Painted Pepper Grinder

So I'm not much of a painter, or haven't lately, but this is definitely an easy to easy medium craft. Just takes a wooden pepper grinder, sand paper and acrylic paint. I found this idea here and made it for a decent amount less and the exact colors I wanted for my sister's kitchen.

Pepper Grinder: I found one at Orson Gygi in SLC for $16 for a 12" one. Didn't have much luck at Bed Bath and Beyond and a few other places I tried. Well, I found them but they were upwards of $30 or so.

Scuff up pepper grinder with sand paper. I didn't do this and paid for it by doing TONS of coats of paint.

Decide on your color and pattern. I painted 3 at a time, basically so the wet paint was painted next to the wood or dry paint.

For the roses I painted red circles, used a really small brush to draw the black swirl on. In hind sight, I wish I'd made the roses a bit bigger to make it easier, but I like it just fine. For the leaves I painted in a light green and shaded one side with a darker green.

Everything else I just freehanded and made it work as I went along. Have fun being creative!

I don't love the top...I think it kinda looks like a lady bug...or maybe spilled pepper :)

I had LOTS of fun doing this project! I plan to make more for gifts...

Dolphin Cake

This is Jess's creation and I am so thankful to her for her ideas and help! Just wanted to share with ya'll.

The 3 year old was having an ocean birthday party and requested a dolphin cake. After searching and trying to decide how to make it we (Jess and I) decided to make a dolphin tummy down in the water. Then as she was brilliantly thinking...she decided to spice it up a bit and THIS is what we got. It turned out fabulous. Point being...it just takes a little creative thought, and guts to try something that may completely flop.
Jess bought plexi-glass and a plastic blind twisty thing that we cut. We super super glued with some magic stuff the plexi-glass together as seen below. We used a hot torch thing to bend the plexi-glass after it had dried over night. Wala!

Jess determined the curve of the dolphin for the tummy to place on the plexi-glass and secured it with butter cream frosting, yum!

We secured the plexi-glass to cardboard covered with tissue paper, with fish stickers in the "ocean" and then cellophane on top with frosting.

Now the creative part (as if none of this has been so far :) Jess used rice krispy treats smashed really hard together to shape the tail that the cake body was resting on, the dolphin nose and top fin. We made fins for the side but they didn't stay on. At 5 minutes after the party was supposed to begin we figured out the magical way to attach them but decided not to stress about it for a 3 year old's party. We should've gotten a dowel and made fresh rice krispy treats. Formed one fin on the side, put the dowel through and formed the other one. What I learned about shaping rice krispies for cakes is you have to MASH the rice krispies really hard together or they won't hold firm. Don't worry we did it right.

FROSTING RECIPE: We used Wilton's buttercream frosting for this (click on the link). Jess recommends that you use all butter and skip the Crisco for better tasting frosting. Meringue powder also gives the frosting a better consistency over whipped egg whites.

CAKE RECIPE: It's all about the Funfetti Cake mix and adding a cup of sour cream to make it extra moist! But truly, when it's for little kiddoes, it just needs to look cool, they don't care about taste so much.