Jude O'Connell

AUSTRALIA


Joined April 16th 2008

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Polly Pocket Birthday Cake

October 4th 2009 13:02
Polly Pocket Birthday Cake ideas free beach pool party girls dolphin seals candles
Polly Pocket Birthday Cake


This is an easy birthday cake to make - it uses polly pocket accessories to decorate the cake, and you can decorate it so that the children don't need to eat any artificial colours in the icing!!

Step 1

The first step is to bake a large cake - big enough to fit your chosen polly pockets on top of. I used a lamington cake tin - and a lamington cake recipe. The recipe I used is found in "The Golden Wattle Cookery Book" . Best made a day or two being used - which is perfect for party planning!

Step 2

Now you need to ice the cake.
I made a large silver board for the cake to sit on by covering a rectangle of thick cardboard with aluminium foil, and then covering that over with clear contact (the contact stops the Aluminium foil from tearing and allows you to wipe and clean the board).
I iced the entire cake with light brown icing (using cocoa to colour the icing).

Polly Pocket Birthday Cake ideas free beach pool party girls dolphin seals candles
First Layer of Icing


The icing can be made by melting a dessert spoon of butter in a small saucepan, then take off the heat. Add icing and some cocoa, and mix adding small amounts of water until at the desired consistency. You can smooth out the icing by dipping a knife into a cup of hot water, and applying this straight to the icing.

After I had finished icing the cake, I sprinkled over it lightly with drinking chocolate to create a sandy appearance to the icing.

Step 3

Now I made some blue icing, the same way as I made the above icing but substituting the cocoa with blue food colouring. I used this to make the "water" on the board, surrounding the "island". I did it this way so that the kids would not have to eat the blue food colouring in the blue icing with the cake, but could still enjoy the great colours that the artificial colours provide.

Then I arranged my daughters chosen (and carefully cleaned) polly pocket toys on the cake, along with some ceramic flower decorations and a happy birthday sign. I filled the swimming pool with blue icing too.

Polly Pocket Birthday Cake ideas free beach pool party girls dolphin seals candles


Step 4

Next I made some butter icing - place 2 dessert spoons of softened butter in a bowl, Add icing sugar, colouring and small amounts of milk while mixing with a wooden spoon. I made pink icing - you can use cochineal or small amounts of red to colour the icing,
I piped the icing using a rosette nozzle around the base of the cake (where it would be easily removed when cutting the cake so the kids didn't eat any artificial food colouring), and in the places I had chosen to place candles.

Polly Pocket Birthday Cake ideas free beach pool party girls dolphin seals candles


Step 5

Finally, just before presenting the cake to the girls at the party, I pushed the candles into the pre-prepared rosettes.

Polly Pocket Birthday Cake icing ideas free beach pool party girls dolphin seals candles
9
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Quick Boys Birthday Cards

August 7th 2009 14:41
Making a birthday card for a boy in a hurry?

Kids love cards that have two special things on them - their name, and their age.
It's all about them!

Grab some stickers and a shape cutter or scissors and have one made in no time.

Quick boys kids birthday cards make instructions free
Quick Boys Birthday Card 1


For this card simple circle stickers were randomly placed over the card. I used a fiskars shape cutting set to cut out some sixes and a name, and then outlined them using a white gel pen. A matching border was drawn around the outside. I also punched some small sixes using a hand punch and glued them on.

If you don't have a shape cutter, you can cut your own letters and numbers from paper. One easy was to do this is to use word art (chose a font that is an outline of the numbers / letters) to print your chosen letter / numbers. Use the "flip horizontal" word art tool to give you the mirror image, before printing them out. You can then cut them out with scissors, and the ink is not seen because it is on the back of the paper.

You can also buy letter and number stickers, and then no cutting is required at all!

card kids birthday free instructions age boy
Quick Boys Birthday Card 2


For this card I used pirate stickers, and glued on a few gem stones as pirate's treasure.
Easy and effective
14
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Musical Kazoo - Free Kids Craft

June 12th 2009 06:28
Kazoo musical instrument preschool craft free kids cardboard tube
Finished Kazoo


Make a very simple musical instrument using a cardboard roll.

Materials Required:

1. Cardboard roll
2. Piece of paper lunch wrap - large enough to wrap around one end of the cardboard roll
3. Lacky band
3. Decorations - I used coloured sticky tape and stickers
4. Single hole punch

Instructions

1. Punch a hole approximately 2.0 cm from one end of the cardboard roll

Kazoo musical instrument preschool craft free kids cardboard tube


2. Decorate the cardboard roll. Do not cover the punched hole.

Kazoo musical instrument preschool craft free kids cardboard tube


3. Use the lacky band to secure the paper lunch wrap over the end of the kazoo which has the hole punched. Make sure the hole remains exposed.

Kazoo musical instrument preschool craft free kids cardboard tube


Kazoo musical instrument preschool craft free kids cardboard tube
Finished Kazoo


4. To play the kazoo, put your mouth on the open end, and loundly hum a tune.
21
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craft flower egg carton preschool craft free instructions straws stickers
Plant a Flower Garden - Preschool Craft


Have fun making flowers and then "planting" them in pots


[ Click here to read more ]
33
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Rainbow Straw Crown

March 2nd 2009 09:59
straw crown rainbow craft preschool boy girl free instructions
Rainbow Straw Crown


Materials Required:
[ Click here to read more ]
45
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Heart Card - Silver Hearts

February 8th 2009 12:08
27
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Valentines Cards #3

February 8th 2009 11:43
Here is another version of the Valentine Glitter Heart Card.

valentine card heart rhinestones beads glitter craft free card making instructions

[ Click here to read more ]
36
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Valentine Glitter Heart Cards #2

February 8th 2009 07:16
Here are three more cards, which are variations on the Valentine Glitter Heart Card.
The instructions for making the glitter hearts is here and the instructions for making a card with a window in the front are here.

[ Click here to read more ]
36
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Valentine Glitter Heart Card #1

February 1st 2009 12:25
valentine card heart rhinestones beads glitter craft free card making instructions
Valentine Sparkle Heart Card #1


Materials Required:
[ Click here to read more ]
50
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valentine card heart rhinestones beads glitter craft free card making instructions
Valentine Sparkle Heart Card #1


[ Click here to read more ]
46
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