Chillin' with my Gnomeys...cupcakes

Probably my favorite food craft that we've done...not that we've done that many! :) We made these for Penny's 50th birthday and took them up to her work at lunchtime. They were a huge hit!! We had gotten her some little gnomes for her patio and decided to put those in the middle of the plate. We had to use our huge pizza pan because nothing else was big enough!

We just made regular chocolate cupcakes and then iced them to look like mushrooms (I hope!) and used white chocolate kisses for the dots. We made 3 different sizes: huge, normal and teeny-tiny. I liked the teeny-tiny the best...just pop 'em in your mouth! :)

We had extra room, so just threw the rest of the kisses around the edges.

Closeup of the center...gnomey goodness...

And when it was all ready, we put a plastic lid over that we had to go search for specially, and decorated with ivy around the edges...and there you have it, a gnomey garden!! Everyone went crazy over them and of course, Penny loved them!

I <3 Cakes!

We live in an apartment, so we don't have much space to take cute outdoorsy photos, like this one by Picklepud or the super talented Jillybug. (seriously, if she ever put a book out of her photos, I would buy like 3!!) And we're too lazy to do a full patio-garden, like our mom.

So...we decided to do a mini-version that could stay inside! We started with a large banker's box that Ally cut the front down on and then spray-painted a brick red color. And then we hit up Hobby Lobby and found some cute flowers/stems (all on sale...never buy regular price there!!), and some stones for the little path, some mossy stuff (which is messy and a PITA but so cute when you get it done) and a little wooden wheelbarrow (barrell?) and ladder (we already had the bench). Oh, and some more little flower pots and teeny-tiny birds to stick in the trees.

Then I got to paint everything, while Ally laid the stone path and grass. I think I got the better deal! :) Once we were done and totally covered in paint and glue gun strings, we started putting it together. Sticking those flower stems in the little bitty pots was hard!! I should have glued them in or something cause if you're not careful moving them they go *poof* and explode all over the place! Several times...

Anyway, here's the finished result...what do you think? I think it turned out really well...and the Cakes like it =) Lily, Sophie, Soda and Nellie got to try it out first.

My favorite part is the wheelbarrow exploding with flowers. And the stone path.

A closeup of the path and part of the tree. Ally laid the stones for the path first, then the moss and then went back and lined the edges with bigger stones to kind of stamp the grass down. It really helped.

The "gazing ball" lawn ornament. (A pretty marble I got in a swap!)

(Pixie outfits and Nellie are custom Polly-Jane creations!! Also, lots more pictures in Jenn&Ally's Flickr on the side!)