin sheet,
• three 6 ft. long tubes, and
• a 9 ft. roll of thin elastic

  And here’s how you make it:

1. Trim off 18″ from one end of the twin sheet (make sure and measure your wagon and modify as needed) and hem it back with a small opening.
2. Third the 18″ into 6″ strips and use those to create three pockets in your sheet. One centered and the other two 4″ from each end
3. On each end insert your thin elastic and pull the fabric in to look like the opening of a covered wagon (stitch the elastic in place or plan to tie it to your wagon)
4. Insert your flexible tubing and then using wire ties attach it to the wagon

Happy crafting and Yee Haw!

As I mentioned in my hosting a hoe down post, my little one has food allergies. He’s a big fan of the rice crispy treat so I molded the sweet treat into star cookie cutters (available in our shoppe) and then iced them as favors for our guests. We placed them in pails that were embellished with bandana ribbon, the same used on our cake plate, and a fun wooden cowboy boot from the craft store. {50 cents already painted people!} As for the sign, I just picked up a sheet of scrapbooking paper that looked like old wooden boards and imprinted it with the Playbill font (commonly found in Microsoft products). 

Okay, back to the treat. Here’s what you’ll need to decorate:

• Vanilla or cream cheese icing
• Freezer weight resealable bags
• #2 and #4 icing tips and two connectors
• Red and blue gel food coloring
•  Lollipop sticks

And here are the easy steps:

1. First, one tip on molding these, make sure that you butter your cookie cutter so that the sweet falls out easily.
2. Apply your food coloring to your icing. Gel is best so that your icing doesn’t become watery.
3. Insert your connector into your bag, insert your icing and then add your tip. I used a #2 tip to outline the badges.
4. Once you’ve outlined, take the outer connector and tip off of your bag and microwave your icing for seven to eight seconds. You want to heat it up just enough for flooding.
5. Using the #4 tip, pipe in a zig zag motion inside of the badge and then pull it to the corners with a toothpick or small icing spatula.
6. Allow the icing to set; ten minutes should do it.
7. For the lettering I used a #2 tip and for the number I used a #4 tip.

As for packaging, allow the treats to set for four to six hours before you insert them into cello bags so as not to crush the lettering. Happy baking!

So I’m planning a wild west hoe down for a very excited little boy turning three in a few weeks {can’t believe my little one is almost three years old!} and I came across these while looking for cake inspiration.

The first is from Edibly Divine. I love the use of the handkerchief and denim. The second is from Sugar Diva Cakes and my favorite part is the cow hide {I won’t even attempt the cowboy hat}. And the third is from The Mixing Bowl. These are obviously the easiest to pull off since I have cookie cutters (available in our shoppe) for the longhorn cattle and the boot. I like the idea of a normal yummy frosting and then a fondant die cut that can easily be removed if the guest doesn’t care for it.

If you want to see the invite and table decor (complete with tin wares and denim placemats) we’ll be using, check out our wild west birthday theme.

UPDATE: The Sugar Diva shared more detail on how to make her beautiful cake. Here’s what she had to say:

“The hat cake is a 5″ round, 3″ high. I carved off the sides a little to make it look more oval, then I carved the middle top “V” and rounded the sides off a little too. The brim is a 9″ gumpaste/fondant mix circle that I had dry on top of a real hat brim (upside down). I covered the hat with plastic wrap so that the fondant wouldn’t fall through and let it dry there. I actually took the idea from here, but I made my own twist to it because I think that one is taller and flatter at the top than I wanted. I textured it before it dried with a new textured foam mat, like the one you’d use to put babies to play on, the ones with the letters. The other cakes are 8″ (Cow print) and 10″ (Corral).”