DIY 'Frozen'-inspired Birthday Cake: Mariella @ 4

"Mama, I want a Frozen white cake." Okay. That stunned me for a while. First because my daughter love anything but chocolates. So I thought she would want a cake that is chocolate. Where did my daughter got the idea of that? Yes, my 2 girls definitely love Queen Elsa and Princess Anna and Olaf and the rest of the cast. But it never entered into my mind that my eldest daughter who turned 4 last week would ever suggest on her preference for a birthday cake. Thank God the creative and thrift mind in me works spontaneously the moment she said it. I immediately thought of what to do. For the birthday cake, I only have Bistro Rosario to trust for for this particular requested cake. They have this so called 'Birthday cake' that is covered with white frosting/icing and inside are layers of creamy and buttery filling. It is a '9 x 12' cake for only P750.00 pesos. You can actually request to add up colors of the icing of your preference without a cost. I requested to add pink and blue hues to the icing. If you want a chocolate cake and filling inside, just add up P400.00. Mine I sticked to the chiffon cake and butter filling inside. I love this cake of Bistro Rosario because it has mild sweetness. I love it more when it's chilled because the filling is apparent in the first bite and I can savor more the buttery filling inside. 

And for the Frozen characters, I know it can be expensive to buy each piece of miniature characters. So I thought of pop up board paper of those characters which I think is available in school supplies. Glad my mother found it and she made it herself as I requested.


If you can't see clearly how my mom did it in the above photo, I just told her to stick the board paper character photo in a barbecue stick/popsicle stick/tooth pick what ever is available and we'll just root it on the top of the cake. Not only are the popular characters were there but it also has snow icicles to match its theme. Having a meticulous mom, she even put laces on Queen Elsa and Princess Anna as their gowns/clothes to match. Very creative mom!

'Frozen' balloons which we bought for 45.00 pesos a piece.
I'm glad I saw it! It matched the whole 'Frozen' experience. 

The closer look of the 'Frozen' balloons

The happy birthday celebrator. Thank you God for the gift of life
to our darling Mariella. May you bless her always with
wellness of being (physical,emotional, mental and spiritual).
May she grow up knowing you, loving you and acknowledging you
as our Savior and Father above all things. In Jesus name, we pray,
AMEN.

All Flags (Hearts/Polka dots) are Up for Valentine's Day 2015!

How's your Valentine weekend celebration? Mine is quite a surprise as the hubby sent me flowers this year. He had it arranged with my ever talented officemate and delivered it home. Um-effort this time. The kids loved it more because it was adorned with Ferrero chocolates and they enjoyed 'harvesting' and ate it to their heart's and tummy's content. 

Aside from that, for 4 years now in our office, every Valentine's day, every girl (single and married) receives a special Valentine's treat from our big boss that we always look forward to. That's always a challenge for me since I am assigned to prepare that. It need not be expensive so it's always a big challenge for me in a fun and exciting way. Syempre, the first thing I would think about is what I want to receive and I thank God everything else flows smoothly. It stresses me in a very good way. So presenting to you from the preparation until the finish product for our Valentine giveaways...

85 mason jars with paper straws in polka dots and hearts design!

It's so fun doing the nitty gritty of stuff. It excites my crafty side.

I love the design of the paper straws. A pack of 24 pieces costs around 140.00 pesos.
It is made in USA and the quality of the paper straw is sturdy.

This gift tag I got online. It's a free printable template by Martha Stewart.

What better way to complete a Valentine treat is to satisfy a girl's sweet tooth.
Six pieces of this homemade Salted Caramel Pecans. Yum! 

I love how the giveaways turned out to be perfectly presentable.

All of these I finished in a matter of 4 hours only! That shows how much I love DIY. It makes my creative side work out and embracing the passion of it.

Of course, chocolates would not be complete without flowers.
Dozens of decorated red roses to complete the look.

Fresh, misty long-stemmed red roses. Noticed the decorative golden heart
attached on each stem? 

Here's a closer look...

By the way, this Valentine's treat is unexpected and a surprise for the girls since Valentine's day fall on a Saturday. My boss wanted to give even if it's a weekend. Usually, we give out the presents early morning on Valentine's day. But this time, we gave it before the end of office hours on a Friday. So imagine how their face lit up when we announced there's a Valentine's giveaway from our dear boss. That morning pala they were itching for the presents already. At least everybody happy on the Friday the 13th. 

