Dinosaur T-shirt Applique

Its a no secret that my son is a big dinosaur fan. So, this Saturday as he took his afternoon nap, I decided to surprise him by making a dinosaur applique for his T-shirt. I  picked one of his plain black t-shirt, and some felt in green and orange color.

I opened up Kabir's dinosaur encyclopedia and decided to go with Diplodocus dinosaur as I wanted a design to fill up his Tshirt and its also the one with simple lines.

It was easy to draw this one directly on the felt.  Once cut, I sew it on to the Tshirt with blanket stitch. This is where I missed a step. I should have used a temporary glue(no sew fabric glue) to attach felt to tshirt before sewing it. As this tshirt was stretchable, it got slightly pulled at places while I was stitching which made temporary bond all the more important. But overall, it does not look bad. And my son loved it, so minor flaws can be ignored.

I wanted to put a tutorial when I started it, but will do it now for a project in which I get it right following all the steps.

Happy Crafting!! 

Valentines Cake & Paper Cones

Happy Valentine's Day to all, especially to my husband and my little son. I feel so blessed to have them. Not one day goes by when I have not thanked God for my beautiful family. People often ask me how I manage to spend time on my crafts and baking, with a full time job and a little boy. Normally, I would just smile or give some vague answer, but the real answer is my sweet little family that enables me. My son, who gives me motivation for all that I do, and my husband who gives me all the space and time for my hobbies. Without making any mention of it, he takes up the daily chores when I am working on some project. He'll do the dishes without saying once that he did it whole of last week as well. He'll cook on the days I am baking. He'll put our son to sleep if I am in the middle of my craft projects. And he does all this not once making me feel that he did most of the essential things of the household whereas I was working on my hobbies. He totally spoils me. 

Now, about the cake I made for Valentines. Its a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I wanted to try something different and healthy, so opted for this cake flavour. And guess what, Kabir likes it more than the chocolate cake. He gobbled it up pretty fast and asked for more. I used the recipe my Mamiji(aunt) gave me a while back. I have modified it a little to add some pineapple and brown sugar. 

Carrot Cake

4 eggs very well beaten
2 cups flour
Total 2 cups sugar : 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar(I use total of 1 3/4 cup of sugar only)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnut
1 cup corn oil
2 cups grated carrot
0.8 oz crushed pineapple

1)Preheat oven to 350 F (325 F if convection oven) and grease the pan. 

2)In a bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix sugar and oil very well, until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs to it slowly. 

3)In another bowl mix rest of the ingredients. Then slowly add it to sugar and oil mixture. 

4) Pour the mixture in greased pans, and bake for around 45 minutes. Be sure to do a toothpick check after 30 minutes. 

5)Allow cake to cool completely before frosting. Frost with buttercream or cream cheese icing (recipe below). 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened 8 ounces cream cheese softened
sifted 2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar and vanilla extract.  Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in chopped walnuts and use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth). 

I omitted the walnuts in the icing because of the look I was aiming for. Made the roses to go on top from rolled fondant. It was my first attempt on making these roses. Still need a lot of practice before I can get then right. 

Heart shaped cake bites 

I used some of the cake mixture for these heart shaped cake bites. I think it makes it easier for kids to eat. I was planning to send these out to Kabir's daycare. But on the pretext of tasting, Kabir and Rohit ate enough to mess up my count. I didn't have enough left for the kids at daycare, so I guess they will be eating the rest as well. 

Instead, I got dinosaur fruit snack for the kids and packed it in these paper cones. I got the idea of paper cones from the this site.

Happy Valentines Day! 

Valentine's Gifts

Valentine's Day is only two days away and I have managed to finish some of the stuff I planned. My sister's gift,the felt flower bands are ready. I made one in red, but how could I forget that she would want in pink as well.  I am getting a hang of making these, so didn't take me long to get these done.

I wanted to make something for Kabir's teachers at daycare as well. Kabir is such a big fan of them, and they love him to the core. So. I made these bookmarks out of felt for each of his teachers.

As Kabir's 2nd favourite thing these days is Dragons, so for his friends at the daycare, I got these cute Dragon & Knight Valentine's cards from here.

And for Kabir, anything related to dinosaur would make him very happy. So I had to get this Dinosaur clip-on tail when I saw it on etsy. Can't wait to see his reaction when he see's it on Monday. If you have a dinosaur fan in your home, you have to get this.

Well, for Rohit, I cannot take the risk of posting his present here in advance even though there are bleak chances of his ever visiting my blog :-)

I have tons of baking left to do, so I should get back to my kitchen now.

Happy Valentine's Day