Happy Halloween! I used  my Cricut Cake machine and a stack of round tortilla shells to cut Halloween shapes. I then placed the cut shapes onto a baking pan, salted them and then baked them into chips. I love this idea and will do it with other shapes for other upcoming holidays. For Halloween shapes use the October 31st Cartridge.

Happy crafting  and Happy Halloween xoxo

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For an afternoon project with the kids we baked Halloween sugar cookies and pushed bugs into the raw dough to make impressions, then added orange and yellow sprinkles. I am so grateful I have two bug loving girls!

For dinner we made a batch of Halloween bat and pumpkin pasta.

Happy crafting xoxo. Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5 and on the Lovely Lula Facebook Page

Happy Independence Day! I created a 4th of July cake using the silicone giant cupcake pan. I had been wanting one of these for a while now and my auctioneer Dad found one for me a couple of weeks ago so I was ready to test it out. It was actually a bit harder to use then I had imagined and I definitely need to practice more!

I frosted the cake with my Butter-crème Icing and then used cans of  Wilton Color Mist in red and blue on the surface. I cut “4th of July” and fire crackers out of red glitter paper on my Cricut using the Independence Day cartridge. I then attached the the paper cut outs to wooden skewers and placed them onto the cake. The short one added the final decorations of red, white and blue star shaped marshmallows.

Sadly, it is now a daily norm to have Phoenix temperatures hit 112 degrees so the cake started to melt almost immediately but hey it all goes down into the mouth and tastes the same no matter if it is pretty or not and it tasted delicious.

Happy crafting xoxo.  Follow me on Twitter I am Lab5.

Ready to Celebrate Memorial Day? Do it with your Cricut Cake! I created this Memorial Day Cake using my Cricut Cake and the Independence Day Cartridge. The star shapes are cut out of colored fondant that I rolled out on a Crisco covered cutting mat and let sit in the refrigerator for a half an hour. Once it was stiff I removed it and loaded it into the Cricut Cake and cut the shapes. I then left the cut pieces on the mat and returned it to the fridge for another half an hour. By allowing the fondant to stiffen up each time it is easier to handle and there is less possibility of broken or torn pieces. I remove the little extra bits with a sharp tooth pick. The white and red icing is butter-creme and is piped on with a bag and a star tip. Find my Butter-Creme recipe here: Lovley Lula’s Butter-Crème Icing

Happy crafting xoxo

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I love decorating cupcakes and cakes. About a year ago I had a great day with my friend Sarah and we made cupcake furniture and our designs were included in a cupcake decorating book.

1000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes. ISBN-10: 1-59253-651-4, Quayside Publishing. 2010.

Our project is on page 191 Image 0625. Here it is:

Here is a Quilting Cake that I made for a friend who is quilting crazy. I made it out of fondant that I colored with gel colors, chilled it and cut it on on my Cricut Cake machine using the Cricut Cake cartridge and the Country Life cartridge. Super fun and yummy. No one needs to know it was a box cake mix.

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Cornish Pasty is a hit with many, which make sense considering so many of us Phoenicians come from the Midwest. A tasty pasty can offer some serious comfort for anyone feeling nostalgic for their Midwestern roots. If you have the blues and are longing for a treat from your youth but don’t feel like heading to the local pasty maker in town, why not whip up some of you own?

Learn how to make pasty’s from my piece at the Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog: Cornish Pasty At Home

Will Prince Williams favorite dessert  be a part of the many celebration breakfast, dinner or after party? Well it should be a part of your viewing party. It is called Chocolate Crunch Cake and it is decadent.

Click Here for the Recipe: Prince Willams Chocolate Crunch Cake

When the short one requested that the theme of her 5th birthday be “Under The Sea” I thought, this will be fun. I busted out the Cricut to make table top decorations that looked like aquariums. To do this I covered Subway Sandwich 3 foot delivery boxes with blue plastic table clothes, the boxes were left over from my friend Carrie (of Suchity Such) son’s birthday party – I thought they were a perfect re-use item. I then cut fish and octopus from the Create-a-Critter Cartridge and glued them on. I then used Wite-Out markers to make bubbles.

To save the memory of the day I made a matching photo frame by painting a ply-wood frame metallic blue, attaching aqua washi tape and then matching octopus and gluing on googly eyes, I will put a picture from the birthday party once I print them.

For snacks at the party I filled clam shell bowls with gold fish crackers and chocolate “treasure” coins.

Finally, I made cupcakes topped with plastic swords and blue frosting for the boys and plastic mermaids with purple frosting for the girls.

Happy Crafting xoxo