Mini Cupcakes

So technically this isn't a craft, but I think you can get creative when baking so I'll post it anyways. On Friday night I made mini cupcakes for the BBQ I was having on Saturday.
I ended up getting creative with the frosting.

Enjoy!
I started off by melting both my frosting, and my peanut butter. That's right, peanut butter! You can really melt almost anything to use as frosting. Some other ideas would be marshmallows or candy. You need to make sure you melt it on a low heat otherwise it will burn.

While the frostings were melting I made my mini cupcakes and took them out to cool on a wire rack. If you don't cool your cupcakes they will fall apart when you try to ice them.

Now I dunk each cupcake upside down in either the chocolate or the peanut butter frosting. Sometimes i dunk in both. The reason you melt your frosting is that it ends up with a shinier, cleaner finish than if you were to use a knife to frost. After this step, I coated a few cupcakes with chocolate or rainbow sprinkles. As the frosting is still warm and gooey you can just roll the top of your cupcake in sprinkles to get them to stick. It's also less messy that way.

Ta-da! Finished mini- cupcakes!

Jazzy Chairs

Last year I bought a dining room table when Annie moved out. It was a craigslist buy. I think I paid $50 and got a table and 4 chairs. They were obviously from IKEA, but they fit my needs perfectly. Except, you all should know, I'm not a fan of fabrics that come with things. I love to reupholster. This is a simple, fun way to make something that is generic more flavorful. If you have furniture from IKEA in particular I would encourage this craft. All I needed was a screwdriver (Philips), a heavy duty staple gun, my chosen fabric.

This is the chair before I reupholstered it. You can't really tell from this picture, but the fabric was old and dirty. I removed the seat part of the chair from the frame with a screwdriver. Took all of 30 seconds.

Sorry this is a blurry picture. I just found my digital camera, so the picture quality will improve soon, I promise. No more blackberry shots.

This is the underside of the seat cushion, you can see I have already begun removing the old fabric. I just used a staple remover to get all the old staples out. I cut the new fabric to the dimensions of the chair, plus about 3 inches all around.

A good rule of thumb to stapling is to staple one staple in the middle of each side on all 4 sides. This will ensure that the fabric will be taught enough in the middle. You work your staples in a circle, stapling one staple on each side till all the fabric is stapled. (Artists use this trick when stretching canvas).

Ta-da! Newly upholstered chair! Completely new look for about $15!

Pillows Galore!

So if you read www.im26nowwhat.blogspot.com you know that have a lot of pillows. I recently moved and realized I had 8 throw pillows. Some of my male friends thought this was too many... I think they're guys and don't know the importance of a good throw pillow.
Four of the pillows came with the sofa set. The other four were pillows that I bought that I actually liked (I'm not a fan of the pillows that came with the sofa). Today I decided to remedy the sofa pillow situation. I had some fabric and decided to make throw pillowcases. I'm a fan of coordinating colors, with designs that don't necessarily match.

The pillows were surprisingly simple to make.

You can also purchase pillowcases at my Esty shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7734433


You can use quarter cuts of fabric from any fabric store for this project. They measure about 18 by 24 inches. Choosing pre-cut fabric can save you a step.

The first step is to cut a backing piece that is 3/4ths the size of the front of the front of the pillow.

The next step is to put another backing piece, also 3/4ths the size of the front. This is the back of your pillowcase, and the opening for your pillow.

I didn't take a picture of the step before this. I hemmed the edges of the backing pieces, so that no frayed pieces would show. After that I sewed the pieces to either side of the front piece.

you want to make sure to sew the fabric so that the seams will be on the inside of the pillowcase.

After this step fold the white pieces in and sew the bottom and top of the case.

Voila! Nice, simple, cheap pillowcases!

This is their new home on the bench seat in my living room.