Dinosaur Fondant Press

For my son's second birthday, I wanted to make dinosaur cupcakes. I got a homemade fondant recipe online (which was way too sticky, so I won't post it), and bought these Cake Boss fondant presses. They were easy to use, and as you can see, the dinos came out nicely.

Mother's Day

My mom has way too much stuff, so for Mother's Day this year, I wanted to make her something creative and useful. I made several different blank cards, and stamped some sentiments on separate pieces of cardstock to be added as she sees fit.

Don't you love my messy table?

I couldn't find a good gift box, so I cut and resized a tissue box, wrapped the cards and envelopes in tissue, and tied it with a ribbon.

After all that cardmaking, I couldn't bring myself to make an actual Mother's Day card (plus I don't have a sentiment for that--for shame!), so I just made a little tag.

Cute Kitty and Adorable Dino Knit Hats

As I waited for my son to arrive nearly a year and a half ago, I made him this hat:

Recently, I altered the design into a dinosaur vesion.:

These can be really simple to make. Start with a hat pattern that you're comfortable with. It can be knit, crochet, felt, or fabric, just as long as it fits well. If you don't want to bother making a hat, you can also use a purchased one.

I made the cat hat using stockinette stitch with a garter border.

For the dino hat, I used single ribbing with a garter border. I don't recommend using ribbing, since I had a really hard time decreasing it smoothly (i.e. it's not smooth at all), even after trying several methods.

Anyway, here comes the cute part. The ears and spines are made using a tutorial for a triangular shawl that I can't find on YouTube anymore, but here's the pattern for the spines specifically:

(I'm sorry I can't remember needle size, but they were quite small)

Begin with a slip knot on your left needle (like you would have to begin crochet)

Row 1: yo, knit 1

Row 2: yo, knit 2

Row 3: yo, knit 3

Continue this, increasing by one each row until you have 12 stitches. Then knit two more rows without yo or increase (so you'll have 3 rows of 12 stitches). Bind off, and you've got one spine. Once you have enough, just sew them on in as straight a line you can.

If you're making cat ears, sew them on with a slight curve to the center of each ear. This helps them stand up, and shapes them more like actual ears.