Project Post 11: Camouflage Cupcakes

I don't usually file recipes under "project posts," but this one was a project for sure. We partied hard over the weekend, and I don't know what Levi thought, but his mom and dad thought the party was pretty perfect. Today I am sharing the birthday cake cupcakes.

A few months ago, I typed in "camo party" on Pinterest and believe it or not, a full page of results came up. This was one of them:

{Found here, originally here}


After I found this, I decided to make these instead of ordering a traditional cake. They were challenging to make and very time-consuming, but it was definitely worth it.

I made butter pecan cake with traditional cream cheese icing, but those are standard. To get the camo colors, you use food coloring. I bought regular green, neon green, and brown food coloring (the greens were bought at the grocery store, and for the brown I went to Hobby Lobby). The regular green was too bright, so I mixed a little brown with it to get it the perfect shade. The neon green was way too yellow, so I mixed regular green and a tiny bit of brown with it to get it the right shade. Here were the colors I ended up with after some trial-and-error mixing:

Per instructions from the original source, you put a tablespoon of each color in each baking cup and just swirl it with a knife. That girl had an easier time than I did. I put a tablespoon of each in each cup and the top color was the only one that would show no matter how much I "swirled." So I had to get a little more creative with some trial-and-error. Surprisingly enough, they ended up looking great!

I used traditional cream cheese icing (butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar), a few brown and green sprinkles, and the little cupcake toppers that I made. They were a hit!

So there you have it - my camouflage birthday cupcakes, idea courtesy of Pinterest. This was such a fun project, I decided to link up with Young House Love and Bower Power Blog for their Pinterest Challenge (Fall Edition). You can check it out Wednesday when the challenge ends. I submitted my chalkboard in their summer challenge, and you can see it here (#212 at the end of the post).

{Lovely hostesses of the Pinterest Challenge}

Party Invitations

I'm a sucker for paper products...which works out well for me that I have a photographer friend, Amy, who designs them. I waited until the last minute with Levi's party invitations - I had intended on having a little one year photoshoot (well, at 11 months I guess) and having his invitations made with those pictures, but that doesn't work out well when I forget to schedule it. So we initiated Plan B...and took Levi out in the backyard and took some snapshots of him.

Amy was gracious enough to use my snapshots and make me some invitations anyway (her pictures would have been ten times better!) and I couldn't be happier with them.

{Image belongs to Amy Dale Photography}

{Image belongs to Amy Dale Photography}

We are ready to party tomorrow! Have a great weekend!

Happy b i r t h d a y sweet L e v i !

Our pride and joy is ONE YEAR OLD today, and words (or pictures) can't describe how thankful we are to be his parents, how much joy he has brought to our life, or how much we love him!

We took him out last night for a little birthday celebration -just the three of us- before we party hard this weekend with family.

{ ONE }

{ Birthday ride on the carousel }

{ Riding "Cherokee Blue" }

{ Picking out some birthday boots! }



Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

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Mountain Weekend

I mentioned in this post that we were going on a little mountain retreat, and we have now gone and safely returned. The picture of the cabin didn't do it justice. It was unbelievable. We had a weekend full of just what I had planned on: four-wheeling, games, relaxation, great food, family, and beautiful scenery. Here's a little recap via snapshots:

{ Breakfast }

{Levi was a little enamored with the pool balls}

{Aunt Al}

{Threw this in because it's Halloween week...BOO!}

{GREAT Mexican Food}

{Game time}

{Christmas wagon from Grandad & BonBon - he LOVES riding in it}

{Cabin}

{Spider #2. Keep in mind that is a size 15 shoe}

{Happy Halloween!}

{Steak night. Yum}

{Steaks, hotlinks, baked taters, sweet corn from Mr. Harrison}

Party Prep

{cupcake topper assembly line}

After I saw these camouflage cupcakes on Pinterest, I decided to make cupcakes instead of a traditional cake for Levi's party. If I haven't mentioned it before, we are having a "camo" themed party. While browsing for party ideas and inspiration on Etsy, I ran across several different camo cupcake toppers:

{via}

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After deciding I wanted at least 40 toppers, and all of these are sold by the dozen, averaging about $11 per dozen (plus shipping), I decided to make my own. I have wanted a scalloped punch for a while, and I patiently waited for them to go on sale at Hobby Lobby. They finally did, and I bought one for about $12. As far as the other supplies I used - I bought a package of miniature wood stakes (like a bulky toothpick) and some camouflage scrapbook paper. I already had some neutral-colored cardstock and a hot glue gun. They turned out pretty simple, but I like them.