Oh Dee - Wow!

I was so chuffed when I discovered that WallFry had been featured on 'Ohdeedoh', the childrens arm of the highly successful Apartment Therapy website. It looked something like this:

Colorful Custom Wall Letters

If you haven't heard of it already you should check http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ out. It is a great resource for nursery inspiration and ideas, children's birthday theme ideas, product information for kids and general discussion for people passionate about nurseries and kids rooms. It's a great place to go when you are designing a nursery or a child's space to get you started (and finished I would imagine).  It really has some very cool and original ideas, which is why I am honored to be mentioned.

Cake fit for a One year old

Harvey turned 1 a while ago now, but as more birthdays approach and  I start to think about decorating cakes again, I had to share his First Birthday Cake that I made.

I found a picture of a similar cake on google images for inspiration (I can't remember where, if it was your cake let me know and I will give you credit) and changed colors and added the name. The balls where the edge meets the plate hide a multitude of sins and I think are one of the easiest most effective ways to do this.

The cake is iced with pre-made fondant (White orchards, white icing) which I purchased at the local supermarket. I did my research and found a few tutorials on YouTube, but all in all it is just using your common sense.

My top 5 tips when cutting a cake to shape are:

• Use a heavy cake (either mud cake or moist cake) to cut to shape, anything lighter will crumble.
• Make a template out of paper first and, place it over the cake and cut around it.
• Cut the top off the cake so that it sits flat.
• Sit it on the plate upside down so there are less crumbs for icing.
• If you don't have big enough baking tins, don't worry, you can join two together with butter icing.

Top 5 tips for using with fondant icing:

• Add food color to the white to create color. Don't expect colors to be too bright or dark as the amount of food color you would need will make the icing too wet (I believe that you can buy pre-colored icing at cake supply stores)
• Ice with a thin layer of butter icing first to smooth any bumps or divets
• Once the butter icing has set, spread with a jam (or jelly) before applying the fondant to the cake (this helps it stick in place
• Use cookie cutters to make shapes (you can cut shapes free hand but this is easier)
• Don't store the cake in the fridge once iced as the fondant goes sticky.

My love of cake decorating is a hidden passion and another great creative outlet.

One final tip. You might not want your one year old to destroy your hard work with their curious little hands. I made a special little cake just for Harvey to blow out the candle and have his first piece of cake. He loved it:

Now I have to start thinking of designs for Felix and Harvey's next birthday, I am looking forward to it.

Under the Sea

I recently had a lovely customer commission custom paintings for her baby's nursery. She wanted a 'Sea Creature' theme but was unable to find exactly what she was looking for. After much searching she came accross my 'Safari Series' in my Etsy store and fell in love the with colors BUT there is no ocean in Africa!


Safari Series at WallFry

So the challenge was set - to design and paint a Sea Animals series in the same style as the Safari Series. I had been thinking of creating a Sea Life series but had not had the time, so I really enjoyed designing these paintings.

We had a crab & lobster

and a whale and octopus

I was really happy with the final result, as was my customer. Her baby now has these bright and fun ocean animals paintings hanging in their nursery. I can now paint these to order and customers can choose size and color which is really popular when coordinating with a nursery color scheme. I am open to new animals and themes too!

So here it is the 'Sea Creatures Series'