DIY: Family Photo Collage

It's been like years after my last post here. But I'm back with something worth sharing. I'm proud of this simple artwork I made. My mother is insistent for some time now for us to have a family photo together with our youngest family member in it. She's now 1 year and 9 months. It's nice if we have a photo taken as a family when they're still young. And when they're big enough, we can show them how adorable they are in their childhood days.



I'm not the type of putting family photos in my work place. But looking at the end result of our photo session, I can't help but display it in my office desk. Since I haven't bought yet a photo frame for a 3 wallet sized photos, I just personalized it with my existing materials.

The ceramic vase I used is the one I got as a present.
Since I'm not using it for anything, I thought of putting here the photos.

I used a steel paper clip to hold the photo and
the insert of the paper fastener as a stand.

Here's a closer look. I put a scotch tape at the back of the photo
to hold in place the insert of the paper fastener.

And here's the end product.

I love how it turned out to be. Though I have to find a styro-foam to put inside at the base to hold in place the photos. Still I love how my imagination worked. Instant photo frame/collage.

More Crafting Loots

Here are some purchases I got during the preparation of my daughter's first birthday.

Since I will be the one to buy prizes for the games, I'm thinking of something where to put the prizes. I don't wanna put it in plastic. You know, kids after receiving gifts, they just throw away the plastic. It's not pa environment friendly, so I thought of buying paper bag instead. At first I bought the brown one. But it won't show the design of the stamp. So I got the white color one which I found in the grocery party needs section of SM supermarket. I found this Stamp Set at National Bookstore. I'm happy because it's a birthday stamp set. I was looking for the roller type but unfortunately I didn't find it in their SM City Davao branch. Actually, I saw that one at the Abreeza Ayala branch.

This cost P132.00 pesos. Cheap lang noh?

This decorative paper tape I bought at the school supplies section of SM Department store
for only P49.50 pesos. Unbelievably cheap! I used this to tape the prizes loot bags.

Soon, I will be showing to you a sample of my prizes loot bags. I haven't snapped a photo of it because I already forgot it because I was in a rush already.

There are my craft pieces I used for my daughter's first birthday. See link to my other blog, Sound of Life, about my daughter's first birthday bash post (pre-celebration).

My Crafting Babies

Oh yes! I have a blog that is all about crafts, DIY, design and anything about creativity. It's been sleeping here for a very looooonnnngggg time! I have taken this for a back seat because I was so busy on mommy duties and my lifestyle blog. I thought of visiting and feeding here relevant ideas in time for my daughter's first birthday. I hope this will be the start of continuing to share and create quirky ideas. Last night, I dig my plastic storage containing my precious crafting tools. I'll be sharing with you my coveted crafting pieces through photos. So here they are:

Starting from Left and clockwise: puncher, embosser, stamp ink pad, puncher and another puncher.

This is my favorite tool. It's a manual embosser. I got it for less than P200.00 pesos.

How to do it? Insert paper in between the gray part where you can see the hearts design.
Rotate the gray lever on the left side and the paper will pass through it pressing the cardboard paper.
Tip: Use a hard or cardboard paper so as not to crush the paper.

This is a ink pad stamp.

It's nice when distressing and making something like rustic and old as design.

Insert edge of paper and make sure that it fit properly.

Press....

Tadah! This puncher is good and nice in the overlap of envelopes. I used it in my wedding invitation.

So there you go my favorite pieces. I'm loving wash tapes but I find it too expensive. But I am itching to buy one for a start.

How about you? What's your favorite crafting tools? I'd love to hear from you.

My other world

Hello! welcome to my world. This is where I belong. As far as I can remember, I had this thing for crafts and arts when I saw Martha Stewart on the boob tube way back in my secondary years. I am always fascinated with her do-it-yourself crafts and arts ideal for gift giving and house decors. As in my previous posts, I ever wanted to become an interior designer and is very passionate of the itsy bitsy things turn into a wonderful piece-of-art.

I have many crafts before but I just put it inside my plastic container. I have stored some of my personal craft materials --embossers, punchers and stamp pads. I have wanted to collect more of it and to pursue my hobby. But because I'm a busy career mom, it hindered me to produce more stuff that I wanted to have.

Hopefully in my future posts here, I would be able to share to you some of my finished products and to meet other bloggers out there who has the same passion as mine. Who ever you are, I would like to meet you here. Let's keep in touch!