Mad Hatter Cupcake Toppers

When I was preparing my Mad Tea Party, I just knew I wanted some meringues on the table, because they remind me of childhood. You should have tasted my mom's meringue - they were made with love and sweeter than the best cake in town. In order to fit into the Mad Hatter theme, I needed to make personalized toppers which would rise to the occasion. It goes without saying that the hat is a great symbol to our character and I love hats! So I made these little DIY stamps for the cake toppers:

I had so much fun making the stamps, that in the end there were three different designs. The more, the merrier, isn't it? And because of the tea party color scheme in red and aqua, I used red ink to make the little toppers. Also, these are DISAPPEARING cupcake toppers, because of the Cheshire Cat who had this annoying habit of disappearing all the time in such an abrupt manner. So the topper sticks are part wood and part white, looking like they are invisible from the bottom down. At least, that was the idea :)

I'm gonna break the tutoral into two easy parts, the DIY stamps and the cupcake toppers. You can use the stamps tutorial to make stamps fpr a bunch of different applications. Stamps are great for card-making, gift tags, personalised wrapping paper and anything else you can think of.

1. Draw your design on the eraser with a sharpie. The eraser must be good quality because you don't want your stamp to crumble because of a bad rubber texture.

2. Use a stamp cutter and trace all the outlines of the design. Work slowly and use a steady hand.

3. Get rid of all the rubber surplus on the inside and on the edges of the eraser. You need to have a clean cut and the final shape should stand up from the rubber base. This way, the ink will only adhere to the design.

4. Press the stamp on an ink pad and then onto your paper or cardboard. Work gently in order to avoid any ink mess and apply a steady pressure for a few seconds.

Phew, that was easy! Now let's continue with the cupcake topper steps:

1. Take a toothpick and dip it in white paint. The paint should cover half of the toothpick length (for the disappearing effect). Repeat with all the other ones. I dipped them directly into the paint jar, as you can see.

2. Let the toothpicks dry completely for half an hour. Remove the ones with imperfections.

3. Fold the stamped piece of paper in half, apply glue and insert the wooden tip of the toothpick inside. Press firmly. The toothpick should be now attached to the paper like a flag.

4. Cut the free side of the flag in order to make a "V" shape. The cupcake topper is now complete.

So here they are. The disappearing Mad Hatter meringue toppers for my Mad Tea Party:

UPDATE: The Mad Hatter Toppers have been featured at Confetti Diaries. Thank you so much :)

Fooling Around

The last peonies lost their petals and I kept fooling around with them. Is this a good time to make a heart beat faster? Nature is beautiful even in its slightest details and there are a thousand stories to be told about the mystery of each delicate petal, generic and unique at the same time. Humans are just the same: you think you know a man just by looking at his / hers appearance, job or social status. But in fact we are all different and no one can judge by the exterior.

Sorry for the impromptu philosophical speech, I just got carried away (!) Even if my passion is interior design, I've always been fascinated with people, the way they appear and the way they really feel inside. When I was little, I used to play a little game. I would observe someone for a long time and then I would make predictions about their reaction in a certain situation. And what better way to think about this question called Life, other than over a cup of tea?

And finally, you all know by now about the two felines who populate my little home, so I also made a cat. A pink cat swirling its tail like a backwards question mark. Or like an unwind spiral. Or like a hook.

Monday Booster: Incredible Storage

The "blogging effect", in my case, could be described as an involuntary hoarding phase. I've been collecting lots of junk, which I will transform one day into beautiful projects. Until then, I'm seriously considering getting additional storage to my tiny home, since old lamps, silly vases and lots of paint supplies take up a lot of space. So I was completely blown away by this creative storage solution from a lovely house tour spotted on  the New York Times page. The fact that you can only see half of it makes me love it even more, because I have to use my imagination to complete the picture. This is the loveliest, most inventive and efficient storage system I've seen in a while. And if you take the tour, you'll find that this house, filled with bold personal touches, is in fact a prefab container home. Who would have guest?